Possible cure for macular degeneration

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There is new hope for people who suffer from macular degeneration.

Macular degeneration causes the center of your vision area to blur and deteriorate, but researchers say replacing cells in the filling wall of the retina could cure the condition.

"You're actually giving them a cell. This is a whole entity if you want to call it anything, and that's just a different way of looking at treating people. It truly is regeneration in terms of putting something back that is gone, so it's a major step forward," said Peter Coffey at the University College London.

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MSNBC reports that, according to Carmen Bunde, program director with Prevent Blindness Nebraska, blurry vision in a child can cause brain damage if the vision is not corrected. In some cases, amblyopia is to blame. It's often called 'lazy eye,' because weak eye muscles make the eye drift to the side, eventually disrupting vision.

Amblyopia is responsible for more vision loss in people age 45 and younger than all other eye disorders combined. The article details how trained volunteers with Prevent Blindness Nebraska screen more than 3,000 low income children a year, many of them...preschool age, for eye disorders. Children who fail the eye exams are sent to their doctors for follow-up care. Approximately one in 20 preschoolers are referred to eye doctors after the screenings. Experts point out that the best time to catch eye disorders is between the ages of three and five years old.

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Folic acid, B vitamins may reduce AMD risk in some women

Following a USA Today story, Nicholas Bakalar writes in the New York Times Vital Signs column that, according to a study published Feb. 23 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, vitamin B supplements may reduce the risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), at least in women with cardiovascular disease or at risk for it.

For the study, researchers from Harvard University followed 5,205 female healthcare professionals with cardiovascular disease or three or more risk factors for it, who were randomly assigned to take either a placebo or a combination of folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12. After about seven years of follow-up, the investigators found 55 cases of AMD in the treatment group, and 82 among those who took a placebo. Specifically, the authors found that those who took the vitamins had a 41 percent reduced risk for significant degeneration, and theorized that the vitamins may reduce blood levels of the amino acid homocysteine, which has been implicated in vision loss.

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Imaging-analysis technique allows diagnosis of diabetes-related eye problems over the Internet.

Wired News reports that an imaging-analysis technique developed by researchers at the University of Tennessee for finding defects in semiconductors is now being used to diagnose the eye problems associated with diabetes over the Internet. Pictures of the retinas of patients with diabetes are uploaded to a server that compares them to a database of thousands of other images of healthy and diseased eyes.

Algorithms can assign a disease level to the new eye image by looking at the same factors, mainly damage to blood vessels, that an eye doctor would. Currently, more than 25 million Americans suffer from diabetes, which, if left untreated, can cause blindness, among other physical problems. This new technology could help reduce the cost and increase the availability of screening for the eye problems that impair the vision of thousands of patients each year.

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Illinois' Belleville News Democrat (2/12) reported that a new device called the Trabectome speeds glaucoma operations and post-surgical recovery.

The device works by reducing pressure in the eye without the need for the filtration or shunts used in traditional glaucoma surgery, allowing surgeons to remove tissue so fluid more easily drains out of the eye. While traditional glaucoma surgery usually means several weeks of recovery with no lifting or bending, the recovery with the Trabectome normally takes about a week. But, not all glaucoma patients...are good candidates for the new device. According to glaucoma researcher Carla J. Siegfried, M.D., patients in the early to moderate stages of the disease are the best candidates

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Antioxidants & degenerative eye diseases.

According to findings published in the Feb. 2 advance online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, antioxidants may help preserve vision lost in degenerative eye diseases, and a new cell-based gene therapy technique...could eventually offer another option for arresting vision loss from these diseases.
A team from the Scripps Research Institute found that debilitating eye damage in rodents is caused by increased oxidative chemical activity sparked by...new blood vessel growth, rather than simply by the new blood vessel growth itself.
Next, the team was able to identify two remarkably effective treatments. One of these options is simply giving the mice doses of antioxidants orally in order to counterbalance the oxidative damage to neurons, blocking further deterioration in the eyes of treated mice. Then, by using a novel twist to standard gene therapy techniques, the researchers were able to deliver directly to the neurons in question a protein that protects neurons, effectively fortifying them against the onslaught of oxidants.

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Spectacle Power adjusted by injecting fluid into the lenses

On its website, BBC News (2/10) reports that a retired Oxford University physics professor has designed adjustable glasses that can be used by people in the developing world. The glasses are altered by injecting tiny quantities of fluid into the lenses, which means that people can have glasses that suit their eyes without the need for a prescription. According to BBC News, the invention should enable millions of people in poorer parts of the world to get glasses for the first time.

Get more info from http://www.adaptive-eyewear.org/home/

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Cataracts are the most common age-related eye disease, with more than 17 percent of Americans age 40 and over affected. The main cause, aside from plain old aging, is exposure to ultraviolet B radiation in sunlight. People can reduce their risk and delay the need for surgery to remove a clouded lens by wearing sunglasses and brimmed hats while outside.

At present, cataract surgery has been refined so that the super small incisions are self-sealing. Besides cataracts, eye conditions such as glaucoma and macular degeneration also affect seniors, although they are more insidious. Typically, medications are used to slow the damage caused by glaucoma. Meanwhile, high doses of supplements, including vitamins C and E and beta carotene and the mineral zinc, have been found to slow the progression of AMD in several trials.

This report was published in the US News and World Report

It was also noted that people with diabetes have added reason to worry: Diabetic retinopathy affects some 40 percent of people with the disease, with 8 percent of all diabetics facing significant vision loss. Keeping your blood sugar levels under control reduces the risk of harm.

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Glaucoma Associated With Reading Impairments in Elderly

A study by the Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Institute found people with glaucoma in both eyes (bilateral) read 29 words per minute slower than those without glaucoma. They also were almost twice as likely to have reading impairment.

Those with glaucoma in one eye (unilateral) had rates about on par with those without the condition, which can cause eye damage and vision loss.

The findings were published in the January issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

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On the front of its Style section, the Washington Post reports that after losing an eye in a car accident, Tanya Vlach, of San Francisco, CA, wants a new computer eye to replace the natural one she lost. After she put a request for help out on the Internet, Vlach was deluged by tons and tons of responses from hundreds of young techies, some of whom wanted to fit a cell phone camera...into Vlach's beautiful but merely decorative blue acrylic orb.

Vlach settled upon Frank Oliver, 37, whose start-up company, Artisan Robotics, focuses on cutting-edge materials science and power systems for aerospace and military robots. Oliver believes it may take two or three years to develop the eye.

James Weiland, a retinal prosthesis researcher at the University of Southern California's Artificial Retina Project, said the project is not insurmountable, but so many components have to come together that it would be...a challenge.

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Stem cells to treat corneal blindness

On its website, BBC News reported that researchers at Scotland's Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh, working with the Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow, will work together using an innovative technique involving adult stem cells to treat patients with corneal blindness. Approximately 20 patients will take part in the initial tests, using cells cultivated before being transplanted onto the surface of the cornea. But, unlike the more controversial embryonic stem-cell research, the technique takes stem cells from dead adult donors. Not long ago, in trials at the University of Pennsylvania, subjects with inherited blindness experienced dramatic improvements in vision after a corrective gene was injected into the eye. The Scottish researchers hope to emulate the success of this previous study.

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Choices for Presbyopia Correction

Presbyopia is the slow deterioration of close vision and is most commonly attributed to aging. The condition is caused by a loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens, the structure behind the iris that enables the eye to focus on objects at various distances. People with presbyopia have the choice of correction their vision with reading glasses, monovision contact lenses (one eye is corrected for distance, one for up close), or laser surgery.

In the New York Times SSkin Deep column, Camille Sweeney observed that as the population ages, experts in the eye-care industry say the potential for the presbyopia correction market is huge.

In early trials is a treatment called the transscleral light therapy system, pioneered by a company called Oculatek: in which a laser device emits a low level of light aimed at strengthening the ciliary muscle...under the whites of the eyes. Another option is refractive lens exchange, an outpatient surgical procedure which involves 'replacing the natural crystalline lens with an artificial one'.

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Scientists working on next generation of artificial retinas

McClatchy reported that researchers at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California are testing artificial retinas that they hope can restore partial sight to people who've lost their vision to the most common causes of blindness, retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and macular degeneration.

RP ruins peripheral vision, while macular degeneration causes a blurred or blind spot in central vision. Both conditions irreparably damage the retina, the light-sensitive patch at the back of the eye that converts images into signals and relays them the brain.

Scientists now aim to create sensitive devices that can be implanted in the eye and will let previously blind people recognize faces and read large print. These artificial retinas are still experimental and won't be available for commercial use for years, however. Currently, the Argus Two artificial retina is being tested on 17 blind people in the U.S. and Europe. In the meantime, scientists at the Energy Department's National Laboratories are creating a third-generation artificial retina, and hope to begin human trials in 2011

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Artificial corneas and retinas

The Miami Herald reports that in developing countries, the need for donor corneas largely exceeds the supply, making the laboratory-developed artificial cornea all the more important.

Researchers from Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute have been at the forefront of its development. Eduardo Alfonso, M.D., interim chair of the institute, explained that doctors prefer donor corneas, because artificial ones are still in the testing phase, though results in the past few years have been good. And, like the human cornea, the synthetic cornea is made in the same curved shape.

Even though artificial corneas are not yet perfect, Alfonso and his team are also starting new projects, including development of an artificial retina and artificial vision technology, in which images processed by the brain would use information that doesn't come from the eyes -- especially useful for those who are completely blind.

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Blind and dream

I have been asked this question before and have struggled to give a rational answer.

In the New York Times Really? column, Anahad O'Connor raised the question of whether people who don't see images during the day might see them when they shut their eyes at night.

According to studies led by a psychologist at the University of Hartford...people born without the ability to see report no visual imagery in their dreams. Instead, they experience a heightening of taste, touch, and smell. They also report a higher percentage of dreams that involve mishaps related to traveling or transportation, perhaps reflecting one of their biggest daytime concerns: safely finding their way around.

Researchers also say that people who go blind before age five rarely experience visual imagery in their dreams. Those who lose their vision after age five, however, often continue to see in their dreams, though the frequency and clarity diminish over time.

In regards to dreams, my favorite quote is by a former President of India, Dr Abjul Kalam “Dreams are not what you see in your sleep, but dreams are that, which do not allow you to sleep”. Fantastic!

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Patch versus Drops in treating Lazy eye

In the New York Times Well blog, Tara Parker-Pope wrote that a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology compares patch therapy for amblyopia with .a weekly regimen of medicated eye drops that essentially work as a patch by blurring vision in the stronger eye.

Mitchell M. Scheiman, O.D., FCOVD, of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia, (now called Salus University) and colleagues, conducted a randomized study of nearly 200 children, and found that giving the eye drops on the weekend worked about as well as wearing a patch for two hours a day. The eye drops, which contain atropine, work by preventing a muscle in the stronger eye from constricting. As a result, when a child tries to read or focus on something close, the good eye is blurred. The child's weaker eye is forced to focus and work harder, which helps it strengthen over time.

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Diabetes-related eye diseases may skyrocket over next four decades

The New York Times reports that, according to a study published Dec. 9 in the Archives of Ophthalmology, diabetes-related eye diseases will skyrocket over the next four decades, with elderly Hispanics and blacks hit hardest because of higher rates of Type 2 diabetes.

In particular, the report projects that the number of adults 40 and older with diabetic retinopathy -- the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults -- will reach 16 million in 2050, up from 5.5 million in 2005. In addition, the study estimates that the number of diabetics with glaucoma will quadruple to 1.4 million, while the number with cataracts will more than triple to 10 million. Study author Jinan B. Saaddine, M.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the findings are a call for to do more to prevent diabetes to start with.

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Childrens eye exam

A neat video on Fox that describes problems an eye exams detects in children...

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news no parent wants to hear!

Optometrist finds no evidence computer use by children leads to myopia.

Canada's Canwest News reports that the Internet abounds with articles allegedly written by eye-care professionals stating that many ophthalmologists believe increased computer use by children puts them at risk for early development of nearsightedness, or myopia.

In fact, these same articles draw little or no difference between myopia, in which far vision is permanently diminished and must be corrected with lenses or laser surgery, and a temporary condition called computer vision syndrome (CVS).

Optometrist Eric DesGroseilliers, O.D., of the Ottawa Optometric Clinic, pointed out that, in over 12 years of practice, during which he has examined the eyes of four to five children a day, he has been unable to attribute any increases in myopia to computer use. Instead, he believes any recent increase in myopia diagnoses is likely because parents are better educated about eye health, and children receive professional eye care earlier. CVS, however, is a temporary discomfort caused by prolonged computer use. Eye strain, headaches, temporary blurred vision, and other complaints make up the symptoms of CVS, but in general they are not considered that serious.

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