Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29780864›Full record

ArticleAlzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)2018

Change in retinal structural anatomy during the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease.

Cláudia Y Santos, Lenworth N Johnson, Stuart E Sinoff, Elena K Festa, William C Heindel, Peter J Snyder

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
83citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
9.0field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

83 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Brain and retina in Alzheimer's disease: Pathological intersections and estimates from imaging.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Neurocognitive assessment in relation to hearing impairment and retinal neurodegeneration.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Ocular changes as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025
    Review
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  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Review
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  18. Article
  19. Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology in the Retina.Progress in retinal and eye research · 2024
    Review
  20. Article

23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Cláudia Y SantosInterdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA.
Lenworth N JohnsonLifespan Clinical Research Center, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, USA.
Stuart E SinoffDepartment of Ophthalmology, BayCare Medical Group, Clearwater, FL, USA.
Elena K FestaDepartment of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
William C HeindelDepartment of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Peter J SnyderInterdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA.
Brown University · USBayCare Health System · USRhode Island Hospital · USUniversity of Rhode Island · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionWe conducted a 27-month longitudinal study of mid-life adults with preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), using spectral domain optical coherence tomography to compare changes in volume and thickness in all retinal neuronal layers to those of age-matched healthy control subjects.

methodsFifty-six older adults (mean age = 65.36 years) with multiple risk factors for AD completed spectral domain optical coherence tomography retinal imaging and cognitive testing at baseline. Twenty-seven months later, they completed the same examinations and an

resultsCompared to healthy control subjects, those in the preclinical stage of AD showed a significant decrease in macular retinal nerve fiber layer (mRNFL) volume, over a 27-month follow-up interval period, as well as a decrease in outer nuclear layer and inner plexiform layer volumes and thickness in the inferior quadrant. However, only the mRNFL volume was linearly related to neocortical positron emission tomography amyloid standardized uptake value ratio after controlling for any main effects of age ( DISCUSSION: We observed a decrease in mRNFL, outer nuclear layer, and inner plexiform layer volumes, in preclinical AD relative to controls. Moreover, the largely myelinated axonal loss in the RNFL is related to increased neocortical amyloid-β accumulation after controlling for age. Volume loss in the RNFL, during the preclinical stage, is not related to performance on measures of episodic memory or problem solving. However, this retinal change does appear to be modestly related to relative decrements in performance on a measure of audiovisual integration efficiency that has been recently advanced as a possible early cognitive marker of mild cognitive impairment.

Indexed as

Alzheimer's diseaseAmyloidCognitionMcGurk effectOCTOptical coherence tomographyPreclinicalRetinalRNFL

Identifiers

PMID29780864
PMCPMC5956814
OpenAlexW2786760429

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.