Comparison of montage with conventional stereoscopic seven-field photographs for assessment of ETDRS diabetic retinopathy severity.

Background: The ETDRS stereoscopic seven-field (7F) has been a standard imaging and grading protocol for assessment of diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity score in many clinical trials. To the best of our knowledge, the comparison between montage and stereoscopic 7F has not been reported in the literature. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to compare agreement between montage and stereoscopic seven-field (7F) photographs in the assessment of DR severity.

Controllable rotation of optical beams with bored helical phases.

We achieve controllable noninterferometric rotation of a bored helical beam by introducing a phase shift exclusively to the annular helical region of the phase. We present a derivation based on the decomposition of the beams, which shows that a constant phase shift of DeltaPhi between the bore and the surrounding helical phase with topological charge l will rotate the intensity profile by -DeltaPhi/l about its center. The effect of the phase shifting is verified with experiments.

Intensity profiles and propagation of optical beams with bored helical phase.

A modification of the helical phase profile obtained by eliminating the on-axis screw-dislocation is presented. Beams with this phase possess a variety of interesting properties different from optical vortex beams. Numerical simulations verify analytic predictions and reveal that beams with this phase have intensity patterns which vary as a function of the phase parameters, as well as the propagation distance.

Frontal sinus mucocele.

Although not uncommon, and certainly not rare, frontal sinus mucocele was seen in 4 cases by the authors. Since one of the cases was rather unusual, we were prompted to evaluate the subject and prepare this manuscript. Gradual onset of unilateral proptosis should make one suspicious of a mucocele involving the paranasal sinuses, the frontal and ethmoid being the 2 most common locations.