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Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

moorfields.nhs.uk

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Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#51

Post by Baeocystin »

ekianjo wrote: post #20
TheBlight wrote: post #12

The idea of knowing you're going to get dementia sometime in the next decade is interesting. But I don't think it's straight-forward as to whether or not knowing is a good idea. It's also a little amusing to take the idea to its logical extreme: What if it becomes a societal norm to know? Would public venues allow soon-to-be dementia patients line cutting priority etc? Think amusement parks, transit reservations, hot…

Knowing you will have something incurable has only downsides. You will dread the time ahead of you instead of enjoying your present time.

I've known several folks over the years that found peace with their diagnosis, and were able to live their remaining good time with joy and grace. I know I would want to know. FWIW.

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#52

Post by JimtheCoder »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #42
kadoban wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If nothing else, it could allow you to make different decisions in your life. If my mind is going to be gone in 10 years, I'm sure as shit not saving for long term retirement anymore.

> If my mind is going to be gone in 10 years Parkinsons affects motor control, not mental functioning. The point still stands -- if I got a diagnosis I would be less likely to embark on learning to play the piano, and I'd start educating myself on the disease. EDIT: I'll correct myself. It primarily affects motor control, but late in the disease it can affect cognition.

"if I got a diagnosis I would be less likely to embark on learning to play the piano"

Perhaps counterintuitively, doing something like learning to play the piano could potentially slow the progression of fine motor skill impairment. Same with things like Tai Chi, dancing, exercise in general...

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#53

Post by beardedwizard »

efitz wrote: post #45

So if this works then the benefits will be amazing. I am skeptical for three reasons. First, the article goes on about the eyes being “windows” to the body and introduces us to the new “science” of “oculomics”. That might be journalist license but it smells of pseudoscience; phrenology anyone? Second, the idea that any image of an eye can be used to diagnose lots of different neurological conditions like schizophreni…

> Finally, the study seems to be “let’s dump medical records and retina images into a neural network and see what correlates”. I didn’t read the actual study but I would be extremely concerned about accuracy rates.

I was left with exactly the same impression. This article was about a data set and the predictions being made from it without any mention of accuracy.

I would hate to get a wrong diagnosis of Parkinson's.

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#54

Post by Aurornis »

throw9away6 wrote: post #11

This will get used against you to deny insurance coverage. Not to help anyone.

In the United States, insurance plans are prohibited from excluding people based on pre-existing conditions since 2014.

I suppose if you tried to get certain types of long-term care insurance or life insurance and failed to disclose this you'd be at risk of losing the policy.

But nobody should be avoiding screenings or care for fear of losing health coverage for pre-existing conditions. That stopped being true almost a decade ago.

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#55

Post by ianbutler »

ShamelessC wrote: post #43
devindotcom wrote: post #25

I recall two companies working on this - RightEye and Neuralight: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/17/righteyes-portable-eye-tra... https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/24/neuralight-aims-to-track-a... Probably there are more by now. As I recall this data is great for essentially saying "you should go get a real test." No one is diagnosing - just saying that a certain, say, eye movement slowness is correlated and you can det…

[flagged]

I don't hate your comment because you're against VC or business or because you're a cynic, I hate it because it's not going to create good or interesting discussion because its a generic outrage rant with nothing new brought to the table that literally every one on this site hasn't heard before.

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#56

Post by Aurornis »

gmerc wrote: post #19
TheBlight wrote: post #12

The idea of knowing you're going to get dementia sometime in the next decade is interesting. But I don't think it's straight-forward as to whether or not knowing is a good idea. It's also a little amusing to take the idea to its logical extreme: What if it becomes a societal norm to know? Would public venues allow soon-to-be dementia patients line cutting priority etc? Think amusement parks, transit reservations, hot…

We already do that. We think you may get cancer or dementia, we deny you insurance converge and proceed to drain you of opportunity

> We think you may get cancer or dementia, we deny you insurance converge

Pre-existing conditions can't be used to deny health insurance coverage in the United States.

This has been true since 2014.

Please don't perpetuate the myth that people should avoid screenings for fear of losing health coverage.

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#57

Post by wombatpm »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #42
kadoban wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If nothing else, it could allow you to make different decisions in your life. If my mind is going to be gone in 10 years, I'm sure as shit not saving for long term retirement anymore.

> If my mind is going to be gone in 10 years Parkinsons affects motor control, not mental functioning. The point still stands -- if I got a diagnosis I would be less likely to embark on learning to play the piano, and I'd start educating myself on the disease. EDIT: I'll correct myself. It primarily affects motor control, but late in the disease it can affect cognition.

Lewey Body Dementia is common with Parkinson’s

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#58

Post by divbzero »

playto wrote: post #46
devindotcom wrote: post #25

I recall two companies working on this - RightEye and Neuralight: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/17/righteyes-portable-eye-tra... https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/24/neuralight-aims-to-track-a... Probably there are more by now. As I recall this data is great for essentially saying "you should go get a real test." No one is diagnosing - just saying that a certain, say, eye movement slowness is correlated and you can det…

> say, eye movement slowness It’s not just movement. Retinal tissue develops from the same embryonic tissue as the brain. They probably looked at structure, vasculature. The best anecdote in this space- nobody with congenital blindness has developed schizophrenia.

> nobody with congenital blindness has developed schizophrenia

What’s the rationale for why this might happen?

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#59

Post by Aurornis »

TheBlight wrote: post #12

The idea of knowing you're going to get dementia sometime in the next decade is interesting. But I don't think it's straight-forward as to whether or not knowing is a good idea. It's also a little amusing to take the idea to its logical extreme: What if it becomes a societal norm to know? Would public venues allow soon-to-be dementia patients line cutting priority etc? Think amusement parks, transit reservations, hot…

> The idea of knowing you're going to get dementia sometime in the next decade is interesting. But I don't think it's straight-forward as to whether or not knowing is a good idea.

It's not fun, but being able to do long-term planning around challenging medical conditions is without a doubt better than not knowing. This includes everything from financial planning to finding a house that is ideal for your condition (no stairs, single level, etc.)

Ideally we'll have a better understanding of disease-modifying drugs in the near future that can slow progression of Parkinson's. If we get confirmation that drugs like Exenatide actually do slow the progression of Parkinson's (trials ongoing) then you'd definitely want to know as early as possible.

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#60

Post by cwkoss »

TheBlight wrote: post #12

The idea of knowing you're going to get dementia sometime in the next decade is interesting. But I don't think it's straight-forward as to whether or not knowing is a good idea. It's also a little amusing to take the idea to its logical extreme: What if it becomes a societal norm to know? Would public venues allow soon-to-be dementia patients line cutting priority etc? Think amusement parks, transit reservations, hot…

I would like to know how many US political leaders currently have dementia. I bet more than 10% of Congress.
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