A new test has been developed to detect early signs of glaucoma, a disease of the eye that causes the light-sensitive cells of the retinal nerve to die, usually because of increased pressure in the eye. The damage to the nerve, which is irreversible, causes progressive loss of vision. Because people with glaucoma often don’t have symptoms in the early stages of the disease, a lot of damage may be done before it is picked up. Diagnosing glaucoma early would allow earlier treatment to relieve pressure in the eye, and may prevent sight loss.

The new test involves injecting a fluorescent dye into the subject’s bloodstream and photographing the eye; dying retinal cells show up as white spots.

This is a phase one study, involving 16 patients, eight with early glaucoma and eight healthy subjects. More work, involving a much larger cohort, is needed.

Real-time imaging of single neuronal cell apoptosis in patients with glaucoma (open journal, with full access to the article.)

> The new test involves injecting a fluorescent dye into the subject’s bloodstream and photographing the eye; dying retinal cells show up as white spots.

A little more invasive than plowing a puff of air at the eye.

But it makes sense as a way of monitoring the progress of the disease.

mollwollfumble said:

> The new test involves injecting a fluorescent dye into the subject’s bloodstream and photographing the eye; dying retinal cells show up as white spots.

A little more invasive than plowing a puff of air at the eye.

But it makes sense as a way of monitoring the progress of the disease.

Did you actually read the article? The very first sentence of the abstract is,

Retinal cell apoptosis occurs in many ocular neurodegenerative conditions including glaucoma — the major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.

I agree with moll about the invasiveness. Always more risk with putting things into the bloodstream. OCT, mentioned in the paper, is a pretty effective non invasive way of tracing changes in the nerve fibre layer of the retina.

(The puff of air – tonometry – is not particularly accurate. I use applanation tonometry, which is considered the gold standard, but tracing intra-ocular pressure does not necessarily tell you about loss of visual field etc. A combination is needed of intra-ocular pressure, visual field testing and OCT. The latter is the most reliable, least susceptible to patient or operator variation)