August Deter, 51, was the first patient diagnosed with the disease by Alois Alzheimer, in 1901.

It may soon be possible for middle-aged people who have a simple eye scan when they visit the optician to learn if they will develop Alzheimer’s disease 20 years down the road. British scientists believe they’re about three years from perfecting the inexpensive test. Knowledge wouldn’t just allow patients to plan their lives differently but would make it possible for them to begin taking medications as early as possible and delay the onset of the disease by years. From an article in the Mail Online:

“The eye test would provide a quick, easy, cheap and highly-accurate diagnosis.

It exploits the fact that the light-sensitive cells in the retina at the back of the eye are a direct extension of the brain.

Using eye drops which highlight diseased cells, the UCL researchers showed for the first time in a living eye that the amount of damage to cells in the retina directly corresponds with brain cell death.

They have also pinpointed the pattern of retinal cell death characteristic of Alzheimer’s. So far their diagnosis has been right every time.”