by: Milan Lenters
Scientists in Germany believe they have found a solution for people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and macular degeneration (MD), as was explained in last week’s best-read story. RP is a congenital eye disorder that occurs in people between the ages of 30 and 50. It starts with night blindness and a narrowing field of vision, the vision gradually continues to deteriorate and this may even lead to blindness. With macular degeneration, the macula (yellow spot) in the retina deteriorates. This causes sufferers to see less sharply in the center of their visual field. For example, they have difficulty reading. Usually, people with MD do not go completely blind.
By using LED lamps that individually adjust the contrast and amount of blue in the light per patient, researchers at the Fraunhofer Application Centre Soest and the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Südwestfalen hope to be able to improve patients’ vision.
Kamermans is a professor of neurophysiology attached to the University of Amsterdam and head of the Kamermans group at the Brain Institute where he has been doing fundamental research on the workings of the eye for 30 years. What are his views on these special LED lights?
Both disorders function differently
Firstly, he would like to point out that both eye conditions affect the retina in different ways, which means that the symptoms are also not comparable. To explain this better, here is a crash course in how the eye works: “Our eye captures the reflection of light from the object we are looking at. These particles of light enter light-sensitive cells inside the retina. This is where the cones are which are most common in the macula, the central part of the retina……
Read more: https://innovationorigins.com/gene-therapy-will-lead-to-a-breakthrough-in-treatment-of-eye-disease/
Source: Innovation Origins