A Rapid, Portable Test to Monitor Gradual Vision Loss in Dry Age-Related Macular

描述（由申请方提供）：老龄化和肥胖的全球人口趋势将增加致盲性眼病的全球发病率，这将造成重大的心理社会和经济负担。发达国家失明的主要原因是视网膜相关性黄斑变性（AMD），其导致中心视力的逐渐丧失。由于表现出逐渐视力丧失并构成大多数AMD病例的干性AMD目前无法治疗，因此AMD的成功临床管理关键取决于监测这些病例是否有可能转化为湿性AMD。及时检测标志着湿性AMD发作的快速视力丧失使得能够通过玻璃体内注射进行早期临床干预，这与成功的结果有关。 为了改善当前基于家庭的视觉监测（Amsler图表）的临床标准，我们开发了一个移动的健康（mHealth）应用程序的研究原型，该应用程序可以实现快速、可靠和便携式的对比敏感度 考核相对于阿姆斯勒网格和敏锐度图表，对比敏感度提供了一个更好的衡量功能障碍对应于干性AMD的进展阶段。在拟议的第一阶段项目中，我们将证明将这一研究原型转化为易于使用的移动健康应用程序的可行性，用于基于家庭的视力丧失监测。将完成一项用户研究，以开发用户友好的界面、测试标准和完善合规工具，以确定家庭测试的可靠性及其对AMD视力丧失不同阶段的敏感性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The worldwide demographic trends of aging and obesity will increase the global incidence of blinding eye diseases, which impose significant psychosocial and economic burdens. The leading cause of blindness in the developed world is Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), which causes the progressive loss of central vision. Because dry AMD, which exhibits gradual vision loss and constitutes most AMD cases, is currently untreatable, successful clinical management of AMD critically depends on monitoring these cases for the potential conversion to wet AMD. Timely detection of the rapid vision loss that marks the onset of wet AMD enables the early clinical intervention, via intra-vitreal injections, which is related with successful outcomes. To improve on current clinical standards for home-based visual monitoring (Amsler charts), we have developed a research prototype of a mobile Health (mHealth) application that enables rapid, reliable, and portable contrast sensitivity assessment. Relative to the Amsler grid and acuity charts, contrast sensitivity provides a better measure of the functional disabilities corresponding to the progressive stages of dry AMD. In the proposed Phase 1 project, we will demonstrate the feasibility for translating this research prototype into an easy-to-use mHealth application for home-based monitoring of vision loss. A user study to develop a user-friendly interface, testing standards, and refine tools for compliance, will be completed to determine the reliability of home testing, and its sensitivity to different stages of AMD vision loss.