Uveitis is the third leading cause of blindness in developed countries. The differential diagnosis of patients presenting ocular inflammatory conditions, such as anterior uveitis, is broad and includes infectious etiologies, systemic autoimmune disease, and malignancy. Currently, treatment is guided by clinical characteristics of the uveitis. (For general information, see https://nei.nih.gov/health/uveitis/uveitis).
Current approaches for determining the composition of aqueous cells within the anterior chamber involve diagnostic aqueous taps which are invasive procedures with risks of sight threatening complications such as endophthalmitis. The present disclosure involves systems and methods that can be used to determine a percentage composition of aqueous cells in an anterior chamber of an eye of a subject based on cell reflectance distributions calculated from OCT image data (without a diagnostic aqueous tap). Since OCT ocular imaging has found widespread clinical use and can be performed quickly and easily with minimal expertise, such an approach provides rapid, objective, and reliable diagnosis tools for determining leukocyte subtypes present in the aqueous humor to potentially clarify pathogenesis of ocular inflammatory conditions and help to target therapy.
Publication:
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2015 Feb 3;56(3):1430-6. doi: 10.1167/iovs.14-15118.
Patent Status:
US 61/989,196 (Provisional - converted)
PCT/US15/29178
US 14/704,175