47 results about "Optic Nerve Heads" patented technology

Methods for analyzing retinal tomography maps to detect patterns of optic nerve diseases such as glaucoma, optic neuritis, anterior ischemic optic neuropathy are disclosed in this invention. The areas of mapping include the macula centered on the fovea, and the region centered on the optic nerve head. The retinal layers that are analyzed include the nerve fiber, ganglion cell, inner plexiform and inner nuclear layers and their combinations. The overall retinal thickness can also be analyzed. Pattern analysis are applied to the maps to create single parameter for diagnosis and progression analysis of glaucoma and optic neuropathy.

A fully automated optic nerve head assessment system, based on spectral domain optical coherence tomography, provides essential disc parameters for clinical analysis, early detection, and monitoring of progression.

A method and means for delivery of drugs to the chorio-retina and the optic nerve head which comprises contacting the surface of the eye with an effective amount of drug for treatment of chorio-retina and optic nerve head and a physiologically acceptable adrenergic agent for enhancing delivery of the drug to these tissues in an ophtalmologically acceptable carrier, said adrenergic agent being selected from the group consisting of alpha adrenergic agonist agents, derivatives of the alpha adrenergic agonist agents, beta-blocking agents, derivatives of the beta-blocking agents and mixtures thereof.

A method of classifying an optic nerve cup and rim of an eye from a retinal image comprising receiving a retinal image, determining a feature vector for a candidate pixel in the retinal image, and classifying the candidate pixel as a cup pixel or a rim pixel based on the feature vector using a trained classifier. The retinal image can be a stereo pair, the retinal image can be color or monochrome. The method disclosed can further comprise identifying an optic nerve, identifying an optic nerve cup and optic nerve rim, and determining a cup-to-disc ratio.

Methods for analyzing retinal tomography maps to detect patterns of optic nerve diseases such as glaucoma, optic neuritis, anterior ischemic optic neuropathy are disclosed in this invention. The areas of mapping include the macula centered on the fovea, and the region centered on the optic nerve head. The retinal layers that are analyzed include the nerve fiber, ganglion cell, inner plexiform and inner nuclear layers and their combinations. The overall retinal thickness can also be analyzed. Pattern analysis are applied to the maps to create single parameter for diagnosis and progression analysis of glaucoma and optic neuropathy.

An method and a device for implant into the eye of a patient configured in size to frictionally engage within a cup-like depression naturally occurring in the optic nerve of the eye. The implant has a reservoir for calculated disbursement of medicine to tissue surrounding it and in one mode is refillable and in another mode is formed of biodegradable material which is absorbed by the patient after use ceases.

In vivo imaging may be used to assess a condition (e.g., a state of glaucoma or a state of ocular hypertension) of an eye of a living animal. A dye may be intravenously injected into the living animal. The dye may bind to amyloid in the nervous system of the animal. Images may be taken of a retina, an optic nerve head, an optic nerve, the lateral geniculate nucleus, and / or the visual cortex. Images may be taken using methods such as fluorescent angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, positron emission tomography, and / or single photon emission computed tomography. The condition of the eye and / or retinal ganglion cells in the eye may be assessed from one or more of the images. The condition of the eye may be assessed based on the presence of amyloid in one or more of the images.

A method of classifying an optic nerve cup and rim of an eye from a retinal image comprising receiving a retinal image, determining a feature vector for a candidate pixel in the retinal image, and classifying the candidate pixel as a cup pixel or a rim pixel based on the feature vector using a trained classifier. The retinal image can be a stereo pair, the retinal image can be color or monochrome. The method disclosed can further comprise identifying an optic nerve, identifying an optic nerve cup and optic nerve rim, and determining a cup-to-disc ratio.

This invention discloses methods and systems for diagnosing glaucoma by combining diagnostic parameters derived from optical coherence tomography images of three different anatomic regions of the eye, including the macular ganglion cell complex (mGCC), the peripapillary nerve fiber layer (ppNFL), and the optic nerve head (ONH). The combined diagnostic parameters form a reduced set of global parameters, which are then fed to pre-trained machine classifiers as input to arrive at a single diagnostic indicator for glaucoma. Also disclosed are methods for training a machine classifier to be used in methods and systems of this invention.

The short form version of c-Maf transcription factor is up-regulated in steroid-treated and transforming growth factor beta2-treated trabecular meshwork cells, and is present at elevated levels in glaucomatous versus normal trabecular meshwork cells and in glaucomatous versus normal optic nerve head tissue. Expression of short form c-Maf transcription factor under these conditions indicates a causal or effector role for the factor in primary open-angle and steroid-induced glaucoma pathogenesis. Antagonism of short form c-Maf transcription factor expression and / or activity in the trabecular meshwork or other ocular tissue is provided for inhibiting or alleviating glaucoma pathogenesis. Antagonists include cyclin-dependent kinase 2 inhibitors.

The invention relates to a method for the diagnosis of glaucoma based on the composition of autoantibodies against ocular antigens in body fluids of individuals. The method is characterized in that in a first step, autoantibodies against retinal and / or optic nerve head antigens are detected and measured in body fluids of an individual, and, in a second step, the auto-antibody pattern is correlated with corresponding patterns of healthy individuals and glaucoma patients. The invention further relates to a method for assessing an individual's risk for developing glaucoma, and to kits for use in the method of the invention.

A fully automated optic nerve head assessment system, based on spectral domain optical coherence tomography, provides essential disc parameters for clinical analysis, early detection, and monitoring of progression.

Methods and apparatus are provided for analysis of 3-dimensional images of an optic nerve head surface topography. Topographic images of the optic nerve head may be analysed to define a topographic model fitted to the topographic image of the optic nerve head about a centre of analysis. The topographic model is defined using model morphological parameters, and the morphological parameters. In some embodiments, the morphological parameters may be used to detect nerve fibre damage or pathology, such as in the diagnosis of glaucoma.

One embodiment of the present invention accounts for individual anatomical variation when evaluating optical nerve fiber measurements. In one aspect, contextual information is used to compensate or correct measurement data. In another aspect, reference coordinates are remapped for improved comparison or visualization. In one embodiment of this latter aspect, the method uses measurements of nerve fiber capacity and maps of nerve fiber retinal service to improve sensitivity and specificity in eye function metrics. In one instance, we use the birefringence of nerve fibers to determine the orientation of the fibers within the RNFL. Orientation of the fibers about the ONH is indicative of the service provided by the fibers and is used to improve the interpretation of thickness measurements of the nerve fiber layer. Normalized nerve fiber measurements about the optic nerve head improve specificity and sensitivity as compared to the standard model. These improvements are a result of partitioning the normative database or modifying the measurement data prior to comparison. Statistics on normalized measurements of nerve fiber bundles also show improvements in specificity and sensitivity.

A scan location matching (SLM) method identifies conventional time domain optical coherence tomography (TD-OCT) circle scan locations within three-dimensional spectral domain OCT scan volumes. A technique uses both the SLM algorithm and a mathematical retinal nerve fiber bundle distribution (RNFBD) model, which is a simplified version of the anatomical retinal axon bundle distribution pattern, to normalize TD-OCT thickness measurements for the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of an off-centered TD-OCT circle scan to a virtual location, centered on the optic nerve head. The RNFBD model eliminates scan-to-scan RNFL thickness measurement variation caused by manual placement of TD-OCT circle scan.

The present invention relates to structural analysis of the optic nerve head (ONH). In one approach, a 3D volume of intensity data which includes the optic nerve head is acquired using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. The vitreoretinal interface (VRI) and the optic disc margin are identified from the 3D data. The minimum area of a surface from the optic disc margin to the VRI is determined. This minimum area can be displayed as an image or in the alternative, a value corresponding to this minimum area can be displayed. The minimum area measurement provides relevant clinical information to determine the health of the eye.

The invention provides an auto-check method and system of retinopathy of prematurity, wherein the method comprises: acquiring a fundal image of a premature, and recognizing disease regions in the fundal image according to optic nerve heads, yellow spots and ora serrata in the fundal image; determining a disease stage corresponding to the fundal image according to disease characteristics in the disease regions; judging whether an additional disease is present in the fundal image according to disease characteristics present at the posterior pole in the fundal image; judging fundal disease type corresponding to the fundal image according to the disease stage and the judged additional disease, and providing a matching treatment strategy according to the fundal disease type. The auto-check method and system of retinopathy of prematurity enable retinopathy of prematurity to be detected highly precisely.

This invention discloses methods and systems for diagnosing glaucoma by combining diagnostic parameters derived from optical coherence tomography images of three different anatomic regions of the eye, including the macular ganglion cell complex (mGCC), the peripapillary nerve fiber layer (ppNFL), and the optic nerve head (ONH). The combined diagnostic parameters form a reduced set of global parameters, which are then fed to pre-trained machine classifiers as input to arrive at a single diagnostic indicator for glaucoma. Also disclosed are methods for training a machine classifier to be used in methods and systems of this invention.

A device and method is disclosed for preventing glaucomatous optic neuropathy, an affliction of the eye. An incision is made in the scleral region of the eye and an optic nerve head shield is inserted and positioned proximate to the optic nerve head of the eye to form a pressure seal over the optic nerve head of the eye. The optic nerve head shield decreases the pressure differential across the cribiform plate preventing bowing of the cribiform plate and glaucomatous optic neuropathy.

A fully automated optic nerve head description system based on optical coherence tomography that works with heavily deformed nerve heads and allows the generation of parameters describing swelling, including correlation with intracranial pressure both in detection and progression.

The invention discloses a dynamic constraint graph search-based algorithm for acquiring physiological parameters in a retinal OCT image. The algorithm is characterized in that the algorithm comprisesthe following steps of: S01, image preprocessing: a three-dimensional retina OCT image with an optic nerve head adopted a center is subjected to filtering and de-noising processing; S02, retina layering: the first layer of a retina is roughly separated out, dynamic constraint parameters are obtained, the first layer of the retina is accurately separated out on the basis of the dynamic constraint parameters, alignment processing is performed on the three-dimensional image, the eleventh layer of the retina is accurately separated out, and the seventh layer and ninth layer of the retina are accurately separated out; S03, optic disc and optic cup region segmentation; S04, cribriform plate upper boundary segmentation; and S05, the acquisition of physiological parameter information in the retinaimage. With the algorithm of the present invention adopted, the retina OCT image with the optic nerve head adopted the center can be accurately segmented, and relevant physiological parameters can beobtained.

An apparatus and a method for diagnosing optic neuropathic diseases including glaucoma, are provided. The apparatus for diagnosing optical neuropathic diseases measures a thickness of a retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) using methods such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and scanning laser polarimetry, and includes a scanning unit which scans along an optic nerve margin in the proximity of an optic nerve head, a pattern analyzing unit which analyzes a pattern of the RNFL scanned by the scanning unit, and a disease determining unit which determines a presence of the disease based on the pattern of the RNFL analyzed by the pattern analyzing unit.

A scan location matching (SLM) method identifies conventional time domain optical coherence tomography (TD-OCT) circle scan locations within three-dimensional spectral domain OCT scan volumes. A technique uses both the SLM algorithm and a mathematical retinal nerve fiber bundle distribution (RNFBD) model, which is a simplified version of the anatomical retinal axon bundle distribution pattern, to normalize TD-OCT thickness measurements for the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of an off-centered TD-OCT circle scan to a virtual location, centered on the optic nerve head. The RNFBD model eliminates scan-to-scan RNFL thickness measurement variation caused by manual placement of TD-OCT circle scan.

The short form version of c-Maf transcription factor is up-regulated in steroid-treated and transforming growth factor beta2-treated trabecular meshwork cells, and is present at elevated levels in glaucomatous versus normal trabecular meshwork cells and in glaucomatous versus normal optic nerve head tissue. Expression of short form c-Maf transcription factor under these conditions indicates a causal or effector role for the factor in primary open-angle and steroid-induced glaucoma pathogenesis. Antagonism of short form c-Maf transcription factor expression and / or activity in the trabecular meshwork or other ocular tissue is provided for inhibiting or alleviating glaucoma pathogenesis. Antagonists include cyclin-dependent kinase 2 inhibitors.

An ophthalmic imaging system provides an automatic focus mechanism based on the difference of consecutive scan lines. The system also provides of user selection of a focus point within a fundus image. A neural network automatically identifies the optic nerve head in an FA or ICGA image, which may be used to determine fixation angle. The system also provides additional scan tables for multiple imaging modalities to accommodate photophobia patients and multi-spectrum imaging options.

Compositions and methods for the treatment of retina and optic nerve head neuropathy are disclosed. The compositions and methods are particularly directed to the use of neurotrophic factor stimulators, such as AIT-082 (neotrofin), in the treatment of glaucomatous neuropathy.