OCT Angiography Diagnoses Early Alzheimer's Disease

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NHE
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OCT Angiography Diagnoses Early Alzheimer's Disease

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Optical coherence tomography angiography can be used to diagnose early Alzheimer's Disease.
https://www.aao.org/newsroom/news-relea ... alzheimers
CHICAGO – Oct. 28, 2018 – Results from two studies show that a new, non-invasive imaging device can see signs of Alzheimer’s disease in a matter of seconds. The researchers show that the small blood vessels in the retina at the back of the eye are altered in patients with Alzheimer’s. Even patients who have a family history of Alzheimer’s but have no symptoms show these telltale signs. And they showed that they can distinguish between people with Alzheimer’s and those with only mild cognitive impairment. Results from these studies are being presented at AAO 2018, the 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

A new kind of precise and non-invasive imaging called optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) has assisted much of the recent research on the eye’s connection with Alzheimer’s. It enables physicians to see the smallest veins in the back of the eye, including the red blood cells moving through the retina.

Because the retina is connected to the brain by way of the optic nerve, researchers believe that the deterioration in the retina and its blood vessels may mirror the changes going on in the blood vessels and structures in the brain, thereby offering a window into the disease process.

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Researchers at Duke University used OCTA to compare the retinas of Alzheimer’s patients with those of people with mild cognitive impairment, as well as healthy people. They found that the Alzheimer’s group had loss of small retinal blood vessels at the back of the eye and that a specific layer of the retina was thinner. Even people with mild cognitive impairment did not show these changes.

Ophthalmologist and lead author Sharon Fekrat, M.D., professor of Ophthalmology at Duke, along with colleague Dilraj Grewal M.D., associate professor of Ophthalmology at Duke, and their research team expect that their work will have a positive impact on patient’s lives.

"This project meets a huge unmet need," Dr. Fekrat said. "It’s not possible for current techniques like a brain scan or lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to screen the number of patients with this disease. Almost everyone has a family member or extended family affected by Alzheimer’s. We need to detect the disease earlier and introduce treatments earlier."

Because genes play a significant role in how Alzheimer’s disease begins and progresses, another team of researchers from Sheba Medical Center in Israel examined 400 people who had a family history of the disease but showed no symptoms themselves. They compared their retina and brain scans with those who have no family history of Alzheimer’s.

They found that the inner layer of the retina is thinner in people with a family history. The brain scan showed that their hippocampus, an area of the brain that’s first affected by the disease, had already begun to shrink. Both factors, a thinner inner retina layer and smaller hippocampus, were associated with scoring worse on a cognitive function test.

"A brain scan can detect Alzheimer’s when the disease is well beyond a treatable phase," said lead researcher Ygal Rotenstreich M.D., an ophthalmologist at the Goldschleger Eye Institute at Sheba Medical Center. "We need treatment intervention sooner. These patients are at such high-risk."
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zen2010
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Re: OCT Angiography Diagnoses Early Alzheimer's Disease

Post by zen2010 »

Hi,

Alzheimer is a neurodegenerative disease that can't be cured. Death arises in average 3 to 8 years after being diagnosed.
This disease is frightening. People loose progressively mental functions and autonomy. However, few minutes during the day, they will come back to normal, and then realize they are in hell.

Is early diagnosis a good thing?
I don't think so.
There is no treatment which can cure or even slow it down.

Knowing that they have Alzheimer, people will be aware of what is gonna happen to them.
Then, if one day they cannot find a word/forget something (which happens regularly) they will think the disease has started.
That will lead to depression/anxiety and will throw away years of happiness and good health remaining.
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