Estimating basal tear osmolarity in normal and dry eye subjects.

Purpose: Tear osmolarity (tOsm) is used as a measure of severity in dry eye disease (DED) and has been proposed as an index of body hydration. In DED the level of tear hyperosmolarity is compared with that of a control population. It is proposed here that a better index of body hydration and a more valid reference point in DED can be acquired by measuring the tOsm after a period of evaporative suppression.

Central Connections of the Lacrimal Functional Unit.

Purpose: To study the contribution of each eye to the reflex tear response, after unilateral and bilateral topical anesthesia.

Method: A closed-eye, modified Schirmer test was performed bilaterally in 8 normal subjects, in a controlled environment chamber set to 23°C, 45% relative humidity, and 0.08 m/s airflow.

Diurnal Intraocular Pressure and the Relationship With Swept-Source OCT-Derived Anterior Chamber Dimensions in Angle Closure: The IMPACT Study.

Purpose: To evaluate diurnal intraocular pressure (DIOP) among individuals with primary angle closure (PAC) or primary angle-closure suspect (PACS). Additionally, the hypothesis that greater DIOP fluctuation is related to smaller angle parameters was investigated.

Methods: Forty Caucasian newly referred untreated patients with bilateral PAC or PACS were recruited.

Acute hydrops in keratoconus masquerading as acute corneal transplant rejection.

Purpose: To document 2 cases that developed acute hydrops corneae within the host tissue after corneal transplantation. Subsequent extension across the transplant-host interface led to edema of the transplanted tissue, with consequent misdiagnosis and treatment of acute transplant rejection.

Methods: The patients attended the Anterior Segment Service at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK.

Transplantation of ocular tissue from a donor with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Background: One definite, one probable and several possible transmissions of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) have followed corneal transplantation. We report an incident in the UK in 1997 in which both corneas and scleras from a donor, subsequently confirmed to have had sCJD, were transplanted. The final clinical outcome for two surviving recipients is still not yet known.

The risk of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease via contact lenses and ophthalmic devices.

This review collated the available information regarding the risk of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) via contact lenses and other ophthalmic devices. The topics examined include: the emerging background science of the unconventional infective agent, the prion, particularly those factors affecting transmission; the estimates of the number of undiagnosed infective individuals; and evidence of infectivity in the external eye. Despite many uncertainties in the literature, we conclude that cross-infection is theoretically possible.

Scleral contact lenses: the expanding role.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the current indications for scleral contact lens (ScCL) management at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.

Methods: A database of 1003 patients (1560 eyes) seen between September 1999 and May 2003, either assessed for an ScCL trial or to follow up previously issued lenses, was analyzed.

Results: The major contact lens indication groups were keratoconus or other primary corneal ectasia (PCE), corneal transplant, and ocular surface disease (OSD).