OCT angiogram of a healthy eye (left) and an accompanying binary image of its vessel skeleton (right). Credit: Dr Kyle Green

US researchers have demonstrated retinal vessel skeleton density (VSD) showed significant association with at least some measures of cognition, even in cognitively intact subjects at risk of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID).  

In his presentation to the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual conference, Dr Amir Kashani from the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, said optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) allows investigation of retinal vascular changes occurring in subjects at risk for VCID and other neurodegenerative diseases. “Over the past five years, several studies have demonstrated VSD is significantly associated with risk factors for VCID, including diabetes, hypertension and apolipoprotein E4 allele status,” he said. 

Dr Kashani’s prospective multicentre study found VSD showed the strongest association with cognitive tasks requiring visuospatial and executive function. “Collectively, the results of this and previous studies suggest that retinal capillary changes are reliably and significantly associated with at least some aspects of cognition and may serve as a biomarker or screening tool for vascular cognitive impairment.”