Abstract
Macular pigment is a yellowish pigment of purely dietary origin, which is thought to have a protective role in the retina. Recently, it was linked to age-related macular degeneration and improved visual function. In this work, we present a method and a corresponding optical instrument for the rapid measurement of its optical density. The method is based on fundus reflectometry and features a photodetector for the measurement of reflectance at different wavelengths and retinal locations. The method has been tested against a commercially available instrument on a group of healthy volunteers and has shown good correlation. The proposed instrument can serve as a rapid, non-midriatic, low-cost tool for the measurement of macular pigment optical density.
Highlights
Macular Pigment (MP) is a collective term for the carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and mesozeaxanthin
Macular pigment has been related to visual function; studies suggest that higher density is linked to improved visual performance, acuity [6, 7]
Equation (3) gives the non-normalised spatial distribution of Macular Pigment Optical Density (MPOD) in the retina, i.e. the value of MPOD is given in arbitrary units.In order to differentiate this value from the quantitative MPOD measurement using the Fourier method, the non-normalised MPOD value was denoted with a star
Summary
Macular Pigment (MP) is a collective term for the carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and mesozeaxanthin. A study has shown that lutein due to its anti-inflammatory action can prevent choroidal neovascularisation [3]. Recent findings suggest that the optical density of macular pigment is significantly lower in case of degenerative macular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) [4, 5], further supporting the protective hypothesis. Macular pigment has been related to visual function; studies suggest that higher density is linked to improved visual performance, acuity [6, 7]. Recent studies have seen a relation between the MP distrubution and macular telangiectasia type 2 [8, 9]
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