A new paper has been released by a collaborative team of colleagues from INCR and the Usher Institute, entitled, “Retinal Optical Coherence Tomography-Angiography and Longitudinal Changes in Cognition and Cerebral Small Vessel Disease” The team investigated whether optical tomography angiography (OCTA) measures are associated with brain cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) markers and cognition over time and whether baseline OCTA was associated with brain and cognitive outcomes after mild ischemic stroke. “We scanned the eyes and brains of 189 people who had recently had a mild stroke, then repeated the scans a year later. People whose retinal blood vessels thinned over that year also tended to show more brain small vessel damage and a greater drop in cognitive scores. The state of someone's retina at the start was linked to how they were doing a year on, suggesting a quick eye scan could one day help track brain vascular health without touching the brain.” Samuel Gibbon Research Fellow in Retinal Image Analysis The work was done together with INCR's and Row Fogo Centre Director, Professor Joanna Wardlaw and team. You can read the full paper at the link below:Retinal Optical Coherence Tomography-Angiography and Longitudinal Changes in Cognition and Cerebral Small Vessel Disease This article was published on Tuesday 22 September 2026
