Retinal scanning for biomarker discovery in MS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Multi-modal retinal scanning for diagnostic and therapeutic biomarker discovery in multiple sclerosis and neurodegenerative disease
IRAS ID
172236
Contact name
Thomas J MacGillivray
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 29 days
Research summary
There is increasing evidence that examining the eye can tell us a lot of information about our health and diseases such heart disease, stroke and dementia. Changes in the eye can sometimes be observed many months or even years before other more serious symptoms develop.
We want to study what eyes can reveal about serious diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), which damage nerves and affects the brain, by analysing images of the retina from simple non-invasive eye scanning. The imaging is completely safe and poses no risk to the participant.
By applying computational analysis to these images it is possible to identify subtle changes (e.g. variations in retinal vessels, thinning of the retinal nerve fibre layer) which may act as early indicators or markers of severity of MS.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0533
Date of REC Opinion
5 May 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion