The eyes could constitute a marker of choice for the early diagnosis of Parkinson disease. Indeed, researchers from Seoul National University have just shown a link between the loss of neurons producing dopamine, playing a role in movement control, and retinal thinning. The study was published in the journal Neurology.
The researchers’ work focused on 49 people, aged 69 on average, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two years earlier. At the time of the study, they had not yet started taking medication. They were then compared to 54 people of the same age in good health. Each participant received a comprehensive eye exam and their retina, where each layer of the latter was photographed in high resolution.
A few micrometers of difference
The scientists then observed a decrease in the retina, and more particularly on 2 of the 5 layers, in people with the disease. For example, one of the inner layers was 35 micrometers thick on average against 37 micrometers in unaffected patients. This thinning would also be linked to the severity of the disease: the thinner the retina, the more aggressive the pathology would be.
“Our study is the first to show a link between retinal thinning and a known sign of disease progression – the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine,” said in a statement one of the study’s authors, Jee-Young Lee. “We also found that the thinner the retina, the greater the severity of the disease. These findings mean that neurologists could potentially use a simple scanner to detect Parkinson’s disease in its early stages.” Further studies are still needed to confirm these findings and better understand this link between dopaminergic neurons and the retina.
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