Smartphones may be an effective alternative to traditional ophthalmic imaging equipment in examining the progression of diabetic eye disease, according to a recent study.

Researchers from the University of Brescia, University of Molise and "Federico II" University of Naples, Italy, developed a smartphone-based tool that can evaluate and grade the severity of a diabetic eye disease. The results of the research indicate the lower-cost method could be useful for bringing the service to patients in isolated or underserved communities.

Approximately 7.7 million Americans have diabetic retinopathy, which is caused by elevated blood glucose (sugar) levels and can lead to vision loss and blindness. The traditional method for monitoring the progression of the disease is through retinal slit-lamp biomicroscopy, which enables ophthalmologists to look at the back of the eye's interior. This kind of examination requires a large piece of specialized equipment found only in clinical settings, posing a significant challenge for monitoring patients living in rural or low-resource communities.

Researchers developed a small optical adapter called D-Eye which could attach magnetically to an iPhone 5, creating a smartphone ophthalmoscope. They then used the iPhone ophthalmoscope as well as a slit-lamp biomicroscope to perform dilated retinal digital imaging on 120 patients with diabetes who were scheduled to have a routine dilated eye exam.

After comparing the results of the smartphone method to the traditional one, an exact agreement between the two methods was found in 85 percent of the eyes and an agreement within one step (or grade of disease progression) was found in 96.7 percent of the eyes

"Using the iPhone method is thousands of dollars cheaper than using traditional equipment," Andrea Russo, lead researcher of the study, said in a statement. "The affordability of this option could make it much easier to bring eye care to non-hospital remote or rural settings, which often lack ophthalmic medical personnel."

While biomicroscopy is still found to be the more accurate method for grading diabetic retinopathy, researchers believe smartphone ophthalmoscopy shows great potential for use in rural or remote communities who would normally receive little to no testing at all.

The findings were presented at AAO 2014, the American Academy of Ophthalmology's 118th annual meeting.