Automated instrument designed to determine visual photosensitivity thresholds

Mariela C Aguilar; Alex Gonzalez; Cornelis Rowaan; Carolina de Freitas; Karam A Alawa; Heather Durkee; William J Feuer; Fabrice Manns; Shihab S Asfour; Byron L Lam; Jean-Marie A Parel

doi:10.1364/BOE.9.005583

Automated instrument designed to determine visual photosensitivity thresholds

Biomed Opt Express. 2018 Oct 18;9(11):5583-5596. doi: 10.1364/BOE.9.005583. eCollection 2018 Nov 1.

Authors

Mariela C Aguilar^{1

2}, Alex Gonzalez¹, Cornelis Rowaan¹, Carolina de Freitas¹, Karam A Alawa¹, Heather Durkee^{1

3}, William J Feuer⁴, Fabrice Manns^{1

3}, Shihab S Asfour², Byron L Lam⁴, Jean-Marie A Parel^{1

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Ophthalmic Biophysics Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA.
² Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
⁴ Anne Bates Leach Eye Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA.
⁵ Brien Holden Vision Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Abstract

The Ocular Photosensitivity Analyzer (OPA), a new automated instrument to quantify the visual photosensitivity thresholds (VPT) in healthy and light sensitive subjects, is described. The OPA generates light stimuli of varying intensities utilizing unequal ascending and descending steps to yield the VPT. The performance of the OPA was evaluated in healthy subjects, as well as light sensitive subjects with achromatopsia or traumatic brain injury (TBI). VPT in healthy, achromatopsia, and TBI subjects were 3.2 ± 0.6 log lux, 0.5 ± 0.5 log lux, and 0.4 ± 0.6 log lux, respectively. Light sensitive subjects manifested significantly lower VPT compared to healthy subjects. Longitudinal analysis revealed that the OPA reliably measured VPT in healthy subjects.