Systems To Help Blind See Again

Venture Capital Dispatch blog of the Wall Street Journal reported that two companies are working on vision systems to help some blind people see again.

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. based in Sylmar, Calif. is developing special eyeglasses that transmit pictures to a receiver embedded on the retina. The images are transferred by the optic nerve to the brain. The device is targeted to patients who have lost most of their vision as a result of retinal degeneration and whose nerve connections are still intact.

Israel's Nano Retina Inc. is also developing a similar device. The devices are priced from $50,000 to $100,000. Both companies are now working with insurance companies to have them pick up the costs for patients in need of such devices.

A third company, Optobionics Corp is pursuing a trickier and more costly approach: restoring function to the damaged retina by using the device to stimulate the rods and cones, rather than using the system as an adjunct to the retina. They are looking for funds to enter Phase III trials.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Trial of human retinal implants quite successful (news.cnet.com)
• Two high-tech approaches to restoring sight (healthzone.ca)
• Technology Behind Second Sight Retinal Prosthesis (medgadget.com)

Read more »

VA Rehab Center For Blinded Veterans To Be Named After Fallen Optometrist

A new rehab center for blinded service members will be named after Maj. Charles Robert Soltes Jr who was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.
The center is scheduled to be open in Long Beach next spring.
The bill to authorize that name was introduced by Rep. John Campbell, R-Irvine. Last month, it passed the House 417-0 and on Monday, April 19, it passed the Senate without the need for a roll call vote.
On Monday evening, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, spoke up for the measure.

"Major Soltes was a dedicated Army officer and an outstanding clinician, educator and military optometrist,'' Akaka said. "And naming the Long Beach VA blind rehabilitation center in honor of him will be a fitting tribute to his lasting memory.''

Read more »

Early Screening For Type 2 Diabetes Cost Effective

According to a study published online March 30 in The Lancet, early screening for type 2 diabetes is cost effective and prevents diabetes-related complications, including myocardial infarction and blindness.

By using mathematical modeling to assess several screening strategies, researchers determined the most cost-effective approach is to begin screening patients for type 2 diabetes between ages 30 and 45, with follow-up every three to five years. They arrived at this conclusion by studying a simulated population of 325,000 non-diabetic 30-year-olds using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 1999 through 2004.

Read more »

Monitoring May Be Enough For Some Patients At Risk For Glaucoma

Dallas Morning News reported that most patients who are at risk of developing glaucoma because of high eye pressure may just require monitoring.

In a 15-year study presented at the American Glaucoma Society's annual meeting and published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, participants with elevated eye pressure but no evidence of glaucoma were randomized to eye drops or were simply monitored.

In the second part of the study, during which all participants received eye drops, researchers found that in lower-risk patients there was not much difference between those taking drops the whole time and those who got drops seven years later.

Read more »

You thought contact lenses are to correct vision?

The UK's Daily Mail reports that thanks to advances in technology, contact lenses have been "transformed...into valuable health tools" that do more than just correct vision.
For example,

Red-tinted contact lenses have been developed to relieve the agony of migraines. They work by filtering out wavelengths of light that over-stimulate retinal receptors - lightsensitive tissues lining the inner surface of the eye - which results in head pain.

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, have created lenses that chemically react to glucose found in tears as a means of monitoring glucose levels in diabetics.

Read more »

Ipad = Eyestrain

The much awaited ipad is out this weekend. There has been lavish praise for it. The Wall Street Journal reports that experts are now debating which e-reader device is easier on the eyes.
While some e-readers provide printed book-like black text on a white background, others use a computer-like color screen that is backlit and uses a liquid crystal display. Although the choice of an e-reader may come down to personal preference, one eye expert maintains that all of the devices, no matter what their technology, may cause eyestrain. The solution to that, he recommends, is for people using the devices to take frequent breaks to rest their eyes.

Some people can have trouble with an e-paper screen, like the Kindle, where text looks like a dark shade of gray on top of a light shade of gray, says Mary Lou Jackson, director of vision rehabilitation at Harvard's Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. For those people, Dr. Jackson says "hands down I would vote for the iPad."

Our office dispenses a new lens that is aimed at relieving the stress on your visual system - Essilor Anti-Fatigue lenses are a patented design advanced single vision lens specially designed to relieve the symptoms of visual fatigue.
The lenses support the wearer's accommodation efforts with an additional plus power at near vision (+ 0.60 D) and with instant adaptation. This provides a greater level of comfort for the wearer as the natural accommodation pattern is retained.

Read more »

Home saliva test tells risk of AMD

Canadian company ArcticDx Inc. has introduced the availability of a test specifically designed to determine one's inherited risk for Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

The president of ArcticDX, Greg Hines has stated “This will be the first time that clinicians will be able to diagnose the eye condition macular degeneration before symptoms arise. This provides the opportunity for targeted patient education and routine eye examinations that offer early detection and disease management. Macular degeneration is a disease that can be arrested but it is not reversible. It is important to offer early treatment regiments that may arrest the eye disease before significant loss occurs.”

There is now a website dedicate to this product: Macula Risk

Read more »

WV Bill Would Allow Optometrists To Perform Laser Surgeries For Glaucoma

Reported in the Charleston Gazette: As amended in the" West Virginia Senate on Feb. 22, SB230, a controversial bill to allow optometrists to perform specified surgical procedures, would let optometrists perform three types of laser surgery to treat glaucoma.

While opponents of the bill such as Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone argued Monday that's three procedures too many.

Stollings, a physician in Madison, said he became ill undergoing one of the laser surgery procedures for glaucoma, and considers himself fortunate he was under the care of an ophthalmologist -- a medical doctor with advanced training in treatment of eye diseases -- rather than an optometrist.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall), who offered the amendment on the Senate floor, said there are safeguards built into the proposed legislation.

The bill went through the Government Organization Committee, but bypassed the Health and Human Resources Committee. The Register-Herald quotes optometrist David Holliday, OD, saying, "Optometrists are performing these procedures in certain states. We're not the exception by any means. We feel comfortable with those procedures and fully qualified to do those jobs

Read more »

Australia's Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australian scientists have identified one of the genetic causes of long-sightedness, a breakthrough that could lead to the development of a drug to treat vision loss. Long-sightedness - an inability to see things clearly when they are up close - affects about 10 per cent of the population.

Researchers led by Dr Paul Baird of CERA (affiliated with the University of Melbourne and is located at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital). identified changes in the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene which...are now suspected of playing a disruptive role in the proper development of the eye.

Read more »

Massachusetts would require vision tests for elderly drivers.

In a front-page story, the Boston Globe reports that "key" Massachusetts state lawmakers, facing public concern over a raft of highly publicized accidents involving older drivers, yesterday proposed requiring vision tests for drivers over 75 years old seeking to renew their licenses, and granting legal immunity to doctors who report that their patients are not competent to drive.

The Globe notes that the new bill does not require healthcare professionals to report patients, and says they would be immune from lawsuits in cases in which they decline to report incompetent drivers. The measure would also ban text messaging while driving and forbid all drivers under age 18 from using cell phones while behind the wheel.

The legislation is scheduled for a vote tomorrow in the House.

Read more »

Epimacular brachytherapy now used to treat AMD

Macular degeneration is an aggressive condition in which abnormal blood vessels form in the part of the eye called the macula. These blood vessels are very fragile and often leak blood and fluid, causing scar tissue to form.

This affects central vision, which is essential for everyday tasks such as reading and driving.

Sufferers struggle to recognize faces at a distance, have a blurred or blind spot in the centre of their vision, and straight lines can appear wavy.

A new treatment procedure called Epimacular brachytherapy, when used to treat patients requiring chronic anti-VEGF therapy, may reduce the burden of treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

According to results from a study presented at the joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology, a single procedure of epimacular brachytherapy can further improve visual acuity in a majority of this patient population while decreasing the number of injections required. Most important, 63% of patients enrolled in the study experienced improvement in their visual acuity while 50% of patients gained five or more letters of visual acuity at 6 months.

Preliminary results indicate that epimacular brachytherapy may help reduce treatment burden in a population of patients that are at high risk for visual decline, even if they are undergoing sustained anti-VEGF monotherapy, according to Pravin U. Dugel, MD, of Retinal Consultants of Arizona.

Eye experts in the UK are using epimacular brachytherapy to treat the wet form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). During outpatient surgery, surgeons place a "radioactive pellet" that travels down the inside of a probe into the eye, where it gives the macula a high dose of radiation designed to burn the abnormal blood vessels growing behind the retina

Read more »

According to a study published in the January issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, high caloric and sodium intake appear to be associated with the progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR) among African American patients with type 1 diabetes.

In a study population of 469 individuals at risk for the progression of DR, researchers found that baseline total caloric intake was significantly associated with a six-year incidence of vision-threatening Diabetic Retinopathy (either proliferative DR or macular edema [ME]) and of severe hard exudates, while high sodium intake at baseline was a significant, independent risk factor for six-year incidence of ME.

Limitations of this study include single measurement of nutrient intake, failure to adjust for multiple comparisons, and lack of generalizability to other populations.

Read more »

Researchers question causes of myopia

On its "Morning Edition" program, NPR reports on the search for the causes of myopia. Epidemiologist Susan Vitale, of the National Eye Institute, explained that a study she coauthored in December's Archives of Ophthalmology found about a 66 percent increase in myopia over 30 years.


NPR notes that near-work the things you do close up with your eyes, like reading or watching television, has been suspected as contributing to nearsightedness, but a study by researchers at the College of Optometry at the Ohio State University found that near-work had no influence. They did discover, however, that the amount of outdoor activity a child had an influence the development of myopia.

Now, researchers are studying whether outdoor light somehow changes the way the eye grows

Read more »

Image via Wikipedia

The New York Times reported that the decline of written language has become a reality for only the blind, as fewer and fewer visually impaired people learn Braille, many preferring instead to rely upon synthetic voice technology and computer-screen-reading software.

In fact, a report released last year by the National Federation of the Blind, an advocacy group with 50,000 members, said that less than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind Americans read Braille. The report found that while approximately half of all blind children learned Braille in the 1950s, today that number is as low as one in 10.

Increased number of blind children born with additional physical or mental handicaps, often the result of premature birth. And a large percentage of these students were partly sighted. There is a wonderful article explaining this so well in the Arizona Republic June 1, 2006 . The reporter interviewed Arielle Silverman President of the Arizona Association of Blind Students.

Read more »

Statin use is not associated with risk of developing advanced, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a study published in the Dec. issue of Ophthalmology.

In a study of 744 patients, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that among patients who had bilateral large drusen, use of the cholesterol-lowering medications was not associated with a higher or lower risk of progressing to advanced disease.

At baseline, all patients were at risk for advanced AMD but had not yet progressed to that stage.

At the end of the study, 39.8% of the participants reported using statins; about two-thirds starting taking the drugs during the trial.

The investigators theorized, however, that a protective effect may have been obscured because patients who are taking statins for cardiovascular disease are also at high risk for developing AMD.

Read more »

AMD treatment with NeoVista system

Wet AMD occurs when abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow under the macula, where they leak blood and fluid, causing scar tissue to form and vision to become impaired. With wet AMD, vision loss may occur faster and be more noticeable than with dry AMD. The longer the abnormal vessels leak or grow, the more detail vision will be lost. The earlier wet AMD is diagnosed, the better the patients' chance of preserving some or much of their central vision.

The first European patients have been treated for wet age-related macular degeneration with NeoVista's Vidion ANV Therapy System, an epimacular brachytherapy device that delivers a single dose of therapeutic radiation, the manufacturer announced in a press release.

Stanislao Rizzo, MD, of S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy, treated the initial group of patients with the Vidion ANV Therapy System. Unlike previous radiation therapies for wet AMD, NeoVista's innovative device delivers the peak dose of strontium-90 beta ionizing radiation directly to the lesion minimizing exposure to the surrounding tissue. The minimally invasive procedure utilizes a device similar in size to a needle, to deliver a highly targeted dose of radiation directly to the area of the retina affected by wet AMD. Importantly for patients, the systemic radiation exposure is minimal, as the effective dose to the entire body from NeoVista's epimacular brachytherapy device is less then a routine chest x-ray.

The Vidion system is undergoing phase 3 clinical trials for U.S. Food and Drug Administration marketing approval. The device proved safe and effective in preliminary clinical trials, the release said.

Read more »

Blood test to identify retinopathy in Type 1 Diabetics

A routine blood test may identify juvenile-onset diabetic patients at heightened risk for proliferative retinopathy.

In a multivariate analysis of data on 426 people followed over 18 years from Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications Study, researchers found that each increment of 1 g/dL in hemoglobin was associated with a linear 29% increase in risk for retinopathy in men with type 1 diabetes (95% CI 8% to 54%), and a quadratic 10% risk increase in women (95% CI 0% to 20%).

Notably, only diastolic pressure and glycated hemoglobin were predictive of retinopathy in multivariate analysis for both sexes, while systolic pressure predicted retinopathy in women (HR 1.03 per mm Hg), but not in men.

The researchers noted that the difference in the nature of the relationship between hemoglobin and retinopathy risk between sexes -- linear in men, quadratic in women -- may just be a statistical fluke, arising from the small number of men with hemoglobin levels below 13.5 g/dL.

A U-shaped relationship, indicating increased retinopathy risk for both low and high levels of hemoglobin, is likely to apply to both sexes, they said

Read more »

Combined drug to treat nasal and ocular allergies

Image by aarrgh via Flickr

A study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology and presented at an allergy conference, showed that the combination of azelastine (Astelin or Astepro) and fluticasone propionate (Flonase) gave significantly better nasal symptom relief than placebo or either drug alone.
Azelastine is an antihistamine and mast cell stabilizer that is also sold as eye drops for allergic conjunctivitis under another brand name. Fluticasone is a synthetic glucosteroid that is used as an anti-inflammatory.

Investigators enrolled 610 patients with moderate-to-severe allergic rhinitis, randomly assigning them to get either azelastine, fluticasone, the combination nasal spray, or a placebo nasal spray twice a day for two weeks. They discovered that the combination was significantly better than either drug alone or placebo at relieving nasal symptoms, but the two drugs delivered together -- a combination dubbed MP29-02 -- were not significantly better than either drug as monotherapy for ocular symptoms

Read more »

Role of dietary fat in AMD

MedPage Today reported that, according to a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, " fat-filled diet may put younger women at risk for future age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

After analyzing dietary fat intake measured in 1,787 women, researchers found that women younger than 75 with the highest total fat intake (about 43% of daily calories) had 70% higher odds of intermediate AMD than those in the lowest quintile (21% fat calories).

Notably, photographic assessment for AMD revealed that 4% of the women had intermediate disease -- defined by extensive drusen deposits on the retina or optic nerve head as well as pigmentary abnormalities.

But as in some prior studies, macular degeneration risk rose with omega-6 intake (OR 2.0 for high versus low quintiles, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.5) after adjustment for age, and other fat intakes. The same was true for younger and older women alike. Omega-6 may promote inflammation, "which is thought to contribute to retinal damage that may promote age-related macular degeneration," the researchers said.

Read more »

Researchers develop photochromic contact lenses

Image by StarvingFox via Flickr

MIT's Technology Review reports Jackie Ying, director of the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore as having developed an UV-responsive, or photochromic, lenses that darken when exposed to ultraviolet light, protecting the eyes against the sun's damaging rays, and return to normal in UV's absence.

The lenses contain a novel polymer laced with an intricate network of nano-sized tunnels that can be filled with dyes. Early studies have demonstrated that the technology performs faster than the transition sunglasses on the market today. The investigators hope to have photochromic contact lenses commercially available within a year.

Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter at the molecular level and is measured by a nanometre scale that is between one and 100 nanometres. A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometres thick.

Read more »

Cataract surgery may not speed progression of AMD

Image via Wikipedia

According to a study published in the Nov. issue of the journal Archives of Ophthalmology, cataract surgery doesn't appear to speed the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Investigators examined 71 eyes of patients with non-neovascular AMD before, and at one week and one year after they had cataract surgery. They discovered progression to neovascular AMD occurred in 4.6 percent of the eyes between one week and one year after cataract surgery, compared with three percent for cataract-free eyes.

Medscape reported that an accompanying editorial by Barbara E. K. Klein, MD, MPH pointed out that several reports have shown an association between cataract surgery and AMD since the late 1980s, and that the diversity of findings in no small part begins with differences in study design.

Nevertheless, discussing these inconsistencies will help patients and their doctors make a more informed decision about the risks for progression to early AMD and development of late AMD after cataract surgery

Read more »

HbA1c better predictor retinopathy than FPG in US population

According to a study published in Diabetes Care, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is a better predictor of retinopathy prevalence in the general population than fasting plasma glucose (FPG). Diabetes is a disease that occurs when the pancreas does not secrete enough insulin or the body is unable to process it properly. Insulin is the hormone that regulates the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood. Diabetes can affect children and adults. Patients with diabetes are more likely to develop eye problems such as cataract or glaucoma., but the main threat to vision is its effect on the retina.

Researchers analyzed data from 1,066 people, including values for HbA1c, FPG, and 45 degree color digital retinal images. After using area under the receiver operator curve analysis...the team found that HbA1c was a significantly stronger discriminator of retinopathy than FPG.

While diabetic retinopathy, or more specifically its associated threshold FPG value of 7.0 mmol/l, has been used in diagnostic criteria for type 2 diabetes by the American Diabetes Association, this study confirms...that HbA1c levels could be a superior measure for predicting retinopathy risk to FPG and may be more appropriate for use in diagnosing type 2 diabetes, the authors said.

Cheng et al conclude: “While the HbA1c and FPG levels of 5.5% and 5.8 mmol/l provide start points at which retinopathy prevalence increases most precipitously, HbA1c appears to discriminate between the presence and absence of retinopathy at least as well as FPG and offers some advantages over FPG.”

Read more »

A novel, "dual optic" accommodating intraocular lens improved intermediate distance vision and contrast sensitivity under low light conditions compared with some multifocal lenses, researchers said.

The findings, reported in two studies from the same research group here at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting, suggest that the new generation of lens will hold functional advantages for patients undergoing cataract surgery.

First generation monofocal lenses were often used to create "bifocal" vision, with the lens in one eye set for distance vision and the other set for near objects. To overcome the poor depth perception this created, the next generation of multifocal lenses allowed both eyes simultaneously to focus on far or near objects for "more natural vision with depth perception.

Andrea Galvis, MD, of the Fundación Valle del Lili in Cali, Colombia compared three of these "premium" intraocular lenses with an experimental lens (Synchrony) designed with a dual optic to theoretically provide a more accommodative amplitude. The study included patients given the same lens in both eyes during different "eras" of lens implantation. For a functional, real life performance test of contrast sensitivity, patients were given a reading speed test under low-light conditions.

The difference was significant for Tecnis and Synchrony compared with ReZoom and ReSTOR at P<0.001.>

Synchrony had the highest contrast sensitivity of all the lenses.

Read more »

Vegetable intake during pregnancy may prevent diabetes in unborn child

USA Today reports that, according to experts, an increasing number of children are being diagnosed with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. According to Ed Kraus, an associate professor at Chicago Kent Law School who works with the American Diabetes Association (ADA), many schools are...falling short in coping with these students, particularly since 30% of schools have a part-time nurse, and 25% have no nurse.

Now, the ADA has a Safe at School Campaign to help families and schools create support plans, useful because everyone from cafeteria workers and bus drivers to gym teachers and the principal should know about a child's medical condition and what to do in case of an emergency, endocrinologist Frederick Schwenk, MD, says.

Diabetes risk in children may be linked to mothers' vegetable intake during pregnancy. HealthDay reported that, according to a study published online in the journal Pediatric Diabetes, children born to mothers who ate plenty of vegetables during pregnancy are less likely to have type 1 diabetes.

This is the first study to show a link between vegetable intake during pregnancy and the risk of the child subsequently developing type 1 diabetes, but more studies of various kinds will be needed before we can say anything definitive,” says study author and clinical nutritionist Hilde Brekke from the Sahlgrenska Academy

Swedish researchers studied 6,000 five-year-olds and found that three percent either had fully developed type 1 diabetes or had elevated levels of antibodies that indicate a risk of developing the disease. The investigators found that the risk was twice as high in children whose mothers rarely ate vegetables during pregnancy, and was lowest among children whose mothers ate vegetables every day of their pregnancy.

Read more »

Femtosecond-pulse lasers appear promising for cataract surgery

Image via Wikipedia

Femtosecond-pulse lasers similar to those used for LASIK may take over manual incision and phacoemulsification in cataract surgery.

Researchers from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute said that femtosecond laser incisions achieved perfect diameter accuracy in 100% of cases, while only 10% of surgeons' manual cuts were within 0.25 mm error. Investigators compared 60 manual and 60 LenSx femtosecond laser cataract surgeries done at the same center, and found that laser capsulotomy size, shape, and reproducibility were all statistically significantly better than manual capsulotomy.

Read more »

The Wall Street Journal "Health Blog" reported that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) appears late yesterday to have changed its mind about reimbursement for small amounts of Avastin [bevacizumab], which physicians use to treat patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Avastin, which is similar to Lucentis [ranibizumab], is used off-label to manage AMD, but unlike Lucentis, which costs approximately $2,000 per injection, Avastin costs only about $30 per injection, making it considerably cheaper. Late yesterday, however, CMS announced without explanation that as of Jan. 1, it will reverse its Oct. 1 decision to reimburse Avastin at approximately $7 per dose, and will return to its previous higher reimbursement for the drug.

MedPage Today explained that even after CMS lowered its reimbursement for Avastin on Oct. 1, "reimbursement for Lucentis...remained unchanged at a whopping $2,039," thereby creating "a disincentive for using a drug that has been estimated to save Medicare $1.5 billion each year in treating macular degeneration alone.

Read more »

MedPage Today reported that, according to a study presented at an ophthalmology meeting, "intravitreal injections of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors can cause persistent hypertension in the eye after only one treatment," a complication affecting 3.45 percent of patients given bevacizumab (Avastin) or ranibizumab (Lucentis) for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
After "retrospectively" looking at 116 wet AMD patients treated with either VEGF inhibitor at their tertiary referral center from 2006 through 2008, researchers found that four patients developed persistent ocular hypertension. However, the ocular hypertension usually responds to antiglaucoma medication, though it returns if the drops are discontinued, the investigators said.

Read more »

Field Defects early indication of Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906. We know it
Is a progressive and fatal brain disease
Is the most common form of dementia
Has no current cure.
A standard eye exam technique can throw light on early detection of this condition. And that test is Visual Field.
One-sided defects, (also referred to as right or left partial homonymous hemianopsia) on visual field testing were a giveaway in 80% of cases with the visual variant of Alzheimer's disease, according to Pierre-Francois Kaeser, MD, and Francois-Xavier Borruat, MD, both of the Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Although we know that there is no specific cure, the sooner patients are referred to a neurologist the better, since early diagnosis and treatment may result in a better end prognosis.

Read more »

Gene therapy may improve vision in Leber's congenital amaurosis

The CBS Evening News reported that there is good news for the more than 10 million Americans who suffer from some type of vision disorder. In an experimental gene therapy trial at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers used DNA from a DNA bank to create a functioning gene that was missing in 12 patients who were legally blind. The gene was then injected into the eye with a thin needle, which created a missing protein inside the faulty retina, helping to restore vision.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the finding, published in the Lancet, suggests it may be possible to produce similar improvements in a much larger number of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. The participants had Leber's congenital amaurosis, and were born with severely impaired vision, which typically deteriorates until patients "are totally blind."

The Wall Street Journal reports that although the treatment did not restore normal sight in any participants, there was some improvement in all of them. Six participants reported enough vision to no longer be considered legally blind, while four children achieved significant recovery of vision.

According to Katherine High, a gene therapy researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, all of the participants had mutations disabling a gene called RPE65 that produces a protein essential to vision, Bloomberg News reported. Study author Jean Bennett noted that patients improved on standard vision tests, such as reading eye charts, and their pupils had a much greater response when light was shined in their eyes after being treated.

The study showed that the youngest participant's treated eye became 10,000 times more sensitive to light, as measured by the pupil's ability to constrict, while the eyes of the adults became hundreds of times more sensitive, at best, thePhiladelphia Inquirer reported. And, although expectations for patients in their 20s were low, those patients "improved more than the researchers expected."

The authors noted that the visual recovery noted in the children confirms the hypothesis that efficacy will be improved if treatment is applied before retinal degeneration has progressed, HealthDay reported. While patients younger than 20 had larger visual field recoveries than older patients, the study also showed that pupillary response...improved in the injected eye of all 11 patients tested. BBC News, the UK's Telegraph, and AFP also covered the story.

Read more »

The New York Times that researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the VA Boston Healthcare System, and Cornell University have demonstrated retinal implants that they say will resist the jarring of daily use.

The implant contains a tiny array of electrodes whose tips slide into a snug berth just beneath the retina...and are held in place by natural suction. These electrodes prompt the remains of retinal circuits to transmit signals to the brain, allowing patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that damages the rods and cones in the eye, and for macular degeneration, which also affects these photoreceptors, to detect light and dark and to find the edges of objects.

Read more »

Retinal changes may be associated with Alzheimer's

Neuroscientists at the University of California-Irvine have discovered that the retinas of laboratory mice, whose genes have been altered so they develop Alzheimer's disease, experience changes similar to those in the brains of humans who have the disease.
Alzheimer's, affects over 5 million people in the U.S. and is the leading cause of elderly dementia. Brain imaging techniques are useful, but retinal imaging could be less invasive, less expensive and easier to perform.
For a study appearing in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology, UCI neuroscientist Zhiqun Tan and colleagues analyzed the retinas of Alzheimer's mice that had been treated with immunotherapy.
Specifically, in both the retinas and brains, there is an accumulation of amyloid plaque lesions, a hallmark of the disease in brain imaging tests. Researchers said that the findings will be crucial to developing retinal imaging technology that could help diagnose and treat people with Alzheimer's Disease.

Read more »

Michigan considering doctor's tax.

First the Auto Industry; now the medical profession.

Michigan has a great plan to move the rest of the population to the other 49 states!

The AP reports, "Debate continues over whether Michigan should put a three percent tax on doctors' gross receipts to raise more money for low-income healthcare programs" as the Republican-led state Senate held a hearing on the issue. Opponents say the tax would drive doctors out of the state and reduce access to healthcare, but supporters say the tax would give physicians who see Medicaid patients higher reimbursement rates instead of the 8 percent cut contained in Michigan's current budget plan.

Michigan doctors warn new tax may hurt their business. Michigan's Howell Daily Press & Argus reports some Michigan physicians in private practice are warning a three percent tax proposed under MI House Bill 5386 may force them out of business. While proponents assure the additional federal reimbursements that will be afforded by the tax revenue will offset at least some of the cost of the new tax, some doctors say they have stopped accepting Medicaid altogether. Dr. John Vassallo, a physician in Genoa Township, said there's no guarantee the state will come through on promised reimbursements, which he said are frequently denied.

Read more »

The San Francisco Chronicle "City Brights" blog reported that anyone who spends two or more uninterrupted hours per day in front of a computer screen -- regardless of size -- is prone to Computer Vision Syndrome.
The condition is defined by the American Optometric Association as the complex of eye and vision problems related to near work, which are experienced during or related to computer use.

The most common symptoms associated with Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) are

• eyestrain
• headaches
• blurred vision
• dry eyes
• neck and shoulder pain

These symptoms may be caused by:

• poor lighting
• glare on the computer screen
• improper viewing distances
• poor seating posture
• uncorrected vision problems
• a combination of these factors

Currently, Dr. Harvey Moscot, a renowned Optometrist in New York City and a CVS specialist, is conducting a study to evaluate the effectiveness of specialized lenses for the reduction of CVS symptoms.

Read more »

Bedside Eye Exam Outperforms MRI in Identifying Stroke

Image via Wikipedia

Medscape reported that, at a meeting of the American Neurological Association, researchers using a bedside eye exam showed how they were able to outperform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and flag 100% of strokes.
In their prospective cross-sectional study, investigators examined 101 patients at high risk for acute vesticular syndrome. The researchers administered 3 tests checking vestibule-ocular-reflex on horizontal head impulse, nystagmus, and ocular alignment during prism cross-cover. All patients underwent neuroimaging. The researchers only misclassified 1 out of 25 patients who had a vestibular disease that was a benign condition of the inner ear, while 12% of patients who had a stroke identified on a later MRI had an initially false-negative result.

Read more »

Image by pmorgan via Flickr

Following a MedPage Today story, HealthDay reported that increased survival of extremely pre-term infants has led to a greater number of babies with vision problems caused by abnormal development of blood vessels in the retina, according to a study published in the Oct. issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Swedish researchers examined data on 506 extremely pre-term infants (born before 27 weeks of gestation) who survived until their first eye examination and found that 368 (72.7 percent) had retinopathy of prematurity -- 37.9 percent with mild cases and 34.8 percent with severe cases. Notably, gestational age was a more significant risk factor for retinopathy of prematurity than birth weight.

Read more »