Retinal Changes in Alzheimer's Disease

The study included 49 AD patients and 48 healthy controls (HCs) matched by age, gender from the Department of Neurology at Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, between March 2020 and May 2022. The subjects were between 50 and 80 years of age, and the AD patients met the diagnostic criteria of “probable AD” in the 2011 edition of the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) guidelines (McKhann et al., 2011 (link)). The exclusion criteria of the study were as follows: (1) Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) >6.00 D or with astigmatism >3.00 D, and (3) intraocular pressure (IOP) >21 mmHg. All participants were free of other neurologic, psychiatric disorders, and systemic diseases that may affect retina (such as diabetes mellitus and uncontrolled hypertension), as well as ocular diseases (including cataract, glaucoma, uveitis, epiretinal membrane, age-related macular degeneration, macular hole, eye trauma, and any eye surgery). The Ethics Committee of Xiangya Hospital of Central South University approved this study, and all subjects signed written informed consent.