Windows to the Soul
In this article, the Daily Mirror reports on new research that in the next few years retinal scans could be used to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. This research, though in it’s early stages, indicates a possible new detection method.
This was animal research looking at whether they could detect the death of nerve cells in living rats and mice as it happened. Nerve cell death is a key feature of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and glaucoma. It is not yet possible to detect nerve-cell death in the brain while it is occurring. In this study the researchers tested a system for looking at nerve-cell death in the retina of the eye. Because of similarities between nerve cell death in the eye and in the brain, they hoped that this technique might give insight into brain nerve cell death.
This initial stage of experimentation could not be performed in humans, but it can provide a clearer picture of whether this new technique might work in humans. However, it will take much further research to determine how the technique might be successfully used in humans.
Although the newspapers have highlighted the technique’s potential for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease, nerve-cell death occurs in the brain in various neurological and eye diseases, including Parkinson’s and glaucoma. In its current form, this technique would only be useful in detecting neurological diseases where there is nerve cell death in the eye. Another challenge for the researchers developing this technique would be ensuring that this test would be able to distinguish between different conditions causing nerve cell death in the eye.
Alzcare in New Braunfels. Caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas in comfortable, home settings.
