Retinal imaging company Optos plc (London) announced promising clinical study results using its ultra-widefield auto-fluorescence retinal imaging in a study of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) at the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) Annual Meeting held in Vancouver this week. Based on their positive results, Optos has also been invited to join the major Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), a nationwide study conducted by the National Eye Institute, to delve further into AMD.
A team of retina specialists at the Doheny Eye Institute, University of Southern California, led by Srinivas Sadda, MD, conducted the study using Optos’ ultra-widefield scanning technology, and have found that 76% of eyes in patients with AMD had peripheral abnormalities. The addition of auto-fluorescence capability to retinal scanning technologies is seen to aid the detection of AMD.
One hundred twenty-two patients examined in this study were seen at the Doheny Eye Institute Retina Service from November 2009 to April 2010. Major disease groups studied included AMD, inflammatory disease, ocular tumors, central serous retinopathy, and retinal degenerations. The study was initiated to investigate the frequency of peripheral abnormalities and to begin to understand if there are characteristic peripheral patterns that may be useful in the diagnosis or management of retinal disease. This involved a retrospective analysis of the medical records of all patients referred to the Institute’s imaging unit for auto-fluorescence imaging, who also had additional ultra-widefield auto-fluorescence images obtained using Optos technology. Demographic data, including disease diagnosis, was also collected for analysis. Using the Optos images, 174 eyes showed peripheral changes outside the central pole area of the retina, the area viewed using standard narrow-field, 30-degree field of view imaging technology.
This study follows the recently published results from the Reykjavik/Moorfields study and adds to the growing body of evidence of the importance of studying the periphery of the retina in the diagnosis and management of AMD.
Optos will also now join AREDS2, a study involving some 4,200 subjects, to determine methods to slow the progression of vision loss from AMD. Optos’ wide-field auto-fluorescence devices will be used in monitoring the effectiveness of treatment in the patients to investigate age-related changes in the periphery and their possible prognostic significance, according to Dr. Sadda.
Posted by Lee Mather