Real-World Outcomes of a Loading Phase with Intravitreal Faricimab in Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration (n-AMD) and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME).

Introduction: The aims of this work were to evaluate the real-world efficacy and safety of a loading dose of intravitreal faricimab in eyes with active neovascular age-related macular degeneration (n-AMD) or diabetic macular edema (DME) and to analyze the treatment outcome in relation to specific biomarkers.

Methods: Patients with active n-AMD or DME, treated with four monthly intravitreal injections of faricimab, were enrolled in this retrospective, uncontrolled study. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central subfield thickness (CST), presence of retinal fluid (RF) on optical coherence tomography (OCT), and adverse events were assessed at baseline and at weeks 4, 8, 12, and 16.

Bilateral asymptomatic macular hypopigmentation in a young woman: multimodal imaging and pathogenetic hypothesis.

Purpose: Macular retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) hypopigmentation is a recently described very rare condition and its pathogenesis is not completely understood. We report the case of a 23-year-old female who presented with bilateral whitish, oval-shaped foveal lesions and we speculated about the possible etiopathogenetic origin.

Observations: A 23-year-old female presented to our consideration for a routine ophthalmology visit.

Secondary Pneumothorax Induced by a Bronchopleural Fistula in a Patient With COVID-19 Pneumonia.

COVID-19 is a multi-system disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). One of the main highlights of the disease is the development of pneumonia complicated by adult respiratory distress syndrome. While spontaneous pneumothorax has been reported in some patients with COVID-19, bronchopleural fistula has seldom been reported as the primary cause in these cases.

Rare Case of Reversible Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Secondary to Cyclophosphamide and Doxorubicin Chemotherapy.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), characterized as a resting mean pulmonary artery pressure greater than 25 mmHg, is due to the narrowing of the pulmonary arteries, which can be idiopathic, inherited, or drug-related. Alkylating agents, including cyclophosphamide, are a risk factor for developing the pulmonary veno-occlusive disease. Drug-induced PAH is extremely rare.

Best Practices for Minimally Invasive Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Treatment 2.0 (MIST): Consensus Guidance from the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN).

Introduction: Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a common spinal disease of aging with a growing patient population, paralleling population growth. Minimally invasive treatments are evolving, and the use of these techniques needs guidance to provide the optimal patient safety and efficacy outcomes.

Methods: The American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN) identified an educational need for guidance on the prudent use of the innovative minimally invasive surgical therapies for the treatment of symptomatic LSS.

Multivalvular infective endocarditis with Proteus mirabilis.

Proteus species belong to the Enterobacteriaceae family and are gram-negative-rods, commonly known to cause urinary tract infections and asymptomatic bacteriuria in elderly patients with risk factors such as diabetes mellitus and urinary catheterization. However, Proteus species are rarely known to cause infective endocarditis. We present a case of an 85-year-old female who presented due to decreased responsiveness with urine and blood cultures growing .

Understanding whether chronic lower back pain patients with lumbar spinal stenosis benefit from multiple epidural steroid injections prior to the Procedure.

Originally published in , this article is a summary of a study performed to look at the benefit, if any, of more than one epidural steroid injection in the spine before the Procedure. Minimally invasive lumbar decompression (commonly known as the Procedure) and epidural steroid injections are both common treatment options for lumbar spinal stenosis (commonly referred to as LSS), a condition that causes chronic lower back pain in older adults. To determine how to best treat LSS patients, healthcare professionals use a guide to help with the decision-making process (called an algorithm) to pass through non-medical to more invasive therapies that often includes one or more epidural steroid injections.

Minimally invasive direct decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis: impact of multiple prior epidural steroid injections.

A modified algorithm for the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis with hypertrophic ligamentum flavum using minimally-invasive lumbar decompression ()was assessed, with a focus on earlier intervention. Records of 145 patients treated with after receiving 0-1 epidural steroid injections (ESIs) or 2+ ESIs were retrospectively reviewed. Pain assessments as measured by visual analog scale (VAS) scores were recorded at baseline and 1-week and 3-month follow-ups.

Early treatment with dexamethasone intravitreal implants in diabetic macular edema: Naïve versus refractory patients.

Purpose: To assess the efficacy and safety of dexamethasone 0.7 mg implants (DEX-I) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) either naïve to therapy or refractory to anti-VEGF treatment, in a single-center, real-world setting.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with DME and treated with DEX-I were retrospectively enrolled in the study and split in two groups: naïve (Group 1,  = 64) and refractory (Group 2,  = 64) to treatment.

Dexamethasone intravitreal implant in patients with cataract and naïve diabetic macular edema.

Purpose: To assess the feasibility and clinical effectiveness of dexamethasone intravitreal implant 0.7 mg (IDI) administered in diabetic patients to prevent the worsening of macular edema.

Methods: Forty eyes of 40 consecutive patients with naïve macular edema secondary to diabetes mellitus who were treated with IDI administered preoperative (Group A: 20 patients) or IDI administered immediately after cataract surgery (Group B: 20 patients).

Carbapenemases among Acinetobacter species isolated from NICU of a tertairy care hospital in Karachi.

Objective: To determine the carbapenemases in carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter species.

Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, from March to December 2014, and comprised Acinetobacter species isolated from the clinical specimen collected from hospitalised neonates. The screening for carbapenem resistance was performed by meropenem and imipenem discs, and minimum inhibitory concentrations.

The Polyanalgesic Consensus Conference (PACC): Recommendations on Intrathecal Drug Infusion Systems Best Practices and Guidelines.

Introduction: Pain treatment is best performed when a patient-centric, safety-based philosophy is used to determine an algorithmic process to guide care. Since 2007, the International Neuromodulation Society has organized a group of experts to evaluate evidence and create a Polyanalgesic Consensus Conference (PACC) to guide practice.

Methods: The current PACC update was designed to address the deficiencies and innovations emerging since the previous PACC publication of 2012.

Glucose regulates the intrinsic inflammatory response of the heart to surgically induced hypothermic ischemic arrest and reperfusion.

We investigated the isolated working rat heart as a model to study early transcriptional remodeling induced in the setting of open heart surgery and stress hyperglycemia. Hearts of male Sprague Dawley rats were cold-arrested in Krebs-Henseleit buffer and subjected to 60 min normothermic reperfusion in the working mode with buffer supplemented with noncarbohydrate substrates plus glucose (25 mM) or mannitol (25 mM; osmotic control). Gene expression profiles were determined by microarray analysis and compared with those of nonperfused hearts.

Trialing and Maintenance Dosing Using a Low-Dose Intrathecal Opioid Method for Chronic Nonmalignant Pain: A Prospective 36-Month Study.

Objective: To evaluate low-dose intrathecal opioid trialing and maintenance with regard to analgesia and psychometric functional capacity.

Materials And Methods: Prospective cohort of subjects offered, trialed and maintained using low-dose opioid therapy via an intrathecal drug delivery system. Analgesia, measured by visual analog scale and the Global Pain Scale, and function, measured by Multidimensional Pain Inventory and Global Pain Scale, are evaluated.

Lamellar macular hole following intravitreal pegaptanib sodium (Macugen) injection for diabetic macular edema.

To report on a patient who developed a lamellar macular hole 1 month after an intravitreal pegaptanib sodium injection. Interventional case report. A 66 year old patient developed a lamellar macular hole 1 month after an intravitreal pegaptanib sodium injection for diabetic macular edema (DME).

[Multiple evanescent white dot syndrome and multiple sclerosis].

Purpose: To describe a patient who fulfilled the criteria for both clinically definite multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS) and multiple sclerosis.

Methods: We performed a complete ophthalmologic and neurological examination in a 30-year-old woman who was referred to our department for blurred vision in her left eye (LE) with photopsia.

Results: Following a complete ophthalmologic examination, the patient was diagnosed with MEWDS and coincident multiple sclerosis.

Intravitreal avastin for choroidal neovascularization associated with stargardt-like retinal abnormalities in pseudoxanthoma elasticum.

The aim of the study was to describe a patient with pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), showing Stargardt-like retinal abnormalities, who underwent treatment with intravitreal bevacizumab for subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of the right eye (RE). A 57-year-old woman with diagnosis of angioid streaks, retinal flecks, and chorioretinal Stargardt-like atrophy due to PXE was referred to our department for sudden decreased vision in her RE (20/160). Upon a complete ophthalmologic examination, including fluorescein angiography (FA), and optical coherence tomography (OCT), the patient was diagnosed with subfoveal CNV of the RE.

Very Large Bilateral Lesions Obscuring Diagnosis of Adult-Onset Foveomacular Vitelliform Dystrophy.

Adult-onset foveomacular vitelliform dystrophy (AFVD) is a clinically heterogeneous and pleomorphic disease originally described by Gass as bilateral with symmetrical, solitary, round or oval, slightly elevated, yellowish subretinal lesions, one third to one disc diameter in size, often with a central pigmented spot. A possible AFVD patient showing very large bilateral macular lesions was reported.

High-Definition OCT Findings in Acute Posterior Multifocal Placoid Pigment Epitheliopathy.

The authors report a case of acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy evaluated by autofluorescence, fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, high-definition optical coherence tomography, and microperimetry in both the acute and the post-acute phase. Based on the integrated findings, the authors believe that acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy is an inflammatory disease that primarily affects the choroid and that the retinal pigment epithelium is secondarily involved in the course of the disease.