Game-changing diagnostic tool allows early detection of eye disease

A game-changing  tool promises early detection of eye disease according to new medical research, that can make a difference in early intervention needed for eye problems.

A non-invasive ground-breaking method is able to ascertain signs of disease in very early stages before symptoms are determined through the usual and customary methods use by physicians.

This new method or tool also is able to detect some eye diseases so early that the condition might be able to be reversed before permanent damage occurs.  In the future it may also extend to other parts of the body and be able to give physicians a way to make an early diagnosis to impact the effectiveness of therapies.

"Quantitative knowledge of the dynamic molecular changes in health and disease will not only advance our understanding, but also change the way medicine will be practiced in the future," said Ali Hafezi-Moghadam, co-author of the study.

So how does this work.  It sounds complicated, but here's what the method does.  Researchers  looked at molecules in the eyes of animals under high-powered imaging probes.  The sensitivity of these probes allowed detection of molecules that occur at very low levels in many diseases.  The probes also were able to detect activated immune cells that leads to knowledge that can be measured about immune response to disease.

"This tool is a total game-changer: it detects inflammatory eye disease at the molecular level before damage occurs," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "Once you have symptoms, it may be too late. By then, doctors are often limited to damage control. Now in the eye, and later in other areas of the body, early detection of molecular changes by fluorescent microspheres will save lives. It should certainly change people's expectations of when treatment is indicated."