Publications by authors named "Alvaro J Mejia-Vergara"
Article Synopsis
- Optic neuritis (ON) often signals the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS) and other related disorders, with high-dose corticosteroids recommended for treatment but not adequately studied regarding timing and patient antibodies.
- The Acute Optic Neuritis Network (ACON) aims to investigate how the timing of corticosteroid treatment affects visual outcomes 6 months post-ON onset by enrolling patients who present within 30 days of initial symptoms.
- The study will collect extensive data on various ON subtypes and factors like visual acuity, imaging results, and patient-reported outcomes from 28 hospitals globally, targeting a recruitment of 200 patients across different ON classifications.
Self-reported glaucoma prevalence and related factors, contribution to reported visual impairment, and functional burden in a cross-sectional study in Colombia.
Int Ophthalmol
July 2023
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to assess the self-reported prevalence of glaucoma in older Colombian adults, identifying major risk factors and daily-life functional challenges associated with the condition.
- The analysis, based on 2015 survey data, found a 5.67% glaucoma prevalence, with higher rates among women, older individuals, and those with more education, along with strong links to diabetes and hypertension.
- The results highlight that glaucoma is significantly associated with poor self-rated health, visual impairment, and difficulties in daily tasks like managing money and preparing meals, emphasizing a public health concern due to its impact on quality of life and increased fall risk among older adults.
Details and outcomes of a large cohort of MOG-IgG associated optic neuritis.
Mult Scler Relat Disord
December 2022
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to explore the timing of eye pain and visual loss in patients with optic neuritis associated with MOG-IgG and assess how early steroid treatment impacts recovery.
- Researchers reviewed data from 107 patients and found that eye pain often occurred before vision loss, with those receiving early steroid treatment recovering faster and achieving better visual outcomes.
- However, recovery without steroids was noted in some cases, indicating that further research through randomized clinical trials is necessary to confirm these findings.
Styloidogenic jugular venous compression syndrome has been recently described as a new cause of idiopathic intracranial hypertension. We present a 69-year-old patient, without other relevant medical history, presenting with 3 years of positional headache associated with decreased vision when reading and while turning her head to the right or left. She also reported pulsatile low-frequency tinnitus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOCT retinal nerve fiber layer thickness differentiates acute optic neuritis from MOG antibody-associated disease and Multiple Sclerosis: RNFL thickening in acute optic neuritis from MOGAD vs MS.
Mult Scler Relat Disord
February 2022
Background: Optic neuritis (ON) is the most common manifestation of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody associated disorder (MOGAD) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Acute ON in MOGAD is thought to be associated with more severe optic disk edema than in other demyelinating diseases, but this has not been quantitatively confirmed. The goal of this study was to determine whether optical coherence tomography (OCT) can distinguish acute ON in MOGAD from MS, and establish the sensitivity of OCT as a confirmatory biomarker of ON in these entities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is the most common mtDNA optic neuropathy. It most frequently causes dense bilateral central scotomas that are often characterized in clinical studies by Humphrey visual field testing (HVF) using a stimulus size III. This provides numerical quantification of the visual field defect using the mean deviation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe relationship between optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements of the retinal structures has been described for various neurological diseases including Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Brain volume changes, both globally and by area, are associated with some of these same diseases, yet the correlation of OCT and disease is not fully elucidated. Our study looked at normal subjects, at the correlation of OCT measurements and brain volumes, both globally and for specific regions including the pericalcarine grey matter, entorhinal grey matter, and cerebellar volume using a retrospective, cross-sectional cohort study design.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) of the retina to detect inner retinal degeneration is being investigated as a potential biomarker for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and an overwhelming body of evidence indicates that discovery of disease-modifying treatments for AD should be aimed at the pre-dementia clinical stage of AD, i.e., MCI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a genetic disease of the mitochondrial genome that mainly affects the retinal ganglion cells (RGC) of the inner retina resulting in central vision loss. New understandings in mitochondrial genetics are helping to elucidate the nuances of conversion and allow for new therapeutic options.
Recent Findings: Appreciation of the mitochondrial fission-fusion balance has allowed for increased understanding of the cascade of events that leads to clinical conversion in LOHN.