Novel Contact Lens May Help Diagnose Glaucoma

Researchers from the United Kingdom and Turkey have developed a contact lens that can potentially diagnose glaucoma by detecting changes in eye pressure. Their research was published in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye.

Glaucoma impacts approximately 70 million people globally and causes irreversible loss of vision if untreated. Alarmingly, almost half of people with glaucoma are unaware they have it. The disease, which occurs when the optic nerve becomes damaged through the build-up of intraocular pressure (IOP), typically develops slowly over time. Many cases of glaucoma are picked up only during routine eye tests, by which time it may be too late to avoid lasting damage.

The new contact lenses, developed by GlakoLens, contain micro-sensors that monitor changes in IOP over a period of several hours and wirelessly send the data to an ophthalmologist for analysis and diagnosis. The device is not the first contact lens to measure IOP. Previous products used an electrically active silicon chip, which resulted in a thicker, less comfortable lens. The GlakoLens contact lenses use an electrically passive sensor embedded in a disposable soft contact lens, which makes the lens comfortable and seamless.

The novel GlakoLens contact lenses have been successfully tested in 6 healthy volunteers. During testing, they were asked to drink 1.5 liters of water and lie flat to intentionally increase their IOP levels. The lens designers plan to carry out further study with a larger group of participants, which will take place over the next year. If successful, the lenses will be made commercially available.

“The benefit of the contact lenses we have developed is that once placed in the eye, the patient can then go about their day as normal while their IOP measurements are recorded and sent to a doctor for analysis once the 24-hour period of testing is complete,” said lead researcher Professor Hamdi Torun, of Northumbria University, via a press release.

“We believe this technology has huge potential and could not only save the sight of patients in the early stages of glaucoma but also provide early diagnosis of other diseases in future,” Prof. Torun added.