Be eccentric: the MAIA microperimeter

I last came across the MAIA a couple of years ago when I saw it being used in monitoring the structure and function of the maculae of patients undergoing the, as yet, experimental light treatment aimed at minimising the progression of dry atrophic macular degeneration.

The instrument is manufactured by Centrevue (as is the DRS retinal camera, both distributed in the UK by Haag Streit) and is a microperimeter (Figure 1). As such, it is useful in monitoring macular disease because the stimuli used to assess retinal function are set closer to each other than in standard perimetry (hence the term ‘microperimetry’) and therefore allow individual threshold values of light detection to be superimposed over an image of the macular area, so showing changes in disease state over time.