Implanted Gold Beads Reveal Unseen Parts of The Eye

Filed in archive Diagnostics, Methodologies and Instrumentation on June 20, 2006

Journal of Vision, an online free access publication of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology recently published a new study showing that gold bead injected into the eye tissue can be used to obtain images of the important structures in the eye's orbit that cannot be seen with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or even other imaging methods.

The research team from the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute based in San Francisco, California has injected these tiny gold beads into various areas in the eye which are normally difficult to visualize. These implanted beads are then visualized using a digital dental-type x-ray system and 3-dimensional reconstruction techniques.

In the study, it showed that three-fourths of the implanted beads remained where injected over a six-month period and revealed movements of muscle and connective tissue which is important in understanding the mechanism why which the brain controls eye movements.

"The surprising stability of gold beads in highly mobile eye tissues means that the method can be used to visualize very slow phenomena, such as those related to growth, as well as fast phenomena, such as those related to eye movement," said Joel M. Miller, PhD, lead researcher of the study.

Read more at ARVO.

About the author: Gloria is a Chemist and is the author of 2 science blogs: Straight From The Doc and The Pharm Voice.