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School of Optometry

Edmund Arthur, OD, PhD, FAAO

"Edmund Arthur, OD, PhD, FAAO"

Assistant Professor

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HPB 519

(205) 996-6576

Teaching/research interests: Ocular Disease Detection and Diagnosis; Vision Science; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Geometric and Visual Optics; Advanced Retinal Imaging; Retinal biomarkers for early detection of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema; Ocular biomarkers for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias; Biological variable model for screening and early detection of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema in underserved populations.

Office hours: By appointment

Education:

  • OD, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, Optometry
  • PhD, Indiana University Bloomington, US, Vision Science with Biostatistics Minor

Post-doctoral training

  • McKnight Vision Research Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami
  • Butler Hospital Memory and Aging Program affiliated with Brown University and University of Rhode Island

Dr. Arthur received his Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana in 2014 followed by a PhD in Vision Science with a Biostatistics minor from Indiana University Bloomington, US in 2018. His PhD dissertation focused on detecting preclinical retinal changes in diabetic patients using advanced retinal imaging. Following his PhD, Dr. Arthur did a one-year postdoctoral research at the Quantitative Imaging and Eye-Brain Research Lab at the world renowned Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami, researching retinal biomarkers for early diagnosis of cognitive impairment from 2018 to 2019. He then joined the Snyder/Alber Lab and the Butler Hospital Memory and Aging Program of University of Rhode Island and Brown University under the supervision of Drs. Peter Snyder, Jessica Alber, and Stephen Salloway, as a postdoctoral research fellow to work on a 5-year longitudinal study termed the Atlas of Retinal Imaging in Alzheimer’s Study (ARIAS). ARIAS is a more comprehensive study; an extension of the work he did at Bascom Palmer which seeks to examine retinal structural, vascular, and proteinopathy changes as they relate to cognitive, functional, proteomic, and biomarker changes across the cognitive aging spectrum. He still collaborates on this project till date.

Dr. Arthur was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO) in 2019 – a prestigious accolade given by the AAO to individuals who have accredited themselves and Optometry by their contributions to Optometry or Vision Science. He holds active memberships with the American Academy of Optometry (AAO), Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART), and a member of The Eye as a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Professional Interest Area (PIA) of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Dr. Arthur serves as a frequent peer-reviewer having done more than 35 reviews for 9 different well known scientific journals: Scientific Reports, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (received exceptional good review on two occasions), BMC Ophthalmology, Optometry and Vision Science, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring (DADM), Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Translational Vision Science & Technology, and Ophthalmology Science. He also served as an abstract review team member for the 2021 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) reviewing 30 abstracts for the conference.

Research interests

Diabetes and dementia are two of the most important public health crises in the US with huge health-care related costs and societal burden. Early diagnosis, referral, and management of patients with these conditions is crucial to slowing down disease progression. I am interested in the early detection, referral, and management of diabetic retinopathy (DR), diabetic macular edema (DME), and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) using advanced retinal imaging modalities such as Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT), OCT Angiography (OCTA), Blue Autofluorescence (BAF) imaging, and Dual Wavelength (Blue-Green) Autofluorescence imaging. In addition, I am interested in developing a biological variable model that includes ethnicity, HbA1c, age, and sex in screening for individuals at risk of worse diabetes associated retinal neurodegeneration in underserved populations. Finally, I am interested in developing a toolkit of retinal, ocular fluid, and plasma biomarkers that may aid in screening for older individuals at risk for AD.

Current existing collaborations

  1. Professor Peter Jeffrey Snyder – University of Rhode Island (Alzheimer’s Disease and Neuropsychological Disorders)
  2. Professor Stephen Salloway - Brown University, Butler Memory and Aging Program (Alzheimer’s Disease and Neuropsychological Disorders)
  3. Dr. Jessica Alber – University of Rhode Island (Alzheimer’s Disease and Neuropsychological Disorders)
  4. Dr. Louisa Thompson – Brown University, Butler Memory and Aging Program (Alzheimer’s Disease and Neuropsychological Disorders)

Recent courses taught

Indiana University Bloomington – I served as an Associate Instructor for the following courses:

  • V521 – Geometrical and Visual Optics
  • V574 – Introduction to Epidemiology and Optometric Research
  • V560 – Vision Science 1

Selected publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles:

  • Arthur E, Alber J, Thompson LI, Sinoff S, Snyder PJ. OCTA reveals remodeling of the peripheral capillary free zones in normal aging. Sci Rep 11, 15593 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95230-0
  • Alber J, Arthur E, Goldfarb D, Drake J, Boxerman JL, Silver B, Ott BR, Johnson LN, Snyder PJ. The relationship between cerebral and retinal microbleeds in Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA): A pilot study. Journal of the Neurological Sciences. 2021:117383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2021.117383
  • Alber J, Popescu D, Thompson LI, Tonini GM, Arthur E, Oh H, Correia S, Salloway SP, Lee AK. Safety and Tolerability of APOE Genotyping and Disclosure in Cognitively Normal Volunteers From the Butler Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2021. doi: 10.1177/0891988721993575
  • Alber J, Arthur E, Sinoff S, DeBuc DC, Chew EY, Douquette L, Hatch WV, Hudson C, Kashani A, Lee CS, Montaquila S, Mozdbar S, Cunha LP, Tayyari F, Stavern GV, Snyder PJ. A recommended “minimum data set” framework for SD-OCT retinal image acquisition and analysis from the Atlas of Retinal Imaging in Alzheimer’s Study (ARIAS). Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. 2020;12:e12119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dad2.12119
  • Cho KA, Rege A, Jing Y, Chaurasia A, Guruprasad A, Arthur E, DeBuc DC. Portable, non-invasive video imaging of retinal blood flow dynamics. Scientific Reports. 2020;10:1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76407-5
  • Alber J, Maruff P, Santos CY, Ott BR, Salloway SP, Yoo DC, Noto RB, Thompson LI, Goldfarb D, Arthur E, Song A, Snyder PJ. Disruption of cholinergic neurotransmission, within a cognitive challenge paradigm, is indicative of Aβ-related cognitive impairment in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease after a 27-month delay interval. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy. 2020;12:1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-020-00599-1
  • Alber J, Goldfarb D, Thompson LI, Arthur E, Hernandez K, Cheng D, DeBuc DC, Cordeiro F, Provetti-Cunha L, den Haan J, Van Stavern GP, Salloway SP, Sinoff S, Snyder PJ. Developing retinal biomarkers for the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease: What we know, what we don’t, and how to move forward. Alzheimer’s Dement. 2020;16:229–243. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12006
  • Arthur E, Somfai GM, Kostic M, Oropesa S, Mendoza-Santiesteban C, and Cabrera DeBuc D Distinguishing cognitive impairment by using singularity spectrum and lacunarity analysis of the retinal vascular network. Neurophotonics. 2019;6:041109. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.NPh.6.4.041109
  • Arthur E, Elsner AE, Sapoznik KA, Papay JA, Muller MS, Burns SA. Distances from capillaries to arterioles or venules measured using OCTA and AOSLO. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2019;60:1833–1844. https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.18-25294
  • Arthur E, Young SB, Elsner AE, Baskaran K, Papay JA, Muller MS, Gast TJ, Haggerty BP, Clark CA, Malinovsky VE, Brahm SG, Litvin TV, Ozawa GY, Cuadros JA. Central macular thickness in diabetic patients: a sex-based analysis. Optom Vis Sci. 2019;96:266-275. doi:10.1097/OPX.0000000000001363
  • Cabrera DeBuc D, Somfai GM, Arthur E, Kostic M, Oropesa S, Mendoza-Santiesteban C. Investigating Multimodal Diagnostic Eye Biomarkers of Cognitive Impairment by Measuring Vascular and Neurogenic Changes in The Retina. Front Physiol. 2018;9:1721. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.01721.
  • Arthur E, Papay JA, Haggerty BP, Clark CA, Elsner AE. Subtle changes in diabetic retinas localised in 3D using OCT. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2018;38:477-491. doi: 10.1111/opo.12578.
  • Arthur E, Sadik AA, Kumah DB, Osae EA, Mireku FA, Asiedu FY, Ablordeppey RK. Postoperative Corneal and Surgically Induced Astigmatism following Superior Approach Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery in Patients with Preoperative Against-the-Rule Astigmatism. J Ophthalmol. 2016;2016:9489036. doi: 10.1155/2016/9489036.

Book chapters published

  • DeBuc DC, Somfai GM, Szatmáry G, Arthur E, Jimenez JA, Santiesteban CM, Grzybowski A. (2020) Seeing the Brain Through the Eye: What Is Next for Neuroimaging and Neurology Applications. In: Grzybowski A., Barboni P. (eds) OCT and Imaging in Central Nervous System Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26269-3_5. Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26268-6. Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26269-3
  • Kostic M, Somfai GM, Arthur E, DeBuc DC. (2020) Pediatric Neuro-Ophthalmology and OCT. In: Grzybowski A., Barboni P. (eds) OCT and Imaging in Central Nervous System Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26269-3_22. Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26268-6. Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26269-3

Invited expert opinion articles and published materials in the media

Academic distinctions and professional societies

Honors

  • Honorarium received from Springer Healthcare for contribution of expert opinion article, April 2020
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO) from the American Academy of Optometry (AAO), October 2019
  • Outstanding Research Scientist Poster Presentation from the Institute for Neural Engineering, University of Miami, May 2019
  • Indiana University School of Optometry Class of 2020 Associate Instructor of the year from the Indiana University Optometry Students’ Association (IUOSA), February 2018
  • Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Student Travel Fellowship Grant from the American Academy of Optometry (AAO), August 2017
  • Irvin M Borish Student Travel Fellowship Grant from the American Academy of Optometry (AAO), September 2015

Professional organizations/memberships

  • 2015 - Present Member, American Academy of Optometry (AAO)
  • 2020 - Present Member, Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART)
  • 2020 - Present Member, The Eye as a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Professional Interest Area (PIA)
  • 2015 – 2018 Member, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)