Learning effect and test-retest variability of pulsar perimetry.

Purpose: To assess Pulsar Perimetry learning effect and test-retest variability (TRV) in normal (NORM), ocular hypertension (OHT), glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON), and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) eyes.

Methods: This multicenter prospective study included 43 NORM, 38 OHT, 33 GON, and 36 POAG patients. All patients underwent standard automated perimetry and Pulsar Contrast Perimetry using white stimuli modulated in phase and counterphase at 30 Hz (CP-T30W test).

Ibopamine: D1-dopaminergic agonist in the diagnosis of glaucoma.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of ibopamine (3,4 di-isobutyrrylester of N-methyldopamine), a D1-dopamine agonist, on intraocular pressure (IOP) in offspring of parents with primary openangle glaucoma as a consequence of outflow structures impairment.

Materials And Methods: We included participants aged between 8 and 40 years: group 1, 163 offspring of at least 1 parent with primary openangle glaucoma with normal IOP and without glaucomatous damages; group 2, 108 offspring of healthy parents (without history or existing glaucoma). Ibopamine test was performed by instilling 2 drops, 5 minutes apart, in both eyes followed by repeated IOP measurements over a 45-minute period.

Pulsar perimetry in the diagnosis of early glaucoma.

Purpose: To assess the ability of Pulsar perimetry (Pulsar) in detecting early glaucomatous visual field (VF) damage in comparison with Frequency Doubling Technology (FDT), Scanning Laser Polarimetry (SLP, GDx VCC), and Heidelberg Retina Tomography (HRT).

Design: Prospective observational cross-sectional case study.

Methods: This multicenter study included: 87 ocular hypertensives (OHT); 67 glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON) patients; 75 primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients; and 90 normals.

[Correlation between confocal tomography of the optic nerve (HRT) and the perimetric frequency doubling technology].

Purpose And Methods: To correlate the five phases of optic nerve (ON) damage staging, as assessed by means of confocal tomography (HRT) with the five stages of visual field, assessed by conventional perimetry (standard automatic perimetry, SAP) and classified in five stages according to the "GLAUCOMA STAGING SYSTEM". The second step was to correlate the same optic nerve staging system with the results of the visual field tested with non-conventional perimetry using the frequency doubling technology (FDT) employing the Humphrey-Zeiss and Welch-Allyn perimeter. The five stages of FDT visual field data evolution were classified according to the new "FDT STAGING SYSTEM".

Inhibition of HIV-1 Tat activity correlates with down-regulation of bcl-2 and results in reduction of angiogenesis and oncogenicity.

The Tat protein of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 promotes survival and growth and inhibits apoptosis of different cell types. These effects of Tat are attributed to the induction of bcl-2 gene expression. In this study we show that the blocking of both intracellular and extracellular Tat correlates with a decrease of bcl-2 transcripts, leading in vitro to a lower growth rate and attenuation of the transformed phenotype and in vivo to a reduced angiogenic and oncogenic activity of Tat-expressing cells.

Optic nerve head behavior in Posner-Schlossman syndrome.

Purpose: To analyze the effect of glaucomatocyclitic crisis on the optic nerve head, as well as its consequent structural and hemodynamic changes. To evaluate the surgical indication for Posner-Schlossman syndrome.

Materials And Methods: Four Posner-Schlossman syndrome cases were evaluated for an analysis of the phenomena occurring in the optic disc by means of retinal confocal tomography and Scanning Laser Doppler Flowmetry, and their correlation with visual function as measured with automated computerized perimetry.

Antiglaucomatous drugs effects on optic nerve head flow: design, baseline and preliminary report.

Purpose: To determine the effect of the most frequent used antiglaucomatous drugs on the optic nerve head flow. To see the response of the autoregulation system in hypertensive, preperimetric and advanced perimetric glaucomas.

Materials: In this preliminary report, optic nerve head parameters and retinal perfusion values were measured in 25 healthy controls as well as in 72 glaucomatous optic nerve heads.

Large optic nerve heads: megalopapilla or megalodiscs.

Purpose: To evaluate megalopapillas in order to determine whether they constitute a different population, according to their specific features.

Material: Evaluation of the optic nerve head of 405 eyes divided into 172 normal eyes, 168 pre-perimetric glaucomas (phase 3 or 4), 30 primary congenital glaucomas (children with pure congenital glaucomas operated more than once and diagnosed within the first year of age), and 35 megalopapillas.

Method: The examinations were performed with the HRT (Heidelberg Retina Tomograph), using a wavelength of 680 nm and the new standard reference plane.

Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma of the retina.

We report two cases of pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas of the retina. The immunoreactivity to CD68, Fe (Pearls' technique), astrocytes (argentic technique), and antibodies to glial fibrillary acidic protein was tested in tumor cells. Both neoplasms contained cells immunoreactive for glial fibrillary acidic protein and CD68.

Rare mutations in a domain crucial for V3-loop structure prevail in replicating HIV from long-term non-progressors.

Objective: To evaluate the role of the selective forces exerted by the host on the HIV-1 structures involved in viral entry.

Design And Methods: The V3 region of the env gene was analysed in cell-free HIV-1 RNA from 17 infected subjects: 11 long-term non-progressors (LTNP) and six symptomless, typical progressor patients. To evaluate the potential biological significance of one of the rare variants detected in the LTNP, it was reproduced by recombinant PCR into a HIV-1 molecular clone.

Comparable biological and molecular determinants in HIV type 1-infected long-term nonprogressors and recently infected individuals.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) isolability, rate of replication, phenotype, plasma viremia, and specific intracellular transcripts were cross-sectionally analyzed in 61 HIV-1-seropositive individuals to evaluate the correlations between the virological and molecular correlates of protection and progression in different clinical subsets: recently infected subjects (RIs), long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs), late progressors (LPs), and typical progressors (TPs). Comparison of the major virological and molecular features of HIV-1 infection has defined distinct profiles for different subsets of patients. LTNPs or RIs, as well as LPs or TPs, exhibited similar titers of coculture p24 antigen; the differences between the former and the latter were statistically significant at all the time points tested (p = 0.

Molecular monitoring of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection.

Over the past few years, considerable technical effort has been directed to developing molecular methods that would allow an effective approach to the diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection and its monitoring. Indeed, quantitative molecular techniques have opened the way for a new type of direct study of untreated and treated HIV-1 infected subjects. The understanding of the immunopathogenesis of HIV-1 infection has increased significantly with the introduction of advanced virological and molecular methods for accurate quantitative analysis of HIV-1 activity; powerful methodologies answer (directly and in real time) most questions generated by pathogenic research and by the novel anti-viral strategies introduced in clinical practice.

Dynamics and modulation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 transcripts in vitro and in vivo.

The dynamics of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transcription was analyzed in vitro and in vivo by using a specific molecular approach which allows accurate quantitation of the different classes of viral mRNAs. Unspliced (US) and multiply spliced (MS) HIV-1 transcripts were assayed by competitive reverse transcription (cRT)-PCR, using a single competitor RNA bearing in tandem internally deleted sequences of both template species. Acute HIV-1 infection of primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), monocytes/macrophages cells, and the A3.

Prof. Marc Amsler and the Cantonal Hospital Eye Clinic, Zurich.

Prof. Marc Amsler was an outstanding teacher of ophthalmology and a highly creative clinician, investigator and designer of instruments and surgical procedures. Well known for his design of the Amsler grid, he also conducted investigations into anterior chamber puncture and the aqueous humor in uveitis.

[Retinal detachment and pigment dispersion syndrome].

Patients: The frequency of retinal detachment has been studied in 107 consecutive patients suffering from pigmentary glaucoma. The frequency of retinal detachment in pigmentary glaucoma is 12%, while in the normal population is only 0.001%.

Quantitative molecular monitoring of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 activity during therapy with specific antiretroviral compounds.

Methods for the absolute quantitation of nucleic acids present in small amounts in biological samples (competitive PCR and competitive reverse transcription PCR) were applied to the direct monitoring of specific anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) therapy. With these techniques, different parameters of HIV-1 activity (including genomic RNA copy numbers in plasma, proviral and late transcript copy numbers in peripheral blood lymphocytes, and mean transcriptional activity per each HIV-1 provirus) were monitored during therapy with azidothymidine or ddI. In most of these treated patients, a direct response to the antiretroviral compounds employed was detected during the first few weeks of treatment, as documented by a fast decrease of all molecular indexes of HIV-1 activity.

The chamber angle in exfoliation syndrome. Clinical and pathological findings.

The clinical picture of the chamber angle in capsular glaucoma is described. One or more waves of pigment overpass Schwalbe's line and accumulate on the posterior face of the cornea. These waves are found in the chamber angle between 4 and 8 o'clock across 6 o'clock.

Malignant melanoma of the conjunctiva. Report of a case.

Malignant melanomas of the conjunctiva are extremely rare in children. The authors report an 11-year-old boy who had a nodule at the limbus in a pigmented area since early childhood. The lesion was excised and the diagnosis of atypical compound nevus was made.

Ocular echometry in the diagnosis of congenital glaucoma.

Thirty-three eyes of 18 normal infants and children and 36 eyes of infants in whom congenital glaucoma had been diagnosed were measured by echometry. The anterior chamber depth, vitreous length, and axial length were notably greater in glaucomatous eyes, while the lens thickness was smaller in glaucomatous eyes. The axial length of normal eyes was found to increase with age.