Interplay Between Macular Retinal Changes and White Matter Integrity in Early Alzheimer’s Disease

This study aims to investigate the relationship between structural changes in the retina and white matter in the brain, in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Twenty-three healthy controls (mean age = 63.4±7.5 years) and seventeen AD patients (mean age = 66.5±6.6 years) were recruited for this study. By combining two imaging techniques—optical coherence tomography and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)—the association between changes in the thickness of individual retinal layers and white matter dysfunction in early AD was assessed. Retinal layers were segmented, and thickness measurements were obtained for each layer. DTI images were analyzed with a quantitative data-driven approach to evaluating whole-brain diffusion metrics, using tract-based spatial statistics. Diffusion metrics, such as fractional anisotropy, are markers for white matter integrity. Multivariate and partial correlation analyses evaluating the association between individual retinal layers thickness and diffusion metrics were performed. We found that axial diffusivity, indexing axonal integrity, was significantly reduced in AD (p = 0.016, Cohen’s d = 1.004) while in the retina, only a marginal trend for significance was found for the outer plexiform layer (p = 0.084, Cohen’s d = 0.688). Furthermore, a positive association was found in the AD group between fractional anisotropy and the inner nuclear layer thickness (p < 0.05, r = 0.419, corrected for multiple comparisons by controlling family-wise error rate). Our findings suggest that axonal damage in the brain dominates early on in this condition and shows an association with retinal structural integrity already at initial stages of AD. These findings are consistent with an early axonal degeneration mechanism in AD.