CANBERRA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Australian scientists have developed a world-first simple capable of detecting if a person is at risk of sudden blindness.
The test, developed by the Center of Eye Research Australia (CERA), measures the depth of a person's anterior chamber, a fluid-filled space between the iris and cornea, to determine of that person is at risk of developing angle closure glaucoma.
The disease is the leading cause of blindness in Southeast Asia, accounting for 20 percent of glaucoma cases in Australia. It is caused by an inherited narrowness between the iris and mesh tissue that drains fluid from the eye.
Ehud Zamir, an ophthalmologist and CERA researcher, made the discovery that a photograph taken with a smartphone can be reliably used to measure the anterior chamber.
"All this method takes in terms of equipment is a simple smartphone," Zamir said in a CERA video posted online on Wednesday.
"The way you do it is by taking a smartphone flash photograph of the eye from the side and then looking at that photo and trying to understand how forward or backward the pupil looks in that photo."
The shallower a person's anterior chamber is, the higher chance they have of developing angle closure glaucoma.
Zamir's method was tested on 260 patients with researchers finding that it could accurately predict glaucoma risk.
Zamir said the method would be used by Australian doctors but would prove most valuable to medical professionals in developing countries.
He said that the photos can even be taken outside with more light helping produce a more accurate image.
The team from CERA will send photos to developing countries for doctors to measure their own photos against and determine the risk.
"It's a very simple, easy and reliable method for assessing the depth of the anterior chamber. You don't need to be a qualified medical practitioner in order to use it."
