Minimally invasive optoelectronic sensing technique for chemical analysis of aqueous humour

The determination of the concentration of drugs and other compounds within the anterior chamber of the eye is a measurement of great interest in ophth almic science. A minimally invasive optoelectronic technique to identify an d measure various compounds using absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, and involving fibre optics, is described. These experiments demonstrate th e technical feasibility of an optoelectronic instrument for drug concentrat ion estimation in the anterior chamber by employing absorption measurements . Both model and real animal eyes were used in the experiments. Compounds s uch as fluorescein and tetracycline, the latter a commonly used antibiotic for ophthalmic applications, have been detected in the anterior chamber of perfused animal eyes using this technique.