Improving Compliance to Follow-Up Care After Primary Emergency Department Ophthalmic Consultation.

Purpose: To identify factors that affect the likelihood of follow-up after emergency department (ED) visit for ophthalmic complaints and to evaluate a protocol to improve compliance.

Design: Prospective interventional study with historical controls.

Methods: This study was conducted at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Jamaica, New York.

Analysis of Compensatory Corneal Epithelial Thickness Changes in Keratoconus Using Corneal Tomography.

Purpose: To determine patterns of epithelial remodeling in keratoconus and to assess changes in these patterns as the disease progresses.

Methods: This is a prospective case series. Patients with keratoconus undergoing corneal collagen crosslinking underwent Scheimpflug imaging before and after epithelial debridement.

Moxifloxacin Concentration and Proteomic Analysis of Aqueous Humor in Human Uveitis Associated with Oral Moxifloxacin Therapy.

Purpose: The aim was to report the aqueous humor moxifloxacin concentration and proteome profile of an individual with bilateral uveitis-like syndrome with pigment dispersion.

Methods: Multiple reactions monitoring mass spectrometry quantified the aqueous concentration of moxifloxacin in the affected individual. Shotgun proteomic analysis performed via liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) defined the protein profile in the affected individual and unaffected control samples.

Corneal Densitometry as a Tool to Measure Epithelial Ingrowth After Laser In Situ Keratomileusis.

Purpose: This study evaluates the correlation between corneal densitometry and epithelial ingrowth (EI) after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK).

Methods: Corneal densitometry of 3 patients who developed EI after LASIK was measured with the Oculus Pentacam. Corneal densitometry readings of each patient were obtained preoperatively and postoperatively after ingrowth was discovered.

Risk Factors for Retreatment Following Myopic LASIK with Femtosecond Laser and Custom Ablation for the Treatment of Myopia.

Purpose: To identify risks factors for retreatment post-laser in situ keratomeliusis (LASIK).

Materials & Methods: A retrospective chart review from December 2008 to September 2012 identified 1,402 patients (2,581 eyes) that underwent LASIK treatment for myopia with the Intralase™ FS, STAR S4 IR™ Excimer Laser, and WaveScan WaveFront™ technology. In this group, 83 patients were retreated.

Evaluation of the Effect of N-Acetylcysteine on Protein Deposition on Contact Lenses in Patients with the Boston Keratoprosthesis Type I.

Purpose: To establish the efficacy of topical N-acetylcysteine (NAC) as a treatment to reduce protein deposition on the contact lens surface.

Methods: In this prospective, nonrandomized clinical trial, a total of 10 eyes (9 patients) were enrolled from a single center. All patients had a prior ocular history of either a Boston Keratoprosthesis type I or trichiasis from Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which necessitated full-time contact lens wear.

Infliximab for the treatment of refractory noninfectious Uveitis: a study of 88 patients with long-term follow-up.

Objective: To establish the safety and efficacy of infliximab for the treatment of refractory noninfectious uveitis.

Design: Retrospective, interventional, noncomparative cohort study.

Participants: Eighty-eight patients from a single-center private practice.

Analysis of a novel protocol of pulsed intravenous cyclophosphamide for recalcitrant or severe ocular inflammatory disease.

Purpose: To analyze the success rate of pulsed intravenous (IV) cyclophosphamide (CyP) for noninfectious ocular inflammatory disease and to identify risk factors for failure of therapy.

Design: Retrospective, interventional, noncomparative cohort study.

Participants: One hundred ten eyes of 65 patients.

Exfoliation syndrome: new genetic and pathophysiologic insights.

Purpose Of Review: Exfoliation syndrome is the most common identifiable cause of glaucoma in the world. It has been associated with many ocular problems, such as secondary open angle glaucoma, corneal dysfunction, cataract, and zonular weakness, and may have systemic manifestations as well. This review focuses on recent genetic and pathophysiologic discoveries in the disease process.

Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome.

Purpose Of Review: Antiphospholipid syndrome is a rare cause of ocular vaso-occlusive disease, but is associated with significant systemic morbidity and mortality. Thus, early diagnosis and treatment is essential.

Recent Findings: Although the pathophysiology of antiphospholipid syndrome continues to be poorly understood, there has been continued progress with regard to the relationship between antiphospholipid antibody and its target, β-2-glycoprotein I.

Long-term safety and visual outcomes of anterior chamber intraocular lens implantation in patients with a history of chronic uveitis.

Purpose: To compare the visual outcomes and prevalence of long-term complications in patients with quiescent uveitis after phacoemulsification with traditional in-the-bag intraocular lens (IOL) implantation versus primary or secondary anterior chamber (AC) IOL implantation due to inadequate capsule support.

Setting: Single-center private practice.

Design: Retrospective observational cohort study.

Photorefractive keratectomy with mitomycin-C for the combined treatment of myopia and subepithelial infiltrates after epidemic keratoconjunctivitis.

Purpose: To report the use of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) with mitomycin-C (MMC) to treat concomitant myopia and visually significant infiltrates associated with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC).

Setting: Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island, Nassau University, Long Island, New York, USA.

Design: Interventional case series.

Corticosteroid-sparing agents: conventional systemic immunosuppressants.

The introduction of corticosteroids in the mid-20th century to control inflammatory eye disease revolutionized treatment practices. As long-term use of corticosteroids became the backbone of immunosuppressive therapy, it soon became evident that it was associated with significant morbidity to the patient. For this reason, other immunosuppressant agents were sought.

The philosophy of treatment of uveitis: past, present and future.

Treatment of inflammatory diseases of the eye is especially challenging. Although physicians in antiquity had recognized the existence of ocular inflammatory disease, their lack of understanding of the immune system made successful treatment almost impossible. Throughout the 20th century, great advances in the diagnosis and treatment of uveitis led to unique treatment options.

Characterization, purification and cDNA cloning of a rat perchloric-acid-soluble 23-kDa protein present only in liver and kidney.

A novel protein was extracted with 5% perchloric acid from rat liver and kidney. It is absent from other rat organs. Its apparent molecular mass is 23 kDa as determined by HPLC gel filtration.

[Molecular and cellular action of butyrate].

Butyrate has a dramatic effect on transformed cells in culture. This effect disappears as soon as butyrate is removed from the medium. The other short chain fatty acids are much less effective.

Stimulation of methotrexate resistance and dihydrofolate reductase gene amplification by c-myc.

We have hypothesized that the c-myc oncogene might promote DNA amplification. Resistance to methotrexate (MTX), a widely used cancer chemotherapeutic agent, often results from amplification of the gene coding for the target enzyme, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). We report here that gratuitously induced expression of c-myc in rat fibroblasts grown in the presence of MTX greatly increases the number of colonies resistant to the drug.

Sodium butyrate inhibits c-myc and stimulates c-fos expression in all the steps of the cell-cycle in hepatoma tissue cultured cells.

Sodium butyrate decreases the c-myc mRNA and increases the c-fos transcript level in HTC cells. This effect is independent of the cell-cycle phase. Actinomycin D suppresses the effect on c-fos.

The protein kinases tightly bound to DNA are present in normal tissues and in regenerating liver, but strongly decreased in hepatomas.

We have previously described in rat liver two protein kinases tightly bound to DNA, one is serine-specific, the other arginine-specific. In this work we show that both enzymes are present in various rat tissues and in liver from various species. Both kinase specific activities are strongly decreased in methyl-DBA-induced hepatomas and in HTC cells but not in regenerating liver after hepatectomy.

Detection of minority point mutations by modified PCR technique: a new approach for a sensitive diagnosis of tumor-progression markers.

The detection of point mutations correlated with diseases, in enzymatically amplified DNA sequences (Polymerase Chain Reaction), is currently performed by digestion of PCR products when an existing restriction site disappears at least in one allele of the amplified mutated sequence or by allele specific radiolabeled probes in all other cases. These methods are the most sensitive but they cannot detect a mutation if it is present in less than 5% of the studied cells. We describe here a method based on the introduction of an artificial restriction site, using a modified primer during the PCR, which creates a RFLP indicative of the studied mutation.

Increased level of the mitochondrial ND5 transcript in chemically induced rat hepatomas.

We have constructed a cDNA library from a hepatoma cell line (HTC cells) and isolated the clones corresponding to mRNAs present at a much higher level in hepatomas than in normal hepatocytes. The characterization of one of these clones is described in this paper. This clone is homologous to part of the mitochondrial ND5 gene (a subunit of NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase).

DNA sequences homologous to mitochondrial genes in nuclei from normal rat tissues and from rat hepatoma cells.

Using specific probes we show that sequences homologous to NADH dehydrogenase Subunit 6, and Cytochrome oxidase Subunits I, II, and III mitochondrial genes are present in nuclear DNA from various tissues. These mitochondrial-like sequences are also present in rat hepatoma nuclear DNA but with an abnormal organization and a higher copy number than in normal hepatocytes.

RNAs containing mitochondrial ND6 and COI sequences present an abnormal structure in chemically induced rat hepatomas.

We have constructed a cDNA library prepared from an hepatoma cell line (HTC cells) and isolated a clone, pHT 13, which corresponds to mRNAs present at a much higher level in rat hepatomas than in normal hepatocytes. The sequence of the pHT 13 insert has been previously published (Nucleic Acids Res. 1988, 16,10935).