Retinal multimodal imaging for identification of novel biomarkers for early detection of Alzheimer's disease (Conference Presentation)

Purpose: To identify early retinal biomarkers for Alzheimer disease (AD) using multimodal imaging. Methods: Infra-red (IR) and multicolor fundus imaging and spectral domain optic coherence tomography (SD-OCT) were performed in 108 offspring of AD patients (FH+) and 44 age-matched controls (FH-). All subjects were tested for cognitive function by executive function and episodic memory tests. MRI brain imaging was performed on a 3T MRI. Results: In FH+ subjects, lower performance in memory was associated with thicker peri-papillary temporal-superior RNFL (r=-0.220; p=.016). In FH- subjects, the correlation was in the opposite direction (r=0.335; p=.013). In FH+, left Hippocampal volume was associated with larger total macular thickness (r=0.212; p=.028), as well as thicker macular RNFL (r=0.216; p=.025), macular GCL (r=0.221; p=.022), and macular IPL (r=0.285, p=.003). Similar results were found in the right eye. Conclusions: The thickness of inner retinal layers and peripapillary RNFL are associated with cognitive functioning and hippocampal volume in asymptomatic subjects at high risk for AD and may present novel biomarkers for very early detection of AD.