Eye exam could detect Alzheimer's

A simple and inexpensive eye test performed at High Street opticians could in the future detect Alzheimer’s before it develops, scientists have claimed.

Researchers at the University College London (UCL) believe that the new technique could help discover the disease ahead of time.

Having been successfully trialled on rats and mice, tests on humans are planned for later this year.

Published in Cell Death & Disease, the procedure enables retinal and brain cell death to be directly measured in real time. It uses florescent markers which attach themselves to the relevant cells and indicate their stage of death. The retina can then be observed through a customised laser ophthalmoscope, allowing diagnosis of the condition to be made earlier and making it easier to track its progression.

Lead author professor Francesca Cordeiro said: “It’s entirely possible that in the future a visit to a high-street optician to check on your eyesight will also be a check on the state of your brain.”

She then explained: “The death of nerve cells is the key event in all neurodegenerative disorders – but until now it has not been possible to study cell death in real time. This technique means we should be able to directly observe retinal nerve cell death in patients, which has a number of advantages in terms of effective diagnosis. This could be critically important since identification of the early stages could lead to successful reversal if the disease progression with treatment.”

The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and The Foundation Fighting Blindness.