Effectiveness of Strabismus Surgery in Intermittent Exotropia and Factors Influencing Outcome.

Intermittent exotropia (IXT) is known to relapse after surgery. No factors to predict or prevent recurrence are known with certainty. This study investigated surgical outcome, potential influencing factors, and reoperation rate in patients with IXT.

[Brown's atavistic superior oblique syndrome: etiology of different types of motility disorders in congenital Brown's syndrome].

Clinical Features: The congenital Brown syndrome is characterized by a mechanical limitation of elevation in adduction, with an orthophoria in down gaze. Brown postulated a shortened superior oblique tendon sheath as the cause of the limitation but this was disproved by Parks et al. in 1975 and the origin of Brown syndrome remains unclear.

Extraocular muscles involved in convergence are innervated by an additional set of palisade endings that may differ in their excitability: A human study.

Palisade endings are located at the myotendinous junction of extraocular muscles in most mammals. Irrespective of their unclarified function as motor or sensory nerve endings, a specialized role in convergence is proposed, based on their high number in the medial rectus muscle (MR). Further support comes from a study in monkey demonstrating that only the MR and inferior rectus muscle (IR) contain an additional population of palisade endings that express the calcium-binding protein calretinin (CR) in addition to choline acetyltransferase (ChAT).

Comparing Alternative Ranibizumab Dosages for Safety and Efficacy in Retinopathy of Prematurity: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapies are a novel treatment option in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Data on dosing, efficacy, and safety are insufficient.

Objective: To investigate lower doses of anti-VEGF therapy with ranibizumab, a substance with a significantly shorter systemic half-life than the standard treatment, bevacizumab.

Pediatric idiopathic intracranial hypertension - Is the fixed threshold value of elevated LP opening pressure set too high?

Background: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) in children is a rare condition of unknown etiology and various clinical presentations. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate if our pediatric IIH study group fulfilled the revised diagnostic criteria for IIH published in 2013, particularly with regard to clinical presentation and threshold value of an elevated lumbar puncture opening pressure. Additionally we investigated the potential utilization of MR-based and fundoscopic methods of estimating intracranial pressure for improved diagnosis.

Infantile and acquired nystagmus in childhood.

Nystagmus is an involuntary, periodic eye movement caused by a slow drift of fixation which is followed by a fast refixation saccade (jerk nystagmus) or a slow movement back to fixation (pendular nystagmus). In childhood most cases are benign forms of nystagmus: idiopathic infantile, ocular or latent nystagmus. They arise at the age of 3 months, without oscillopsia and show the absence of the physiologic opto-kinetic nystagmus.

Reversible benign intracranial hypertension in a child with hyperthyroidism.

Endocrine dysfunction is a rare but known cause of benign intracranial hypertensio (BIH) in adults. Here we describe a rare case of BIH in the pediatric age group associated with autoimmune hyperthyroidism. A 12-year-old girl presented with a 3-month history of headaches.

Screening for refractive errors in preschool children with the vision screener.

Background: The Vision Screener is a new, commercial version of the Power Refractor, an off-axis, hand-held video refractor to screen for amblyogenic refractive errors. The aim of our study was to determine the reproducibility of the measurements, compare them to cycloplegic refraction, and evaluate the sensitivity and specificity for the detection of amblyogenic refractive errors.

Patients And Methods: Included in the study were 161 preschool children, age 0.

Foveal contour interaction: detection and discrimination.

Contour interaction, the detrimental effect of flanking features on the discrimination of optotypes, has been studied mainly close to the visual acuity limit. We were interested to know how these results compare with those for the detection of targets. According to the simplest model of contour interaction, comparable detection effects would be expected.

Integration of orientation information in amblyopia.

A recent report suggests that amblyopes are deficient in processing local orientation at supra-threshold contrasts. To determine whether amblyopes are also poor at integrating local orientation signals, we assessed performance for an orientation integration task in which the orientations of static signals are integrated across space. Our results show that amblyopic visual systems can integrate local static oriented signals with the same level of efficiency as normal visual systems.

Orbital rhabdomyosarcoma in Noonan syndrome.

The incidence of various benign and malignant tumors is increased in patients with Noonan syndrome compared with the general population. We present a 9-year-old boy with the typical features of Noonan syndrome and an acute nonaxial proptosis of the right eye. An ultrasound scan, a computed tomography scan, and magnetic resonance imaging raised suspicion of rhabdomyosarcoma.

Foveal contrast thresholds exhibit spatial-frequency- and polarity-specific contour interactions.

Traditionally, contour interaction has been investigated at the visual acuity limit using a Landolt C and flanking bars, performance being quantified in terms of a percent correct measure. More recently, it has been shown that the properties of the contour interaction are different when larger stimuli are used: Contour interaction is not polarity specific, and spatial frequency tuning for an unflanked C is broader. Here we quantify contour interaction for stimuli 5x larger than the resolution limit in terms of contrast thresholds.

[Application of the new coding standards for introducing diagnosis related groups (DRGs) in ophthalmology].

For all in-patients a fundamental change of hospital financing based only on diagnosis related groups (DRGs) is planned in Germany for 2004. Patients are grouped into different DRGs according to their coded diagnoses, operations and procedures. Hence, the quality of coding is essential for adequate reimbursement of cases and thus for hospital financing.

Effect of inferior oblique recession in strabismus sursoadductorius.

Unlabelled: The aim of this retrospective study was a quantitative analysis of the effect of graded inferior oblique recessions (8 mm, 10 mm or maximal) in strabismus sursoadductorius.

Method: 234 patients (2-81 years of age) with unilateral strabismus sursoadductorius and stereopsis were operated between 1990 and 1999. Maximal recession (14.