Telescopes Against Blindness

These new tiny telescopes will not help people to see to the stars, but at least will save them from blindness. This could be so when it comes to advanced macular degeneration, the main factor of age-related blindness and starting its development usually after 55 years.

The new optical prosthetics significantly improved the vision of about 70 % of the 206 patients monitored in a 24-month clinical trial.

"This is a good device and it offers hope for people with no other options," said lead author Kathryn Colby, an ophthalmologist and director of the Joint Clinical Research Center at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston.
Macular degeneration has no treatment; doctors just stop it from spreading with laser treatment, special magnifying eyewear and nutritional supplements rich in antioxidants and zinc.

In US alone, the condition is found in over 1.75 million persons and the number of patients could reach almost three million by 2020 due to the rapidly aging population.

Macular degeneration affects macula, the most sensitive point of the retina (when we gaze at something, in fact we have the image on the macula) and the patients see a dark spot in the middle of vision, a fact that leaves the vision almost useless.

The new implantable miniscope is developed by Saratoga, Calif.-based VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies and uses the eye's cornea like a telephoto system, producing a bigger retinal image that decreases the area of impaired vision. The device is implanted 0.1 - 0.5 mm beyond the surface of the pupil, not coming in contact with the corneal endothelium (the backside layer of cells of the cornea), through a complicated procedure.

The compound telescope system is made of a glass cylinder 4.4 mm long and 3.6 mm wide, incorporating wide-angle micro-optics. The cylinder matches into a one-piece polymethylmethacrylate case with two rigid polymethylmethacrylate tiny arms that stick the device behind the eyeball's natural lens.

The device cannot be seen as it is located inside the eye, mostly covered by the iris. The device was found effective in both forms of age-related macular degeneration: the dry type, where the macula gets tiny and unfunctional, or the rare wet type, provoked by the abnormal growth of blood vessels behind the macula.

The 206 subjects of the trial had untreatable macular degeneration in both eyes with visual acuity under 20/80 but no worse than 20/800, with a normal peripheral vision.

"A year after the trial was completed, 90 % of patients were able to see two lines better on a reading chart, and 67 % were able to see three lines better, which is the equivalent of doubling their vision," said Chet Kumar, VisionCare's director of business and market development.

The mini-telescopes are not a cure for macular degeneration, but "FDA approval (of VisionCare's technology) will take a very desperate group of people and give them some hope," said co-researcher Stephen S. Lane, a principal investigator at Associated Eye Care.