CORAL Models for Drug-Induced Nephrotoxicity.

Drug-induced nephrotoxicity is a major cause of kidney dysfunction with potentially fatal consequences. The poor prediction of clinical responses based on preclinical research hampers the development of new pharmaceuticals. This emphasises the need for new methods for earlier and more accurate diagnosis to avoid drug-induced kidney injuries.

Using immersive virtual reality to modify body image.

We tested the efficacy of a training programme, delivered in virtual reality (VR), to modify the perceptual boundary between what participants classify as a fat versus a thin body. Three cohorts of 20 female volunteers with high body image concerns were recruited to two intervention groups and one control group. All participants completed a 4-day training programme in VR where they categorised a series of 3D models as either thin or fat; one intervention group was presented with the stimuli briefly, while the other group had no time limits imposed.

Peripheral retinoschisis and exudative retinal detachment in pars planitis.

Purpose: To review and describe bullous retinoschisis and exudative retinal detachment in patients with pars planitis.

Methods: Retrospective, multicenter study of patients with pars planitis who presented with retinoschisis and exudative retinal detachments.

Results: The authors describe 13 eyes of 9 patients with pars planitis who presented with inferior peripheral retinoschisis and/or exudative retinal detachment.

Ocular manifestations of leukemia: leukemic infiltration versus infectious process.

Objective: To determine whether specific guidelines can be developed to distinguish whether retinal infiltration in leukemia patients represents infection or neoplasia.

Design: Retrospective noncomparative interventional case series.

Participants: Six patients recently seen at University of California San Francisco with retinal infiltrates in a setting of leukemia, for which adequate written and photographic information of disease course was available.

Correction-spontaneous central retinal artery occlusion in hemoglobin SC disease(1).

PURPOSE: To describe a case of spontaneous central retinal artery occlusion in a young man with hemoglobin sickle cell disease.METHOD: Case report.RESULTS: A 31-year-old African-American man with a history of hemoglobin SC (sickle C) disease developed sudden painless loss of vision in the right eye.

Spontaneous central retinal artery occlusion in hemoglobin sickle cell disease.

Purpose: To describe a case of spontaneous central retinal artery occlusion in a young man with hemoglobin sickle cell disease.

Method: Case report.

Results: A 31-year-old African-American man with a history of hemoglobin sickle cell disease developed sudden painless loss of vision in the right eye.

Visual and anatomic outcomes associated with posterior segment complications after ganciclovir implant procedures in patients with AIDS and cytomegalovirus retinitis.

Purpose: To determine anatomic and visual acuity outcomes of posterior segment complications after ganciclovir implant surgery.

Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 63 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome who had active cytomegalovirus retinitis in 82 eyes and who underwent 110 consecutive ganciclovir implant procedures. Preoperative and postoperative visual acuity, type of postoperative complication, treatment, and lines of visual acuity change were determined.

Nocardia scleritis.

Purpose: To describe a case of Nocardia scleritis, an unusual ocular infection.

Methods: Case report and review of pertinent literature.

Results: An 83-year-old man with leukocytoclastic vasculitis was initially examined for infectious necrotizing scleritis after explantation of an extruded scleral buckle.

Norrie disease in a family with a manifesting female carrier.

Objectives: To show that Norrie disease can occur in a girl and to describe her ophthalmologic and genetic features.

Methods: Amplification of DNA polymerase chain reaction and sequencing of asymmetric polymerase chain reaction for exon 3 were performed on the blood specimen obtained from a girl born with bilateral retinal detachments.

Patient: A female child with bilateral retinal detachment who had 2 uncles in whom Norrie disease had already been diagnosed.

Retinal detachment in AIDS: long-term results after repair with silicone oil.

Aims: To study the long-term results of vitrectomy and silicone oil injection in AIDS patients with retinal detachment due to viral retinitis.

Methods: A consecutive series of 83 eyes in 75 AIDS patients who were treated with vitrectomy and silicone oil for retinal detachment due to viral retinitis was studied prospectively and followed until the last patient in the series had died.

Results: Median postoperative survival was 6 months, but 20% of patients survived 12 months or more.

A polymerase chain reaction-based assay for diagnosing varicella-zoster virus retinitis in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Purpose: To develop a rapid, sensitive, and specific laboratory assay based on the polymerase chain reaction for the diagnosis of varicella-zoster virus retinitis in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Methods: We developed and tested a polymerase chain reaction-based assay for the detection of varicella-zoster virus DNA in vitreous samples. We attempted to detect varicella-zoster virus DNA in 14 vitreous samples from patients with AIDS and a clinical diagnosis of progressive outer retinal necrosis syndrome.

Fundus changes in Behcet's disease.

Objective: To describe the fundus findings in Behcet's Disease with emphasis on characteristic small white patches of retinitis.

Methods: Case study, utilizing review of clinical charts and fundus photographic files.

Results: Search of the University of California San Francisco ophthalmic photography files revealed 6 patients coded as Behcet's Disease between 1989 and 1996.

Central serous chorioretinopathy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Purpose: To describe three patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in whom ophthalmoscopic and fluorescein angiographic evidence of central serous chorioretinopathy developed.

Methods: The authors retrospectively reviewed the clinical and photographic records of three patients with systemic lupus erythematous in whom central serous chorioretinopathy developed.

Results: Ophthalmoscopic changes observed in these patients with systemic lupus erythematosus included discrete areas of clumping and mottling of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), focal RPE detachments, serous elevations of the neurosensory retina, and late subretinal fibrosis with scar formation.

Bone marrow transplantation retinopathy in the absence of radiation therapy.

Purpose: To describe a case of bone marrow transplantation retinopathy in a patient in the absence of prior radiation therapy.

Methods: Case report.

Results: Bilateral scotomata developed in a 26-year-old woman because of a retinal microvasculopathy two years after receiving an autologous bone marrow transplantation for acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Treatment of presumed fungal endophthalmitis with oral fluconazole.

Amphotericin B is the usual treatment for fungal endophthalmitis, but its toxicity and lack of oral bioavailability may limit its use in some patients. The authors report the successful management of two cases of presumed metastatic fungal endophthalmitis with oral fluconazole, a bis-triazole compound with a broad antifungal spectrum.

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome--associated herpes simplex virus retinitis. Clinical description and use of a polymerase chain reaction--based assay as a diagnostic tool.

Objectives: To describe 2 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome who experienced a rapidly progressive, bilateral retinitis due to herpes simplex virus (HSV) (1 case due to HSV type 1 [HSV-1] and 1 case due to HSV type 2 [HSV-2] and to present a novel diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay.

Methods: The presentation, clinical course, and diagnostic PCR-based assay used to make the diagnosis of HSV retinitis in 2 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome are described.

Results: Both patients experienced a rapidly progressive, bilateral retinal necrosis associated with intraretinal hemorrhages and a diffuse vasculitis.

Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome in a 4-year old child.

Purpose: We studied a case of severe bilateral Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome in a 4-year-old boy.

Methods: We evaluated the patient's clinical course.

Results: The patient had severe bilateral, nongranulomatous uveitis and mild uveitic glaucoma.

A sensitive and specific polymerase chain reaction-based assay for the diagnosis of cytomegalovirus retinitis.

Purpose: To develop a sensitive and specific laboratory assay for the diagnosis of cytomegalovirus retinitis.

Method: We used a polymerase chain reaction-based assay for detection of cytomegalovirus DNA in vitreous samples. We attempted to detect cytomegalovirus DNA in 19 vitreous samples from patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) who had untreated cytomegalovirus retinitis and in 40 vitreous samples from patients with AIDS who had been treated with systemic ganciclovir or foscarnet, or both.

Subretinal fibrosis in central serous chorioretinopathy.

Purpose: To report unusual and heretofore unreported visually damaging manifestations of severe central serous chorioretinopathy.

Methods: Case studies.

Results: Each of six male patients (average age, 40 years) had a form of severe central serous chorioretinopathy with at least one eye containing fibrin in the subretinal space that then developed into a subretinal fibrotic scar.

Retinal distortion and cotton-wool spots associated with epiretinal membrane contraction.

Purpose And Background: Several articles on surgery for macular pucker have noted the presence of intraretinal white spots, presumably cotton-wool spots, associated with epiretinal membranes. It was proposed that membrane contraction and resultant nerve fiber layer distortion might lead to blockage of axoplasmic flow and thus a cotton-wool spot. To see whether the observations supported this concept, the authors studied patients with epiretinal membranes associated with intraretinal white spots involving the center of the fovea, where there are normally no retinal vessels and the only axons are in Henle fiber layer.