The £20 high street health check that could soon spot signs of Alzheimer’s before symptoms strike
A routine eye check could soon reveal your risk of developing the memory robbing condition Alzheimer’s disease.
Scottish scientists are analysing a million scans taken from high street opticians and tracking the changes in the eye tissue of 100,000 older patients.
They aim to track tiny changes in the retina of the eye that occur over time that could spot earliest signs of Alzheimer’s years before symptoms develop.
Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia, and while not curable, early diagnosis is considered critical for better outcomes as treatments can combat symptoms and slow down progression.
Professor Baljean Dhillon, an expert in clinical ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh, said blood vessels deep within the eyes have a direct connection to the brain.
‘We know there are signals in the eye — some subtle, some not so subtle — that are informative of a whole range of brain changes, from Alzheimer’s to vascular dementia to Parkinson’s to stroke, he told The Times.
‘The eyes are the bit of the brain that sticks out of your face.
‘But, unlike the brain, we can see the retina with the simple, inexpensive equipment found in every high street in the UK and beyond.’
A routine eye check could soon tell you your risk of getting the memory robbing condition Alzheimer’s disease
While previous studies have suggested eye scans could be used to track cognitive decline, which can be a precursor to dementia, trials have been small involving hundreds of patients at most.
But the new project, called NeurEye, includes 100,000 patients, and tracks their scans to any eventual dementia diagnosis — resulting in more robust data.
David Thomas from the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK cautioned that the test would only tell a patient their potential risk of getting the disorder, not a definitive diagnosis.
But he added even this was an exciting possibility that addressed a ‘historic challenge’ in assessing people’s Alzheimer’s risk.
‘The idea of something as non-invasive and scalable as an eye scan is exciting. You can see the potential someone goes in for a routine scan, is detected as being at risk and referred directly to a memory clinic,’ he said.
Dr Dave Powell, chief scientific officer at LifeArc, a collaborator on the NeurEye project, said the UK’s ability to join data like eye scans to diagnosis data in the NHS gave Britain an edge in this kind of research.
‘The UK, with its single healthcare provider, is well placed to become a global leader in the development of new tests that use health data,’ he said.
Recent analysis by the Alzheimer’s Society estimated the overall annual cost of the dementia to the UK is £42billion a year, with families bearing the brunt.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. The disease can cause anxiety, confusion and short-term memory loss
Around 900,000 Britons are currently thought to have the memory-robbing disorder. But University College London scientists estimate this will rise to 1.7million within two decades as people live longer. It marks a 40 per cent uptick on the previous forecast in 2017
An ageing population means these costs – which include lost earnings of unpaid carers – are set to soar to £90billion in the next 15 years.
Around 944,000 in the UK are thought to be living with dementia, while the figure is thought to be around 7million in the US.
Memory problems, thinking and reasoning difficulties and language problems are common early symptoms of the condition, which then worsen over time.
A separate Alzheimer’s Research UK analysis found 74,261 people died from dementia in 2022 compared with 69,178 a year earlier, making it the country’s biggest killer.
