Shining a bright light directly into your patient’s pupil, you have one second to catch the speed of dilation, 8-10 seconds to estimate size, about 4 seconds to determine whether those approximations are relatively normal—and you do it all relying on nothing more than years of practice and your own naked eye. And for the most part, it’s worked. As long as you have plenty of elbow room for error.

Physicians have trusted the pupillary light reflex (PLR) to assess a number of clinical conditions for more than 100 years. Popular for its role in concussion analysis, PLR has also been used to gauge depth level of sedation, detect consciousness and diagnose brain death in comatose patients, and screen for retinoblastoma in infants.

An explosion of technological advancement has led neuroscientists to newer, more profound understandings of the human eye and brain. Inevitably, the traditional PLR assessment is no longer capable of keeping up—let alone facilitating the caliber of research being performed today. Thus, the quantitative pupillary light reflex (qPLR) was born.

If you’ve spent any time reading about qPLR on the internet, you’ve likely encountered a seemingly endless scope of clinical applications. Of course, it’s not for everyone—and for some, it may even be a waste. But for those practices that do stand to benefit from a qPLR device, the transformation is substantial.

Reflex by brightlamp is the world’s first fully functional mobile pupillometer. To learn more about how it works and why medical professionals prefer Reflex for their qPLR needs click here.

To help you determine whether quantitative pupillometry is right for you, we’ve compiled a simple five-criteria list to get you started. 

qPLR assists in the quantifiable management of neurological disturbance indicators. Validated through peer-reviewed research for objectivity, accuracy, and convenience, qPLR is an underutilized neurocognitive biomarker.

If you are responsible for …

• Diagnosing concussions, TBI progression and degree

• Tracking neurological fluctuations

• Stroke and legion triangulation

• Mapping responses along neurological pathways to isolate a point mass

• Evaluating memory care assessments in geriatric patients

• Diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias

• Evaluating effectiveness of treatments for Alzheimer’s and dementia

• Diagnosing CNS disorders such as Parkinson’s disease

• Obtaining previously undetectable neurological data from the eye

… then quantitative pupillometry is right for your practice.

Child psychiatric and mental health professionals, developmental pediatricians, and pediatric neurologists are turning to portable qPLR devices for noninvasive, quantifiable accuracy. Additionally, the 1-5 -second acquisition time and 5-second test processing allows for a gentler, more holistic experience for patients.

  If you are responsible for …

• Testing the integrity of subcortical afferent and efferent functionality after 31 weeks’ gestation

• Evaluating the efficacy of ECT seizure induction

• Diagnosing third cranial nerve/oculomotor nerve palsy in children

• Early detection of Autism and other cholinergic-dependent neurological development disorders

• Detecting pediatric contraction anisocoria

• Confirming Horner syndrome, tonic pupil, and pharmacologic mydriasis

• Detecting biological indicators of onset pediatric depression risk

… then quantitative pupillometry is right for your practice.

If you are responsible for …

• Diagnosing and detecting various stages of glaucoma

• Identifying relative afferent pupillary defect (RAPD) due to a lesion along the pupillary pathway

• Documenting, saving, and exporting measurements and test results

• Regulating lighting, brightness, and distance standardizations

• Diagnosing a variety of complications such as Adie syndrome, diabetic eye disease, ischemic optic neuropathy, and more

… then quantitative pupillometry is right for your practice.

If you are … 

• A sleep disorder specialist

• A vision therapist

• An anesthesiologist

• A movement disorder specialist

• An athletic trainer responsible for quickly detecting sports-related concussions

• Or any administrative professional who relies on the ability to accurately detect fatigue or drug impairment

… then quantitative pupillometry is mostly likely right for your practice.

We hope that you found this article helpful. As a token of our appreciation, we invite you to use this link for free access to our “Intro to qPLR” webinar. And be sure to follow brightlamp on Twitter and Facebook for regular scoops and information.

We’re glad you’re here.