School of Optometry and Vision Sciences

Research Interests

My research interests include:

• Diabetes & its ocular complications
• Glaucoma
• Anomalies of Binocular vision
• Lighting and visual performance

My primary areas of research involve two of the major causes of blindness, diabetes mellitus and glaucoma.

The diabetes studies have been investigating the risk factors for the development of diabetic retinopathy in children and adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Functional changes have been assessed using psychophysical and electrophysiological techniques. Structural changes have been evaluated using digital imaging techniques including scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, retinal thickness analyser, optical coherence tomography and stereoscopic fundus photography. We have found that patients with diabetes have functional changes prior to visible diabetic retinopathy.

The early detection of glaucoma is being studied by electrophysiological assessment of ganglion cell function, ocular blood flow and digital imaging of the optic nerve head. Electrophysiological measures are depressed prior to visual field loss in patients with glaucoma and pattern electroretinogram and photopic negative response are also depressed in patients with ocular hypertension. Methods of improving the detection of glaucomatous optic neuropathy are being studied.

More recent studies have been investigating whether functional loss detected in the early stages of eye disease is reversible. Oxygen inhalation has been shown to partially reverse functional loss in patients without diabetic retinopathy. The effect of lowering intraocular pressure in patients with ocular hypertension and glaucoma is also being studied.

Currently, ultrahigh resolution imaging of the retina, choroid and optic nerve head is being evaluated in patients with diabetes and glaucoma.

These studies are being carried out in conjunction with Dr Nik Sheen, Mr James Morgan, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Professor Wolfgang Drexler, Professor David Owens, Consultant Diabetologist, and Prof John Wild

Other areas of interest include the plasticity of the oculomotor system in subjects with normal and abnormal binocular vision, and the effect of low energy LED light sources upon visual performance in the office environment and upon the reading performance of the elderly.