A portable ultra-widefield fundus camera for nonmydriatic examination of retinopathy of prematurity

SummaryThis SBIR is to develop a pediatric widefield fundus cameraWFCfor non mydriatic examination of retinopathy of prematurityROPIn coordination with unique eye speculum based trans pars planar illuminatorthis pediatric WFC will be a low cost and portable device withfundus view in single shot imagesIt is known that ROP can affect periphery of the retinaand thus widefield fundus examination is essential for ROP screeningdiagnosis and treatment managementHoweverit is technically difficult and financially expensive to construct WFCsdue to the complications of illumination and imaging mechanismsWe have recently employed transpalpebral and trans pars planar illumination to demonstrate widefield fundus photographyPCT USThe novel illumination approaches deliver illuminating light through pars planai earea outside of the pupilfreeing the whole pupil for image purpose onlyThereforeoptical design of WFC can be significantly simplifiedThe trans pars planar illumination provides one unique opportunity to develop pediatric WFC for affordable and non mydriatic ROP screeningWe have experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of widefield fundus photography with trans palpebral illuminationHoweverimage quality of trans palpebral illumination is dependent on reliable localization of the pars planaBecause infants cannot provide voluntary cooperationaccurate localization of the pars plana is time consuming and image quality is not well repeatable among different testsTo tackle the problem of pars planar localizationwe propose here to develop an eye speculum based illuminator for accurate trans pars planar illuminationThe first aim of this project is to construct a pediatric WFCwitho fundus view andpixels degree resolutionAn eye speculum based fiber bundle illuminator will be developed to enable easy and reliable trans pars planar illuminationThe second aim is functional validation of the pediatric WFCWe will conduct quantitative evaluation of field of viewspatial resolutionand image contrast of the pediatric WFC using a model eye firstFor clinical validationwe will recruitROP infant subjectsFundus images will be acquired using both prototype WFC and RetCamat UIC Lions of Illinois Eye Research InstituteSuccess criterion of the Phase I study is to validate single shotfundus images with spatial resolutionimage contrast and performance repeatability comparable to that of Retcamand demonstrate the potential of using the prototype WFC for ROP screeningFollowing Phase II is to refine system design for a user friendly pediatric WFC productand develop algorithms for automated classification of ROP using the proposed pediatric WFC Project Narrative This SBIR is to develop a pediatric widefield fundus cameraWFCfor retinopathy of prematurityROPscreeningIn coordination with unique eye speculum based trans para planar illuminatorthis pediatric WFC will be a low costportable and non mydriatic device withfundus view in single shot images