Are there specific retinal biomarkers used to identify frontotemporal dementia?

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a brain disorder that affects behavior, language, and movement. It is often misdiagnosed or recognized late, and current biomarkers are limited, expensive, and invasive ⁶. Because the eye and brain develop from the same embryonic tissue, researchers have looked at the retina as a possible window into brain disease ⁷. The short answer: some retinal changes, especially thinning of certain retinal layers seen on optical coherence tomography (OCT), have been linked to FTD, but no single retinal biomarker is specific enough to identify FTD on its own ⁷.

What the research says

A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled ten studies of OCT and OCT angiography (OCTA) in FTD, comparing people with FTD to those with Alzheimer disease (AD) and to healthy controls ³. Compared with AD, people with FTD had significantly thinner retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness ³. Compared with controls, people with FTD had significantly thinner ganglion cell layer-inner plexiform layer (GCL-IPL) thickness ³. However, when the researchers pooled results across multiple retinal biomarkers together, the difference was not significant ³. This means some specific layers differ, but a broad retinal signal does not clearly separate FTD from other groups.

What to ask your doctor

• Is OCT or OCTA retinal imaging something that could be useful in my or my family member's evaluation for FTD?
• How do retinal findings compare with other tests, such as brain imaging, blood tests, or genetic testing for progranulin?
• Could retinal thinning be caused by something else, like glaucoma, diabetes, or normal aging, rather than FTD?
• Are there clinical trials or research studies using retinal biomarkers for FTD that I could learn about?
• What is the current role of retinal imaging in standard FTD diagnosis at this center?