Recently we have purchased the ultra wide retinal scanning device from Optos. This instrument is known also as the Daytona and produces an image called an Optomap.
The instrument was invented by a Scottish engineer over 20 years ago when his own son went blind in one eye through an undiagnosed retinal detachment. He made it his life’s ambition that this shouldn’t happen to anyone else.
Using an ophthalmoscope, that’s the instrument used to look at the back of the eye can only cover an area of about 10 degrees of the retina in one view. Hence the optician needs to look in all directions to find out if there is any pathology. Even with conventional fundus cameras, we can only view 45 degrees of the retina – this is still very useful and can pick up many diseases. However, this instrument still requires pupils >3mm for good imaging.
However, with the Daytona, we can now reach up to 200 degrees of the retina and therefore pick up far more information about what is happening in the peripheral retina. What’s more, it isn’t necessary to dilate the pupils since it can work with pupils as small as 2 mm!
Another feature of this amazing instrument is that besides colour images of the retina – the laser technology allows us to perform fundus autofluorescence imaging (the natural emission of light by biological structures). This allows us to more accurately detect autofluorescence in the eye with the aim of identifying retinal diseases when these are not otherwise evident.
Already in only a few months, we have picked up retinal changes which we would have missed using conventional testing instruments. We believe, for this reason, all our patients should have this Optomap performed.
For more information on this instrument, please look up the website: www.optos.com or watch this video
