Dementia prognosis

The eyes will tell you about possible memory problems

Evgenia Chernysheva, Naked Science

Both damage to the large arteries of the brain and disturbances in the work of small blood vessels lead to the emergence of cognitive disorders. Unfortunately, due to the small size, it is extremely difficult to monitor the condition of these vessels, and this greatly complicates the diagnosis of memory loss in the early stages. American scientists have suggested that they will be able to understand all the processes occurring in the brain by the condition of the eyeball, since the blood vessels in the brain and eyes have a similar anatomical structure.

The experiment involved 12,317 people who passed memory and thinking tests at the very beginning of the study, 6 years later and 20 years after filling out the first questionnaire. About three years after the start of the work, the scientists took retinal images of the volunteers, who at that time were about 60 years old.

In total, 11,692 people showed no signs of retinopathy (damage to the retina of the eyeball), 365 people had mild forms of retinopathy, and 256 had moderate or serious retinal damage.

Then the physiologists analyzed the results of all three tests and found that people with advanced retinopathy were more likely to lose memory and slow down thought processes than those whose eyes were absolutely healthy. In patients with moderate lesions, deviations of 1.22 points were observed on a specially designed scale, although the standard deviation over time is 0.91 points. And after taking into account those who for some reason missed one of the tests to check the mental state, it was proved that the difference between healthy people and people who experienced difficulties was 0.57 units. By the way, a previous study, during which the same methods were used, showed that the effect of diabetes on the quality of brain function is a deviation of 0.21 points.

"If our findings are confirmed, these differences in the state of the retina will help us more accurately assess how much small damage to blood vessels contributes to the development of neurodegenerative diseases," says the author of the work, Professor Jennifer Deal of Johns Hopkins University. At the moment, it is difficult to confirm them by the fact that the pictures were taken only on one eye.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru