Smart contact lens: A promising therapeutic tool in aniridia.

OBJECTIVE

The perform pre-clinical testing using optical design tools to simulate the optical quality of a smart artificial iris platform encapsulated in a scleral contact lens. These tools allow us to generate aniridia eye models and evaluate different metrics of visual quality and retinal illumination based on the aperture of the artificial iris based on liquid crystals.

METHOD

The OCT imaging technique was used to measure the geometry of the anterior segment in a patient with aniridia and, from these data, the eye model was generated with the Zemax optical design program and specific programs developed in Matlab. Ocular aberrations were calculated and the visual function of the anirida eye model was evaluated in three scenarios: (i) without optical correction, (ii) with correction with a commercial scleral contact lens, and (iii) with correction with an optical lens. Intelligent contact based on artificial iris.

RESULTS

Optical quality in patients with aniridia is limited by the magnitude of high-order aberrations. Conventional scleral contact lens design accurately corrects for blur but is unable to compensate for high-order ocular aberrations, especially spherical aberrations. The artificial iris-based smart contact lens design enables virtually all high-order aberrations to be compensated with active control of the pupillary diameter (activation of liquid crystal cells based on ambient lighting). In addition to minimizing high-order aberrations, reducing the pupil size would increase the depth of focus.

CONCLUSIONS

This article demonstrates by means of optical simulations the concept of an intelligent artificial iris platform encapsulated in a scleral contact lens and its possible application in patients with aniridia. Furthermore, it allows us to anticipate possible visual results in clinical trials with healthy patients (after application of mydriatic agents) and in patients with aniridia. The results demonstrate a better visual quality and a decrease in retinal illumination.