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Research
Research is a key component of the Institute’s
mission and a high priority for faculty who often
devote their life’s work to furthering our knowledge
of specific vision processes and eye diseases.
Major research grants are routinely awarded each
year to support this effort. In 2011–2012, faculty
members received important awards from both
public and private organizations. New grants and
grant renewals will enable faculty to further
ongoing vision-science investigations that have
shown promise and to undertake clinical trials that
have direct application to some of the country’s
most common ophthalmic problems.
Drs. Kouros Nouri-Mahdavi and JoAnn Giaconi, along with other
members of the Glaucoma Division, are leading the way in the study
of sophisticated imaging tools that can be used to detect early signs
of glaucoma-related damage.
8 Highlights | Research
Glaucoma Imaging Study
Kouros Nouri-Mahdavi, MD, assistant professor of
ophthalmology, is conducting research projects to
investigate utility of different imaging techniques for
improving detection of glaucoma or its progression.
These studies aim to determine the performance of
various testing modalities available on the newer
spectral-domain optical coherence tomography
(SD-OCT) for discrimination of glaucomatous eyes
from normal eyes.
Because of the higher resolution and the larger
amount of data obtained by SD-OCTs, their use is
expected to lead to better clinical performance and a
higher rate of detection of early glaucoma or its
progression. If the newer imaging devices are proven
to have a better performance, they can potentially be
useful for screening purposes and be especially
valuable for evaluating cases that are suspected to
show early glaucomatous damage where the visual
field is frequently noncon-tributory. On the other end of
the glaucoma spectrum, macular imaging is emerging
as a promising modality for detection of progression in
advanced glaucoma, since the retinal nerve fiber layer
and optic nerve head in patients with advanced
glaucoma are already too damaged to demonstrate any
evidence of progression.