Eye photo in Parkinson’s disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Accurately monitoring Parkinson’s disease and other Neurological disorders using a simple photograph of the eye
IRAS ID
221873
Contact name
Monty Silverdale
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 3 months, 3 days
Research summary
There is a lot of excitement regarding new drugs being developed to slow down Parkinson’s disease (PD). However we have no good way at the moment to monitor PD and therefore no good way to find out if the new drugs are working.
We have recently shown that the nerves on the surface of the eye become damaged in PD by the same process that affects the brain. We are hopefully that we can accurately monitor PD by using a simple photograph of the eye.
This exciting new technique has worked in a small study. We now want to look at a larger number of PD patients. If the technique works it will massively speed up the development of new PD treatments.
We also want to use the technique in participants with other neurodegenerative conditions to document whether we can use a simple eye photograph to accurately monitor disease in other neurodegenerative conditions, including Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), Alzheimer's disease and Frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NW/0144
Date of REC Opinion
3 Apr 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion