FEBRUARY 12, 2009--The monitoring and treatment of eye diseases that may cause blindness has taken a leap forward, thanks to an imaging technique that takes color photographs of the whole retina. Using the new technique called TEFI (Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging), Andrew Dick, David Copland, and the team from the University of Bristol's Academic Unit of Ophthalmology (Bristol, UK; www.bristol.ac.uk/clinicalsciencesouth/ophthalmology), monitored changes in mice retina over time, without distress to the animals or the need for anesthesia.
The study focused on a condition in mice similar to human posterior uveitis, an inflammation that affects the back of the eye and which can be difficult to monitor using existing techniques. TEFI allowed the researchers to see changes to the eye that were previously undetectable.
The study, "The Clinical Time-Course of Experimental Autoimmune Uveoretinitis Using Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging with Histologic and Cellular Infiltrate Correlation," was published in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. TEFI uses an endoscope with parallel illumination and observation channels connected to a digital camera. For more information, go to: http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2008/6045.html
