Łukasz Łabieniec, a graduate of medical physics at the University of Białystok (UwB) and a doctoral student at the Faculty of Physics of UwB, in collaboration with Dr Lukasz Lisowski from the Department of Ophthalmology at the Medical University of Bialystok, developed an algorithm to help in the early detection of optic nerve damage.

The researchers discovered that from standard MRI data, it is possible to obtain previously unavailable information regarding already minor damage to the optic nerve.

The new method allows problems with the optic nerve to be detected at an early stage, before the patient notices that he or she is seeing worse or optic nerve damage is found in ophthalmological examinations. It assesses the degree of optic nerve damage quantitatively, meaning that for each optic nerve, the algorithm generates a single number. If the score falls within a certain range, the optic nerve can be considered healthy, if not, it is damaged. How far this score deviates from the norm tells the doctors the extent of damage to the optic nerve.