Recent reports demonstrate the early contribution of cerebral vascular dysfunction in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The retina, a central nervous system organ, mirrors cerebral Aβ deposition and vascular changes that typify AD. In particular, our team previously identified that Aβ burden in the proximal mid-periphery (PMP) of the superotemporal retina may predict hippocampal volume and cognitive scores. The rising vascular hypothesis paired with RFI’s clinical suitability to target both retinal vasculature and Aβ supports investigation of both measures for a multimodal detection of AD.

29 enrolled subjects underwent neuropsychometric evaluations and quantitative RFI. We measured retinal Aβ count as well as retinal vessel tortuosity index (VTI), inflection index, and branching angle. We used linear regression models to conduct correlation analyses between retinal vascular and amyloid parameters in relation to cognitive domain Z-scores.