Enhancing Diabetic Macular Edema Treatment Outcomes: Exploring the ESASO Classification and Structural OCT Biomarkers.

Introduction: This study assessed the European School of Advanced Studies in Ophthalmology (ESASO) classification's prognostic value for diabetic macular edema (DME) in predicting intravitreal therapy outcomes.

Methods: In this retrospective, multicenter study, patients aged > 50 years with type 1 or 2 diabetes and DME received intravitreal antivascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents (ranibizumab, bevacizumab, and aflibercept) or steroids (dexamethasone). The primary outcome was visual acuity (VA) change post-treatment, termed as functional response, measured 4-6 weeks post-third anti-VEGF or 12-16 weeks post-steroid injection, stratified by initial DME stage.

[Kawasaki disease: recent findings in etiology, pathogenesis and therapy].

The number of cases of Kawasaki disease increases in Japan. The aetiology is still unknown but epidemiological studies suggest an infectious aetiology in spite that no specific microorganism has been implicated; it must be, probably present a hereditary predisposition connected with HLA subtypes. Many investigators reported an increase in the antibody level against several agents, among which bacteria and virus.

[Cardiologic aspects of Kawasaki's disease].

Both immediate and long-term prognosis of Kawasaki's disease (K. D.) are due to cardiac involvement and, particularly, to coronary artery aneurysms formation.

Kaposi's sarcoma following corticosteroid treatment for temporal arteritis--a case report.

After three months of corticosteroid treatment, a sixty-nine-year-old man, suffering from temporal arteritis, developed a Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) initially located on the left ankle and subsequently spread over both feet and hands. Laboratory data showed a deficiency of both humoral and cellular immunity and constant positivity in the tests for cytomegalovirus. The onset of KS during corticosteroid treatment of temporal arteritis is an extremely rare occurrence, this case being only the second one reported in the literature.

[Kawasaki's disease. 3 problems: incomplete clinical forms, steroid treatment, low doses of aspirin].

After a brief review of the recent literature and the description of the clinical and echocardiographic follow-up of 9 cases observed from 1976 to 1985, the authors stress the relative importance to recognize patients who do not fulfill the classic criteria for the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease, in order to treat with antiaggregants those affected by coronary aneurysms. Moreover they discuss the beneficial effects of steroids, in association with salicylates, given only in the first two weeks of disease when the production and deposit of immunocomplexes and the release of lysosomal enzymes from macrophage cells occur. Finally the authors point out that the treatment with low doses of salicylates selectively acting on thromboxane A2 and not on Pgl2, as shown in experimental studies, remains to be confirmed by clinical trials.