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Researchers from two longitudinal studies investigated whether retinal abnormalities on optical coherence tomography (OCT) were associated with cognitive decline and dementia in participants from the U.K. and the Netherlands.
In the first study of 32,038 participants from the U.K. Biobank (mean age, 56 years; 54% women), a thinner retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) was associated with worse baseline cognitive performance, including on tests of memory, pairs matching, numeric and verbal reasoning, and reaction time. Those in the lowest quintile of RNFL were 11% more likely to perform poorly on at least one cognitive test. In follow-up cognitive testing performed 3 years later among 1251 participants, those with RNFL thinning were almost twice a…