Abstract
Purpose: To determine if smartphone photography could be a useful adjunct to blindness prevalence surveys by providing an accurate diagnosis of corneal opacity. Methods: A total of 174 patients with infectious keratitis who had undergone corneal culturing over the past 5 years were enrolled in a diagnostic accuracy study at an eye hospital in South India. Both eyes had an ophthalmologist-performed slit lamp examination, followed by anterior segment photography with a handheld digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera and a smartphone camera coupled to an external attachment that provided magnification and illumination. The diagnostic accuracy of photography was assessed relative to slit lamp examination. Results: In total, 90 of 174 enrolled participants had a corneal opacity in the cultured eye and no opacity in the contralateral eye, and did not have a penetrating keratoplasty or missing photographs. Relative to slit lamp examination, the sensitivity of corneal opacity diagnosis was 68% (95%CI 58–77%) using the smartphone’s default settings and 59% (95%CI 49–69%) using the SLR, and the specificity was 97% (95%CI 93–100%) for the smartphone and 97% (95%CI 92–100%) for the SLR. The sensitivity of smartphone-based corneal opacity diagnosis was higher for larger scars (81% for opacities 2 mm in diameter or larger), more visually significant scars (100% for eyes with visual acuity worse than 20/400), and more recent scars (85% for eyes cultured in the past 12 months). Conclusion: The diagnostic performance of a smartphone coupled to an external attachment, while somewhat variable, demonstrated high specificity and high sensitivity for all but the smallest opacities.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 491-498 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Ophthalmic Epidemiology |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- Corneal ulcer
- cornea
- diagnostic techniques
- ophthalmological
- photography
- smartphone
- telemedicine