The Retina’s Whisper: Early Signals of Brain Disease

Le résumé fourni par la source

The human retina, as an anatomical extension of the brain, provides a uniquely accessible window into cerebral microvascular and neurovascular integrity. This review synthesizes current evidence linking retinal microvascular structure and function with brain health and neurodegenerative disease. Literature from PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases was reviewed, emphasizing anatomical and physiological parallels between retinal and cerebral vasculature and clinical correlations in Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and related disorders. Advanced imaging modalities such as OCT-A, adaptive optics, and AI-based analytics now enable quantitative assessment of retinal microvasculature. Structural and functional biomarkers—including vessel density, foveal avascular zone parameters, and fractal dimension—show consistent associations with cognitive decline and cerebral pathology. Retinal vascular imaging thus offers a practical, reproducible, and non-invasive approach for early detection and monitoring of neurodegenerative disease. Future work integrating multimodal imaging, longitudinal data, and artificial intelligence may establish the retina as a validated biomarker for brain health and disease progression.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.