Oculomics: a crusade against the four horsemen of chronic disease

AI Generated Summary*

Ocular structures may carry signals of the four chronic diseases behind most deaths in industrialized nations: cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegeneration and metabolic disorders. Searches of PubMed and Google Scholar yielded eight original studies, supplemented by 13 reviews. Neurodegenerative conditions looked most promising, with biomarkers in many tissues: thinner retinal nerve fiber layers, amyloid in lens and aqueous humor, altered tear proteins. Cardiovascular findings involved choroidal, retinal vascular and nerve fiber layer measures; metabolic ones spanned eyelid position, cataract, tear composition and retinal vessel density. Cancer evidence was largely confined to tear fluid proteins such as lacryglobin. Twelve of 21 publications involved artificial intelligence. Because most markers are not disease specific, pooling data across structures and building targeted instruments is proposed.

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