In UK the Researchers at the University of Birmingham have invented a new device to diagnose brain injury by scanning the eye. The device, called EyeD, is a handheld tool which combines a smartphone, a laser, and a spectrometer to measure the molecular changes in the eye linked to brain damage.
Concussion which is a brain injury, if not treated on time, then it can have serious and lasting consequences. However, the symptoms of brain injury may not appear immediately after an accident, and the diagnosis often needs sophisticated imaging techniques such as CT and MRI scans, which are only available in hospitals. This means that the crucial first hour after a brain injury, which is known as the golden hour, may be wasted while waiting for a diagnosis.
To overcome this challenge, the researchers at the University of Birmingham designed EyeD, that is a device which can detect brain injury within minutes by examining the eye. By the Optic nerve the eye is connected to the brain and the back of the eye contains the neuroretina, which is similar to the brain tissue. Therefore, any changes in the brain due to injury can also affect the eye.
EyeD works by shining a safe laser on the back of the eye and catching the light reflected by the eye tissue. The reflected light has information about the chemical composition of the eye, such as the levels of lipids and proteins, which are also biomarkers of brain injury. The device then uses a spectrometer and a smartphone camera to examine the reflected light and feed the data into a neural network program to find out if it’s a brain injury or non-brain injury.
The researchers tested EyeD on an artificial eye model and postmortem pig eye tissue and concluded that, the device could exactly detect brain injury in both cases. The device is portable, lightweight and easy to use. First responders could use it at the scene of an accident to detect brain injury and initiate treatment quickly.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, is a proof-of-concept demonstration of EyeD, and the researchers plan to conduct further studies to assess the device’s performance on human. If it’s successful then EyeD could revolutionize the diagnosis and manage brain injury, prevent disabilities and save lives.
A major cause of morbidity and mortality is Traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is hard to detect at the point of care with patients often exhibiting no clinical symptoms. They urgently require a rapid point-of-care diagnostics to enable timely intervention. We have developed a technology for rapid acquisition of molecular fingerprints of TBI biochemistry to safely measure proxies for cerebral injury through the eye, providing a path toward noninvasive point-of-care neurodiagnostic using simultaneous Raman spectroscopy and fundus imaging of the neuroretina. Detection of endogenous neuro markers in porcine eyes’ posterior discovered enhancement of high–wave number bands, clearly distinguishing TBI and healthy cohorts, classified via artificial neural network algorithm for automated data interpretation. Clinically, translating into less specialist support, this distinctly improves the speed of diagnosis. Designed as a hand-held cost-effective technology, it can permit clinicians to assess quickly TBI at the point of care and identify long-term changes in brain biochemistry in acute or chronic neurodiseases.
