Measurement of Retinal Nerves and Blood Vessels as Markers for Type Diabetes

Project Summary Abstract There is currently a significant need for new non invasive imaging techniques able to accurately quantify biomarkers for early detection diagnosis and quantification of complications in type diabetes T D such as diabetic retinopathy DR Physical Sciences Inc PSI proposes to develop an imaging platform based on a new detection arrangement retrofitted to an existing high resolution retinal imaging platform that includes adaptive optics assisted scanning laser ophthalmoscopy AO SLO and Optical Coherence Tomography OCT The new technique will allow for visualization and quantification of blood vessels structure and nerve bundle arrangement with exquisite details afforded by AO The proposed detection scheme will be first tested and demonstrated using an existing multimodal AO retinal imager MAORI in Phase I and then in Phase II a new MAORI prototype will be developed specifically for imaging particular characteristics of retinal alterations induces by diabetes Specific biomarkers for T D complications will be defined based on patient data acquired by our collaborators from Boston Childrenandapos s Hospital About patients with different stages of DR will be imaged during the Phase II Program PSI has a long successful history of developing and commercializing high resolution retinal imagers for the ophthalmic research market PSI and our collaborators have recognized that one of the main impediments in developing a clinical market for AO SLOandapos s is that there have been few in depth studies on the medical application of AO imagers for disease diagnosis and tracking the efficacy of treatments Despite a relatively large number of research publications on the benefits of AO on understanding fundamental aspects of vision so far AO has not gained traction in the clinical market However given the large incidence of neurovascular diseases it is possible that the proposed application to use high resolution retinal imaging to investigate the retinal changes due to diabetes will generate significant drive to bring AO closer to the clinical market Therefore PSI is requesting funding for developing this technology with a potentially significant impact on vision research and subsequently on the clinical diagnosis and management of DR Project Narrative Complications of type diabetes T D adversely affect the retina the most metabolically active tissue in the body which is among the most vulnerable to T D The proposed research will provide a new tool for researchers and clinicians to investigate and monitor changes of retinal microstructures due to disease progression or response to treatment