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Detecting Retinal Diseases Earlier
Two healthcare leaders working on separate research projects—one focusing on the retina; the other studying imaging work—came to life when they collaborated on a patent-pending process which could lead to earlier detection of retinal diseases.
Pinakin Gunvant, assistant professor at Southern College of Optometry, and Khan Iftekharuddin, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Memphis, were working independently until Gunvant’s online research netted Iftekharuddin’s information on using imaging to detect brain tumors with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Knowing that Iktekharuddin’s research—fractual imaging has the ability to pick up irregularities in shapes or signals—would be beneficial to his own research, Gunvant googled Iktekharuddin’s contact information.
“If it wasn’t for technology,” Gunvant said, “we might have never met.”
Together, they developed the Pseudo 2D Fractal Analysis using light beamed via the back of the retina to measure the thickness of retinal tissue at various points. The light reflection provides a way to measure the tissue’s thickness. If the tissue is thick at certain points, glaucoma is indicated.
The most accurate testing procedures have an 85 percent accuracy rate. Gunvant said the 2D process is 98 percent accurate.
“We applied it to glaucoma,” said Iftekharuddin, “and the results turned out to be excellent.”
Kevin Boggs, director of technology transfer and research development at the University of Memphis, said the process could provide the school with a valuable product to market and license. In the meantime, both schools will market the product to companies experienced with licensing patent applications.
The technique could also discover other reasons for blindness, such as diabetes or macular degeneration. Because glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness in the world, and the leading cause of blindness among African-Americans, early detection of glaucoma is the primary focus of the process.
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