The Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) and Sankaradeva Nethralaya Guwahati have jointly developed a testing device to detect diabetic retinopathy at an early stage without the need of invasive testing.
The device comprises a small plate containing microchannels for guidance of fluids.
The team has also filed an Indian patent for this idea and device.
The research funded by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Indian Council of Medical Research and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was led by Dr Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and Head of Center for Nanotechnology, IIT Guwahati.
Descriptions and results of the testing device have been published in the ACS journal — ACS Sustainable Chemistry And Engineering.
The paper has been authored by Dr Bandyopadhyay, his students of IIT Guwahati, Surjendu Maity, Subhradip Ghosh and Tamanna Bhuyan and collaborator Dr Dipankar Das, Head of the Department of Ocular Pathology and Uvea in Sankaradeva Nethralaya, Guwahati.
Diabetic retinopathy is a serious non-communicable disease in India.
It is caused by abnormal growth in the retinal blood vessels in people with diabetes and is usually worsened when the person is on insulin for diabetic treatment.