25 years of hard work has paid off for Professor Jack Wall and his team at the Sydney Medical School inside Nepean Hospital.

Prof Wall has been researching ways to detect the development of the debilitating eye condition, exophthalmos, which is where a person eyes abnormally protrude or bulge.

Exophthalmos is a symptom of Grave’s Disease, an autoimmune disorder that leads to overactivity of the thyroid gland.

Prof Wall’s latest test – which has been under development since 2004 – has proven to be a groundbreaking success.

“Lately the work has been confirmed by other researchers so it should become of interest to the “poppy eyes” community world-wide,” said Prof Wall.

“This is the only test for thyroid eye disease. It is particularly important as it may explain the development of eye and eyelid muscle damage in patients with thyroid disease.”

Prof Wall said the test would allow medical specialists to be able to detect the eye disease early and even allow its prevention in at risk patients with thyroid disease.

Prof Wall and his team’s studies follow the notion that the eye disease occurs because of reaction against eye muscle fibres and orbital fibroblast in the orbit, thereby causing the eye swelling redness and damage that is ‘thyroid eye disease'.

“Smoking and vitamin D deficiency may also play roles and there are vague genetic factors,” said Prof Wall.

Grave’s Disease affects around one per cent of local women and is most common in women over the age of 20.

However, it can occur at any age and in some cases may affect men as well.

- Emma Grodzicki