Vision Testing for Early Detection of Parkinson's

Article: Eye tests predict Parkinson's-linked cognitive decline 18 months ahead
Source: University College London (U.K.), via ScienceDaily  and Technology Networks
Published: January 19, 2021

Macrostructural white matter changes in Parkinson's
disease patients and low visual performance over time

The eye is the window to the soul, and also to neurological and systemic health, sometimes quite literally. Earlier in my training, I used to be amazed that funduscopy could detect cardiovascular disease, and then I was amazed that OCT could detect neurological diseases like Alzheimer's. Then the list grew and grew of what this window and this most valued function could allow us to see. The current studies, for example, correlate vision testing with new MRI scanning techniques in the early detection of Parkinson's-related cognitive decline. The connection is very indirect, but the research team found that Parkinson’s patients with visual dysfunction had more decoupling (for our purposes, an MRI-related measure) in memory-related regions in the temporal lobe. Both studies have small sample sizes, of 77 and 88 people with Parkinson's disease. And the connection is very indirect and limited at this point. That being said, with further development, early detection of Parkinson's disease via vision testing is encouraging.

My rating of this study: ⭐

Zarkali A, McColgan P, Leyland L, et al. "Visual Dysfunction Predicts Cognitive Impairment and White Matter Degeneration in Parkinson's Disease." Movement Disorders.  Published online 9 January 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.28477

Zarkali A, McColgan P, Leyland L, et al. "Organisational and neuromodulatory underpinnings of structural-functional connectivity decoupling in patients with Parkinson’s disease." Communications Biology.  4(86). 19 January 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01622-9