Date Posted: 04 November 2009
Researchers based at Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina have developed a new technology using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to produce a three-dimensional picture of the back of the eye. The device appears capable of finding early signs of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and may radically alter the way clinicians identify eye disorders in infants.
The report, published in the journal Ophthalmology, demonstrates the ability of a handheld SD-OCT device, without the necessity of anaesthesia, to produce clinically useful images of premature neonates with ROP. The researchers were able to show that the SD-OCT device could evaluate subclinical pathology such as preretinal structures, retinoschisis and retinal detachment in patients with advance ROP. The report claimed that the preretinal structures and the retinoschisis were not identified on conventional examination or by imaging conducted by expert paediatric ophthalmologists. The authors, on the basis of the results, suggest that the novel technology "could affect future clinical decision making if studies validate a management strategy based on findings from [the] imaging technique".
The lead researcher Dr. Cynthia Toth (MD) is optimistic that the device will have a real impact. Commenting in a Duke University press release Dr, Toth stated that "now, for the first time we can take the SD-OCT system into the neonatal intensive care unit and hold it over the infant's eye without touching the eye and image the retina while the infant is lying in bed. We don't have to transport the infants out of the intensive care unit, which makes the whole process much more comfortable for them and their parents". The device is being manufactured and commercialised by Bioptigen Inc [www.bioptigen.com], a Duke spin-out company located in Research Triangle Park.
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