New research suggests simple eye tests could be used to diagnose early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, raising hopes that effective treatments can be developed to do more than alleviate the condition’s symptoms.

Press Association reports via The Guardian:

Early trials of two different techniques show that a key Alzheimer’s biomarker can be identified in the retina and lens of the eye.

Both methods were able to distinguish between probable Alzheimer’s patients and healthy volunteers with a high level of accuracy.

Although the research is still at an early stage, further work could lead to such tests being used as a first step in identifying individuals with Alzheimer’s.

After an initial eye test, more expensive and costly procedures such as PET (positron emission tomography) scans or spinal fluid analysis would then be used to confirm the disease.

Read more here.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

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