Assessment of central vision and macular structure in patients undergoing iodine-125 brachytherapy for ciliochoroidal melanoma.

Objectives: To prospectively report standardized visual function and macular structural assessment in patients undergoing iodine-125 brachytherapy for choroidal and ciliary body melanoma.

Materials And Methods: Patients were enrolled for pretreatment and annual posttreatment assessment. Evaluations included ophthalmic history; standardized refraction; visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and color vision measurement; comprehensive ophthalmic examination; fundus photography; fluorescein angiography; optical coherence tomography; and ultrasonography.

High-density genome array is superior to fluorescence in-situ hybridization analysis of monosomy 3 in choroidal melanoma fine needle aspiration biopsy.

Purpose: Using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mapping genome array, we comparatively evaluated chromosome 3 status and other chromosomal aberrations within a series of choroidal melanomas biopsied by fine needle aspiration (FNAB).

Methods: Transscleral FNAB was performed in 59 patients (59 eyes) who had a clinical diagnosis of choroidal melanoma. Biopsies were processed for chromosome 3 status by centromeric interphase FISH, cytopathology, cell culture, and simultaneous genomic DNA and RNA mapping array analysis.

Transscleral fine-needle aspiration biopsy of macular choroidal melanoma.

Purpose: To report transscleral 30-gauge fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) for cytology and cytogenetics in eyes with macular choroidal melanoma.

Design: Prospective, interventional case series.

Methods: Twenty-five patients (25 eyes) who underwent transscleral 30-gauge FNAB of macular choroidal melanoma immediately prior to iodine-125 plaque placement were included in this study, conducted at a tertiary care university hospital.

Photodynamic therapy induces caspase-dependent apoptosis in rat CNV model.

Purpose: To investigate the mechanism of cell death in laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) after photodynamic therapy (PDT).

Methods: PDT was performed in Brown-Norway rats using laser light at a wavelength of 689 nm, irradiance of 600 mW/cm(2), and fluence of 25 J/cm(2) after intravenous injection of verteporfin at the doses of 3, 6, and 12 mg/m(2). Apoptotic cells in CNV were detected by TUNEL assay at 1, 3, 6, 15, 24, and 48 hours after PDT.

Treatment considerations for primary uveal melanoma with choroidal metastasis to the fellow eye.

We report two cases of primary uveal melanoma with metastatic involvement of the contralateral eye. Two female patients presented with primary choroidal melanoma. In the first case, primary enucleation of the affected eye was performed.

Spontaneous macular hole closure in bilateral macular holes.

The natural course of full thickness macular hole is progression in size and stage. There have been reports of spontaneous closure of unilateral idiopathic full thickness macular holes, but we report the first case of spontaneous closure of a full thickness macular hole in one eye in a patient with bilateral idiopathic full thickness macular holes. After macular hole surgery in the left eye of the patient, spontaneous closure of the macular hole in the right eye was observed during the follow-up period.

Optos Panoramic200A fluorescein angiography for proliferative diabetic retinopathy with asteroid hyalosis.

We report a unique situation in which the use of Optos Panoramic200A fluorescein angiography directed the management of a patient with asteroid hyalosis and active proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The Optos Panoramic200A system provides a 200 degrees field of view, which may be useful in selected cases where simultaneous view of the posterior pole and periphery is important. The Optos fluorescein angiogram directed the management of our patient with proliferative diabetic retinopathy combined with asteroid hyalosis.

Reduced photoreceptor damage after photodynamic therapy through blockade of nitric oxide synthase in a model of choroidal neovascularization.

Purpose: To investigate the role of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in photoreceptor degeneration associated with photodynamic therapy (PDT) in a laser-induced model of choroidal neovascularization (CNV).

Methods: PDT was performed in monkey and Brown Norway rats with laser-induced CNV. L-NAME, a NOS inhibitor, or saline was injected intraperitoneally in rats with CNV.

Surveillance of the eye and vision in clinical trials of CP-675,206 for metastatic melanoma.

Purpose: To determine the ocular safety of CP-675,206 (Pfizer, New York, New York, USA), a fully human anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 monoclonal antibody in clinical trials of immunotherapy of metastatic melanoma.

Design: Prospective, nonrandomized study of the eye and vision in phase I/II clinical trials of CP-675,206 in metastatic melanoma conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Methods: Patients with regional or distant metastatic melanoma were enrolled in phase I/II clinical trials evaluating the safety and antitumor efficacy of CP-675,206 alone or in combination with melanoma antigen peptide-pulsed dendritic cell vaccines.

Fluorescent in situ hybridization for monosomy 3 via 30-gauge fine-needle aspiration biopsy of choroidal melanoma in vivo.

Objective: To report the feasibility of intraoperative transscleral fine-needle aspiration biopsy at plaque surgery to obtain cells for monosomy 3 analysis in patients with choroidal melanoma.

Design: Consecutive interventional case series.

Participants: Eighteen patients (18 eyes) with choroidal melanoma who had fine-needle aspiration biopsy performed with a 30-gauge needle at time of iodine 125 plaque placement.

Age-related macular degeneration: a practical approach to a challenging disease.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in older North Americans. The clinical spectrum, risk factors, pathophysiology, and potential therapeutic options for AMD warrant a careful review. Despite the growth in treatment options for this disease, there is no current curative therapy.

Vascular endothelial growth factor expression and secretion by retinal pigment epithelial cells in high glucose and hypoxia is protein kinase C-dependent.

Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells express vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in response to high glucose or hypoxia. We hypothesised that VEGF expression and secretion by RPE cells in high glucose and hypoxia are regulated by protein kinase C (PKC). Primary cultured RPE cells from Sprague-Dawley rats were growth-arrested for 48 hr in 0.

Clinical assessment of conjunctival and episcleral vessel tortuosity in juvenile dermatomyositis.

Purpose: Conjunctival and episcleral vessel tortuosity are thought to be associated features of juvenile dermatomyositis. This study was conducted to determine the interobserver reliability of assessing normal and abnormal conjunctival and episcleral vessels from photographs of patients with and without juvenile dermatomyositis.

Methods: Color and red-free external ocular photographs of each eye of 28 children were assessed by 5 pediatric ophthalmologists from The Hospital for Sick Children.