Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a disease that affects the retinal blood vessels which are not developed fully in babies which are born prematurely. Babies which are born earlier than 32rd week of pregnancy and which are born with birth weight less than 1.5 kilograms are at high risk to develop retinopathy of prematurity. Retinopathy of prematurity can affect the premature babies in varying degrees of severity. In mild cases, the premature babies may show no visual defects. In severely affected cases, it may lead to retinal detachment and total blindness. It is estimated that about 500 to 700 babies become blind as a result of being affected by retinopathy of prematurity each year in United States alone, on an average basis.
Traditional imaging devices like medical ultra-sonography, magnetic resonance imaging, and confocal microscopy are not suitable for screening the infant eye to detect retinopathy of prematurity. This is because medical ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging generate tissue scan images with poor resolution. Confocal microscopy lacks millimeter penetration depth and provides scanned images for only superficial layers of eye tissue. Ophthalmoscope or camera also has limitations because it can only generate two dimensional images of superficial or anterior layers of eye tissue.
Duke University Medical Center has now introduced a new hand held biomedical engineering device called spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD OCT) to screen for retinopathy of prematurity in premature baby’s eye. This SD OCT device uses narrow beam of broadband light sources which can penetrate the deeper layers of tissue to generate a three dimensional scanned image of posterior section of the infant eye. Using a hand held probe, this SD OCT device can click cross-sectional images of retina by laterally combining a series of these axial depth scans. This SD OCT device can snap images of retina 40 times faster than previous versions of OCT.
This reduces the time spent on diagnosis & increases the precision in detecting the occurrence & severity of retinopathy of prematurity in premature baby. This also significantly reduces the discomfort to hospital staff and parents, as the premature baby does not have to be moved out of the incubator to click these images by SD OCT device. The scan images generated by SD OCT device could significantly influence the decision-making by doctors during treatment.
Source: Duke University Eye Center
