HETEROGENEITY IN RETINAL DISEASE AND THE COMPUTATIONAL MODEL OF THE HUMAN-ROD RESPONSE

Abnormal rod-receptor activity can be quantitatively assessed in humans by fitting a computational model of the rod's response to the leading edge of the Alpha wave of the electroretinogram. One purpose of the present study was to compare two procedures for fitting the model to the electroretinogram. A computationally simpler method gives comparable results to the more labor-intensive method used previously. This finding holds for both normal observers and patients with retinodegenerative disease that affects the receptors unevenly. A second purpose of the present study was to consider the effects of a heterogeneous disease process on the parameters of the model. Alpha waves from a heterogeneous retina are computer simulated and are fitted with the receptor model. This analysis suggests that the model will overestimate the change in the healthiest rods and will underestimate the percentage of the rods that are significantly affected.