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The eyes may be the window to the soul, but researchers are finding they also provide a view into the brain that could help detect neurological damage from bomb blasts, sports concussions and a wide range of diseases, including Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.
If initial results are borne out, it might eventually be possible to use simple eye tests to evaluate soldiers, athletes or accident victims and to monitor the effectiveness of drugs and other treatments, several scientists said Sunday in Seattle at a meeting of the world’s largest vision-research organization.
A recent session of the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Opthamalogy in Seattle brought together some of the nation’s top researchers on brain injuries in veterans and athletes, including psychiatrist Elaine Peskind, of the University of Washington and the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System.
Nearly 2.4 million U.S. troops have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. About 20 percent of them were exposed to blasts from roadside bombs and other explosives, Peskind said.
The veterans she studied experienced an average of 14 blasts, though some were exposed to 100 or more.
Many reported symptoms that include memory loss, headache, muddled thinking and irritability.
Though Peskind has used sophisticated brain scans to document permanent brain damage among blast-exposed veterans, there’s no easy way to tell which soldiers may go on to develop more severe problems, including dementia, as a result of their injuries.