Impaired Retinal Capillary Function in Patients With Alzheimer Disease

Background: Extensive evidence indicates that vasculopathy, especially the level of microcirculation, contributes to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer disease (AD). However, it is not easy to directly monitor cerebral microcirculation. The retinal microvasculature has been proposed as a surrogate measure to study cerebral vascular changes. Indeed, decreased retinal microvascular network densities were reported in patients with AD. We sought to determine the retinal capillary function (RCF, the efficiency of blood flow transferring in the capillary network) in patients with AD.

Methods: Twenty patients (age 60-84 years, mean ± SD: 72.8 ± 7.7 years) with AD and 14 age-matched cognitively normal controls (CN, age 62-81 years, mean ± SD: 68.6 ± 6.7 years.) were recruited. There were no differences in vascular risk factors, including smoking, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, between the groups. One eye of each subject in both groups was imaged. Retinal blood flow (RBF) was measured using a retinal function imager, and retinal capillary density (RCD, expressed as fractal dimension Dbox) was measured using optical coherence tomography angiography. RCF was defined as the ratio of RBF to RCD.

Results: RCF was 1.62 ± 0.56 nl/s/Dbox (mean ± SD) in the AD group, which was significantly lower than that (2.56 ± 0.25 nl/s/Dbox, P < 0.01) in the CN group. The change of RCF in the AD group represented 28% lower than in the CN group. RCF was significantly and positively correlated with RBF in the AD group (r = 0.98, P < 0.05) and in the CN group (r = 0.65, P < 0.05).

Conclusions: Our study is the first to demonstrate impaired retinal capillary function in patients with AD. The alteration of RCF was mainly due to decreased retinal blood flow, which is transferred by the capillary network. The RCF may be developed as a biomarker of impaired cerebral microcirculation in patients with AD.