Letizia Mariotti

PhD Student (Image Processing of the Adaptive Optics in Retinal Imaging) 

Contact Information  National University of Ireland, Galway  Phone: +353-91-495350 extn 5350  Fax: +353-91-495529  email: l.mariotti1@nuigalway.ie

RESEARCH

 Classical ophthalmological instruments have poor resolution and cannot detect the early stages of retinal diseases. The result is that these diseases are not detected until the symptoms become obvious, and then it may be too late for clinical intervention. Adaptive Optics has proven its ability to provide images with resolution at the cellular level. AO images of the retina may contain a huge amount of information, and it becomes imperative to assist the clinician with automated tools to quantify the information, monitor changes in structures between visits to the clinic and to call attention to signs of disease. 

My project consists in developing algorithms for the analysis of retinal images obtained with an AO-assisted fundus imager. The aim of the algorithms is to quantify and monitor variations of retinal microstructures such as cone photoreceptors, the nerve fibre layer, retinal pigment epithelium cells and drusen. The algorithms are tested on both healthy and diseased eyes, in order to characterize pathological variations at a pre-clinical stage of the disease.

Figure: Example of automated detection of cone photoreceptors