The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (8/23, Munz) reports, “Using an easy eye exam, researchers at Washington University of Medicine in St. Louis were able to detect evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in patients before they had symptoms of the disease.” Included in the study were 30 asymptomatic patients. But, “out of the study group, 17 had PET scans or lumbar punctures that showed evidence of accumulating plaques.” In addition, “the eye exams of all 17…detected retinal thinning and large areas without blood vessels in the center of their retinas,” whereas the retinas “appeared normal in patients whose PET scans and lumbar punctures were also normal.” The findings were published online in JAMA Ophthalmology. Also covering the story are TODAY (8/23, Pawlowski), AFP (8/23) and HealthDay (8/23, Preidt).(SOURCE: APA Headlines)