ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT06139523Updated Aug 5, 2026

Optimize Pediatric OCT Imaging

An observational study in Retinal Disease, Glaucoma and Optic Nerve Diseases, sponsored by Duke University. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-05.

Sponsored by Duke University · Observational

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Jan 2024; still recruiting 2 years 9 months later.
Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
30
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Handheld optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become an important imaging modality to evaluate the pediatric retina. The objective of this pilot study is to compare a new contact OCT system (Theia Imaging) with an investigational noncontact OCT system (Duke Biomedical Engineering) to assess their ability to image the pediatric retina.

The investigators hypothesize that the contact OCT system is superior in imaging larger areas of the retina (larger field-of-view), while it has similar resolution to image the retina substructures (non-inferior image quality).

Read the detailed description

Handheld optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become an important imaging modality to evaluate the pediatric retina. The objective of this pilot study is to compare a new contact OCT system (Theia Imaging) with an investigational noncontact OCT system (Duke Biomedical Engineering) to assess their ability to image the pediatric retina.

The investigators plan to enroll 10 healthy adult volunteers and 20 pediatric patients in clinic or undergoing examination under anesthesia. This is an observational study. There are no known risks associated with handheld OCT imaging and no adverse events identified imaging with our prior investigational imaging with the same system. There is a risk of corneal abrasion with the contact imaging system (Theia imaging), however, this system is used in the setting of other contact imaging systems (such as RetCam fundus photography).

Imaging data will be downloaded to a secure server for protocol image processing, segmentation, and analysis per protocol in the Duke Advanced Research in SD/SSOCT Imaging (DARSI) Laboratory.

02

Conditions studied

  • Retinal Disease
  • Glaucoma
  • Optic Nerve Diseases

Keywords

  • Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)
03

In context

Retinal Diseases

333 studies on the registry are indexed under Retinal Diseases; 60 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 30 is below the median of 200 across 118 observational studies indexed under Retinal Diseases.

Browse Retinal Diseases studies →

Lead sponsor

Duke University is the lead sponsor of 2,063 studies on the registry; 273 are open to participants now.

Of its 204 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 167 (82%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
Child (0–17), Adult (18–64), Older adult (65+)
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Group 1 - Healthy adult volunteers (n=10). Participants over the age of 18 without known ocular issues other than refractive error.

Group 2 - Pediatric participants (n=10). Participants under the age of 18 being seen at Duke Eye Center for ocular abnormailities.

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Group 1 - Healthy adult volunteers
  • Subject is able and willing to consent to study participation
  • Subject is more than 18 years of age
  • Healthy adult volunteers without known ocular issues other than refractive error
  • Pregnancy Reasonably Excluded Guide (PREG) evaluation on women of
  • Group 2 - Pediatric participants
  • Health care provider, knowledgeable of protocol, agrees that study personnel could contact the parent/legal guardian
  • Parent/legal guardian is able and willing to consent to study participation
  • Pediatric patient less than 18 years of age in Duke Eye Center ophthalmology clinics or undergoing clinically-indicated examination under anesthesia at Duke Eye Center

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Group 1 - Healthy adult volunteers
  • Students or employees under direct supervision of the investigators
  • Subjects with prior problems with pupil dilation
  • Pregnant woman if receiving dilating drops
  • Group 2 - Pediatric participants
  • Parent/legal guardian unwilling or unable to provide consent
  • Participant has a health or eye condition that preclude eye examination or retinal imaging (such as corneal opacity or cataract)
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
30 participants (estimated)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • Group 1: Healthy adult volunteers

    Healthy adult volunteers recruited from the patient population, students or employees of Duke University or Duke Eye Center (n=10)

    Device: Investigational contact OCT system · Device: Investigational noncontact OCT system:

  • Pediatric participants

    Pediatric patients with eye disease recruited from the patient population of Duke Eye Center (n=20)

    Device: Investigational contact OCT system · Device: Investigational noncontact OCT system:

Interventions

  • DeviceInvestigational contact OCT system

    Theia imaging is developing handheld OCT systems bring state of the art OCT to the infant bedside. The Theia 1 widefield imaging system is a light weight, high speed (300 kHz), wide field of view (110°) OCT system that address the limitations of current commercial OCT systems. The system is cart mounted, enabling portable, bedside imaging. The system uses a 300 kHz swept source laser operating in 1060nm regime. The Theia system follows the same safety standards as all applicable laser safety standards (ANSI z80.36 or ISO 15004) as the currently approved prior OCT devices. This nearly 10-fold increase in acquisition speed dramatically reduces imaging time and enables acquisition of full retinal volumes in infants. The 110° field of view is provided via a re-usable contact lens that can be sterilized between imaging sessions.

    Also known as: Theia 1 widefield imaging system

  • DeviceInvestigational noncontact OCT system:

    The investigational noncontact handheld OCT systems in this study is developed at Duke University as the result of collaboration between the Departments of Ophthalmology (Cynthia Toth, MD) and Biomedical Engineering (Joseph Izatt, PhD). This investigational device was previously reviewed and approved for use in adults, children, and neonates in nursery by: * Intraoperative OCT Guidance of Intraocular Surgery study's (Pro00016827) Data Safety and Monitoring Board Plus (DSMB+) (PI: Toth and Izatt) * The Analyzing Retinal Microanatomy in Retinopathy of Prematurity to Improve Care study (Pro00069721) Data Safety and Monitoring Committee (DSMC) (PI: Toth) The systems were declared non-significant risk by the Duke University Health System (DUHS) Institutional Review Board under Pro00016827. Staff from the DUHS Clinical Engineering Department evaluated the systems and found that they meet the accepted hospital standards for electrical safety.

    Also known as: Ultracompact swept source OCT system

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Presence of abnormal retinal microanatomy as measured by OCT reading

    Time frame: Single imaging session (day 1)

  2. Severity of abnormal retinal microanatomy as measured by OCT reading

    Time frame: Single imaging session (day 1)

  3. Retinal thickness at the fovea and surrounding optic nerve as measured by OCT analysis

    Retinal thickness (microns) at the fovea and surrounding optic nerve.

    Time frame: Single imaging session (day 1)

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Duke University Eye Center
    Durham, North Carolina 27710, United States
    Recruiting
    • Michelle McCall · Contactmccal023@mc.duke.edu · 919-684-0544
    • Neeru Sarin · Contactneeru.sarin@duke.edu · 9196685641
    • Ramiro Maldonado, MD · Sub investigator
    • Sasapin G Prakalapakorn, MD · Sub investigator
    • Mays Dairi, MD · Sub investigator
    • Sharon F Freedman, MD · Sub investigator
    • Shwetha Mangalesh, MD · Sub investigator
    • Lejla Vajzovic, MD · Sub investigator
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Scott AW, Farsiu S, Enyedi LB, Wallace DK, Toth CA. Imaging the infant retina with a hand-held spectral-domain optical coherence tomography device. Am J Ophthalmol. 2009 Feb;147(2):364-373.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2008.08.010. Epub 2008 Oct 9. PubMed 18848317 ↗
  • Chavala SH, Farsiu S, Maldonado R, Wallace DK, Freedman SF, Toth CA. Insights into advanced retinopathy of prematurity using handheld spectral domain optical coherence tomography imaging. Ophthalmology. 2009 Dec;116(12):2448-56. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2009.06.003. Epub 2009 Sep 18. PubMed 19766317 ↗
  • Maldonado RS, Izatt JA, Sarin N, Wallace DK, Freedman S, Cotten CM, Toth CA. Optimizing hand-held spectral domain optical coherence tomography imaging for neonates, infants, and children. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2010 May;51(5):2678-85. doi: 10.1167/iovs.09-4403. Epub 2010 Jan 13. PubMed 20071674 ↗
  • Maldonado RS, Freedman SF, Cotten CM, Ferranti JM, Toth CA. Reversible retinal edema in an infant with neonatal hemochromatosis and liver failure. J AAPOS. 2011 Feb;15(1):91-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jaapos.2010.11.016. PubMed 21397814 ↗
  • Maldonado RS, O'Connell R, Ascher SB, Sarin N, Freedman SF, Wallace DK, Chiu SJ, Farsiu S, Cotten M, Toth CA. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomographic assessment of severity of cystoid macular edema in retinopathy of prematurity. Arch Ophthalmol. 2012 May;130(5):569-78. doi: 10.1001/archopthalmol.2011.1846. PubMed 22232366 ↗
  • Chen X, Mangalesh S, Dandridge A, Tran-Viet D, Wallace DK, Freedman SF, Toth CA. Spectral-Domain OCT Findings of Retinal Vascular-Avascular Junction in Infants with Retinopathy of Prematurity. Ophthalmol Retina. 2018 Sep;2(9):963-971. doi: 10.1016/j.oret.2018.02.001. Epub 2018 Mar 21. PubMed 30506013 ↗
  • Chen X, Prakalapakorn SG, Freedman SF, Vajzovic L, Toth CA. Differentiating Retinal Detachment and Retinoschisis Using Handheld Optical Coherence Tomography in Stage 4 Retinopathy of Prematurity. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2020 Jan 1;138(1):81-85. doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2019.4796. PubMed 31774474 ↗
  • Mangalesh S, Bleicher ID, Chen X, Viehland C, LaRocca F, Izatt JA, Freedman SF, Hartnett ME, Toth CA. Three-dimensional pattern of extraretinal neovascular development in retinopathy of prematurity. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2019 Apr;257(4):677-688. doi: 10.1007/s00417-019-04274-6. Epub 2019 Feb 21. PubMed 30790072 ↗
  • Mangalesh S, Sarin N, McGeehan B, Prakalapakorn SG, Tran-Viet D, Cotten CM, Freedman SF, Maguire MG, Toth CA; BabySTEPS Group. Preterm Infant Stress During Handheld Optical Coherence Tomography vs Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscopy Examination for Retinopathy of Prematurity. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2021 May 1;139(5):567-574. doi: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2021.0377. PubMed 33792625 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 5, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06139523
Lead sponsor
Duke University
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 18, 2023
Start date
Jan 24, 2024
Primary completion
Jul 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 5, 2026

Study contacts

Xi Chen, MD
Contact
xi2.chen@duke.edu
(919)684-8434
Michelle N McCall, MCAPM, BA
Contact
michelle.mccall@duke.edu
(919) 684-0544

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion