Seeing the Brain Through the Eye: What is Next for Neuroimaging and Neurology Applications
摘要
The changes of the retinal structure and microvasculature are seemingly correlated with neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular lesions, which in turn supports the view that the retina may serve as a window to the brain. It can be postulated that retinal microvascular structure could be mirroring that of the brain while the substructure of the retina may be like the structure of the brain. Both features of the central nervous system are difficult and costly to assess, whereas retinal imaging could provide a meaningful and low-cost means to provide surrogate markers for disease detection and disease management that could be valuable assets for the neurologists and general doctors at primary clinical care settings. In the long run, retinal imaging could replace or complement neuroimaging techniques and could contribute to a better understanding of disease etiology of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. In this chapter, we will give an overview of Optical Coherence Tomography as an emerging technology in neurology applications and express our view about how retinal imaging could serve the above goals and open a window, which could serve as a direct view to the brain.