Experts say the disease can be transmitted from person to person via prions, known as Alzheimer's seeds, and that people may not realize they have the disease due to an incubation period of up to 40 years. Prof. Dr. Hamdi Er from Dünyagöz Altunizade Hospital pointed out the importance of early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: “Alzheimer's disease can be diagnosed 10-15 years earlier with an eye examination that we perform with two different tomographs and which lasts about 5 minutes”.
The hypothesis that "Alzheimer's disease can be contagious" arising from research published in the journal Nature in England draws attention to early diagnosis and the importance of early diagnosis. Claiming that Alzheimer's disease is difficult to diagnose from the brain before it reaches a certain stage, experts emphasize that the incubation period of the disease is as much as 40 years. Prof. Dr. Hamdi Er of Dünyagöz Altunizade Hospital, known for his successful surgeries and research in ophthalmology, argues that early diagnosis, which is already important, has become much more important, in particular given the hypothesis that Alzheimer's disease may be contagious.
“It is difficult to make an early diagnosis from the brain, but it is possible from the eyes”
Mentioning that Alzheimer's disease is difficult to diagnose from the brain before it reaches a certain level, Prof. Dr. Hamdi Er states that Alzheimer's disease can be diagnosed 10-15 earlier with a retinal scan, which takes approximately 5 minutes. Prof. Dr. Hamdi Er emphasizes that early diagnosis is of great importance for patients with Alzheimer's disease and their relatives, as in any other disease: “Medication treatment, which is ineffective in the later stages, becomes possible with early diagnosis”.
Alzheimer's plaques become visible with early diagnosis!
Prof. Dr. Hamdi Er talked about how the eyes are scanned for beta-amyloid plaques, tau filaments (found in CNS cells), and alpha-synuclein proteins. Prof. Dr. Hamdi Er said that imaging all three of these indicators allows you to accurately determine the presence of Alzheimer's disease: “With this method, which we apply, we can visualize tau filaments both in early diagnosis and in monitoring the disease. The brain is difficult to diagnose the disease at an early stage. In this sense, we use the method of the earliest diagnosis”.
