Wang Lianlian, Hu Zheqi, Chen Haifeng, Sheng Xiaoning, Qin Ruomeng, Shao Pengfei, Yang Zhiyuan, Yao Weina, Zhao Hui, Xu Yun, Bai Feng
Department of Neurology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Jiangsu University, Nanjing 210008, China.
Department of Neurology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital of the Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Institute of Brain Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China.
Brain Sci. 2023 Feb 16;13(2):339. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13020339.
Cortical visual system dysfunction is closely related to the progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), while retinal vascular structures play an important role in the integrity of the function of the visual network and are a potential biomarker of AD. This study explored the association between the cortical visual system and retinal vascular structures in AD-spectrum patients, and it established a screening tool to detect preclinical AD based on these parameters identified in a retinal examination. A total of 42 subjects were enrolled and were distributed into two groups: 22 patients with cognitive impairment and 20 healthy controls. All participants underwent neuropsychological tests, optical coherence tomography angiography and resting-state fMRI imaging. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis was used to construct the cortical visual network. The association of functional connectivity of the cortical visual system and retinal vascular structures was further explored in these subjects. This study found that the cognitive impairment group displayed prominently decreased functional connectivity of the cortical visual system mainly involving the right inferior temporal gyrus, left supramarginal gyrus and right postcentral gyrus. Meanwhile, we observed that retinal vascular structure characteristics deteriorated with the decline in functional connectivity in the cortical visual system. Our study provided novel insights into the aberrant cortical visual system in patients with cognitive impairment that strongly emphasized the critical role of retinal vascular structure characteristics, which could be used as potential biomarkers for diagnosing and monitoring the progression of AD.
皮质视觉系统功能障碍与阿尔茨海默病（AD）的进展密切相关，而视网膜血管结构在视觉网络功能的完整性中起重要作用，并且是AD的潜在生物标志物。本研究探讨了AD谱系患者皮质视觉系统与视网膜血管结构之间的关联，并基于视网膜检查中确定的这些参数建立了一种检测临床前AD的筛查工具。共纳入42名受试者，分为两组：22名认知障碍患者和20名健康对照。所有参与者均接受了神经心理学测试、光学相干断层扫描血管造影和静息态功能磁共振成像。基于种子点的功能连接分析用于构建皮质视觉网络。在这些受试者中进一步探讨了皮质视觉系统功能连接与视网膜血管结构的关联。本研究发现，认知障碍组皮质视觉系统的功能连接显著降低，主要涉及右侧颞下回、左侧缘上回和右侧中央后回。同时，我们观察到随着皮质视觉系统功能连接的下降，视网膜血管结构特征恶化。我们的研究为认知障碍患者异常的皮质视觉系统提供了新的见解，强烈强调了视网膜血管结构特征的关键作用，其可作为诊断和监测AD进展的潜在生物标志物。
