Researchers at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology have been awarded a grant co-funded by Fight for Sight to study Thyroid eye disease (TED), which affects around 400,000 people in the UK.
Daniel Ezra and Anjana Haridas will study whether a new tool for 3D facial imaging can help improve management of TED – which can also cause significant facial disfigurement.
Three pilot studies will test a sophisticated 3D imaging system that has been used in breast reconstruction and reconstructive craniofacial surgery. It captures 3D images of patients and uses software to analyse changes in volume, contour and shape or to simulate the change in appearance that could be achieved by having surgery.
The inflammatory disease of the fat and muscle at the back of the eye sometimes compresses the optic nerve, researchers said, adding that individuals could experience sight loss and sometimes double vision. The swelling also pushed the eye forward, causing facial disfigurement and causing the cornea to become exposed and damaged.
Ezra, consultant ophthalmologist, NIHR investigator and research lead for the Oculoplastics Service at Moorfields Eye Hospital, said: ‘We expect our results to help quantify the 3D changes around the eye in thyroid eye disease. This could provide outcome measures which are better correlated with what the patients want and generate an index measure of ‘disfigurement’ to classify/characterise disease severity, predict and monitor disease course or analyse treatment outcomes.’
The research was being co-funded by the British Thyroid Foundation.