{"id":2357,"date":"2015-03-18T16:18:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T16:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/minimal-device-maximizes-macula-imaging\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T14:59:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:59:15","slug":"minimal-device-maximizes-macula-imaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/minimal-device-maximizes-macula-imaging\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimal device maximizes macula imaging"},"content":{"rendered":"

A smart and simple method developed at Rice University to image a patient’s eye could help monitor eye health and spot signs of macular degeneration<\/a> and diabetic retinopathy<\/a>, especially in developing nations.<\/p>\n

The patient-operated, portable device invented at Rice is called mobileVision. It can be paired with a smartphone to give clinicians finely detailed images of the macula<\/a>, the spot in the center of the eye where vision is sharpest, without artificially dilating<\/a> the pupil. Those images are then sent by cellphone to ophthalmologists who can make their diagnoses from afar.<\/p>\n

The device was built as part of Rice’s Scalable Health Initiative<\/a>, an effort to create portable, robust and inexpensive diagnostic tools for use around the world, particularly in low-resource areas.<\/p>\n

The Rice team includes Adam Samaniego, a Rice alumnus and research engineer; graduate student Vivek Boominathan; Ashutosh Sabharwal, a professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Ashok Veeraraghavan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. They presented the first comprehensive results of their work at the Wireless Health 2014<\/a> conference on Bethesda, Md., last October.<\/p>\n

The eye is the body’s only portal that allows direct, noninvasive imaging of internal tissue like blood vessels, according to the researchers. A number of labs are taking advantage of cellphones’ increasingly sophisticated cameras to put diagnostic tools in the field, and the Rice researchers believe they are leading the charge with a device patients can use on their own with minimal instruction.<\/p>\n

Generally, doctors have to dilate a patient’s eyes \u2013 an uncomfortable, time-consuming process \u2013 before an exam that often involves bulky, expensive equipment. The challenge for Rice engineers, Veeraraghavan said, was to produce a portable device that provides high-quality images of the macula without dilation.<\/p>\n

“Whatever you look directly at you see in very high resolution, while your peripheral vision is blurry,” he said. “The region of the retina that provides you with this high resolution is the macula. And degradation of the macula immediately affects your eyesight.”<\/p>\n

“When we talk to physicians about this project, the first question they always ask is, ‘Can you image the macula?'” Samaniego said. “So that’s where we decided to focus our efforts.”<\/p>\n