SBIR-STTR Award

The measurement of ocular blood flow is essential to improve the understanding of several diseases afflicting the eye, including glaucoma. One of the hypotheses for the cause of glaucoma is that the optic nerve tissue is damaged by insufficient blood flow because of a deficiency in the tissue's ability to regulate its own blood supply in response to increased intraocular pressure. A clinically useful bloodflow measurement tool is necessary to further examine this hypothesis. In the proposed research, two recently developed technologies will be combined in order to form one powerful, clinical tool for the measurement of blood flow in the optic nerve head. A confocal laser Doppler flowmeter will be coupled to a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope. This combination would allow for non-invasive, noncontact blood flow measurements in the living eye through the undilated pupil. The confocal detection method employed in this instrument would allow for depth-resolved blood flow measurements in the optic nerve head.Proposed commercial application:Potentially, this research will lead to the development of a non-invasive, clinical instrument for the depth- resolved measurement of optic nerve blood flow and optic nerve topography through the undilated pupil.National Eye Institute (NEI)

The measurement of ocular blood flow is essential to improve the understanding of several diseases afflicting the eye, including glaucoma. One of the hypotheses for the cause of glaucoma is that the optic nerve tissue is damaged by insufficient blood flow, because of a deficiency in the tissue's ability to regulate its own blood supply in response to increased intraocular pressure. A clinically useful blood flow measurement tool is necessary to fully investigate this hypothesis. The proposed research builds on the results found during Phase I of this project, in which a confocal laser Doppler blood flow measuring device has been developed and was shown to allow quantitative measurements of artificially induced changes in blood flow. Work during the Phase II of this project is intended to broaden the retinal area that can be investigated during a single measurement, improve the instrument's ease of use and investigate its clinical applicability by using it to determine the degree of (predicted) impact disease processes such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age related macular degeneration have on retinal blood flow.PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: This research may lead to the development of a non-invasive, clinical instrument for depth-resolved measurements of optic nerve bloodflow and optic nerve topography through undilated pupils. Such an instrument would be very useful in the clinical areas of early detection and monitoring of disease processes and their treatment.

Thesaurus Terms:
biomedical equipment development, diagnosis design /evaluation, eye circulation, ophthalmoscopy, optic nerve (II), ultrasound blood flow measurement confocal scanning microscopy, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, intraocular pressure, macular degeneration, noninvasive diagnosis, optic nerve disorder bioimaging /biomedical imaging, clinical research, human subjectNATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE