Alzheimer’s
Disease & the Peripheral Retina
Your eyes can tell us a great deal about your
overall health. In fact your eyes may turn out to be a “window” to brain
degenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s Disease. Researchers reporting in the
Journal of Ophthalmic Research demonstrated that carefully examining and
imaging the peripheral retina could identify a greater number of drusen which
might be a marker for Alzheimer’s Disease. In addition they found that that
while it is normal for blood vessels to get thinner as they approach the
peripheral retina, Alzheimer’s patients had a significantly greater rate of
thinning as the blood vessels were more peripheral in the retina. While peripheral retinal imaging is not a diagnostic
measure for Alzheimer’s Disease, peripheral retina examination ad imaging of
change in the eye could serve as a tool for disease progression in the brain.
