Neighborhood-level disadvantages increase risk for invasive pneumococcal disease.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) infection remains common worldwide despite recent vaccine efforts. Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) is the most severe form of Spn infection. Known individual risk factors for IPD include male gender and African American race.

The Orphan Drug for Acanthamoeba Keratitis (ODAK) Trial: PHMB 0.08% (Polihexanide) and Placebo versus PHMB 0.02% and Propamidine 0.1.

Purpose: To compare topical PHMB (polihexanide) 0.02% (0.2 mg/ml)+ propamidine 0.

Acanthamoeba Keratitis Risk Factors for Daily Wear Contact Lens Users: A Case-Control Study.

Purpose: This study was designed to establish risk factors for the development of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) for daily disposable (DD) contact lens (CL) users compared with daily wear (DW) reusable lens users and for risks unique to DD users. This is important because, in many major economies, CL use is the principal cause of microbial keratitis, of which AK accounts for approximately 50% of cases with sight loss. Determining these AK risks informs practitioner advice and consumer behavior.

Safety and tolerability of topical polyhexamethylene biguanide: a randomised clinical trial in healthy adult volunteers.

Background And Aims: Polyhexamethyl biguanide (PHMB), a widely used topical treatment for keratitis (AK), is unlicensed with no formal safety assessment. This study evaluated its safety and tolerability.

Methods: A prospective, randomised, double-masked controlled trial in 90 healthy volunteers.

Autoantibody Detection for Diagnosis in Direct Immunofluorescence-Negative Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid: Ocular and Other Sites Compared.

Purpose: To assess whether a panel of serum pemphigoid autoantibody tests could be used to confirm an immunopathologic diagnosis of mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) in direct immunofluorescent negative (DIF-) MMP patients.

Design: Prospective cross-sectional study.

Participants: Seventy-six patients with multisite MMP with 45 matched control participants.

Validation of a clinical assessment tool for cicatrising conjunctivitis.

Purpose: This study was designed to validate a semi-quantitative clinical assessment tool for cicatrising conjunctivitis (CC).

Methods: Fifty-five patients (109 eyes) with mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) and 31 patients (61 eyes) with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) were included. Three methods were used for validation: (1) comparison of inter- and intra-observer reproducibility for the components selected for the initial version of the tool, (2) quantitative measurement of the scarring component with a fornix depth measurer, compared with qualitative Tauber grading methodology, (3) the final version of the tool was compared with the published Sotozono SJS grading system.

keratitis therapy: time to cure and visual outcome analysis for different antiamoebic therapies in 227 cases.

Aims: To test the hypothesis that keratitis (AK) outcomes differ for different topical antiamoebic therapies (AAT) and to provide the detailed patient outcome data.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 227 patients developing AK between 25 July 1991 and 10 August 2012. Inclusion criteria required a complete record of AAT treatment for both the primary outcome of a medical cure rate at 12 months and the secondary outcome of Snellen visual acuity ≤6/24 and/or surgical intervention.

keratitis: confirmation of the UK outbreak and a prospective case-control study identifying contributing risk factors.

Background/aims: keratitis (AK) is a chronic debilitating corneal infection principally affecting contact lens (CL) users. Studies were designed to test claims that the UK incidence may have increased in 2012-2014 and to evaluate potential causes.

Methods: Annualised incidence data were collected from January 1984 to December 2016.

Number of incident cases of the main eye diseases of ageing in the UK Biobank cohort, projected over a 25-year period from time of recruitment.

Objectives: To estimate the number of new cases of age-related macular degeneration, cataract and glaucoma accruing in the UK Biobank cohort, over a period of 25 years from time of recruitment. Our secondary objective was to assess the statistical power of nested case-control studies of these eye diseases. We aimed to provide quantitative information relevant to UK Biobank's eye disease case ascertainment efforts and to the potential for UK Biobank-based research into the causes of eye disease.

keratitis in 194 patients: risk factors for bad outcomes and severe inflammatory complications.

Background/aims: To determine demographic and clinical features of patients with keratitis (AK) that are independent risk factors both for bad outcomes and for severe inflammatory complications (SIC).

Methods: A retrospective audit of medical records of AK cases at Moorfields Eye Hospital from July 2000 to April 2012, including 12 earlier surgical cases. Cases with a bad outcome were defined as those having one or more of the following: corneal perforation, keratoplasty, other surgery (except biopsy), duration of antiamoebic therapy (AAT) ≥10.

Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid with Ocular Involvement: The Clinical Phenotype and Its Relationship to Direct Immunofluorescence Findings.

Purpose: This study explored the validity of the First International Consensus on Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid (MMP) guidance, which recommends that clinically indistinguishable patients, who have direct immunofluorescence (DIF)-negative biopsies, be excluded from a diagnosis of MMP. Misdiagnosis, or delayed diagnosis, of MMP with ocular involvement leads to the inappropriate use of topical therapy, the standard of care for causes of cicatrising conjunctivitis other than MMP, rather than systemic immunomodulatory therapy, resulting in irreversible clinical deterioration in patients with MMP.

Design: Prospective, cross-sectional study.

Genomewide association study identifies GALC as susceptibility gene for mucous membrane pemphigoid.

Mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) is a rare, chronic and often aggressive subepidermal autoimmune blistering disease potentially affecting several mucous membranes with blisters and secondary erosions and scars. The pathogenesis of MMP is poorly understood, and the contribution of genetic predispositions, other than HLA class II allele variants to MMP, is unknown. The objective of this study is to identify susceptibility genes for MMP in a British cohort of MMP patients.

Risk factors and causative organisms in microbial keratitis in daily disposable contact lens wear.

Purpose: This study investigated independent risk factors and causative organisms in microbial keratitis in daily disposable contact lens (CL)-wearers.

Methods: A multisite prospective case-control study was undertaken. Cases were daily disposable CL-wearers attending Moorfields Eye Hospital with microbial keratitis and those reported through a one-year surveillance study in Australia and in New Zealand.

A Phase II pilot trial to evaluate safety and efficacy of ferroquine against early Plasmodium falciparum in an induced blood-stage malaria infection study.

Background: Ferroquine (SSR97193) is a candidate anti-malarial currently undergoing clinical trials for malaria. To better understand its pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) parameters the compound was tested in the experimentally induced blood stage malaria infection model in volunteers.

Methods: Male and non-pregnant female aged 18-50 years were screened for this phase II, controlled, single-centre clinical trial.

The Impact of Topical Corticosteroids Used in Conjunction with Antiamoebic Therapy on the Outcome of Acanthamoeba Keratitis.

Purpose: To examine the impact of topical corticosteroid use after the start of antiamoebic therapy (AAT) on the outcomes of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) therapy.

Design: Cohort study.

Participants: A total of 196 patients diagnosed with AK at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, between January 1991 and April 2012.

Ferroquine and artesunate in African adults and children with Plasmodium falciparum malaria: a phase 2, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, dose-ranging, non-inferiority study.

Background: Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the recommended first-line treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Ferroquine is a new combination partner for fast-acting ACTs such as artesunate. We aimed to assess different doses of ferroquine in combination with artesunate against uncomplicated P falciparum malaria in a heterogeneous population in Africa.

Trends in serious ocular trauma in Scotland.

Purpose: To report trends in serious, sight-threatening ocular trauma in Scotland.

Methods: A prospective, population-based, observational study of patients with ocular trauma admitted to hospital in Scotland during a 12-month period (2008-2009), conducted through the British Ophthalmic Surveillance Unit. Data on circumstances of the injuries and visual outcomes were collected using protocols standardised to those from an earlier study (1991-1992) to allow direct comparisons over time.

Therapeutic and optical keratoplasty in the management of Acanthamoeba keratitis: risk factors, outcomes, and summary of the literature.

Objective: To report the risk factors for and outcomes of therapeutic and optical keratoplasty in the management of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK).

Design: Retrospective case series.

Participants: A total of 50 eyes of 196 patients with retrievable medical records, diagnosed with AK at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, underwent keratoplasty between January 1991 and April 2012.

The impact of topical corticosteroid use before diagnosis on the outcome of Acanthamoeba keratitis.

Objective: To examine the impact of topical corticosteroid use before the diagnosis of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) on final visual outcomes and to determine the prognostic factors predicting poorer outcomes.

Design: Cohort study.

Participants: A total of 209 eyes of 196 patients with retrievable medical records, diagnosed with AK at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, between January 1991 and April 2012.

The incidence of serious eye injury in Scotland: a prospective study.

Purpose: Ocular trauma remains an important cause of visual morbidity worldwide. A previous population-based study in Scotland reported a 1-year cumulative incidence of 8.14 per 100 000 population.

Pharmacokinetics of ferroquine, a novel 4-aminoquinoline, in asymptomatic carriers of Plasmodium falciparum infections.

Ferroquine (SSR97193), a ferrocene-quinoline conjugate, is a promising novel antimalarial currently undergoing clinical evaluation. This study characterizes its pharmacokinetic properties. Young male African volunteers with asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infection were administered a single oral dose (n = 40) or a repeated oral dose (n = 26) given over 3 days of ferroquine in two dose-escalation, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials.

The antimalarial ferroquine: from bench to clinic.

Ferroquine (FQ, SSR97193) is currently the most advanced organo-metallic drug candidate and about to complete phase II clinical trials as a treatment for uncomplicated malaria. This ferrocene-containing compound is active against both chloroquine-susceptible and chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax strains and/or isolates.

Prevalence of diabetic macular oedema and related health and social care resource use in England.

Aims: To address the absence from the public health ophthalmology literature of age- and sex-specific prevalence and related resource use for diabetic macular oedema (DMO) in England, UK.

Methods: Calculation of age- and sex-specific rates from primary source clinical data, and application to the demographic structure of England to estimate the number of cases affected by DMO. A public health commissioner and provider of social care perspective was adopted in a standard cost of illness study.

Outcomes of pseudophakic retinal detachment.

Purpose:  To provide data on the outcome of pseudophakic retinal detachment (PRD).

Methods: In a retrospective case-control study, we identified a consecutive series of 63 298 cataract extractions (45 520 patients) performed in a single institution between 1994 and 2003. We included 249 cases with PRD and 845 controls that had cataract surgery on the same day as cases but without PRD.