State of the Art Technology
Technology and Testing
Fundus Photography
The “fundus” describes the retinal tissue at the back of the eye responsible for the majority of your vision. Fundus photography allows our doctors to quickly capture a high-resolution image of this tissue to help us to detect disease or monitor for subtle changes over time. Viewing the retina is very helpful for diagnosing a wide range of eye diseases, but can also help us find systemic disease! Most people are surprised to hear that the inside of the eye is the only place in the body we can view blood vessels directly, so we can sometimes find and diagnose diabetes, high blood pressure, and more in patients who don’t even know they have those conditions! The eyes can also show signs of autoimmune conditions, some cancers, infections, and more. Our portable fundus camera can be brought directly to the patient’s exam room. Our doctors recommend annual screening photos on all adults to help provide you with the best possible care.
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)
The OCT instrument allows our doctors to obtain highly detailed and magnified 3-D images of the eye. The images can look similar to x-rays or MRIs, but this machine uses harmless infrared light and takes only a few seconds to obtain. By viewing the eye in this detail, our doctors are able to detect and monitor many corneal and retinal diseases – it allows us to track subtle changes, giving us better information to guide your treatment. The OCT can scan multiple types of images and is mostly commonly used for detecting subtle macular changes or for detailed optic nerve analysis in glaucoma.
Visual Field Testing
A visual field tests peripheral vision in-depth to see if there are any areas of vision missing. This test can be very important as most of a normal eye exam is focused on central vision. Oftentimes when peripheral vision is lost, it happens slowly over time and the brain can start to fill the information in – this means we may not even realize that we are losing vision! This test allows the doctors to see what your functional vision is and compare that to what is happening structurally inside the eye. Eye diseases like glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa primarily impact peripheral vision, but even certain medications (e.g. Plaquenil/hydroxychloroquine) or systemic conditions (e.g. stroke) can cause issues with peripheral vision and should be monitored with visual field tests.
Electroretinogram (ERG)
The portable ERG is the latest addition in technology to Eyecare Associates of Osawatomie. ERG is one of the only ways to objectively measure the function of the retina within the eye. This instrument combines a light stimulus with sensor strips that detect the eye’s micro electrical signals. Results of this test are extremely useful and predictive of the risk of diabetic retinopathy and vision loss from diabetes. By using data from the ERG, our doctors can track if your risk of retinopathy is increasing or decreasing over time. This can be an excellent way to know if blood sugar levels are at a level that is increasing risk of retinal damage. It can also be an excellent motivator to see numbers improve in those working to maintain appropriate blood sugar levels.
The ERG is useful in a variety of other conditions that affect the retina and optic nerve. Examples include measurement of glaucomatous optic atrophy and retinal conditions like macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, histoplasmosis and many more.
Historically, getting an ERG test was an invasive procedure typically only found in academic settings. We are excited to have this technology at our fingertips and to provide patients with results in a matter of minutes with a method that is 100% non-invasive and comfortable. It takes anywhere from 15 seconds to 1 minute to test each eye while the patient looks at a series of lights. If you’d like to know more about how your retina is functioning despite a retinal condition, this is the test for you.
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Call or Text (913) 256-2176 to schedule an appointment or Request an Appointment Online.
