An optometry department has combined with space engineers to develop an instrument to detect the early stages of age-related macular degeneration.
Scientists at Cardiff University’s School of Optometry and Vision Sciences joined forces with engineers at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) to create a retinal densitometer.
Dr Tom Margrain, leading the department’s research alongside Dr Alison Binns, said: ‘One of the earliest signs of AMD is a change in the way the light sensitive pigments in the macula regenerate after exposure to light. Working alongside engineers more used to designing state of the art instruments for ground and space technology, we’ve been able to develop the densitometer, which can assess this change by measuring, over time, the very small changes in the amount of light reflected by the retina after exposure to light.’
The instrument measures the way the eye ‘dark adapts’ after exposure to a bright light, and was said to have increased sensitivity and ability to measure responses to light from different parts of the retina.
Dr Dave Melotte, innovation manager at the UK ATC, said: ‘Astronomy technology and vision science might seem poles apart but put the right experts together and they are able to achieve things that would be impossible by either group in isolation.’
Tests on early stage AMD patients and controls showed the light changes on the macula could be accurately measured using the densitometer, which distinguished between the affected and non-affected groups.
Dr Margrain added: ‘Our next steps will now be to get the densitometer ready for official clinical testing and then to take this through to full commercialisation. Ultimately our densitometer could be used in any optician’s clinic.’