Eye Dock ~Pre-emptive Medical Care with Multimodal Imaging~

Abstract

 With glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration among the leading causes of visual impairment, the ophthalmologic significance of medical checkup lies in the early detection of glaucoma and macular and other ocular fundus diseases. However, there are limitations to detection by color fundus photographs and intraocular pressure measurement in the regular medical checkup. Remarkable progress has been made in optical coherence tomography (OCT), which can sensitively detect changes in the optic nerve papilla and macular retina, and can now detect even very early glaucoma. In addition, early stages of age-related macular degeneration and macular epiretinal membrane are often left untreated until they progress because they are difficult to discern on regular fundus photographs. When this happens, recovery of visual function after treatment is poor. Currently, these diseases can also be detected relatively easily with the examination such as OCT and OCT angiography (OCTA). And some diseases are overlooked because the lesions are not seen within the range of a regular fundus photograph. This can be found with an ultra-wide-angle fundus camera, which can pick up lesions in the periphery. Furthermore, capillary occlusion and retinal neovascularization in diabetic retinopathy can also be detected with wide-angle OCTA. Thus, there is a significant difference in disease detection capability between ophthalmological inspection in medical checkups and ophthalmic examinations using advanced ophthalmic optical equipment. For this reason, the Kurashiki Medical Checkup Center began Eye Dock in September 2022 at the Kurashiki Medical Center Eye Center outpatient erea, where examination using highly accurate equipment is combined with ophthalmologist's examination using slit-lamp microscopy. The following includes the short-term results to date.