OAP’s eye condition cured after scanner’s diagnosis (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

OAP’s eye condition cured after scanner’s diagnosis

9:00am Friday 27th January 2012 in Devizes

Pensioner Audrey Rutter has a hi-tech machine to thank for spotting a serious eye cond- ition when she visited an opticians.

The OCT scanner picked up that she had wet macular degeneration in her left eye.

She was referred to the Royal United Hospital, Bath, as an emergency case for injections in her eye which have proved successful.

Mrs Rutter’s condition was detected when she went to Nixon and Shaw opticians in Monday Market Street, Devizes, last September.

Martin Bull, optometrist and owner of Nixon and Shaw, saw dry macular degeneration in Mrs Rutter’s eyes but suggested she have her eyes examined using the OCT scanner.

The scanner is similar to ultrasound and showed up fluid in Mrs Rutter’s left eye which was wet macular degeneration, a more serious condition.

A few days later she was seen at the RUH and in the past three months has had three injections in her eye of the drug Lucentis.

A couple of weeks ago she went back to the RUH and was told she did not need any more injections as the treatment had been a success. She will have to go for check ups over the next two years.

Mrs Rutter, 79, of Shack-leton Road, Devizes, said: “The doctors were amazed at the difference in my eye before I had the treatment and afterwards. My sight is a lot improved. When you have the treatment you are worrying that your sight might not be as good.”

The grandmother of two added: “The machine at the opticians is wonderful and it’s unbelievable what it has done for me. I can’t thank them enough. I went to the opticians because I had a job to see the football and cricket scores on the TV.”

The OCT scanner cost Mr Bull £48,000 and he saw Mrs Rutter a month after he had bought it.

He said: “This piece of equipment made all the difference in terms of referring Mrs Rutter to hospital. The earlier you catch wet macular degeneration the more successful treatment is going to be.

“If we had not picked it up and we had seen her in six months’ time the likelihood is her vision would have plummeted. Other people who have had wet macular degeneration have had 21 injections in their eye because it has not been caught early.

“There are ten layers of cells in the retina and the OCT scanner allows us to see the other nine layers. I decided to buy the scanner because I had seen what it did at the RUH. It’s relatively rare for opticians to have a scanner like this.”