Co-occurrence of acute retinal artery occlusion and acute ischemic stroke: diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging study.

Purpose: To evaluate the co-occurrence of acute ischemic stroke and acute retinal artery occlusion (RAO).

Design: Retrospective observational case series.

Methods: We included 33 consecutive patients with acute RAO who underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging within 7 days of the onset of visual symptoms.

Subfoveal choroidal thickness as a potential predictor of visual outcome and treatment response after intravitreal ranibizumab injections for typical exudative age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic implication of subfoveal choroidal thickness on treatment outcome after intravitreal ranibizumab injections for typical exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Design: Retrospective study.

Methods: A total of 40 eyes of 37 patients who completed 6-month follow-up were analyzed.

Clinical and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography findings in patients with focal choroidal excavation.

Objective: To describe the clinical and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) findings in patients with focal choroidal excavation (FCE).

Design: Retrospective case series.

Participants: Forty-one eyes of 38 patients with FCE identified in 2 tertiary medical centers in Korea.

Characteristics of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment after refractive surgery: comparison with myopic eyes with retinal detachment.

Purpose: To evaluate the characteristics of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RD) in patients with previous laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and compare them to RD in patients with previous laser assisted subepithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) and myopic patients with no previous refractive surgery.

Design: Retrospective, comparative case series.

Methods: In 106 eyes of 106 patients with RD, patients with previous refractive surgery included 21 eyes after LASIK and 13 eyes after LASEK; 72 myopic patients with refractive errors of -3.

Functional roles of the pepper MLO protein gene, CaMLO2, in abscisic acid signaling and drought sensitivity.

Plants are frequently exposed to various environmental stresses including drought in the natural environment and have evolved physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms to counteract the deleterious effects of stress. Of them, modulation of abscisic acid (ABA) signal transduction allows plants to overcome stress. Recently, Kim and Hwang (Plant J 72:843-855, 2012) identified CaMLO2 that is transcriptionally induced by both biotic and abiotic stress.

Combined photodynamic therapy with intravitreal bevacizumab injections for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy: long-term visual outcome.

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term visual outcome after combination therapy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with intravitreal bevacizumab injections for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).

Design: Retrospective observational study.

Methods: The medical records of 34 eyes (34 patients) with naïve PCV who were treated with combination therapy were analyzed.

VEGF rescues cigarette smoking-induced human RPE cell death by increasing autophagic flux: implications of the role of autophagy in advanced age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: Cigarette smoking (CS) is the most consistent risk factor for advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD). To verify the molecular basis for CS-induced RPE alterations, RPE cell survival levels after being exposed to CS in relation with VEGF expression and autophagic flux were evaluated.

Methods: Cigarette smoking extract (CSE) was added to ARPE-19 cells and hydrogen peroxide (HP) was used as a pure oxidant control.

Choroidal thickness in Behcet's uveitis: an enhanced depth imaging-optical coherence tomography and its association with angiographic changes.

Purpose: To evaluate the change in subfoveal choroidal thickness between active and quiescent phases of Behcet's posterior uveitis and compare this with the healthy population using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT).

Methods: Thirty eyes from 30 patients with Behcet's posterior uveitis (mean age, 47.03 ± 11.

Combined chemotherapy and intra-arterial chemotherapy of retinoblastoma.

Purpose: Retinoblastoma (RB) is the most common primary malignant intraocular tumor in children. Although systemic chemotherapy has been the primary treatment, intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) represents a new treatment option. Here, we performed alternate systemic chemotherapy and IAC and retrospectively reviewed the efficacy and safety of this approach.

Partial lamellar sclerouvectomy of ciliary body tumors in a Korean population.

Purpose: To describe the clinical characteristics of ciliary body tumors, surgical outcomes, and factors associated with poor visual outcome and metastasis.

Design: Retrospective case series.

Methods: Medical records of 27 patients with ciliary body tumors who underwent partial lamellar sclerouvectomy in a single-center setting (Seoul, South Korea) were reviewed.

Prognosis of choroidal melanoma and the result of ruthenium brachytherapy combined with transpupillary thermotherapy in Korean patients.

Background/aims: To evaluate the clinical features and prognosis of choroidal melanoma in Korean patients and the results of treatment with ruthenium (Ru) 106 plaque brachytherapy.

Methods: The medical charts of 111 patients diagnosed with choroidal melanoma who underwent Ru brachytherapy with trans-pupillary thermotherapy or local resection (61 patients) or who underwent other treatments (26 primary enucleations, 22 γ-knife radiotherapies and two lamellar sclerouvectomies) were reviewed retrospectively.

Results: The mean largest basal diameter (LBD) was 11.

Long-term results of Gamma Knife surgery for uveal melanomas.

Object: Gamma Knife surgery (GKS) is currently believed to be a safe and minimally invasive modality in the treatment of uveal melanomas. It could be used as an alternative treatment to enucleation, preserving the eyeball as well as visual function. The authors report their experiences with GKS for uveal melanomas for the period from February 1998 to December 2006.

Association between choroidal thickness and ocular perfusion pressure in young, healthy subjects: enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography study.

Purpose: To investigate the correlation of choroidal thickness (CT) with ocular perfusion pressure (OPP) in young, healthy subjects using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT).

Methods: A single horizontal section and a single vertical section of EDI-OCT scans in each eye of 69 young, healthy subjects were obtained at the macula. CT was measured at the fovea, and up to 3 mm, at intervals of 0.

ABA signaling in guard cells entails a dynamic protein-protein interaction relay from the PYL-RCAR family receptors to ion channels.

Plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) serves as an integrator of environmental stresses such as drought to trigger stomatal closure by regulating specific ion channels in guard cells. We previously reported that SLAC1, an outward anion channel required for stomatal closure, was regulated via reversible protein phosphorylation events involving ABA signaling components, including protein phosphatase 2C members and a SnRK2-type kinase (OST1). In this study, we reconstituted the ABA signaling pathway as a protein-protein interaction relay from the PYL/RCAR-type receptors, to the PP2C-SnRK2 phosphatase-kinase pairs, to the ion channel SLAC1.

Recurrent bilateral retinal vasculitis as a manifestation of post-streptococcal uveitis syndrome.

We report a case of post-streptococcal uveitis mainly presenting with bilateral recurrent retinal vasculitis in Korea. A 14-year-old Asian female presented with decreased visual acuity of 20 / 30 in the right eye and 20 / 25 in the left eye. The patient had a history of glomerulonephritis nine months before onset of uveitis.

Current driven magnetic damping in dipolar-coupled spin system.

Magnetic damping of the spin, the decay rate from the initial spin state to the final state, can be controlled by the spin transfer torque. Such an active control of damping has given birth to novel phenomena like the current-driven magnetization reversal and the steady spin precession. The spintronic devices based on such phenomena generally consist of two separate spin layers, i.

Etanercept, a widely used inhibitor of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), prevents retinal ganglion cell loss in a rat model of glaucoma.

Background: Visual loss in glaucoma is associated with pathological changes in retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons and a slow decline in the RGC population. Age and elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) are the main risk factors for glaucomatous loss of vision. Several studies have implicated the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) as a link between elevated IOP and RGC death, but the cellular source of TNF-α and its causative role in RGC death remain uncertain.

Influence of mydriatics on choroidal thickness measurement using enhanced depth imaging-OCT.

Purpose: To evaluate the potential influence of mydriatics on choroidal thickness measurement using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT).

Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, paired-eye study. Fifty-eight healthy eyes of 29 patients were included in this study, and one eye of each subject was designated randomly as experimental and the contralateral eye as control.

Treatment of serous macular detachment associated with circumscribed choroidal hemangioma.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of transpupillary thermotherapy and intravitreal bevacizumab injection on serous macular detachment and cystoid macular edema (CME) associated with circumscribed choroidal hemangioma.

Design: Retrospective, interventional case series.

Methods: We reviewed the records of 12 patients with circumscribed choroidal hemangioma treated with transpupillary thermotherapy and/or intravitreal injection of bevacizumab.

Expression of 12 cytokines in aqueous humour of uveal melanoma before and after combined Ruthenium-106 brachytherapy and transpupillary thermotherapy.

Purpose: To determine the aqueous humour levels of 12 cytokines in eyes with uveal melanoma and whether their expression changes after combined Ru-106 brachytherapy and transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT).

Methods: Aqueous humour samples were collected from 20 patients with previously untreated uveal melanoma undergoing combined Ru-106 brachytherapy and TTT, both at the time of plaque placement and removal. Using multiplex biochip array technology, 12 different cytokines were measured, including interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interferon (IFN)-γ, epidermal growth factor (EGF) and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1.

Functional roles of the protein phosphatase 2C, AtAIP1, in abscisic acid signaling and sugar tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Biotic signaling molecules including abscisic acid (ABA) serve as an integrator of abiotic stress including high salinity and drought. Recent studies have led to the identification of an ABA signaling pathway from the ABA receptor to stomatal closure in response to abiotic stress. ABA is linked to ABA receptors and protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) members.