Comparison between the Arclight Ophthalmoscope and a Standard handheld Direct Ophthalmoscope: a Clinical study

摘要

The direct ophthalmoscope, a handheld device gives a highly magnified image of the retina. However, the sustainability of power source and cost are a limitation considering the usage demand. We compared a low-cost solar-powered Arclight ophthalmoscope with a standard ophthalmoscope Heine K180 in terms of ease of examination, usage, field of view, color rendition and patient comfort. Two clinically trained optometrists examined 28 patients and graded the ease of retinal examination, ease of use and assessed cup-disc ratio, which is an important diagnostic parameter for glaucoma, patient comfort and length of examination (scale 1-4). The examiners had good agreement for all assessments. Of a total of 78 examinations, only 8(10.3%) did not result in cup-disc ratio measurement in the undilated pupil condition using both devices. Ease of use was scored higher for Arclight than Heine but this was not statistically significant. In conditions like large discs, the Arclight resulted in easier examinations due to its larger field of view. Color rendition was better with the Heine device. In undilated pupils, the patients often reported that there was significant glare with Heine, however, post-dilation, they reported more glare with Arclight compared to Heine (73% versus 55%). The performance of Arclight was comparable to that of Heine and can be considered a low-cost alternative to the standard direct ophthalmoscope especially in large-scale patient examinations in developing countries where cost might be a factor.