Star of Excellence
Novel Biomarker for Early Detection of Dementia
The ‘Novel Biomarker for Early Detection of Dementia’ project was carried out by researchers at the Memory and Geriatric Clinic in Rumailah Hospital, in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, and HMC-experts from Geriatrics, Psychogeriatric, Radiology, Ophthalmology, Occupational Therapy, Nursing, and Research Science.
A key finding from this study was that Corneal Confocal Microscopy (CCM) detected modest but significant nerve damage in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, which was more prominent in those with mixed dementia, as compared to Alzheimer’s disease. CCM yielded a sensitivity of 80.77% and a specificity of 80.95%. Furthermore, these findings show a strong association between corneal nerve damage and cognitive decline and physical disability.