Press Archive
- Charles Francis: Weakening eye surgery laws places WV patients in jeopardy
- Mark D. Mayle, MD - 2022 Secretariat Award Recipients
- Dr. Larry Schwab recognized with 2020 International Blindness Prevention Award
- Wow Moment with Joseph A. LoCasio | Bio-Tissue | #WowWednesdays
- WVU Today | Moore, Oppe named recipients of Heebink award for Distinguished Service
- Cornea Transplant Restores Young Boy’s Sight After Fishing Accident
- Keep your eyes healthy and safe in the workplace
- Glaucoma Awareness Month
- Ophthalmologists Say 90 Percent of Work-Related Eye Injuries Can be Avoided by Wearing Eye Protection
- Five Tips to Avoid Toy-Related Eye Injuries
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We appreciate the invitation to comment on the correspondence by Sodhi and Montaner on the clinical significance of our study.1 Ma et al2 showed that angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) plays a prominent role in promoting angiogenesis and vessel permeability observed in Kaposi sarcoma. Xin et al3 reported that ANGPTL4 was upregulated by hypoxia-inducible factor-1α in hypoxic inner retina in oxygen-induced retinopathy model. Because we could not analyze the expression of ANGPTL4 in the ischemic retina from live patients, we analyzed the aqueous levels of ANGPTL4 from controls and patients with diabetic retinopathy.
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Dr Hoyt raises important questions about the centuries old occlusion treatment for amblyopia. The scientific sequence for treating disorders is to determine their natural history and etiology and then to develop a treatment protocol. Animal experiments using occlusion did produce anatomic defects in the visual cortex. However, when Horton et al used cytochrome oxidase histochemistry to examine the ocular dominance columns in human amblyopia patients, defects in the lateral geniculate body were not found.
Read more: Re: Hoyt C.: What is next in amblyopia treatment? (Ophthalmology 2015;122:871-3)
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We thank Agrawal and Siantar for comments on our recent paper.1 The main aim of our paper was to advocate appropriate handling of vitreous samples. These recommendations were possible on the strength of the large cohort obtained from 2 tertiary-level academic teaching hospitals (Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center) where vitreous samples were not discarded based on the clinician's preference and where it is customary to send most surgically excised tissues for pathologic evaluation. This practice allowed for appreciation and documentation of the normal elements in a specimen (vitreous), which is becoming increasingly rare owing to nonsurgical options for retinal diseases like diabetic retinopathy (injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor).
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The report by Small et al1 in the current issue (see p. 9) describes the discovery of the genetic cause of North Carolina macular dystrophy (NCMD) which initially was described as an autosomal dominant macular dystrophy by Lefler et al2 in 1971 and by Frank et al3 in 1974. North Carolina macular dystrophy is completely penetrant, highly variable among affected family members, and initially was considered slowly progressive (more on this later). The gene in the original families was assigned by classic linkage studies to chromosome 6 (MCDR1) in 1992.
Read more: Dysregulation of Retinal Transcription Factor PRDM13 and North Carolina Macular Dystrophy
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Small et al (p. 9) set out to identify specific mutations causing North Carolina macular dystrophy (NCMD). They identified 5 rare mutations, each of which is capable of arresting the development of the human macula. Four of the mutations strongly implicate the involvement of the gene PRDM13 in macular development, and although the pathophysiologic mechanism of the fifth remains unknown, it may involve the developmental dysregulation of IRX1. For this study, the researchers performed whole genome sequencing coupled with analysis of gene expression in human retinal cells.
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The relatively rapid and recent adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) in ophthalmology1,2 has been associated with the promise that the accumulation of large volumes of clinical data would facilitate quality improvement and help answer a variety of research questions. Given that EHRs are relatively new in most practices and that clinical data are inherently more complex than other fields that have been altered by the digital revolution, these proposed benefits have yet to be realized.3 The results reported by Shen et al4 in this issue of Ophthalmology (see p.