DARC Imaging Predicts Risk of Geographic Atrophy

Article: AI-supported test can predict eye disease that leads to blindness
Source: Imperial College London (U.K.)
Published: August 12, 2021
Article: AI-supported test can predict eye disease that leads to blindness
Source: Imperial College Healthcare (U.K.)
Published: August 16, 2021

A representative DARC scan

Geographic atrophy (GA) is an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of visual impairment in individuals over 55 years of age. In an effort to detect early signs of the disease, when interventions and treatments might be more effective, researchers are investigating a retinal imaging technology called Detection of Apoptosing Retinal Cells (DARC), which had previously shown clinical success in predicting the progression of glaucoma and detecting wet AMD. Performed with an intravenous injection of a fluorescent dye (ANX776, fluorescently labelled Annexin A5), DARC detects areas of the retina that are undergoing cellular stress or apoptosis (cellular death), which show up as areas of hypefluorescence when viewed on fundus exam. These areas of damage can be quantified with an AI algorithm, resulting in a "DARC count" that can be monitored over time for progression or prediction. The present phase 2 clinical trial involved 113 participants, 19 of whom had early signs of neovascular AMD and 13 of whom had early signs of geographic atrophy. The research team also recruited healthy volunteers and patients with progressive glaucoma, optic neuritis, and other eye conditions representative of neurodegeneration. All patients were screened with DARC and followed up with ocular coherence tomography (OCT) every six months over three years, the latter condition to assess DARC's validity against OCT. The results showed that patients with a DARC count of more than 10 on initial examination had increased expansion of GA three years later. The researchers plan on larger clinical trials and are exploring a nasal delivery of the fluorescent dye for a less invasive screening tool.

My rating of this study: ⭐⭐⭐

Cordeiro MF, Hill D, Patel R, et al. "Detecting retinal cell stress and apoptosis with DARC: Progression from lab to clinic." Progress in Retinal and Eye Research.  100976. 5 June 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.preteyeres.2021.100976