Corneal and conjunctival abnormalities in a cohort of survivors from the Western African Ebola virus disease outbreak.

Purpose: To characterize corneal and conjunctival abnormalities (CCAs) and their impact on visual acuity in a cohort of survivors from the Western African Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak.

Design: A post hoc analysis of 121 patients, who had previously undergone screening for the Ebola Virus Persistence in Ocular Tissues and Fluids study, was performed.

Methods: Patients underwent a comprehensive ophthalmic exam at the Lowell and Ruth Gess Eye Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Global Health Security in Vision Care: Health Systems Strengthening During Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak Responses.

During the last decade, global health security has been threatened by major Ebola virus disease outbreaks in Western Africa (2014 to 2016) and in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (2018 to 2020). Particularly in Western Africa, the outbreak initially overwhelmed health care capacity in already fragile health systems. Thousands of survivors were at risk of newly recognized postacute ocular complications, and their need for urgent ophthalmic care challenged national vision health systems with scarce eye care services.

Establishing Vitreoretinal Surgery Capacity in Sierra Leone: Challenges and Opportunities to Address Retinal Health Disparities in Resource-limited Settings.

A range of challenges exists regarding vitreoretinal (VR) surgical services in resource-limited settings, including Sierra Leone. As a result, retinal pathologies may contribute to vision loss and blindness. In the wake of the 2013 to 2016 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa, gaps in ophthalmic care were underscored as survivors were experiencing a constellation of sequelae, including uveitis and VR disease.

Ocular Complications of Mpox: Evolving Understanding and Future Directions.

Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), has been endemic in regions of Central and Western Africa. In 2022, the global spread of the clade IIb MPXV led to a multinational outbreak, primarily affecting sexual transmission networks among men who have sex with men. Despite interventions, new cases have continued to emerge.

Glaucoma Severity Stage at First Visit at a University Eye Clinic in Congo.

Prcis: Initial presentation of glaucoma at a major eye clinic mostly features advanced disease with a high proportion of blindness. This is likely a microcosm of a nationwide issue requiring concerted strategies to detect glaucoma early.

Purpose: To characterize the severity stage of new glaucoma patients in Congolese attending a university eye clinic.

Childhood vision impairment and blindness in West Africa: public health measures and implications for systemic health.

Childhood blindness is an issue of global health impact, affecting approximately 2 million children worldwide. Vision 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals previously identified childhood blindness as a key issue in the twentieth century, and while public health measures are underway, the precise etiologies and management require ongoing investigation and care, particularly within resource-limited settings such as sub-Saharan Africa. We systematically reviewed the literature on childhood blindness in West Africa to identify the anatomic classification and etiologies, particularly those causes of childhood blindness with systemic health implications.

Decision Factors for Glaucoma Suspects and Ocular Hypertensive Treatment at an Academic Center.

Aims And Background: Practice guidelines assert that high-risk glaucoma suspects should be treated. Yet, there is ambiguity regarding what constitutes a high enough risk for treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine which factors contribute to the decision to treat glaucoma suspects and ocular hypertensive patients in an academic ophthalmology practice.

Vision-related Quality of Life in Congolese Patients with Glaucoma.

Purpose: To assess the vision-related quality of life (QoL) in Congolese patients with glaucoma and its associated factors.

Methods: Ninety-four patients with open-angle glaucoma and 42 age-matched controls were included in the study. QoL was evaluated using the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25).

Neuroretinitis and Juxtapapillary Retinochoroiditis as Atypical Presentations of Ocular Toxoplasmosis.

We report three cases of optic nerve toxoplasmosis, an unusual form of ocular toxoplasmosis. In one patient, the optic nerve involvement occurred in an eye with a toxoplasmic chorioretinal scar and choroidal neovascularization in the supramacular area, subretinal fibrosis, and pigment epithelium detachment. The other two patients had papilledema without healed or active chorioretinal lesions, but both had retinal hemorrhage and macular involvement.

Glaucoma Screening Using an iPad-Based Visual Field Test in a West African Population.

Purpose: To investigate the performance of the Melbourne Rapid Fields (MRF) for use in clinic-based visual field testing in a low-resource setting.

Design: Prospective cross-sectional study.

Participants: One hundred and three participants (66 patients with glaucoma and 37 control participants) attending a clinical appointment at the Tema Eye Center, Tema, Ghana.

Agreement Between Retinoscopy, Autorefractometry and Subjective Refraction for Determining Refractive Errors in Congolese Children.

Objective: To assess the agreement between retinoscopy and autorefractometry and between subjective refraction and both retinoscopy and autorefractometry in Congolese children.

Patients And Methods: Fifty-four children (6-17 years old) were enrolled consecutively in this cross-sectional study. Refraction was evaluated before and after cycloplegia (1% cyclopentolate) with retinoscopy and autorefractometry.

Profile of central corneal thickness and corneal endothelial cell morpho-density of in healthy Congolese eyes.

Purpose: To determine the pachymetric and corneal endothelial cell morphometric features and their relationship to ocular and systemic factors in healthy Congolese subjects.

Methods: Non-contact specular microscopy was used in 278 healthy eyes (278 subjects) to measure central corneal thickness (CCT), corneal endothelial cell density (CECD) along with cell size, coefficient of variation (CV) in cell size, and hexagonality (HEX). The lower and upper reference limits and average values for each parameter were determined.

Profile of retinal diseases in adult patients attending two major eye clinics in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Aim: To determine the frequency and types of retinal diseases and the extend of the related visual loss in adult patients attending two public eye clinics of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Methods: Review of medical records of patients with retinal diseases seen in the major eye clinics in Kinshasa, the University Hospital of Kinshasa (UHK) and Saint Joseph Hospital (SJH), from January 2012 to December 2014. Demographics and diagnoses were retrieved and analyzed.

Separation and thickness measurements of superficial and deep slabs of the retinal nerve fiber layer in healthy and glaucomatous eyes.

Purpose: Describe a new method to analyze retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness maps.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Subjects: RNFL thickness maps of healthy and glaucomatous eyes.

Vision-Related Quality of Life, Anxiety and Depression in Congolese Patients with Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy.

Objective: To assess the impact of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) on quality of life (QoL) and mental health in a cohort of Congolese patients.

Methods: Fifteen PCV patients and 26 age-matched controls completed the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire. Outcome measures were QoL and HADS scores, frequency of anxiety and depression, correlations between best-corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA) and QoL and HADS scores.

Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy in Congolese Patients.

Purpose: Polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) is a visually debilitating disease that mostly affects people of African and Asian heritage. Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) is the recommended exploratory method for definitive diagnosis. The disease has been extensively described in Asians and Caucasians, but not in Africans.

Diagnosing Glaucoma Progression with Visual Field Data Using a Spatiotemporal Boundary Detection Method.

Diagnosing glaucoma progression is critical for limiting irreversible vision loss. A common method for assessing glaucoma progression uses a longitudinal series of visual fields (VF) acquired at regular intervals. VF data are characterized by a complex spatiotemporal structure due to the data generating process and ocular anatomy.

A spatially varying change points model for monitoring glaucoma progression using visual field data.

Glaucoma disease progression, as measured by visual field (VF) data, is often defined by periods of relative stability followed by an abrupt decrease in visual ability at some point in time. Determining the transition point of the disease trajectory to a more severe state is important clinically for disease management and for avoiding irreversible vision loss. Based on this, we present a unified statistical modeling framework that permits prediction of the timing and spatial location of future vision loss and informs clinical decisions regarding disease progression.