Orbital abscesses caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum.

The authors describe 2 cases of young men who presented with pansinusitis and Fusobacterium necrophorum orbital abscesses. The first patient had a complicated clinical course including epidural abscess formation and meningitis. He underwent surgical evacuation of the abscesses and sinus drainage and required long-term broad spectrum antibiotic therapy with full recovery.

Comparison of methods to predict visual field progression in glaucoma.

Objective: To compare performance of pointwise linear regression, Glaucoma Change Probability Analysis (GCPA), and the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS) method in predicting visual field progression in glaucoma.

Design: Longitudinal visual field data from AGIS. Proportion of progressing eyes and time to progression were the main outcome measures.

Trabeculectomy with mitomycin C: outcomes and risk factors for failure in phakic open-angle glaucoma.

Purpose: To evaluate long-term tonometric outcomes of trabeculectomy with adjunctive mitomycin C (MMC) and its efficacy in achieving a range of intraocular pressures (IOP) in phakic patients with open-angle glaucoma.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Methods: Three levels of success were defined by these criteria: (A) IOP < or =18 mmHg and IOP reduction of 20%; (B) IOP < or =15 mmHg and IOP reduction of 25%; and (C) IOP < or =12 and IOP reduction of 30%.

Outcomes of laser suture lysis after initial trabeculectomy with adjunctive mitomycin C.

Purpose: To evaluate and compare outcomes of eyes that underwent laser suture lysis (LSL) after initial trabeculectomy with mitomycin C (MMC) to those that did not require such an intervention.

Methods: We reviewed the charts of consecutive patients with open-angle glaucoma who underwent initial trabeculectomy with mitomycin C at the Jules Stein Eye Institute between 1998 and 2003. Primary outcome measures were intraocular pressure (IOP) control at 1 year and success rate of trabeculectomy according to following criteria: criteria A, IOP < 21 mm Hg with >or=20% IOP reduction and criteria B, IOP < 15 mm Hg with >or=30% IOP reduction.

Soluble type II transforming growth factor-beta receptor attenuates expression of metastasis-associated genes and suppresses pancreatic cancer cell metastasis.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a deadly malignancy that frequently metastasizes and that overexpresses transforming growth factor-beta s (TGF-beta s). To determine whether TGF-beta s can act to enhance the metastatic potential of PDAC, PANC-1 human pancreatic cancer cells were transfected with an expression construct encoding a soluble type II TGF-beta receptor (sT beta RII) that blocks cellular responsiveness to TGF-beta 1. When injected s.