This research started out as a clinical observational study done within the Kent and Canterbury ophthalmology department. We intended to look changes in the retina of the eye pre and post laser therapy in diabetic macular oedema. To do this we used a variety of equipment: 1) Optical coherence tomography scan which gives a color coded cross sectional image of the retina and was used to look for edema in the retina, 2) a fundoscopic image of the back of the eye to pinpoint where the edema was and 3) a fluoresceine angiography which showed the vessels at the back of the eye and helped us see which vessels were leaking to create the oedema. The exciting part of the research was that we also used very novel technology called oxymap to look at oxygen saturation of the retinal vessels in these patients pre and post laser. The oxymap is basically a camera and analysis machine that takes pictures of the retinal vessels and shows them in different colours from red to purple depending on the oxygen saturation; it also gives the percentage saturation of any vessel or vessel branch that is highlighted.
We have to obtain results for 14 patients, or 23 eyes with diabetic macular oedema.