Researchers have developed a new non-invasive optical imaging system that promises to improve diagnosis and treatments for dry eye disease.
Researchers have developed a new non-invasive optical imaging system that promises to improve diagnosis and treatments for dry eye disease. Dry eye, which often causes irritation and blurred vision, occurs when there is instability in the inner layer of the tear film that protects the outside of the eye.
Today, most cases of dry eye are diagnosed using patient questionnaires, which may be subjective and cannot typically be used to identify the cause of the disease. Objective methods for examining the tear film tend to be invasive and cannot track rapid changing dynamics, which are altered with every blink.
“Up to 60 percent of ophthalmology office visits are due to dry eye, pointing to the need for a non-invasive and highly accurate device for diagnosis in the office setting,” said research team leader Dr. Yoel Arieli from AdOM Advanced Optical Methods Ltd. in Israel. “Our Tear Film Imager is the first device that can be used in the ophthalmology or optometry setting to image the tear film and distinguish its inner layers with nanometer resolution.”
In the Optical Society (OSA) journal Applied Optics, researchers describe the device’s ability to perform spectral measurements across a large field of view in a matter of seconds. They report that the imager can acquire fast and consistent measurements from human eyes even when blinking.
Read more at: The Optical Society
The Tear Film Imager captures a raw image (a) and also generates a thickness map (b) derived from the color information at each pixel. This can be used to distinguish the tear film's inner layers. (Photo Credit: AdOM Advanced Optical Methods Ltd.)
