Retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s disease
Abstract Background The nature and severity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathologies in the retina and brain correspond. However, retinal biomarkers need to be validated in clinical cohorts with confirmed AD biomarkers and optical coherence tomography (OCT). The main objective of this study was to in...
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BMC
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-025-01676-z |
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| author | Zi Jin Xinmin Wang Ying Lang Yufeng Song Huangxiong Zhan Wuge Shama Yingying Shen Guihua Zeng Faying Zhou Hongjian Gao Shuling Ye Yanjiang Wang Fan Lu Meixiao Shen |
| author_facet | Zi Jin Xinmin Wang Ying Lang Yufeng Song Huangxiong Zhan Wuge Shama Yingying Shen Guihua Zeng Faying Zhou Hongjian Gao Shuling Ye Yanjiang Wang Fan Lu Meixiao Shen |
| author_sort | Zi Jin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background The nature and severity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathologies in the retina and brain correspond. However, retinal biomarkers need to be validated in clinical cohorts with confirmed AD biomarkers and optical coherence tomography (OCT). The main objective of this study was to investigate whether retinal metrics measured by OCT aid in the early screening and brain pathology monitoring for confirmed AD. Methods This was a case–control study. All participants underwent retinal OCT imaging, and neurological examinations, including amyloid-β (Aβ) positron emission tomography. Participants were subdivided into cognitively normal (CN), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD-derived dementia (ADD). Except retinal thickness, we developed the grey level co-occurrence matrix algorithm to extract retinal OCT intensity spatial correlation features (OCT-ISCF), including angular second matrix (ASM), correlation (COR), and homogeneity (HOM), one-way analysis of variance was used to compare the differences in retinal parameters among the groups, and to analyze the correlation with brain Aβ plaques and cognitive scores. The repeatability and robustness of OCT-ISCF were evaluated using experimental and simulation methods. Results This study enrolled 82 participants, subdivided into 20 CN, 22 MCI, and 40 ADD. Compared with the CN, the thickness of retinal nerve fiber layer and myoid and ellipsoid zone were significantly thinner (P < 0.05), and ASM, COR, and HOM in several retinal sublayers changed significantly in the ADD (P < 0.05). Notably, the MCI showed significant differences in ASM and COR in the outer segment of photoreceptor compared with the CN (P < 0.05). The changing pattern of OCT-ISCF with interclass correlation coefficients above 0.8 differed from that caused by speckle noise, and was affected by OCT image quality index. Moreover, the retinal OCT-ISCF were more strongly correlated with brain Aβ plaque burden and MoCA scores than retinal thickness. The accuracy using retinal OCT-ISCF (AUC = 0.935, 0.830) was better than that using retinal thickness (AUC = 0.795, 0.705) in detecting ADD and MCI. Conclusions The study demonstrates that retinal OCT-ISCF enhance the association and detection efficacy of AD pathology compared to retinal thickness, suggesting retinal OCT-ISCF have the potential to be new biomarkers for AD. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-64194da145754ead99baa01ab22d2760 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1758-9193 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy |
| spelling | doaj-art-64194da145754ead99baa01ab22d27602025-02-02T12:11:55ZengBMCAlzheimer’s Research & Therapy1758-91932025-02-0117111010.1186/s13195-025-01676-zRetinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s diseaseZi Jin0Xinmin Wang1Ying Lang2Yufeng Song3Huangxiong Zhan4Wuge Shama5Yingying Shen6Guihua Zeng7Faying Zhou8Hongjian Gao9Shuling Ye10Yanjiang Wang11Fan Lu12Meixiao Shen13National Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityDepartment of Neurology and Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityDepartment of Neurology and Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical UniversityDepartment of Neurology and Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical UniversityDepartment of Neurology and Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityDepartment of Neurology and Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityNational Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical UniversityAbstract Background The nature and severity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathologies in the retina and brain correspond. However, retinal biomarkers need to be validated in clinical cohorts with confirmed AD biomarkers and optical coherence tomography (OCT). The main objective of this study was to investigate whether retinal metrics measured by OCT aid in the early screening and brain pathology monitoring for confirmed AD. Methods This was a case–control study. All participants underwent retinal OCT imaging, and neurological examinations, including amyloid-β (Aβ) positron emission tomography. Participants were subdivided into cognitively normal (CN), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD-derived dementia (ADD). Except retinal thickness, we developed the grey level co-occurrence matrix algorithm to extract retinal OCT intensity spatial correlation features (OCT-ISCF), including angular second matrix (ASM), correlation (COR), and homogeneity (HOM), one-way analysis of variance was used to compare the differences in retinal parameters among the groups, and to analyze the correlation with brain Aβ plaques and cognitive scores. The repeatability and robustness of OCT-ISCF were evaluated using experimental and simulation methods. Results This study enrolled 82 participants, subdivided into 20 CN, 22 MCI, and 40 ADD. Compared with the CN, the thickness of retinal nerve fiber layer and myoid and ellipsoid zone were significantly thinner (P < 0.05), and ASM, COR, and HOM in several retinal sublayers changed significantly in the ADD (P < 0.05). Notably, the MCI showed significant differences in ASM and COR in the outer segment of photoreceptor compared with the CN (P < 0.05). The changing pattern of OCT-ISCF with interclass correlation coefficients above 0.8 differed from that caused by speckle noise, and was affected by OCT image quality index. Moreover, the retinal OCT-ISCF were more strongly correlated with brain Aβ plaque burden and MoCA scores than retinal thickness. The accuracy using retinal OCT-ISCF (AUC = 0.935, 0.830) was better than that using retinal thickness (AUC = 0.795, 0.705) in detecting ADD and MCI. Conclusions The study demonstrates that retinal OCT-ISCF enhance the association and detection efficacy of AD pathology compared to retinal thickness, suggesting retinal OCT-ISCF have the potential to be new biomarkers for AD.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-025-01676-zAlzheimer’s diseaseEarly warningRetinaOCTTexture features |
| spellingShingle | Zi Jin Xinmin Wang Ying Lang Yufeng Song Huangxiong Zhan Wuge Shama Yingying Shen Guihua Zeng Faying Zhou Hongjian Gao Shuling Ye Yanjiang Wang Fan Lu Meixiao Shen Retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy Alzheimer’s disease Early warning Retina OCT Texture features |
| title | Retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s disease |
| title_full | Retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s disease |
| title_fullStr | Retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s disease |
| title_full_unstemmed | Retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s disease |
| title_short | Retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed Alzheimer’s disease |
| title_sort | retinal optical coherence tomography intensity spatial correlation features as new biomarkers for confirmed alzheimer s disease |
| topic | Alzheimer’s disease Early warning Retina OCT Texture features |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-025-01676-z |
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