Development of an improved clinical perimetry test in AMD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the disease signal to measurement noise ratio for a novel Area-Modulation Perimetry Test in Age-related Macular Disease
IRAS ID
276878
Contact name
Pádraig J. Mulholland
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Ulster University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Vision is most sensitive in the central part of the retina called the macula due to there being a higher number of light sensitive cells and nerve fibres in this region of the eye. The macula provides us with detailed central vision but this can become impaired if the macula is damaged, like in age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Central to the diagnosis and monitoring of AMD is the measurement of vision. This is used to determine patient eligibility for treatments, registration for visual impairment and therefore access to support and services. One test that is increasingly being used is microperimetry (MP). This requires the patient to detect brief, fixed-sized spots of white light presented on a grey background at different locations in the central field of vision. The brightness of the spot is changed according to patient responses at each test location, to produce a sensitivity map for each eye.
Whilst widely adopted, MP was designed with no regard for how the visual system collects light energy over space (spatial summation), and how this may change in AMD. Previous work undertaken within our group has demonstrated that this visual process does change in early-intermediate AMD, with the result that both the sensitivity of MP to early AMD, in addition to range of disease over which the test provides useful information, may be improved by modulating stimulus area rather than brightness. In this project, we wish to investigate if (i) the improved test sensitivity with a novel area-modulation MP test is offset by an increased measurement variability, and (ii) how vision measures with this test relate to retinal structure & quality-of-life. The results of this work will inform what is the best stimulus to use in MP for the detection of AMD.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0033
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion