DIGITAL RETINAL PHOTOGRAPHY

What is Digital Retinal Photography?

Digital Retinal Photography uses high-resolution imaging systems to capture images of the inside of your eye (i.e. fundus). This helps to assess the health of the retina and to detect and manage eye conditions and disease.

The main structures that can be visualized on a Digital Retinal photo are

the central and peripheral retina,
optic disc
blood vessels
macula.

Specialised fundus cameras that consist of an intricate microscope attached to a flash enabled camera are used in Digital Retinal photography.

Why Has Digital Retinal Photography Been Recommended?

Digital Retinal Photographs can be used to document abnormalities of disease process affecting the eye, and/or to follow up on the progress of the eye condition/disease such as:

Macular Degeneration
Diabetes
Glaucoma,
Neoplasm of the choroid, cranial nerves, retinal or eyeball
Retinitis Pigmentosa,
Best’s Disease,
Stargardt’s Retinal Dystrophy

Digital Retinal photography can be performed with coloured filters, or with specialized dyes including fluorescein and indocyanine green.

Benefits Digital Retinal Photography

Retinal imaging can show signs of eye diseases that are not otherwise apparent. The images can also be stored and later compared with later scans. This is valuable in helping detect and monitor the progression of retinal diseases of the cells layers.

With many different therapeutic options being studied for these diseases, early detection and accurate monitoring will be more and more important in the future.

What Happens During Digital Retinal Photography?

The test itself is painless and the results are easy to interpret.

The doctor may dilate your eyes with special drops. This widens your pupils. It will take about 20 minutes for your eyes to be ready for the examination.

During the examination you:

place your chin and forehead on a support to keep your head steady.
open your eyes as wide as possible and stare straight ahead at an object while the photo is taken.

The images are uploaded to a computer for review. If wet macular degeneration is suspected a fluorescein angiogram may follow.

The regular test takes 5 minutes.

Results of a Digital Retinal Photography

The images from the test should be ready immediately and normally your doctor will talk to you about them before you leave.

Downtime After a Digital Retinal Photography

If your eyes have been dilated, your vision will be blurry but this should wear off in 4 hours. Driving should be avoided until this effect has passed.

You’ll be sensitive to sunlight too. You'll need to wear sunglasses and have someone drive you home.

If the fluorescein dye was used, do not put soft contact lenses in your eyes for at least 4 hours.