Eales' disease: epidemiology, diagnostic and therapeutic concepts.

Background: To describe the epidemiological traits, clinical characteristics, diagnostic procedures, therapeutic interventions and evolution in a large series of patients with diagnosis of Eales' disease.

Methods: A clinical retrospective review of patients with Eales' disease, evaluated and treated between April 2009 and April 2018, with a 1-year minimum follow-up. Thirty patients (59 eyes), were included.

Perception of Purkinje vessel shadows and foveal granular pattern as a measure of potential visual acuity.

Purpose: To compare perception of 2 entoptic phenomena, the Purkinje vessel shadows and the foveal granular pattern, as measures of retinal visual acuity using a transscleral illumination technique that bypasses the anterior segment.

Setting: Retinal Vascular Center and General Eye Clinic, Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Methods: Both eyes of 85 patients with clear ocular media, many with retinal disease, were tested for perception of these entoptic phenomena.

Origin of the foveal granular pattern in entoptic viewing.

Purpose: To investigate the controversial origin of the foveal granular pattern at the center of the entoptic Purkinje vessel shadows. Both phenomena may be vividly elicited by oscillating a focused spot of light across the scleral surface of the eye in a circumferential direction.

Methods: The site and pattern of oscillation of the light spot were varied and were correlated with the appearance of the foveal granular pattern.

Proteoglycan synthesis in cultures of murine retinal neurons and photoreceptors.

1. In recent years, a number of histochemical and immunocytochemical studies have suggested that proteoglycans, particularly those in the interphotoreceptor matrix, exhibit altered distributions in several murine models for retinal degenerations. We are using a cell culture system to characterize the proteoglycans synthesized by neurons and photoreceptors derived from mouse retina, with the long-term goal of analyzing their role in retinal degenerations.

Epidemiology and diagnosis of acute conjunctivitis at an inner-city hospital.

Chlamydia has been found to be the cause of a high percentage of cases of neonatal and chronic conjunctivitis in an inner-city population. To assess the etiology and epidemiology of acute conjunctivitis in this population, conjunctival scrapings were sampled from 45 patients presenting to an ocular emergency room; and replicate chlamydial, viral, and bacterial cultures and cytology tests were done. No cases of chlamydial conjunctivitis were diagnosed, although a viral etiology was established in 36% of the cases and a bacterial etiology in 40%.