The spectrum of optic disc ischemia in patients younger than 50 years (an Amercian Ophthalmological Society thesis).

Purpose: To identify the spectrum of clinical and fluorescein angiographic features of optic disc ischemia in patients younger than 50 years.

Methods: This retrospective comparative case series from a university consultative neuro-ophthalmology practice consisted of two phases. The first compared 108 cases of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy in patients younger than 50 years (NAIONy) to a cohort of 108 cases in patients 50 years or older (NAIONo).

HLA-DRB association in neuromyelitis optica is different from that observed in multiple sclerosis.

Until recently, neuromyelitis optica (NMO) was considered to be a sub-type of multiple sclerosis (MS), which has a strong predilection for Caucasian populations, whereas NMO is more frequent in non-Caucasian individuals. The objective of this study was to compare the HLA-DRB profile in Brazilian Mulatto patients with NMO spectrum disorders (NMOSDs) with that observed for Mulatto MS patients and healthy Mulatto controls. Twenty seven NMOSD patients (20 women), all seropositive for NMO-IgG, 29 MS patients and 28 Mulatto healthy blood donors were evaluated for HLA-DRB allele groups.

Orbital myositis: diagnosis and management.

Orbital myositis is an inflammatory process that primarily involves the extraocular muscles and most commonly affects young adults in the third decade of life, with a female predilection. Clinical characteristics of orbital myositis include orbital and periorbital pain, ocular movement impairment, diplopia, proptosis, swollen eyelids, and conjunctival hyperemia. The most common presentation is acute and unilateral, which initially responds to systemic corticosteroid therapy.

An unusual chiasmal visual defect in a patient with neuromyelitis optica: case report.

Purpose: To report the unusual visual field finding due to a chiasmal neuritis in a 33-year-old female with the diagnosis of optic neuromyelitis optica (Devic's syndrome).

Methods: We report a case of a 33 years old female with limb paraesthesias, weakness in the legs, bowel and bladder dysfunction that was referred to the "Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo" in October 1995. Six years and four months later she had an acute visual involvement.

Combined trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy as a first surgical procedure for primary congenital glaucoma.

Early surgical results (mean follow-up = 163 days) following combined trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy as a first surgical procedure for 20 consecutive cases in 14 children with primary congenital glaucoma were retrospectively examined. Mean pretreatment intraocular pressure was 25.55 +/- 9.

Nitrogenase switch-off by ammonium ions in Azospirillum brasilense requires the GlnB nitrogen signal-transducing protein.

Nitrogenase activity in several diazotrophs is switched off by ammonium and reactivated after consumption. The signaling pathway to this system in Azospirillum brasilense is not understood. We show that ammonium-dependent switch-off through ADP-ribosylation of Fe protein was partial in a glnB mutant of A.