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Updated: Sep 19, 2026
Using Retinal Imaging to Study Dementia
Published on: November 6, 2017
Retinal microvascular changes are related to indicators of glymphatic dysfunction and small vessel disease in
William Robert Kwapong1, Yufei Chen1, Xu Chen2
1Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Introduction:
Retinal vascular alterations have been associated with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but their relationship with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived glymphatic-related diffusion markers remains unclear. We investigated retinal vascular fractal dimension (FD) in relation to SVD, glymphatic-related diffusion metrics, and clinical measures.
Methods:
Thirty-four patients with clinically diagnosed FTD (82.4% behavioral variant FTD) and 34 cognitively unimpaired controls underwent color fundus photography and multimodal MRI. Generalized estimating equations, multivariable regression, and partial Spearman correlations were performed.
Results:
FTD showed sparser retinal microvasculature, lower diffusion tensor imaging analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS), and periventricular diffusivity, and higher SVD burden (all p < 0.05). Sparser retinal microvasculature was associated with reduced DTI-ALPS, lower periventricular diffusivity, greater SVD burden, poorer cognition, and greater disease severity (all p < 0.05).
Discussion:
Retinal microvascular alterations are related to SVD and glymphatic dysfunction in FTD.
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