@article{e67648167a5a436c97229390655bae79,
title = "Retinal Vascular Changes in Alzheimer's Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study Using Ultra-Widefield Imaging",
abstract = "PURPOSE: Retinal microvascular abnormalities measured on retinal images are a potential source of prognostic biomarkers of vascular changes in the neurodegenerating brain. We assessed the presence of these abnormalities in Alzheimer's dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using ultra-widefield (UWF) retinal imaging.METHODS: UWF images from 103 participants (28 with Alzheimer's dementia, 30 with MCI, and 45 with normal cognition) underwent analysis to quantify measures of retinal vascular branching complexity, width, and tortuosity.RESULTS: Participants with Alzheimer's dementia displayed increased vessel branching in the midperipheral retina and increased arteriolar thinning. Participants with MCI displayed increased rates of arteriolar and venular thinning and a trend for decreased vessel branching.CONCLUSIONS: Statistically significant differences in the retinal vasculature in peripheral regions of the retina were observed among the distinct cognitive stages. However, larger studies are required to establish the clinical importance of our findings. UWF imaging may be a promising modality to assess a larger view of the retinal vasculature to uncover retinal changes in Alzheimer's disease.TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: This pilot work reports an investigation into which retinal vasculature measurements may be useful surrogate measures of cognitive decline, as well as technical developments (e.g., measurement standardization), that are first required to establish their recommended use and translational potential.",
keywords = "Humans, Alzheimer Disease/diagnostic imaging, Pilot Projects, Cognitive Dysfunction/diagnostic imaging, Retina/diagnostic imaging, Retinal Vessels/diagnostic imaging",
author = "Emma Pead and Thompson, {Atalie C} and Grewal, {Dilraj S} and Sarah McGrory and Robbins, {Cason B} and Ma, {Justin P} and Johnson, {Kim G} and Liu, {Andy J} and Charlene Hamid and Emanuele Trucco and Ritchie, {Craig W} and Graciela Muniz and Imre Lengyel and Baljean Dhillon and Sharon Fekrat and Tom MacGillivray",
note = "Funding Information: The authors thank Adam Threlfall for help in providing the neural network for the automatic vessel segmentation, as well as the support provided by the Edinburgh Imaging and Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility at the University of Edinburgh. Supported in part by the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Drug Discovery Foundation (project no. GDAPB-201808-2016196, “Delivering novel neuro-retinal biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease”); NHS Lothian R&D; British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence Award III (RE/18/5/34216); and a grant from the National Institute for Health Research and Medical Research Council (MR/N029941/1). Funding Information: Supported in part by the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Drug Discovery Foundation (project no. GDAPB-201808-2016196, “Delivering novel neuro-retinal biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease”); NHS Lothian R&D; British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence Award III (RE/18/5/34216); and a grant from the National Institute for Health Research and Medical Research Council (MR/N029941/1). The funding sources were not involved in designing, conducting, or submitting this work. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors tvst.arvojournals.org.",
year = "2023",
month = jan,
day = "9",
doi = "10.1167/tvst.12.1.13",
language = "English",
volume = "12",
pages = "13",
journal = "Translational Vision Science & Technology",
issn = "2164-2591",
publisher = "Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Inc.",
number = "1",
}