With the help of modern technology, blindness caused by retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa is now considered reversible. Scientists from various fields such as Neuroscience, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Bioscience h…
In the UK, 11,000 new cases of open angle glaucoma (OAG) are diagnosed annually in people aged 40 to 70 years. However, two-thirds of UK OAG cases may remain undiagnosed, highlighting the need for improved detection. UK optometrists generate more than 95% of referrals for suspec…
Proliferative vitreoretinopathy, a potentially blinding condition, involves excessive proliferation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells and is the main complication following retinal detachment (RD). Complicated cases of RD are treated with silicone oil (SiO) tamponades wh…
Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common intraocular malignancy in adults. Despite successful ocular treatment, about 50% of patients succumb to metastatic dissemination, which occurs haematogenously and mainly affects the liver. On the basis of clinical, histopathological and gen…
Children with delayed reading skills and/or poor academic achievement are increasingly being referred to Eye Care Professionals with suspected eye movement/“tracking” difficulties. However, current clinical techniques are highly subjective, poorly controlled, and relatively impr…
This thesis explored some aspects of the relationship between structural progression of the glaucomatous optic nerve head (ONH) and functional progression of the visual field. Sixty-one individuals with a longitudinal series of ONH images were manually identified from a database…
Background / Aims: Maternal drug misuse in pregnancy is a significant clinical and public health problem. Consequences for the newborn infant include prematurity, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). There is increasing evidence that mat…
In the antisaccade task participants are required to saccade to the mirror image location of a sudden onset target. As such, the task provides a powerful tool with which to investigate the cognitive processes underlying goal-directed behaviour. In healthy participants antisaccad…
Glaucoma is a leading cause of visual impairment and, if untreated, irreversible blindness. Perimetry is the clinical tool for assessing the functional ‘seeing’ part of the field of view (visual field) and is widely used in the detection and clinical monitoring of glaucoma. Thes…
The centrifugal visual system (CVS) is a feedback pathway of predominantly visual information from the brain to both eyes, but principally to the contralateral retina. The CVS is often considered to be something of a peculiarity, regarded as being specific to birds (Aves). Indee…
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of visual impairment in the developed world. The prevalence of this disease will continue to increase over the coming decades as the average age of the global population rises. There is consequently an urgent need to de…
The outcome of higher order aberrations (HOAs) prior to, and following, age-related cataract extraction and intra-ocular lens (IOL) implantation was explored using placido disc skiaoscopy aberrometry. Ninety-nine individuals (median age 73.0, IQR 67.0, 80.5) underwent comprehens…
The objective of the research is to provide the clinician with a simple system for making quantitative measurements that is comparable to the services of a skilled orthoptist. As many optometrists do not possess the necessary equipment for making such assessments, this technolog…
Understanding the biomechanical properties of the cornea is important in order to develop and improve new reliable standard procedures which can be used effectively to assess corneal behaviour in any disease condition, or before/after any ocular surgery. We believe that the Ocul…
The current understanding of anterior eye shape in humans is limited due to available technology and its accessibility. Accurate curvature metrics of specific areas of the peripheral cornea, corneo-limbal junction and anterior sclera have remained obscured by the limits of the p…
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the principle cause of visual loss and blindness in the developed world. As new treatments and therapies are developed the need to better diagnose and then monitor outcomes of treatment has become more important. This thesis evaluates bo…
The heterozygous mutation, B6;C3-Opa1Q285STOP, leads to a 50% reduction in Opa1 transcript and protein in the mouse retina and neural tissues and models autosomal dominant optic atrophy and presents with visual dysfunction and structural changes in the retina and optic nerve. Th…
The aim of this PhD thesis was to develop segmentation algorithm adapted and optimized to retinal OCT data that will provide objective 3D layer thickness which might be used to improve diagnosis and monitoring of retinal pathologies. Additionally, a 3D stack registration method …