Diabetes wreaks havoc on many of the organs and functions for individuals who have been diagnosed with the disease. One of the many issues that can arise are loss of vision and eye function. Researchers from the School of optometry and the Department of Ophthalmology at Indiana University introduced adaptive optics technology that allows physicians to detect the early warning signs of diabetic retinopathy. Until the advent of this technology, these microscopic changes in the eye weren’t detectable using standard techniques.
Retinopathy is a term that refers to damage to the retina of the eye. The nerve cells in the retina convert light into electrical impulses which are then carried to the optic nerve in the brain. Retinopathy is a frequent complication that diabetics face and can lead to low vision or blindness.
There are typically no early warning signs with diabetic retinopathy and it’s only diagnosed through a comprehensive eye examination in which the eye doctor is specifically looking for the signs of the disease. In order to detect “early warning signs” a new technology was needed and the School of Optometry researchers designed and built an instrument that utilizes small mirrors with tiny moveable segments that reflect light into the eye and highlights the imperfections of the eye. This would not be possible without the custom optics available in the market today.
Adaptive optics allows for the capture of sharp images and minimized optical errors within the instrument. This allows the tiny capillaries in the eye to appear on a computer screen in a larger-than-life image letting the eye doctor see a clearer image of the retina and making it easier to detect changes in the retina. The adaptive technology can pinpoint areas in the eye that have insufficient blood circulation.
More research needs to be undertaken to determine both the patterns of the capillary and the changes that will occur, but with this new technology and the lenses used in the microscopes, diabetics will likely reap the rewards in the potential for retinopathy being diagnosed earlier.
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