Technology commonly used in adults is now being used to help premature infants at Duke University Medical Center fight a devastating problem that can cause permanent vision problems, even blindness.

"We have excellent screening and methods of preventing children from going on to retinal detachment," said Dr. Cynthia Toth, an ophthalmologic surgeon at Duke Eye Center. "But children that do go on to retinal detachment can often end up with very poor vision outcomes."

Toth is part of a research team looking at a new way to examine the eyes of newborns using optical coherence technology, or OCT. Commonly used in adults, it has been difficult to use routinely in preemies because they had to go to the operating room to access the technology.

Toth's project, Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography for Pediatric Imaging and Surgical Guidance, was selected to receive funding via the Duke Translational Research Institute's Pilot Project program for 2008-2009.

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