Ophthalmology

In a 30-year retrospective study of a cohort of patients with uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), risk factors for the development of hypotony during follow-up were associated with more severe uveitis. Because JIA-associated uveitis is often asymptomatic, hypotony may be a key indicator of uveitis in JIA patients.

Despite established criteria for patients at risk for vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy from the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), referral rates don’t reflect the number of people who should visit optometrists, ophthalmologists, and retina specialists.

It’s been unclear whether statins affect the development of diabetic microvascular complications, therefore, Alam Park, MD, from the Ajou University School of Medicine in Korea, and colleagues set out to uncover just that.

Suleyman Kaynak, MD, and colleagues from the Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey, evaluated an alternative therapy for patients who do not respond well to intravitreal ranibizumab.

As new treatments and procedures are developed in the field of retinal medicine the American Society of Retina Specialists is launching its own journal to help its members and others in the field advance patient care.

For those doctors who go through the extended training to be certified retina specialists there is a wealth of knowledge to learn in order to provide the best care for patients.

An analysis presented at the 34th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS 2016) in San Francisco, California looked at “real world” outcomes with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Baruch Kuppermann, MD, PhD, and colleagues looked at gene expression modifications in retinal Müller cells treated with anti-VEGFs at the 34th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS 2016) in San Francisco, California.

David Eichenbaum, MD, an ophthalmologist from Florida, presented data from the HARBOR study at the 34th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS 2016) in San Francisco, California.

Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, who served as FDA Commissioner and CMS Administrator, will be the keynote speaker at the fall meeting of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, presented by The American Journal of Managed Care. The meeting will be October 20-21, 2016, in Philadelphia.

A Danish electronic records review found that the need for Eylea or Lucentis injections for wet age-related macular degeneration did not change after cataract surgery. Also, vision improved more when the time from last injection to cataract surgery was shorter than when it was longer.

Lucentis can improve DME that has proven resistant to laser therapy, Trivaris, and Avastin, according to a retrospective review of chart data from the Indianapolis University School of Medicine.

Successfully measuring the eye pressure of people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) indicated to scientists for the first time a relationship between sleep apnea and glaucoma.

Patients in the open-label extension phase of RIDE/RISE who needed Lucentis less frequently tended to have less advanced diabetic macular edema (DME) at extension baseline and to respond better to initial treatment, according to post hoc analysis. These results suggest that earlier treatment of center-involving DME with loss of visual acuity may decrease its long-term treatment burden.

The rate of endophthalmitis after more than 90,000 intravitreal injections was found to be approximately 1 in 3000 in a retrospective study of a consecutive series of cases at a multicenter, retina-only practice. Prophylactic use of topical antibiotics was not found to decrease this rate.

Although intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents has become the therapeutic mainstay for diabetic macular edema and neovascular age-related macular degeneration, it poses a risk of noninfectious uveitis or infectious endopthalmitis.

A retrospective chart review study showed that the location of subfoveal fibrovascular scarring in relation to the retinal pigment epithelium correlated with visual outcome in eyes successfully treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

The FDA approved a new medication for dry eye disease, the first product in a new class of drugs called lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1.

Regular users of oral bisphosphonates had a higher risk of developing wet age-related macular degeneration than non-users, according to results of a recent Canadian study, and the longer the use, the greater the increased risk.

Boosting the potency of broccoli-related compound indole-3-carbinol (I3C) ten-fold, proved to be a viable treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Intraocular injections of methotrexate have been used successfully to treat indeterminate and sarcoid uveitis as well as age-related macular degeneration. Methotrexate injection’s record of success in treating these inflammatory eye diseases prompted researchers to evaluate its efficacy in treating persistent diabetic macular edema.

Placement of the Ozurdex sustained-release dexamethasone implant in 29 patients with persistent diabetic macular edema resulted in a significant improvement in visual acuity and a significant decrease in central macular thickness 6 months after implantation.

The FDA approved a corneal implant to correct near-sightedness.

Patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration have shown a suboptimal response to ranibizumab over time. Several studies have established that switching from ranibizumab to aflibercept enhanced visual acuity and resulted in anatomic improvement in many of these patients, but the factors determining visual outcomes remained unclear.

The introduction of anti-VEGF drugs should have prevented vision loss and even blindness in many diabetics. But physicians are not using these drugs as frequently as researchers recommend, a study finds.

Cold hard facts remain absent on if cataract surgery leads progression in age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can be treated with intravitreal ranibizumab or intravitreal aflibercept. Researchers in Japan found they are equivalent in terms of how long patients can go before retreatment, but that one confers better vision than the other.

High-density lipoproteins have long been believed to play a role in the development of age-related macular degeneration. What about HDL?

Genetic factors are at work in determining who gets age-related macular degeneration, and its progression, a German team reported.

In patients diagnosed with psoriasis, disease severity has been strongly associated with developing a higher risk of comorbidities affecting the kidney, liver, and pancreas.