Newest Trends in Development of Tools for Identification of Patients at Risk for Alzheimer Disease

The paper “Retinal Microperimetry: A New Tool for Identifying Patients With Type 2 Diabetes at Risk for Developing Alzheimer Disease published by Ciudin et al in Diabetes in 2017 represents an important step forward in the development of non-invasive detection of patients at risk for the development of Alzheimer disease.

This is especially important in patients with type 2 diabetes, who have two-fold higher risk for developing dementia than age-matched people without diabetes, even after taking into account vascular risk factors. The paper demonstrated that retinal sensitivity assessed by microperimetry directly correlates with signs of brain neurodegeneration detected by MRI and FDG-PET. More importantly, retinal sensitivity significantly correlates with cognitive status of the patients.

These data suggest that retinal microperimetry could be applied as a new tool in identification of patients at risk for Alzheimer disease.

Read more at: https://doi.org/10.2337/db17-0382