#eye scan

A wonderful view through two inch glass

Vessel View

Atherosclerosis – the build-up of fatty deposits, or plaques, within blood vessels – can affect the arteries supplying the heart (coronary artery disease), brain (cerebrovascular disease), limbs (peripheral artery disease (PAD)), or a combination of the three. In the case of PAD, early stages can be symptomless and yet still increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Timely diagnosis is thus highly desirable but difficult. The good news is, scientists have discovered changes to blood vessels in the retina associated with PAD – even in early-stage disease. While the changes are often subtle, by using thousands of photos of human retinas – the sort taken during routine eye exams – scientists have been able to train a machine-learning algorithm to distinguish healthy from unhealthy retinas. In a small-scale trial, the software detected PAD-related vessel alterations and correctly diagnosed 80 percent of patients, spurring hope for its development into a diagnostic screen.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Simon Mueller and Maximilian W. M. Wintergerst, and colleagues

Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (B-it), and Departments of Computer Science and Ophthalmology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Image copyright held by the original authors

Published in Scientific Reports, January 2022

Researchers develop a simple eye scan that detects undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes

A researcher from the University of Exeter is developing a novel method for detecting Type 2 diabetes. It involves a simple eye scan that searches for biomarkers of diabetes called advanced glycation end-products or AGEs.

Dr. Mitra Tavakoli, the person behind the study, recently completed a test pilot and said that the results were successful. Using biomicroscope screening, she was able…

Eye scan may detect Alzheimer’s disease in seconds

Two new studies now suggest that a noninvasive eye scan could soon be used to catch Alzheimer’s disease early.

The world’s population is aging rapidly and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is on the rise.

For this reason, the need for efficient dementia screening methods that can be applied to millions of people is dire.

Current diagnostic practices are either invasive or ineffective.

For…

A series of behind-the-scenes mistakes by educators in a Florida school district led to children€™s' biometric information being culled without their parents'€™ permission,