The Retina as a Biomarker for Vascular and Neurodegenerative Brain Diseases

Over the years, the research field investigating the eye-brain connection has increased steeply, and researchers have begun to recognize the potential to use retinal structures as biomarkers for brain diseases. Given that retinal structures such as vessels and neurons share many similarities in anatomy and physiology to the brain, it has been thought that these structures provide a direct measure for the vascular and neuronal status of the brain.
The main objective of this thesis is to expand our current knowledge on retinal microvascular damage and retinal neurodegeneration as biomarker of vascular and neurodegenerative brain diseases. My main conclusion is firstly that retinal imaging can serve as a source of biomarkers to study small vessel disease and atrophy of the brain. Secondly, microvascular abnormalities may be intermediates in pathways of vascular brain diseases, or may interact with other mechanisms to cause vascular brain diseases. Finally, applying interaction and mediation analysis can provide new insight into the pathophysiology of brain diseases.