Nilanjan
A team from UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital has discovered signs of Parkinson’s disease in patients, using eye scans. This is a big deal because no one has found these signs so many years before diagnosis. They did this using the largest study on eye scans for Parkinson’s.
AI Eye Scans Uncover Parkinson’s Clues in New Study
In a study published in the medical journal Neurology®, researchers used artificial intelligence (AI) to find signs of Parkinson’s disease in eye scans. They looked at a big dataset called AlzEye and then checked their findings with another large group of healthy volunteers in the UK Biobank database.
These findings are important because they found these subtle signs even though Parkinson’s isn’t very common. It only affects about 0.1-0.2% of the population. They were able to do this study because of a huge database called INSIGHT, which has lots of eye pictures and information.
Eye scans have also helped uncover clues about other brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and schizophrenia. This new field of research is called “oculomics.”
Additionally, eye scans can tell us about our risk of high blood pressure, heart problems like strokes, and diabetes.
Your Eyes Hold Secrets About Your Health
High-quality images of the eye, especially a 3D scan called ‘optical coherence tomography’ (OCT), have become a regular part of eye checkups. In less than a minute, OCT scans provide incredibly detailed pictures of the retina at the back of your eye, even capturing details as small as a thousandth of a millimeter.
These pictures help eye doctors check your eye health, but they’re more than just that. They’re the only way to look beneath your skin’s surface without being invasive. Recently, scientists have started using powerful computers and a kind of AI called ‘machine learning’ to quickly analyze lots of these eye scans. This technology can reveal hidden information about your overall health just from these eye images. That’s what ‘oculomics’ is all about.
Eye Scans Could Help Catch Diseases Early, Researchers Say
Dr. Siegfried Wagner, who led the study from UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital, is amazed at what eye scans can reveal. Although they can’t predict if someone will get Parkinson’s yet, they hope to use this method for pre-screening people at risk of the disease.
Spotting signs of various diseases before symptoms show up could give people time to make changes to their lifestyle and help doctors delay the start of serious brain disorders.
This research was a team effort with several hospitals and research centers working together, supported by the National Institute of Health and Social Care. Professor Alastair Denniston, an eye doctor and professor, says the technology can see very early signs of Parkinson’s that are too subtle for humans to notice, opening up new possibilities for treatment.
Understanding the Study: Eye Scans and Parkinson’s Disease
Scientists studied Parkinson’s disease, a brain condition where dopamine decreases. They looked at the inner part of the eye called the inner nuclear layer (INL). Past eye scan studies showed potential issues related to the disease, but they didn’t always agree.
In this study, they confirmed that in people with Parkinson’s, the ganglion cell–inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) is thinner. They also found that the INL is thinner, which is new information. Having these layers thinner is linked to a higher risk of getting Parkinson’s, even when other factors are considered.
In the future, they need more research to find out if changes in the GCIPL layer are connected to changes in the brain in people with Parkinson’s. They also want to know if thinning in the INL layer happens before the GCIPL layer changes. This can help us understand the disease better and see if eye scans can help diagnose and manage Parkinson’s.
One thing to note is that the study didn’t have detailed information about the patients’ Parkinson’s, like when they were diagnosed, their treatments, or how the disease was progressing. Having this info could help link eye changes to the duration and progress of the disease.
