Patient monitoring

Eye implant to monitor glaucoma

15 August 2007

A sensor for implanting in the eye to monitor glaucoma by measuring pressure in the eye's interior has been developed by researchers at Purdue University.

The pressure sensor, which is placed between two layers of tissue in the eye, measures the interocular pressure and transmits the information to an external receiver so pressure can be continuously monitored.

"Glaucoma is one of the big two irreversible, but preventable, causes of blindness," said Pedro Irazoqui, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering.

The disease causes blindness from a build-up of fluid pressure in the interior chamber of the eye, killing fibres in the optic nerve. Glaucoma patients go to the doctor periodically to have their eye pressure checked. If it is high, the doctor prescribes medication or performs surgery.

"The problem is that your interocular pressure spikes over hours, sometimes minutes," Irazoqui said. "So you can be fine today and fine in six months and spend three months in the middle where it's very high, killing your optic nerve. What you really need to do is check it often, every couple of minutes, but you can't go to the doctor every couple of minutes for the rest or your life. So what you need is a device that measures your eye pressure continuously."

Collaborating on the research is Babak Ziaie, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, working at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park.

The Purdue researchers are planning to conduct animal trials by December and human trials within 18 months. The device is fully implantable and includes a battery.

A paper on the project will be presented at the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society's Sciences and Technologies for Health conference from Aug. 23-26 in Lyon, France.

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