Matt Young (Media MICE):

Hi, I’m with Dr. Victoria Stapley to talk about the RETeval^® ERG from LKC Technologies that has revolutionized the way she approaches electroretinography. Dr. Stapley is brand new to using ERG but once she discovered RETeval, it became an invaluable source of data to further her research into myopia. Let’s find out more. Dr. Stapley, welcome to the program.

Dr. Victoria Stapley (University of Ulster):

Thank you very much, thank you for having me.

Matt Young: 

Great to be here with you. I was wondering if you can briefly explain how you use the RETeval in your research.

Dr. Victoria Stapley: 

My PhD research investigated structure and function in myopia using a variety of non-invasive methods. We were interested in looking at retinal function with the ERG and seeing if and how ERG parameters vary in myopia and also to investigate the relationship between ERG parameters and the degree of myopia.

Matt Young: 

That’s great and I understand that you’re a new RETeval user. Can you describe a little bit further why you decided to use this device in your research?

Dr. Victoria Stapley: 

The RETeval device appealed to me as a novice ERG user as it had a simple and usable interface. It was very quick to install and learn how to use which meant the time period getting out from the box to literally taking my first ERG was was very quick. We didn’t consider the other forms of ERG. Firstly because previous work had already looked at looked at that. But what we were particularly interested in is methods that we could see being used in clinical settings in the future.
In addition, because we were researching numerous measurements of structure and function, the small and portable nature of the RETeval was ideal because it didn’t take up any extra lab space.

Matt Young: 

Can you explain a little bit further as well why you had not considered using ERG previously?

Dr. Victoria Stapley: 

I think what made us reluctant is the kind of the training required to successfully get a good ERG, whereas I think the learning aspect of the RETeval is very quick. And so therefore as somebody that hadn’t used ERGs before it was quite quick and easy for me to learn how to to use one, so I could get going quickly. There wasn’t that long period of training at the start.

Matt Young: 

How was the RETeval ERG integral to your research?

Dr. Victoria Stapley: 

Quite simply it allowed me to explore retinal function with little prior experience with ERGs. We were really keen on having the measure of electrophysiology as its objective. Objective tests are great for kids because it doesn’t require any kind of subjective answers from them. When you’re thinking about what tests are going to be good for myopia, which is a condition that tends to develop in childhood, ones that are objective are key. And also ERGs obviously let you look at retinal function in particular and kind of hone it down to individual retinal cells as well. So that’s why we were jeen to to use electrophysiology and the RETeval allowed us to do this with little prior experience to any ERG measurement before.

Matt Young: 

This was particularly interesting to me, you recently did a study on myopia using RETeval to investigate retinal function. How can ERG help identify potential biomarkers for myopic progression?

Dr. Victoria Stapley: 

Yes, our study looked at, as you said, retinal function in myopia. We actually included all levels of myopia, including those with very mild myopic prescriptions. And we were able to find a subtle but significant delay in dark adapted implicit times in myopia and significant positive correlations between axial length and dark adapted implicit times. As such, these dark adapted implicit times, measured with the RETeval, have the potential to be used as a non-invasive functional biomarker for myopic progression.
We’re planning to do a further longitudinal studies to investigate whether this trend persists in an individual. Looking at an individual, as myopia develops, are we still getting that increase in implicit time? And if we do, then that’s a way that you could potentially functionally monitor if someone’s myopia is progressing. That can be used as well in terms of the new myopic control treatments that are becoming available to provide kind of endpoints for for those clinical trials.

Matt Young: 

Dr. Stapley, in your opinion, how does the RETeval represent the evolution of ERG?

Dr. Victoria Stapley: 

I think ERGs can give invaluable information about retinal function in a variety of different eye conditions and diseases. But I think using traditional ERGs, there’s a few hurdles that have prevented the widespread uptake of ERGs outside of either the specialist research or specialist clinical settings. I think RETeval provides an exciting and alternative. I found it very quick and easy to operate, so quick to set up, easy to operate, even as a novice user. The interface and PDF outputs were simple to understand and I was able to obtain ERGs after minimal time and training.
The device is also very compact and easily portable. And I think all of these factors are important when considering “Can a new test be incorporated into busy clinics or research labs?” I think the portable, easy to use nature of the RETeval may allow ERGs to become more accessible to both non-specialist researchers and clinicians, so like myself, and therefore let us investigate retinal function in more patients in the future.

Matt Young: 

Dr. Stapley, thanks so much for your time and for joining the program. We’ve learned a lot today.

Dr. Victoria Stapley: 

Perfect! Thank you very much.