THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH IS DEVELOPING RETINAL IMAGING METHODOLOGIES TO DETECT BOTH OCULAR AND SYSTEMIC DISEASES

Frequently referred to as “the window to the brain”, the retina has been known for decades to offer up biomarkers for many diseases, ocular and otherwise. It is only now that the full extent of this observation is being realised.  Thanks to advances in Optical Coherence Tomography – OCT – screening, imaging specialists have the means to identify early indicators of many conditions. Alongside this, research projects around the world are laying the foundations to make optimum use of new drugs becoming available which will have a profound effect on millions of lives.

“In the future optometrists and ophthalmologists could be examining more than eye health, by looking at changes to brain health, plus risk of stroke and cardio vascular disease that may be five or ten years away,” says Tom MacGillivray, Principal Investigator in the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh.

“This development could elevate the entire role of optometry and we need clinical pathways to address this very soon.  We have the potential to spot signs of change years ahead, opening the door for many new treatments.”

MacGillivray adds that optometrists can now “see the in-vivo workings of the brain and the micro-vascularity at work”, meaning that signs of systemic, metabolic, and neurodegenerative disease can be detected via the eye – diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, diabetes and Huntington’s Disease.

Retinal and choroidal cellular layers are providing detailed measurements and are under extensive scrutiny. They are being monitored over time with fast, non-invasive OCT, a modality that is easily integrated into workflows. This immense potential for wider healthcare disease prediction, diagnosis and monitoring heralds a new era of medicine, a concept that is often labelled “oculomics” or “computational ophthalmology”.