New methods to assess ocular optical quality developed

Cristina G. Pedraz/DICYT The Visual Optics, Physiologic Optics Research Group or Visual Biophotonics of Sensors, Instrumentation and Systems Development Center (CD6) of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya has been working for more than10 years in its main research line, the ocular optical quality assessment. It is a multidisciplinary field of which researchers with different specializations take part, and it is dealt with different approaches.

Mikel Aldaba, one of the doctors who is a member of the Group and who has obtained his degree in Optics and Optometry at the University of Valladolid, explains in detail to DiCYT. Regarding the importance and practical implications that ocular optical quality assessment has, Aldaba claims that it allows a better comprehension of different factors which may influence ocular optical quality “like the pupil size, the ametropy effect or the impact of refractive surgery techniques”. Besides, these assessment techniques “have been increasingly utilized in clinical practice, and are used in refraction, refractive surgery or in intraocular diffusion assessment, among other things”. According to Adalba, its importance is reflected in the great number of scientific works generated around this research line.

In the case of CD6 Research Group, they have worked in the assessment technique development from a more physical or engineering point of view, trying new applicable technologies like the electro-optic lenses or CMOS sensors (manufactured with metal oxide semiconductor materials).

On the other hand, “between clinical practice and laboratory work, they have proposed new assessment methods like in the case of accommodation amplitude, a method based in the double-pass technique, tested at first in a lab and then spreaded towards a more clinical sphere”. This technique, which allows ocular optical quality assessment, consists in forming the image of a point in the retina and registering the image of the reflected light in the retina after its double-pass by ocular means.

Finally, they have also worked in more clinical studies “which apply this double-pass technique to different interest matters like post-LASIK ocular optical quality (one of the most used techniques in refractive surgery), the impact of diffusion or others”, he specifies.

Cooperation with IOBA

The CD6 Research Group has cooperated with the Institute of Applied Oftalmobiology (IOBA) of the University of Valladolid in several studies related to this line. In particular, the IOBA researchers Raúl Martín, José María Herreras and Victoria de Juan and the ones of CD6 Meritxell Vilaseca and Jaume Pujol, joined together with Mikel Aldaba have recently analyzed the impact of corneal edema produced by contact lenses in ocular optical quality.

“This work could be a good example of the importance of the cooperation among groups with different specializations in the field of physiologic optics”, Aldaba explains, since “IOBA Group has some clinical knowledge and contributes with some needs that are not familiar to us; and, in turn, CD6 contributes with its knowledge in ocular optical quality assessment techniques in order to use it in this specific problem”.

The cooperation between both groups, reflected in a stay of Doctor De Juan in CD6, has allowed the development of the study presented in an international congress and a recent publication in the magazine Contact Lens and Anterior Eye. Additionally, Mikel Aldaba has given today one of the IOBA Research Seminars about physiologic optics research and, specifically, about ocular optical quality assessment.

	Bibliography
	De Juan, V., Aldaba, M., Martin, R., Vilaseca, M., Herreras, J. M., & Pujol, J. (2014). "Optical quality and intraocular scattering assessed with a double-pass system in eyes with contact lens induced corneal swelling". Contact Lens and Anterior Eye. DOI:10.1016/j.clae.2014.02.003