
03 Feb Novel Imaging to See the Invisible Vitreous Gains Top Award
The International Society for Optics and Photonics, known as SPIE ( https://spie.org/ ), annually brings together engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals to advance light-based science and technology. This is a domain that is critical for the health and well-being of the eye. This year marks the 35th annual meeting of the Ophthalmic Technologies subsection of SPIE.
Each year, the best research presentation is awarded the Pascal Rol Award. This year, out of 76 abstracts, the presentation that won first prize was by Daniel Ruminski, PhD of Torun, Poland whose work, undertaken in the labs of Professor Ireneusz Grulkowski, is entitled “Imaging the Entire Human Vitreous Body in vivo with Synchronous OCT Window Scanning and Adaptive Focusing”. Inspired by the teachings and guidance of Dr. Sebag, a moment of fulfillment and pride ensued:

Vitreous is the largest structure in the eye, formed in youth as a gel that fills the center of the eye. Although it is important in ocular health and disease (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4939-1086-1), vitreous has been difficult to image and evaluate in patients, owing to its transparency. Better ways to image and evaluate the human vitreous have eluded scientists and clinicians, until now. Optical engineers at the Nicolas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland have succeeded in developing a non-invasive instrument that images the entire vitreous body in humans. This new technology will enable enhanced imaging of the human vitreous that will not only increase understanding of the role of vitreous in health, but will improve clinical evaluation of patients with various eye diseases, not the least of which is vision degrading myodesopsia from vitreous floaters (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1350946220300197?via%3Dihub).
Following the awards ceremony at the Moscone Convention Center, a celebration was held in San Francisco in honor of Dr. Daniel Ruminski (principal investigator) and his mentor Professor Ireneusz Grulkowski (absent).

How do you see this technology being integrated into current ophthalmic practice for patients with vitreous floaters?
Modern eye care is dependent upon imaging structures within the eye to either assure health (both ocular and systemic), or diagnose disease and institute therapy. Vitreous is a clear gel that fills the center of the eye. Although it’s the largest ocular structure, our understanding of its role(s) in ocular health and disease is limited. This is due in large part to our inability to image vitreous in research and routine clinical care. Ultrasonography images the entire vitreous body, but does not have high resolution. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has high resolution, but until now can only image the posterior or anterior parts , not the entire vitreous body.
Optical engineers at the Nicolas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland have developed an advanced form of OCT (swept source) that can image the entire central vitreous body, from front to back. This enables imaging of the opacities within the center of the eye that cause the shadows people see as “floaters”, a visual phenomenon that often disturbs vision and negatively impacts quality-of-life. When advanced, this condition is called Vision Degrading Myodesopsia (VDM; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1350946220300197?via%3Dihub).
With this innovative OCT imaging technology, patients and their doctors can now see the structures that cause the visual phenomenon of floaters and better understand patient unhappiness. Furthermore, VDM disease severity can be determined with this imaging approach, enabling the consideration of therapy to address patient complaints.
Treatment Implications: Could this pave the way for more effective therapeutic interventions, such as improved laser vitreolysis or enhanced surgical techniques?
This new approach to imaging and diagnosing vision degrading myodesopsia (VDM) will probably be useful in guiding laser vitreolysis therapy. Currently, eye doctors manually guide lasers to break down the vitreous opacities that interfere with vision. With this novel imaging approach, however, the process can be automated with computer control of laser administration. This will increase the safety and efficacy of laser vitreolysis for VDM.
Patient Benefit: In what ways do you believe this imaging advancement will directly improve the evaluation and management of myodesopsia?
With this powerful imaging technology, doctors will be able to identify the source of patient complaints and will no longer dismiss patient complaints as ‘banal’ or insignificant. That alone will represent an improvement upon the current state of affairs that many patients find very frustrating. Based upon imaging that identifies the source of the VDM problem, approaches can be undertaken to reduce the impact on vision and improve patient visual quality-of-life.