IDEA #531XUC Instrument For Blindness Treatment Caused By The Age Related Macula Degeneration

SCIENTIFIC INNOVATIVE PROJECTS FROM ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES OF UKRAINE INSTRUMENT FOR BLINDNESS TREATMENTCAUSED BY THE AGE RELATED MACULA DEGENERATION Description Vascular disorders in retina are very common causes of severe and often irreversible loss of vision. In age(cid:28)related macula degeneration (AMD), abnormal blood vessels grow beneath the macula – the central part of the retina. They leak and bleed, causing disturbance of central vision. Later, the light(cid:28)sensitive retinal cells (photoreceptors) degener(cid:28) ate, and scar tissue grows in the macula. This causes a blind spot in the center of vision. Current treatments for vascular disorders in retina include laser surgery and laser therapy to eliminate the crucial influence of abnormal blood vessels. Sophisticated laser(cid:28) based technologies are in use today: laser photocoagula(cid:28) tion, photodynamic therapy (PDT), and transpupillary laser thermotherapy (TTT). Unfortunately, none of them can solve the problem of adequate dosage of the irradia(cid:28) tion, that is an extremely critical matter. The Institute of Biomedical Engineering of the Academy of Technological Sciences of Ukraine has developed sever(cid:28) al technologies, enabling multi(cid:28)channel on(cid:28)line control of the procedure of the transpupillary thermotherapy, based on the changes of the topography of the eye bottom, and on the level and dynamics of blood flow as well as its oxy(cid:28) genation during tissue heating Temperature difference between treated and untreated zones achieves 10°C and more. The growth of temperature of the irradiated tissue leads to dimension changes, and thus to the changes of the topography of the eye bottom. We use the phase(cid:28)difference dual(cid:28)beam interferometry where the reference beam is kept in a reference position without scanning. A second, frequency(cid:28)shifted beam is scanned along a trajectory,crossing the treated and untreated zones of the eye bottom (V. Molebny. Proc. SPIE, Fig. 1. Zone of control: reference (red) and scanning (blue) beams Vol. 5086, 2003). Changes in phase structure are analyzed to have an estimate on thermal processes in the retina. On eye model, sensitivity to profile variation of the order of 0.1 mm has been achieved. The blood flow is controlled through the Doppler shift measurement. Level of blood oxygenation and its dynamics is controlled by a specially developed technology of multi(cid:28) spectral infrared sensing which excludes eye media backscattered light. Stage of Development The developed are the prototypes of the control channels. Contact Details Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Prof. Vasyl Molebny, Director molebny@univ.kiev.ua Fig. 2. Optical layout НАУКА ТА ІННОВАЦІЇ. Спецвипуск, 2007 109