Description

The Widefield Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (WiSLO) Optimized for Pediatric and Neonatal Imaging study brings together a cross-disciplinary team of biomedical engineers and ophthalmologists to obtain feedback about and evaluate image quality of a handheld scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) device designed and developed at Duke Biomedical Engineering under this grant specifically for portable pediatric and neonatal imaging applications which are not accessible by these populations. The expected outcome of the grant work is a validated design for a cost-scalable, dual-mode, widefield SLO (WiSLO) that produces NIR images comparable to existing color fundus cameras. The goal of this human subjects research is to gather initial supporting clinical data. Positive results from this initial study will motivate future technological refinement and clinical validation, ultimately leading to the commercialization of a technology that will greatly improve the standard of care in pediatric retinal imaging.

The investigators will recruit up to 42 participants into this study. This study will include enrollment of both pediatric and adult subjects who are undergoing clinical evaluation for eye disease or are healthy adult volunteers. Adult patients from Duke Eye Center Clinic with retinal findings will include for example, diabetic retinopathy, macular lesions, peripheral retinal lesions; Pediatric patients will have retinal findings including, for example: ROP, Coats disease, retinoschisis, familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, retinal detachment, retinal hemorrhages, retinoblastoma, and other lesions, or may have a normal retinal exam.

Participants will have the following research procedures: imaging of both eyes with (1) a research noncontact WiSLO and with a commercially available non-contact hand held fundus camera (Volk Pictor Plus), pen light evaluation of pupil size, sterile single use lubricating tear drops may be used, and Likert scales for adults, pediatric Likert scales for children and CRIES scales for infants. The adult cohort will complete imaging and analysis prior to start of pediatric imaging. Milestones of acceptable comfort with WiSLO imaging must be met from the adult analysis prior to imaging in pediatric participants.

Descriptive statistics will be computed for all retinal imaging variables (medians, means, standard deviations and ranges for continuous variables, and frequencies and percentages for categorical and binary variables). The significance of difference between imaging devices by eye for continuous variables (e.g. field of view, extent of each respective feature [from overlay with conventional image as reference standard], time to image), categorical variables (e.g. quality ratings) and binary variables (e.g. visualized yes or no) will be assessed using paired statistical tests (t-test or Wilcoxon signed rank test or McNemar's test, respectively). Comfort milestone prior to pediatric use: At least 8 of 10 adult participants must rate WiSLO imaging of equal or better comfort, and at least 5 of the participants must rate WiSLO better than the commercial handheld fundus camera. Further, the variabilities of results in use of the WiSLO versus commercial imaging systems will be contrasted. The relationships between WiSLO image findings vs color photograph findings and fundus pigmentation, age and other biological variables will be assessed graphically with scatterplots. Corresponding correlations will be computed to probe any associations between these biological measures and imaging outcomes.

Risks: There are no additional risks to participants beyond what is normal for standard ocular visualization and photographic procedures. Pharmacological pupil dilation will not be performed for research purposes.