In a major development, which will surely give boost to research at PGI, the institute has obtained the US patent for a unique methodology, Quadraplex PCR, for diagnosing various types of eye infections caused by parasite, fungus, bacteria and virus in one single examination.
The new methodology shortens the diagnostic time to a few hours as compared to the earlier method that used to take several days. In one test, doctors would be able to distinguish whether the infection has been caused by a parasite, a fungus, a bacteria or virus and treat the same accordingly.
Addressing the media on the occasion of 3rd Founders’ day of the Advanced Eye Centre, PGI, Head of Ophthalmology Department, Prof Amod Gupta said, “This technique will not only save the patient’s time but will also save their eye as conservative method required repetitive sampling, which take more time that can cause blindness.”
As per figures available with the PGI, Advanced Eye Centre, almost 1,000 patients of various types of infections were reported at PGI every year. The most common one is fungal infection and others were tuberculosis (bacterial), cytomegalovirus (viral) and toxoplasmosis (parasite).
The patent was issued jointly in the name of Dr Vaishali Gupta (AEC), Dr Sunil Arora, Dr Naresh Sachdev of the Department of Immunopathology, Dr Amod Gupta (AEC) and Dr Pradeep Bambery of the Department of Internal Medicine.
On this occasion, he highlighted the state of art technology, which was introduced at the centre during last one year. He pointed out about infinity phacoemulsification machines for cataract surgery, an IOL Master for non contact IOL power calculation, new Accurus vitreous surgery machines, etc.
Due to availability of various facilities in AEC, number of patients has been increased as compared to previous years. About 71,486 patients visited the centre for availing of its services, 38 per cent increase from 1,23,497 in the year 2006-07 when the centre was opened. Nearly 1,18,891 patients were provided tertiary care in its sub speciality clinics, he added.