Spatial Extent of Retinal Damage

描述（由申请人提供）：视网膜和脉络膜损伤的空间范围将通过无创、定量的视觉功能和结构测绘来探测。我们研究衰老变化和疾病过程之间的区别，特别是年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）。目的是确定患者失去视力的原因，然后确定可以通过治疗来挽救视力的因素。长期目标涉及NEI国家眼与视觉研究计划的3个重点：1)开发和应用非侵入性技术，以更好地了解视网膜功能和疾病状态的变化；2)提高AMD的早期诊断；3)探索AMD的病理生理异质性，以加快改进诊断、预防和治疗所需工具的开发。这个项目是为数不多的包括活人（包括病人）在内的视觉周期测量的项目之一。我们研究了AMD患者及其家庭成员，老年对照和年轻对照，既作为患者家庭成员的对照，也寻求眼病的早期变化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The spatial extent of retinal and choroidal damage will be probed with noninvasive, quantitative mapping of visual function and structure. We study the distinction between aging changes and disease processes, particularly for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The goal is to determine why patients lose vision and then identify factors that are amenable to treatment to save vision. The long-term goals address 3 thrusts of the NEI National Plan for Eye and Vision Research: 1) develop and apply noninvasive technologies to better understand retinal function and changes in disease states; 2) improve early diagnosis of AMD; and 3) explore the pathophysiological heterogeneity of AMD to hasten development of the tools needed for improved diagnosis, prevention, and therapy. This project is one of the few that includes measurements of the visual cycle in living humans, including patients. We study patients with AMD and their family members, older control subjects, and young subjects, both as controls for family members of patients and to seek the very early changes in eye disease. We will use advanced imaging methods that are unique, rapid, and resistant to stray light. We probe both inner and outer retinal changes, to understand the environment of the photoreceptors. This includes the retinal pigment epithelium and retinal vascular changes. To investigate photoreceptor function, we will continue to develop novel methods to measure that photopigment within cones and rods in patients or regions of the retina not previously amenable to study. To our existing methods, we are adding new polarimetry techniques, including a multi-wavelength, scanning laser polarimeter. One unusual aspect is the use of multiply scattered light to provide information about pathology in and beneath the retina, otherwise obscured by the reflective retinal surface. Many of our methods use near infrared light, which improves patient comfort and provides views of the retina through moderate lens changes and fluid in the retina.