Development and Implementation of an Objective, Non-invasive, Behaviorally Relevant Metric for Laser Eye Injury

The use of lasers by both the military and civilian community is rapidly expanding. Thus, the potential for laser eye injury and retinal damage is increasing. Sensitive and accurate methods to evaluate and follow laser retinal damage are needed. The multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) has the poten...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Martinsen, Gary L, DiCarlo, Cheryl D, D'Andrea, John, Zwick, Harry, Stuck, Bruce
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
ACCESS
ACCURACY
ACUITY
Anatomy and Physiology
BEHAVIOR
CIVILIAN POPULATION
COMMUNITIES
CONTRAST
CONTRAST SENSITIVITY
DAMAGE
DENSITY
ELECTRORETINOGRAPHY
EXPOSURE(PHYSIOLOGY)
EYE
FOVEA
LASER
LASER DAMAGE
Lasers and Masers
LESION
LESIONS
Medicine and Medical Research
MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS
MONKEYS
MULTIFOCAL ELECTRORETINOGRAM
NON-HUMAN PRIMATE
RETINA
RHESUS MONKEYS
SENSITIVITY
SPATIAL FREQUENCY
STIMULI
VISION
WOUNDS AND INJURIES
YAG LASERS
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Summary:The use of lasers by both the military and civilian community is rapidly expanding. Thus, the potential for laser eye injury and retinal damage is increasing. Sensitive and accurate methods to evaluate and follow laser retinal damage are needed. The multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) has the potential to meet these criteria. In this study, the mfERG was used to evaluate changes to retinal function following laser exposure. Landolt C contrast acuity was also measured in the six behaviorally trained Rhesus monkeys. The monkeys then received Nd:YAG laser lesions (1064 nm, 9 ns pulse width) in each eye. One eye received a single foveal lesion of approximately 0.13 mJ total intraocular exposure (TIE) and the other received six parafoveal lesions which varied in TIE from 0.13 to 4 mJ. mfERGs and behavioral data were collected both pre- and post-exposure. mfERGs were recorded using stimuli that contained 103, 241, and 509 hexagons. Landolt C contrast acuity was measured with five sizes of Landolt C (0.16 to 5.60 cycles/degree) of varying contrast presented on a monitor at 80 cm. mfERG response densities were sensitive to the functional retinal changes caused by the laser insult. In general, larger lesions showed greater mfERG abnormality than smaller. Deficits in contrast acuity were found to be more severe in the eyes with foveal injuries. Although the mfERG and contrast acuity access different levels of the visual system, both are sensitive to laser-induced retinal damage and may compliment tests for laser eye injury triage. The original document contains color images.