Neutralization of vascular endothelial growth factor slows progression of retinal nonperfusion in patients with diabetic macular edema.

Objective: To determine the effect of suppression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by monthly injection of ranibizumab on posterior retinal nonperfusion (RNP) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME).

Design: Unplanned retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from 2 randomized, sham injection-controlled, double-masked, multicenter clinical trials.

Participants: Six hundred sixty-six patients with DME.

Retinal blood vessel positional shifts and glaucoma progression.

Purpose: To determine the characteristics and significance of retinal blood vessel (RBV) positional shifts over time in a cohort of patients with progressive glaucoma.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Participants: Baseline and serial stereophotographs from 1 eye of 125 patients with open-angle glaucoma with ≥8 reliable Swedish interactive threshold algorithm standard visual fields (VFs) were included.

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy for diabetic macular edema.

Diabetes mellitus is a serious health problem that affects over 350 million individuals worldwide. Diabetic retinopathy (DR), which is the most common microvascular complication of diabetes, is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in working-aged adults. Diabetic macular edema (DME) is an advanced, vision-limiting complication of DR that affects nearly 30% of patients who have had diabetes for at least 20 years and is responsible for much of the vision loss due to DR.

Uncorrected refractive error and presbyopia among junior high school teachers in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Purpose: To report on the frequency of observed refractive and accommodative errors among junior high school teachers in Jakarta, Indonesia, who participated in a Helen Keller International screening, refraction and spectacle distribution program.

Methods: A total of 965 teachers from 19 schools were eligible for screening; those with uncorrected distance visual acuity (VA) ≤ 6/12-3 and teachers ≥ 35 years old with uncorrected end-point print size >Jaeger (J) 6 were referred. Autorefraction and subjective refraction were performed for teachers with confirmed decreased VA.

Association of blood and ocular perfusion pressure with structural glaucomatous progression by flicker chronoscopy.

Background: Vascular risk factors have been associated with glaucomatous visual field progression.

Aim: We determined the relationship between vascular risk factors and structural glaucomatous progression using serial flicker chronoscopy images.

Methods: Two glaucoma fellowship-trained ophthalmologists, masked to temporal sequence, independently graded serial flicker chronoscopy images from one eye of a cohort of glaucoma patients for features of structural progression in this retrospective cohort study.

Ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography of white without pressure.

Purpose: To describe ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography (UWFA) findings in eyes with white without pressure (WWOP) and in eyes without any obvious peripheral chorioretinal disease, and to determine if a difference exists between these two groups.

Methods: A retrospective review of 379 eyes undergoing diagnostic UWFA using the Optos 200Tx imaging system. Eyes were excluded if the quality of the color photograph or UWFA prevented reliable evaluation.

Long-term outcomes of ranibizumab therapy for diabetic macular edema: the 36-month results from two phase III trials: RISE and RIDE.

Purpose: To report 36-month outcomes of RIDE (NCT00473382) and RISE (NCT00473330), trials of ranibizumab in diabetic macular edema (DME).

Design: Phase III, randomized, multicenter, double-masked, 3-year trials, sham injection-controlled for 2 years.

Participants: Adults with DME (n=759), baseline best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) 20/40 to 20/320 Snellen equivalent, and central foveal thickness (CFT) ≥ 275 μm on optical coherence tomography.

The STS score is the strongest predictor of long-term survival following transcatheter aortic valve implantation, whereas access route (transapical versus transfemoral) has no predictive value beyond the periprocedural phase.

Objectives: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) was developed as a promising new therapy for inoperable and surgical high-risk patients as an alternative to traditional aortic valve replacement. After a successful procedure, prognosis may mainly be determined by comorbidities. However, no appropriate risk score to predict long-term outcome following TAVI is currently available.

Quantifying inter-group variability in lactation curve shape and magnitude with the MilkBot(®) lactation model.

Genetic selection programs have driven development of most lactation models, to estimate the magnitude of animals' productive capacity from sampled milk production data. There has been less attention to management and research applications, where it may also be important to quantify the shape of lactation curves, and predict future daily milk production for incomplete lactations since residuals between predicted and actual daily production can be used to quantify the response to an intervention. A model may decrease the confounding effects of lactation stage, parity, breed, and possibly other factors depending on how the model is constructed and used, thus increasing the power of statistical analyses.

Pharmacovigilance as a tool for safety and monitoring: a review of general issues and the specific challenges with end-stage renal failure patients.

Pharmacovigilance is instrumental in helping to ensure patient safety for both newly released drugs and those that are well established in the market. However, while pharmacovigilance procedures are strictly regulated in the clinical trial setting, post-marketing adverse event reporting is not well implemented or enforced. As such, the underreporting of adverse events, in relation to drugs that are on the market, is estimated to be in the region of 90%.

From Birth Control to Sex Control: Unruly Young Women and the Origins of the National Abstinence-Only Mandate.

In the early 1980s, conservative politicians in the United States argued that the federal government was promoting promiscuity by providing teens with confidential access to government-funded family planning services. Claiming the problem was not that young women were getting pregnant but that they were having sex, they promised a new national policy-one that would stress self-discipline and family values over sexual indulgence. As argued in this paper, the resulting abstinence-only federal mandate both draws upon and reinforces traditional sexual scripts, which hold young women responsible for keeping male passion in check, thus selectively burdening them with the work of "doing abstinence.

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the antiplatelet combination aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) plus extended-release dipyridamole are not altered by coadministration with the potent CYP2C19 inhibitor omeprazole.

Background: The fixed-dose combination of aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) 25 mg plus extended-release dipyridamole 200 mg (ASA+ER-DP) is used for long-term secondary stroke prevention in patients who have experienced non-cardioembolic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Although the theoretical risk is low that the antiplatelet activity of ASA+ER-DP will be affected by concomitant use of a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), no formal drug-drug interaction studies have been conducted.

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether the PPI omeprazole influences the pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) behavior of ASA+ER-DP.

Relationship between corneal hysteresis and optic nerve parameters measured with spectral domain optical coherence tomography.

Background: Corneal hysteresis (CH) has been associated with visual field damage in glaucoma and is related to the velocity of perimetric glaucoma progression. We undertook this investigation to determine whether CH is associated with structural markers of glaucoma damage on spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).

Methods: In this retrospective study, 131 patients under glaucoma evaluation were evaluated with SD-OCT (Cirrus; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA) and had CH measurements with the ocular response analyzer (Reichert, Inc.

Electrical performance of penetrating microelectrodes chronically implanted in cat cortex.

Penetrating microelectrode arrays with 2000 μm (2) sputtered iridium oxide (SIROF) electrode sites were implanted in cat cerebral cortex, and their long-term electrochemical performance evaluated in vivo by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and current pulsing. Measurements were made from days 33 to 328 postimplantation. The CV-defined charge storage capacity, measured at 50 mV/s, increased linearly with time over the course of implantation for two arrays and was unchanged for one array.

Agreement of flicker chronoscopy for structural glaucomatous progression detection and factors associated with progression.

Purpose: To evaluate agreement of flicker chronoscopy for structural glaucomatous progression detection and factors associated with progression.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Methods: Two glaucoma fellowship-trained ophthalmologists, masked to temporal sequence, independently graded serial flicker chronoscopy images from 1 eye of a cohort of glaucoma patients for features of structural progression.

Ranibizumab treatment outcomes in phakic versus pseudophakic eyes: an individual patient data analysis of 2 phase 3 trials.

Objective: To compare visual outcomes in phakic and pseudophakic eyes treated with monthly intravitreal ranibizumab for exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Design: Meta-analysis of individual patient data from 2 phase 3 clinical trials of intravitreal ranibizumab in neovascular AMD (Anti-VEGF Antibody for the Treatment of Predominantly Classic Choroidal Neovascularization in Age-Related Macular Degeneration [ANCHOR], ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00061594; and Minimally Classic/Occult Trial of the Anti-VEGF Antibody Ranibizumab in the Treatment of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration [MARINA], ClinicalTrials.

MicroRNA-34a regulates cardiac ageing and function.

Ageing is the predominant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and contributes to a significantly worse outcome in patients with acute myocardial infarction. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as crucial regulators of cardiovascular function and some miRNAs have key roles in ageing. We propose that altered expression of miRNAs in the heart during ageing contributes to the age-dependent decline in cardiac function.

Current preferences and reported success rates in dacryocystorhinostomy amongst ASOPRS members.

Purpose: Success rates for endoscopic and external dacryocystorhinostomy vary widely (external 70-95%; endonasal 59-99%). We investigated surgical preferences and reported success rates in dacryocystorhinostomy amongst American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery members.

Methods: This retrospective study utilized a questionnaire sent to American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery members.

Prognostic impact of using drug-eluting-stents on outcome and strategy in multivessel PCI: data from the Frankfurt MV-PCI registry.

Background: Drug-eluting-stents (DES) reduce clinical restenosis, but have mostly failed to demonstrate a reduction in death or myocardial infarction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of the introduction of DES in patients undergoing multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention (MV-PCI).

Methods: Survival was assessed in 679 consecutive patients, who underwent PCI in at least two main vessels.

Goldmann applanation tonometry compared with corneal-compensated intraocular pressure in the evaluation of primary open-angle Glaucoma.

Background: To better understand the role of corneal properties and intraocular pressure (IOP) in the evaluation of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG); and to determine the feasibility of identifying glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON) using IOP corrected and uncorrected for corneal biomechanics.

Methods: Records from 1,875 eyes of consecutively evaluated new patients were reviewed. Eyes were excluded if central corneal thickness (CCT) or Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) measurements were unavailable.

Long-term effects of ranibizumab on diabetic retinopathy severity and progression.

Objective: To evaluate effects of intravitreal ranibizumab on diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity over time in 2 phase 3 clinical trials (RIDE, NCT00473382; RISE, NCT00473330) of ranibizumab for diabetic macular edema.

Methods: Participants with diabetic macular edema (n=759) were randomized to monthly sham, 0.3-mg ranibizumab, or 0.

Variation in corneal hysteresis and central corneal thickness among black, hispanic and white subjects.

Purpose: To determine whether differences in corneal hysteresis (CH) and central corneal thickness (CCT) between black, Hispanic and white subjects exist independently of one another.

Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional data were reviewed for 807 eyes of 410 patients consecutively evaluated for glaucoma. Included patients had open angles, at least one reliable 24-2 perimetric examination and no evidence of nonglaucomatous vision loss.