Pine Brook, NJ (PRWEB) January 22, 2014 -- January is Glaucoma Awareness Month and Diopsys is reaching out to help educate doctors and patients about the importance of electrophysiology in glaucoma detection. Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) and pattern Electroretinography (ERG) are technologies that are used to help eye care professionals diagnose glaucoma. Recent research from Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary revealed that these technologies may help doctors diagnose and treat the disease earlier, allowing for better patient outcomes.
Results of a five-year, National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science indicate that changes in pattern ERG results can be detected approximately 8 years sooner than changes in RNFL thickness. The study, “Progressive Loss of Retinal Ganglion Cell Function Precedes Structural Loss by Several Years in Glaucoma Suspects,” compared pattern ERG and OCT results for glaucoma suspects over at least four years to better understand when changes in function and structure are seen.
The authors thought it was likely that OCT changes were preceded by subclinical stages when retinal ganglion cells “become increasingly dysfunctional over time until they die and are eliminated from the neuronal pool.” This time of dysfunction before cell death represents the ideal stage for treatment. The research concluded that these findings represent, “a substantial window for intervention before permanent loss of structure from glaucoma.”
In a separate study, a team of researchers from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary concluded that the Diopsys® NOVA-LX VEP vision test may be useful for diagnosis of glaucoma with structural abnormalities where visual field tests indicate normal vision. The outcome of their analysis showed Diopsys® VEP technology objectively indentified decreased visual function in early glaucoma patients where visual fields did not. The results of this ground breaking study were presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in an abstract poster titled, “Evaluation of Pre-Perimetric Glaucoma Patients using Short Duration Transient Visual Evoked Potentials (SD-tVEP).”
The findings from both of these studies are very important since Diopsys® NOVA-ERG and NOVA-VEP vision tests may help enable specialists to treat patients sooner, and may help to prevent blindness in vast numbers of people suffering from glaucoma.
About Diopsys
Diopsys, Inc. (http://www.diopsys.com) is a medical instrumentation company dedicated to delivering high-quality, cost-effective preventative health care solutions. The company specializes in the development and marketing of patient-friendly, non-invasive vision testing equipment utilizing electrophysiology, including Visual Evoked Potential and pattern Electroretinography.
Diopsys has developed and markets the patented Diopsys® NOVA-VEP and Diopsys® NOVA-ERG Vision Testing Systems utilized by optometrists and ophthalmologists to help in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of vision disorders, including glaucoma and macular degeneration. Diopsys also provides the Enfant® Pediatric VEP Vision Testing System, a device used in testing for visual deficits, including amblyopia, in children as young as six months of age.
Don Lepone, Diopsys, Inc, http://www.diopsys.com, +1 (973) 244-0622, [email protected]
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