Scientists have found a new way to screen patients for common eye diseases using LED technology. An article in Review of Scientific Instruments describes the new system which uses six different wavelengths of light to illuminate the eyeball.
Using light-absorbing compounds already present in the eye, researchers are finding a way to capture better diagnostic images by working with the way different pigments appear in multispectral images. One advantage of this new diagnostic procedure is its speed – it can capture images quickly enough to avoid distortion caused by natural eye movements.
It is hoped that this technology can be developed further and be made widely available to optometrists and ophthalmologists seeking the best diagnostic tool for their patients when screening for such eye diseases as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
Source: scienceblog.com
Researchers from around the country are working together to adapt the technologies that allow astronomers to observe distant galleries so that eye doctors can better examine the retina even through imperfections on the lens and cornea. These adaptive optics–optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) systems could be the wave of the future for eye disease diagnosis.
Source: Scientific American.
