Advances in retina imaging as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

AI Generated Summary*

Retinal imaging with optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) is reviewed across Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and preclinical AD, grounded in the retina's shared origin and vascular anatomy with the brain. Evidence includes peripapillary nerve fiber layer thinning in AD, most consistently superior and inferior, with one study reporting greater loss at more severe dementia stages; macular ganglion cell measures correlate more closely with cognition and fall in MCI. A 27-month preclinical follow-up tied macular nerve fiber thinning to neocortical amyloid, while other cohorts found no such change. OCTA shows reduced capillary density and enlarged foveal avascular zones in AD, deep plexus loss in MCI, and conflicting preclinical findings, with longitudinal multicenter validation still needed.

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