Detecting Alzheimer's Early

Reported December 2005

BOSTON (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Since 1980 the number of Americans with Alzheimer's has nearly doubled to 4.5 million. The disease robs people of their memory, while early detection of Alzheimer's has eluded members of the medical field for years. Now a new eye test may help determine if you're at risk and may unlock that mystery.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, now they may be the key to saving some people's lives. A new eye test may help in the early detection of Alzheimer's. Lee Goldstein, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says, "We found the Alzheimer disease process that goes on in the brain also occurs in the lens of the eye."

Dr. Goldstein developed a pair of optical tests that can determine the presence of amyloid beta proteins in the eye lens -- a protein prevalent in the brain of all Alzheimer's patients. The interior laser ophthalmoscope can pick up the presence of the amyloid protein. "What this instrument is capable of doing is picking up those gummy aggregated particles in the lens very early, before you see the cataracts," he says.

The cataract looks like a cloudy arc on the rim of the lens. This is different than the common cataract. To determine if this is an Alzheimer's cataract, Dr. Goldstein injects the eye with special fluorescence drops that bind to the amyloid beta proteins. Under an infrared light, the proteins will glow, indicating Alzheimer's disease.

"If we can get treatments early ... we can slow the disease to the point where we've effectively cured it," Goldstein says. That extra time could give Alzheimer's patients more precious time to live.

This eye test may not only improve patients' chances to start treatment earlier, but it could also speed development of new Alzheimer's drugs.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral Center
http://www.alzheimers.org

Alzheimer's Foundation of America
http://www.alzfdn.org

Alzheimer's Association
http://www.alz.org

More about optical sciences:

Optical Society of America
2010 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036.1023
(202) 223-8130
info@osa.org
http://osa.org/

This soft, squishy material in new football pads hardens on impact and keeps players in the game.

Highway and road signs are getting a facelift with a thinner, easier-to-read font

A new device may save the 2 million Americans with atrial fibrillation from having a stroke

You've heard wine can improve your health, but it might also help clean your kitchen counters!

Turning up the heat on the fight against abdominal cancers standard chemo can't help

Black holes are thought to be bizarre, amazing phenomena in space. But do they really exist?

A high-tech approach that could predict which patients will have successful heart surgeries!

Giving child cancer survivors a second shot at life with growth hormone injections

Just how clean is the water you cook with ... or shower with? It's simple to find out!

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul ... And a new eye test may detect Alzheimer's disease

This new incubator helps doctors get a better look inside premature babies' brains

What's the best way to fight off the sniffles and sneezes? Here's the number one way to fight germs