Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Retinal vascular alterations have been associated with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but their relationship with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived glymphatic-related diffusion markers remains unclear. We investigated retinal vascular fractal dimension (FD) in relation to SVD, glymphatic-related diffusion metrics, and clinical measures.
METHODS
Thirty-four patients with clinically diagnosed FTD (82.4% behavioral variant FTD) and 34 cognitively unimpaired controls underwent color fundus photography and multimodal MRI. Generalized estimating equations, multivariable regression, and partial Spearman correlations were performed.
RESULTS
FTD showed sparser retinal microvasculature, lower diffusion tensor imaging analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS), and periventricular diffusivity, and higher SVD burden (all p < 0.05). Sparser retinal microvasculature was associated with reduced DTI-ALPS, lower periventricular diffusivity, greater SVD burden, poorer cognition, and greater disease severity (all p < 0.05).
DISCUSSION
Retinal microvascular alterations are related to SVD and glymphatic dysfunction in FTD.
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This post is Copyright: | September 17, 2026
Neuro-Dementia