Eye Scans of the Future
Reported May 23, 2008
HOUSTON, Texas (Ivanhoe Newswire) — The old saying goes, “The eyes are the pathway to the soul.” It turns out your eyes may also be a pathway to your health.
Pilot Keith Mosing has been flying planes for 40 years.
“You’re on your own. You’re free. You’re in the air,” Mosing told Ivanhoe. “You’re controlling your own destiny.”
Mosing was in control until cataracts grounded him.
“I could just tell something wasn’t right,” Mosing said. “I couldn’t see things other people could see. It’s important to have good eyesight.”
Ironically, an eye scan tested high in the sky could have detected Mosing’s cataracts long before he saw any signs of the problem.
“I consider eye as a window into the body,” Rafat Ansari, Ph.D., a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Texas in Houston, told Ivanhoe.
Dr. Ansari spent 20 years working with NASA focusing on eyes. Now, he’s taking his knowledge from up there down here to Earth.
“Every tissue type and every fluid type in the eye are representative of every tissue and every fluid type in the rest of the body,” Dr. Ansari said.
The low powered laser he uses is 200 to 300 times more sensitive and can detect cataracts long before more conventional cataract tests. But this is just the beginning!
“You hear this whooshing sound this is my heart,” Dr. Ansari explained. “You’re really listening to my heart. So I’m looking into the eye but looking into my heart.”
The laser can be used to record nutrient levels in the eye and throughout the body. Results are available in five seconds. And with a click of a button, diabetes can be detected.
“We put the cornea in the front,” Dr. Ansari said. “Push [a] button, it will send blue light crisscrossing my cornea and then if it’s a diabetic cornea, it will release green light.”
Through scans like these, soon Dr. Ansari believes doctors will be able to see the first signs of diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Clinical trials are starting in the next month, so some of these eye scans could be available across the country in the next few years.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Vision Research and Human Health Diagnostics Laboratory
http://exploration.shis.uth.tmc.edu/
(713) 500-3902