The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Electroretinogram modeling : parameter identification and intensity-response function fits
Author:	Castro, Juan J.
View Online:	njit-etd1991-083 ([iii], [77] pages ~ 2.0 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Electrical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Meyer, Andrew Ulrich (Committee chair) Reisman, Stanley S. (Committee member) Haupt, Edward Joseph (Committee member) Ansari, Nirwan (Committee member)
Date:	1991-05
Keywords:	Electroretinography -- Mathematical models
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	Electroretinography testing provides many useful techniques for clinical diagnosis of the visual system. However, the interpretation of the electroretinogram data involves a great amount of subjectivity. The use of mathematical models and parameter estimation techniques to fit the electroretinogram data supply a non-subjective and more standard way for analysis of the electroretinogram data. Mathematical models provide a way of summarizing the information enclosed in the raw electroretinogram response into a small set of parameters that define the response. This thesis presents a mathematical model for the electroretinogram response due to light stimuli. It also provides a non-subjective method for obtaining the parameters of an intensity-response function, known as Naka-Rushton function, using the parameters of the mathematical model which define the raw electroretinogram data, instead of quantifying the information from the raw electroretinogram. The intensity-response function is an example of the use of the information provided by the electroretinogram to evaluate retinal sensitivity to light stimuli. The proposed method for obtaining the intensity-response function consists of fitting the raw electroretinogram responses with the mathematical model of the electroretinogram in order to obtain the parameters which represent each response. These parameters are then used to obtain the intensity-response function instead of having to manually measure the amplitude of each electroretinogram response which is very error prone. Several subjects were used to obtain electroretinogram responses. Each response was fitted with the mathematical model. The parameters from the electroretinogram model were then used to obtain the intensity-response function, thus providing more consistent and less subjective results. The intent of this thesis is not to reach any medical conclusions but to provide a method to aid in the clinical diagnosis of the visual system.