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Escuder AG, Kazlas MA, Heidary G, Hunter DG, Zurakowski D, Dagi LR. Incidence of symptomatic vertical and torsional diplopia after superior rectus transposition for esotropic Duane syndrome and abducens nerve palsy. J AAPOS 2020;Abstract
PURPOSE: To report the incidence of symptomatic vertical and torsional diplopia after superior rectus transposition (SRT) for esotropic Duane syndrome and abducens nerve palsy. METHODS: The medical records of patients with esotropic Duane syndrome or abducens nerve palsy seen at Boston Children's Hospital (2006-2018) and treated with unilateral SRT with or without augmentation was performed. The primary outcome was incidence of postoperative vertical or torsional diplopia in primary position. The secondary outcome was induced vertical deviation in affected side gaze. RESULTS: A total of 69 patients met inclusion criteria: 32 with abducens nerve palsy and 37 with esotropic Duane syndrome. Vertical alignment changed in both hyper- and hypotropic directions. Median pre- and postoperative vertical deviation in primary gaze was 1.1 (10th-90th percentile, 0-6 hypertropia) and 0.4 (10th-90th percentile, 6 hypotropia to 8 hypertropia), respectively. Postoperative vertical diplopia occurred in 7%, including 4 of 49 treated with loop myopexy (8%), 1 of 13 without augmentation (8%), and 0 of 7 treated with sclera-fixated augmentation. All but one was successfully treated with prism or secondary surgery. Intorsional change predominated, but no patient had torsional diplopia post adjustment. Vertical misalignment in affected side gaze increased from 19% to 45% after SRT (P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In this largest-to-date review of patients treated with SRT, with or without MR recession, no patient developed persistent torsional diplopia, while 7% developed symptomatic vertical diplopia in primary position, similar to the reported incidence after balanced vertical rectus transposition. Vertical misalignment in affected side gaze increased, however fusion is already limited by unresolved esotropia in this field.
Tayebi B, Sharif F, Han J-H. Smart filtering of phase residues in noisy wrapped holograms. Sci Rep 2020;10(1):16965.Abstract
Phase unwrapping is one of the major challenges in multiple branches of science that extract three-dimensional information of objects from wrapped signals. In several applications, it is important to extract the unwrapped information with minimal signal resolution degradation. However, most of the denoising techniques for unwrapping are designed to operate on the entire phase map to remove a limited number of phase residues, and therefore they significantly degrade critical information contained in the image. In this paper, we present a novel, smart, and automatic filtering technique for locally minimizing the number of phase residues in noisy wrapped holograms, based on the phasor average filtering (PAF) of patches around each residue point. Both patch sizes and PAF filters are increased in an iterative algorithm to minimize the number of residues and locally restrict the artifacts caused by filtering to the pixels around the residue pixels. Then, the improved wrapped phase can be unwrapped using a simple phase unwrapping technique. The feasibility of our method is confirmed by filtering, unwrapping, and enhancing the quality of a noisy hologram of neurons; the intensity distribution of the spatial frequencies demonstrates a 40-fold improvement, with respect to previous techniques, in preserving the higher frequencies.
Elhusseiny AM, Gore C, Sadiq MAA, Dagi LR, Kazlas M, Hunter DG. Self-grading effect of inferior oblique myectomy and recession. J AAPOS 2020;Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate the outcomes of inferior oblique (IO) weakening surgery, whether recession or myectomy, and to assess the dose-response relationship and correlation with angle of preoperative hypertropia. METHODS: The medical records of all patients with vertical deviation in primary gaze who underwent unilateral IO-weakening surgery, either recession or myectomy, at Boston Children's Hospital over an 8-year period with a minimum postoperative follow-up of 1 month were reviewed retrospectively. Outcome measures were effect of IO weakening surgery on vertical deviation in primary gaze and its correlation with the preoperative angle of hyperdeviation. Secondary outcomes included resolution of abnormal head posture, reduction of ocular torsion, and postoperative under- and overcorrection RESULTS: A total of 94 patients were identified (mean age at surgery, 29.3 ± 19.8 years; range, 1-69). The mean postoperative follow-up period was 17.2 ± 15 months. IO recession was performed in 30 patients; IO myectomy, in 64. Surgical success in primary position was achieved in 72 patients (77%), with resolution of anomalous preoperative head posture in 93%. The mean effect on alignment in primary position was 11.3 ± 6.8. The response to IO-weakening surgery was strongly correlated with the preoperative hyperdeviation for both recession (R = 0.53) and myectomy (R = 0.87). CONCLUSIONS: As with other types of strabismus surgery, IO weakening has a "self-grading" contribution, in which the surgical effect strongly correlates with the magnitude of preoperative deviation. A large range of vertical misalignment can be corrected with the same surgical approach.
Narayanan D, Wallstrom G, Rodriguez J, Welch D, Chapin M, Arrigg P, Patil R, Abelson M. Early Ophthalmic Changes in Macula Does Not Correlate with Visual Function. Clin Ophthalmol 2020;14:2571-2576.Abstract
Purpose: Early detection and treatment of age-related macular degeneration require a clear understanding of the early progress of the disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether minimal macular ophthalmoscopic changes corresponded to changes in visual function. Methods: Color macular photos from a group of older subjects who were classified as grade 0 on AREDS simplified grading were further evaluated by a retinal specialist using 5x magnification for possible minimal macular anomalies. Group 0-A ( = 15) were defined as subjects with no visible macular anomalies while Group 0-B ( = 19) comprised subjects for whom minimal macular mottling, pigment changes or very small drusen (< 63 µm) were observed in the study eye. All subjects had best VA of 20/25 or better and had no evidence of other retinal diseases in the study eye. All subjects underwent a series of visual function tests such as standard ETDRS VA, low luminance ETDRS VA, Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity, variable contrast flicker (VCF) sensitivity, and reading speed (words per minute, wpm) using both MNRead and low luminance reading on a tablet. Results: There was no significant difference between the mean age between the two groups (74.8 ± 5.2 years for 0-A vs 74.5 ± 4.4 for 0-B, = 0.82). None of the visual function tests identified any significant difference between the two groups. Mean ETDRS VA was 0.0 ± 0.11 for 0-A subjects and 0.08 ± 0.12 for 0-B ( = 0.063). Mean Pelli-Robson log contrast sensitivity was 1.75 ± 0.29 for 0-A and 1.78 ± 0.17 for the 0-B group ( = 0.73). VCF threshold was 0.47 ± 0.25 for 0-A and 0.43 ± 0.22 for 0-B ( = 0.64). Reading speed using MNRead was 214 ± 47.4 wpm for 0-A and 210 ± 64.7 for 0-B ( = 0.85). Low luminance tablet reading speed was 137 ± 71.8 wpm for 0-A and 151 ± 39.4 (0-B) ( = 0.49). Conclusion: A panel of psychophysical tests did not demonstrate significant differences between subjects with and without minimal macular changes.
VanderVeen DK, Drews-Botsch CD, Nizam A, Bothun ED, Wilson LB, Wilson EM, Lambert SR, Lambert SR. Outcomes of Secondary Intraocular Lens Implantation in the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study. J Cataract Refract Surg 2020;Abstract
PURPOSE: To report outcomes of secondary intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study (IATS) SETTING:: Multicenter clinical practice DESIGN:: Secondary analysis of patients enrolled in a randomized clinical trial METHODS:: Details regarding all secondary IOL surgeries conducted in children enrolled in the IATS were compiled. We evaluated visual outcomes, refractive outcomes, and adverse events at age 10 ½ years. Comparisons were made to eyes that remained aphakic and to eyes randomized to primary IOL placement. RESULTS: 55/57 patients randomized to aphakia with contact lens correction were seen for the 10 ½ year study visit; 24/55 eyes (44%) had secondary IOL surgery. Median age at IOL surgery was 5.4 years (range 1.7 to 10.3 years). Mean absolute prediction error was 1.0 ± 0.7D. At age 10 ½ years, the median log MAR VA was 0.9 (range 0.2 to 1.7), similar to VA in the 31 eyes still aphakic (0.8, range 0.1 to 2.9); the number of eyes with stable or improved VA scores between the 4 ½ and 10 ½ year study visits was also similar (78% secondary IOL eyes, 84% aphakic eyes). For eyes undergoing IOL implantation after the 4.5 year study visit (n=22), the mean refraction at age 10 ½ years was -3.2 ±2.7D (range -9.9D to 1.1D), compared to -5.5 ±6.6 D (n=53, range -26.5 to 3.0D) in eyes with primary IOL (p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Delayed IOL implantation allows a more predictable refractive outcome at age 10 ½ years, though the range of refractive error is still large.
Daniel S, Renwick M, Chau VQ, Datta S, Maddineni P, Zode G, Wade EM, Robertson SP, Petroll MW, Hulleman JD. Fibulin-3 knockout mice demonstrate corneal dysfunction but maintain normal retinal integrity. J Mol Med (Berl) 2020;98(11):1639-1656.Abstract
Fibulin-3 (F3) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein found in basement membranes across the body. An autosomal dominant R345W mutation in F3 causes a macular dystrophy resembling dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), whereas genetic removal of wild-type (WT) F3 protects mice from sub-retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) deposit formation. These observations suggest that F3 is a protein which can regulate pathogenic sub-RPE deposit formation in the eye. Yet the precise role of WT F3 within the eye is still largely unknown. We found that F3 is expressed throughout the mouse eye (cornea, trabecular meshwork (TM) ring, neural retina, RPE/choroid, and optic nerve). We next performed a thorough structural and functional characterization of each of these tissues in WT and homozygous (F3) knockout mice. The corneal stroma in F3 mice progressively thins beginning at 2 months, and the development of corneal opacity and vascularization starts at 9 months, which worsens with age. However, in all other tissues (TM, neural retina, RPE, and optic nerve), gross structural anatomy and functionality were similar across WT and F3 mice when evaluated using SD-OCT, histological analyses, electron microscopy, scotopic electroretinogram, optokinetic response, and axonal anterograde transport. The lack of noticeable retinal abnormalities in F3 mice was confirmed in a human patient with biallelic loss-of-function mutations in F3. These data suggest that (i) F3 is important for maintaining the structural integrity of the cornea, (ii) absence of F3 does not affect the structure or function of any other ocular tissue in which it is expressed, and (iii) targeted silencing of F3 in the retina and/or RPE will likely be well-tolerated, serving as a safe therapeutic strategy for reducing sub-RPE deposit formation in disease. KEY MESSAGES: • Fibulins are expressed throughout the body at varying levels. • Fibulin-3 has a tissue-specific pattern of expression within the eye. • Lack of fibulin-3 leads to structural deformities in the cornea. • The retina and RPE remain structurally and functionally healthy in the absence of fibulin-3 in both mice and humans.
Lei F, Cui N, Zhou C, Chodosh J, Vavvas DG, Paschalis EI. CSF1R inhibition by a small-molecule inhibitor is not microglia specific; affecting hematopoiesis and the function of macrophages. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020;117(38):23336-23338.Abstract
Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibition has been proposed as a method for microglia depletion, with the assumption that it does not affect peripheral immune cells. Here, we show that CSF1R inhibition by PLX5622 indeed affects the myeloid and lymphoid compartments, causes long-term changes in bone marrow-derived macrophages by suppressing interleukin 1β, CD68, and phagocytosis but not CD208, following exposure to endotoxin, and also reduces the population of resident and interstitial macrophages of peritoneum, lung, and liver but not spleen. Thus, small-molecule CSF1R inhibition is not restricted to microglia, causing strong effects on circulating and tissue macrophages that perdure long after cessation of the treatment. Given that peripheral monocytes repopulate the central nervous system after CSF1R inhibition, these changes have practical implications for relevant experimental data.
Anand N, Klug E, Nirappel A, Solá-Del Valle D. A Review of Cyclodestructive Procedures for the Treatment of Glaucoma. Semin Ophthalmol 2020;:1-15.Abstract
Cyclodestruction aims to reduce aqueous humor production through the coagulation or destruction of the ciliary body and has been an important treatment choice for glaucoma since the 1930s. The purpose of the current review is to highlight the evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of various cyclodestructive modalities, emphasizing peer-reviewed articles from the last 20 years and the most common variants of these procedures. The review focuses primarily on the two most common variants of transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (TS-CPC), continuous-wave diode cyclophotocoagulation (CW-TSCPC) and MicroPulse diode cyclophotocoagulation (MP-TSCPC) as well as endoscopic cyclophotocoagulation (ECP) and high-intensity focused ultrasound cyclodestruction (HIFU). We believe that the role of cyclodestruction in glaucoma treatment will only continue to expand given the advances in the field, particular with regards to targeted ciliary body destruction and improvement in the safety profile.
Bai J, Khajavi M, Sui L, Fu H, Krishnaji ST, Birsner AE, Bazinet L, Kamm RD, D'Amato RJ. Angiogenic responses in a 3D micro-engineered environment of primary endothelial cells and pericytes. Angiogenesis 2020;Abstract
Angiogenesis plays a key role in the pathology of diseases such as cancer, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. Understanding the driving forces of endothelial cell migration and organization, as well as the time frame of these processes, can elucidate mechanisms of action of important pathological pathways. Herein, we have developed an organ-specific microfluidic platform recapitulating the in vivo angiogenic microenvironment by co-culturing mouse primary brain endothelial cells with brain pericytes in a three-dimensional (3D) collagen scaffold. As a proof of concept, we show that this model can be used for studying the angiogenic process and further comparing the angiogenic properties between two different common inbred mouse strains, C57BL/6J and 129S1/SvlmJ. We further show that the newly discovered angiogenesis-regulating gene Padi2 promotes angiogenesis through Dll4/Notch1 signaling by an on-chip mechanistic study. Analysis of the interplay between primary endothelial cells and pericytes in a 3D microfluidic environment assists in the elucidation of the angiogenic response.

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