A revolutionary way to monitoring intraocular pressure throughout the day is the new and innovative soft contact lens design with an incorporated micro-fluidic channel.
Intraocular pressure or IOP is the most important modifiable risk factor for glaucoma. Patients’ IOP is being monitored often throughout clinic hours. Only a portion of the IOP fluctuations throughout the day are captured in that time range. A longer monitoring span would give a more precise measurement of IOP and allow clinicians to offer patients better treatment options.
Researchers from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Beijing University in Beijing, China, and Kingston Health Services Centre in Kingston said that these new soft contacts effectively monitor IOP fluctuations throughout the day.
Using an adjusted soft contact lens to capture the altering corneal curvature as a direct result of varying IOP provides an inexpensive, rapid, and straightforward technique to detect the IOP. The contact lens-based IOP monitoring device investigated in this research appears to be capable of providing accurate IOP readings. The indication position is linearly responsive, extremely sensitive, and consistent across many porcine eyes and individual fabricated devices.
Researchers claim that changes in IOP cause changes in the cornea’s curvature, which deforms the inserted microchannel and causes the indicator fluid to be displaced. The displacement of the fluid is calibrated by reference markers on the le
ns, allowing variations in IOP to be computed.
According to the researchers, the gadget may be built at a minimal cost, and it holds promise in the prevention of glaucoma-related vision loss and blindness.
Success or Failure of the Innovation Relies on Patients
The efficacy and safety of the SENSIMED Triggerfish, which was approved for commercialization by the Food and Drug Administration two years ago, were investigated in a 2017 study. This device can assist in determining a patient’s risk of glaucoma-related visual loss. It takes a 24-hour measurement of a patient’s eye volume as a proxy for IOP and sends the data wirelessly to a data-recording device.
These technologies are helpful for both patients and the eye care experts who take care of them. However, further studies are still required. Since porcine eyes were used to test the lenses, the proof is still needed for actual patients’ efficacy.
Assuming the findings can be applied to human studies, it might reduce office visits for patients while giving the doctor more continuous reports on their intraocular pressure throughout the day. Furthermore, the capacity of the patients to use the contact lens comfortably and appropriately on the eye will decide the success or failure of any contact lens improvement since many glaucoma sufferers are elderly and have limited dexterity.
