Methodology

At EmPro Medical, a team of doctors under the leadership of Dr. Clement Trempe uses a 3-tiered approach to diagnose diseases of aging. They start by examining the eye which is the “canary of the mind,” and the window to measuring cardiovascular system health. Using simple yet elegant instruments and medical systems, biomarkers that indicate the present of latent and current diseases of aging can be seen and accurately measured. These markers are also extremely predictive of future adverse health events and mortality.

One of the most important health biomarkers, stem cells, is present in every tissue of the eye. For example, they can be found in the lens, the cornea, the retina, the optic nerve, and on capillaries in the brain. Cortical cataracts, that are the result of the misfolded protein response emanating from stem cells, are the Rosetta Stone of Alzheimer’s Disease. The lens retains a stem cell population that proliferates and differentiates throughout life. The lens functions essentially as a single gigantic stem cell and a time capsule. It does not destroy old cells by apoptosis but uses young stem cells to continually nurture older cells. So the lens provides a record of the life history of the individual from embryo to old age. Thus the lens turns out to be rich in medical information about past, current, and future health.

Sick eye = sick body: EmPro is currently working with Scientific American and the American Optometric Association to create a comprehensive treatise on the connection between eye disease and systemic disease. Dr. Clement Trempe's team and others demonstrated the effectiveness of treating patients medically for diabetic retinopathy and other heretofore eye-specific diseases using a systemic approach. Disease manifestations in the eye are signs of systemic disease. In a landmark, yet obscure publication, researchers at Harvard Medical School definitively showed that the molecular pathological findings associated with Alzheimer’s Disease overlap in the lens and the brain.

Alzheimer’s characteristic dementia is preceded by a long asymptomatic period that may last for decades. During this time, amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles gradually accumulate in the brain and the lens of the eye. Eventually, these lesions cause so much brain damage that cognitive impairment can be observed.

Early ocular biomarkers for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as a variety of chronic infections that affect the brain, include changes in the lens of the eye. Abnormal lens proteins, another red flag, can be measured using the quasi-elastic light scattering analysis of the lens. Various types of cataracts produce very different types of early aberrations, and this is especially true for the cortical type of cataract. This is where the abnormal misfolded protein accumulates in the lenses of AD patients. Dr. Trempe and his team can detect the formation of the protein well in advance of clinical disease manifestations.

The findings presented by ocular biomarkers are used as a launching pad for further investigations into disease etiology. Common in the practice is to investigate blood for inflammatory markers such as c-Reactive Protein, Homocysteine, and other parameters that indicate that disease is present and the immune system is piqued. Follow-on blood tests look for, and often find, “route cause” pathogens that have established treatment protocols. When treatments are invoked, patient clinical symptoms improve. Very importantly, measurable, quantifiable, objective parameters including those in the blood and detected in the eye show improvement trends consistent with clinical observations.