Functional-retinal Imaging Device for the detection of glaucoma

描述（由申请人提供）：本基金的目的是开发和演示一种基于扫描激光检眼镜的新设备，用于视网膜功能成像。基于泛光照明眼底照相机的两个原型装置已经被开发并在人类受试者和动物模型（猫和猴子）上进行了测试。在这两个相机上进行的实验的初步结果。简而言之，用两个装置检测功能信号。为了提高信噪比，提出了一种新的功能性视网膜成像装置（fRID）。在第一阶段，该器械将仅在动物身上进行测试。补助金将使用两种标准方法来处理功能图像，即删除平均图像或基线图像;然后我们计算基线的变化。此外，我们已经开发出的技术，使用盲源分离方法和独立分量分析作为更复杂的工具，以提取低电平信号从视网膜的背景反射率。这些技术已被应用于使用功能性MRI的脑扫描的功能信号的分析。该临床设备的应用将是早期检测由于青光眼等疾病导致的视网膜功能丧失，青光眼是视网膜神经节细胞的慢性退行性疾病。青光眼困扰着大约300万美国人，其中多达12万人可能是法律上的盲人。不幸的是，对患有青光眼的患者的治疗可能由于当前设备不能检测青光眼早期阶段的神经纤维损失而被延迟。所提出的设备将被设计用于在整个视网膜的局部区域中早期检测视网膜功能。 该设备将为300多万患有青光眼的美国人提供一种新的早期诊断方法。功能性视网膜成像设备（f-RID）将以高度敏感的方式提供显示视觉功能降低的局部区域的视网膜图像。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this grant is to develop and demonstrate a new device, based on a scanning laser ophthalmoscope, for functional imaging of the retina. Two prototype devices based on flood illumination fundus cameras have been developed and tested on both human subjects and animal models (cats and monkeys). Preliminary results of experiments conducted on both cameras are presented. Briefly, a functional signal is detected with both devices. To improve the signal to noise ratio a new functional-Retinal Imaging Device (fRID) is proposed. In Phase I the device will be tested on animals only. The grant will process the functional images using both standard methods that remove an average or baseline image; then we calculate changes from the baseline. Additionally, we have developed techniques that use blind source separation methods and independent component analysis as more sophisticated tools to extract the low level signals from the background reflectance of the retina. These techniques have been applied in the analysis of functional signals from brain scans using functional MRI. The application of the clinical device will be in the early detection of loss of retinal function due to diseases such as glaucoma, which is a chronic degenerative disease of the retinal ganglion cells. Glaucoma afflicts about 3 million Americans and of those, up to 120,000 may be legally blind. Unfortunately, treatment to patients suffering from glaucoma may be delayed due to the inability of current devices to detect nerve fiber loss in the early stages of glaucoma. The proposed device will be designed for early detection of retinal function in localized areas of the entire retina. The proposed device will provide a new diagnostic for early detection of glaucoma in the more than three million americans afflicted with this eye disease. The functional-Retinal Imaging Device (f-RID) will offer an image of the retina showing local areas of reduce visual function in a highly sensitive manner.