Volume 5, Number 2     March/April 1997

  Advanced Technologies

New Technology Targets Eye Disease

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, EYE SURGEON has used a NASA technology utilization grant to develop a diagnostic system that could enable physicians to instantly diagnose many eye diseases and disorders. Dr. S. Hutson Hay has established Kudi Kalu, Inc. This new biomedical firm has received permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market the digital retinoscopic photometer.

The photometer is the result of work begun with a 1980 grant from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Through its Technology Transfer Office, Marshall funded an experiment to detect amblyopia through the use of generated retinal reflexes. That study's results, combined with technological innovations, medical discoveries and his own insights during the past 15 years, have enabled Hay to develop the digital retinoscopic photometer. According to Hay, the prototype instrument is about the size of a personal computer and fits easily into a small examining room.

"The concept is simple," Hay said. "An optical disease that distorts light passing from the outside, through the eye to the retina, thereby impairing vision, would equally degrade the reflected light going back in the other direction. A major problem arises in getting light to pass from inside the eye, out. Reflecting light off the retina accomplishes this. These reflected images can then be captured, digitized and analyzed on a computer. We've all seen animals' eyes reflect the light of automobile headlights at night. Human eyes can be made to do the same thing."

The digital retinoscopic photometer captures an eye disease via light reflected on the retina. Reflected images can be captured, digitized and analyzed on a computer.
The top image shows two normal eyes. The bottom image shows cataracts in both eyes.

Hay said each eye disease seems to have a unique reflection "signature," which changes in a set pattern as the disease progresses. Hay can determine the optical quality of the eye and the quality of binocular vision in children and adults. Of particular importance is the device's ability to evaluate the vision of children too young to speak, thereby enabling the physician to detect and treat conditions such as amblyopia and crossed eyes early enough in life to be of help.

Children find the test painless. The instrument requires nothing more from patients than just sitting in front of it. It is totally objective and requires no response from the patients other than keeping their eyes open. It also is safe, noninvasive, fast and inexpensive.

Hay said eventually the device could enable physicians to assess the size of cataracts and to monitor their growth. This information will permit the physician to make informed decisions about surgery.

The database of reflected light patterns of different types of eye diseases at various stages of development is being compiled by Hay. More data will be accumulated, and the computer will "learn" to associate distinct patterns with individual diseases and disorders as the photometer moves into more general use. With a large enough database, it should be possible to have a computerized instrument able to provide highly accurate diagnoses and electronically assess stages of disease development.

For more information, contact Dr. Hutson Hay, 310 Clinton Avenue West, Huntsville, AL 35801.
Call 205/533-7330,Fax 205/533-6261, E-mail: shaymd@HiWAAY.net
For more information on-line, open http://iquest.com/~kudikalu/
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.