Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
Hindawi
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
RAS ID
25279
Funders
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
CSIRO Flagship Collaboration Fund
Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) in partnership with Edith Cowan University (ECU)
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Alzheimer’s Australia (AA)
National Ageing Research Institute (NARI)
Austin Health
CogState Ltd.
Hollywood Private Hospital
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
Dementia Collaborative Research Centres program (DCRC2)
Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Mental Health—funded through the CRC program (an Australian Government Initiative, Grant ID 20100104)
McCusker Alzheimer’s Research Foundation
Operational Infrastructure Support from the Government of Victoria
Abstract
Cortical cholinergic deficiency is prominent in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and published findings of diminished pupil flash response in AD suggest that this deficiency may extend to the visual cortical areas and anterior eye. Pupillometry is a low-cost, noninvasive technique that may be useful for monitoring cholinergic deficits which generally lead to memory and cognitive disorders. The aim of the study was to evaluate pupillometry for early detection of AD by comparing the pupil flash response (PFR) in AD (N=14) and cognitively normal healthy control (HC, N=115) participants, with the HC group stratified according to high (N=38) and low (N=77) neocortical amyloid burden (NAB). Constriction phase PFR parameters were significantly reduced in AD compared to HC (maximum acceleration p < 0.05, maximum velocity p < 0.0005, average velocity p < 0.005, and constriction amplitude p < 0.00005). The high-NAB HC subgroup had reduced PFR response cross-sectionally, and also a greater decline longitudinally, compared to the low-NAB subgroup, suggesting changes to pupil response in preclinical AD. The results suggest that PFR changes may occur in the preclinical phase of AD. Hence, pupillometry has a potential as an adjunct for noninvasive, cost-effective screening for preclinical AD.
DOI
10.1155/2017/7935406
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Frost, S., Robinson, L., Rowe, C. C., Ames, D., Masters, C. L., Taddei, K., ... & Kanagasingam, Y. (2017). Evaluation of cholinergic deficiency in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease using pupillometry. Journal of Ophthalmology, 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7935406