Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic's first wave on the care and treatment situation of intravitreal injections in a German metropolitan region.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the impact of the first coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) wave in 2020 on patients scheduled for intravitreal injections (IVI) in a German metropolitan region.

Methods: We performed a multicentre prospective survey and retrospective analysis of the records of patients treated with intravitreal injections during the 20-week period from March to July 2020 in all four hospital eye departments in the city of Hamburg using a questionnaire (on treatment adherence, SarsCoV2-related personal, familial and social data) and treatment data.

Results: A total of 1038 patients (2472 IVI, 1231 eyes) and 818 questionnaires were evaluated.

[Bilateral effusion syndrome induced by chlorthalidon].

Uveal effusion can lead to anterior swelling of the choroid up to angle-closure glaucoma. This article reports the case of a 57-year-old male patient who presented with headache, vertigo and bilaterally reduced visual acuity. The examination showed a myopic shift and angle-closure glaucoma caused by uveal effusion.

[Tarsal Kink: Pathognomonic Presentation and Therapy of a Rare Congenital Upper Eyelid Malformation].

Background: Presentation of a congenital abnormality that is rare, but follows a distinct course and can be diagnosed and cured promptly if the pathognomonic presentation is recognized. A congenital tarsal kink leads to a malposition of the upper eyelid margin that must not be missed, as it will lead to ulcerative keratitis if it is not treated.

Case Presentation: An otherwise healthy newborn was presented after delivery with forceps with marked unilateral purulent secretion and blepharospasm.

Expression profile of aquaporins in human nasolacrimal duct epithelium.

Purpose: To determine whether the epithelium of the human nasolacrimal ducts contains aquaporins (AQPs), a family of membrane proteins that function as selective pores and are able to transport water, glycerol, and other small solutes across the cell plasma membrane.

Methods: Expression of AQPs 0 and 1-10 in human nasolacrimal duct tissue was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Positive PCR amplification products were verified by direct cDNA sequencing.

Drainage of tears: impact on the ocular surface and lacrimal system.

The human efferent tear ducts are part of the lacrimal system. Because little knowledge exists concerning the physiology of the nasolacrimal system, and hence its patho- physiology, the nasolacrimal system has received almost no consideration as a possible factor in dry eye. The human nasolacrimal ducts consist of the upper and the lower lacrimal canaliculus, the lacrimal sac, and the nasolacrimal duct.

TFF peptides and mucins are major components of dacryoliths.

Purpose: The study was performed to determine whether trefoil factor peptides (TFF) and/or mucins are components of dacryoliths and to gain further insight into dacryolith composition and formation.

Methods: Twenty dacryoliths found in lacrimal surgery in patients suffering from primary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction were analyzed for the presence of TFF peptides (TFF1, 2, 3), mucins (MUC1, 2, 3, 4, 5AC, 5B, 6, 7, 8), defense cells (T- and B lymphocytes, macrophages, neutrophils), and antimicrobial substances (alpha defensins 1-3, secretory phospholipase A(2)) by means of light microscopy, histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time PCR.

Results: All dacryoliths except one revealed clear immunoreactivity for all three TFF peptides.

Differential expression of vascular endothelial growth factor implies the limbal origin of pterygia.

Objective: To study the distribution of isoforms of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 in pterygia and to compare it with that in healthy conjunctivas.

Design: Nonrandomized comparative (cadaver controlled) study with histopathologic correlations.

Methods: Tissue specimens from 75 patients treated for primary pterygia were analyzed using immunohistochemical studies as well as different molecular biological examinations.

Upper and lower eyelid reconstruction for severe disfiguring necrobiotic xanthogranuloma.

Background: Necrobiotic xanthogranuloma is a rare disease featuring generalized xanthomatous inflammatory skin lesions associated with paraproteinemia and possible lymphoproliferative diseases. Eyelid involvement can be unilateral or bilateral and ranges from minor xanthelasma-like lesions to severe ulcerative disease with consecutive keratitis and scleritis.

Case Report: The authors report the case of a 67-year-old woman with extensive necrobiotic xanthogranuloma involving the eyelids, head and neck, anterior chest, and both upper and lower extremities.

Characterization of mucins in human lacrimal sac and nasolacrimal duct.

Purpose: Mucins are polymers that may reduce drag and enhance tear outflow. Mucin expression and distribution in human efferent tear ducts were tested in the physiological state, and potential differences in the expression pattern were investigated in the presence of primary acquired dacryostenosis (PANDO).

Methods: Expression of mucins in human lacrimal sac and nasolacrimal ducts was monitored by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis.

Loss of tear duct-associated lymphoid tissue in association with the scarring of symptomatic dacryostenosis.

Objective: To determine whether organized mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) is a normal component of the human efferent tear ducts or is acquired in reaction to chronic inflammation.

Design: Nonrandomized comparative (cadaver controlled) study with histopathologic correlations.

Materials: Tissue specimens from nasolacrimal ducts of 38 patients undergoing endonasal dacryocystorhinostomy in postinflammatory dacryostenosis with signs of chronic inflammation were analyzed using histologic examination and immunohistochemical studies.

TFF peptides in the human efferent tear ducts.

Purpose: To determine whether the lining epithelium of the human lacrimal sac and nasolacrimal duct synthesizes TFF peptides (formerly P-domain peptides, trefoil factors), a family of mucin-associated secretory peptides.

Methods: Expression of TFF peptides in human lacrimal sac and nasolacrimal ducts was monitored by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis. Antisera specific for TFF peptides were used in immunohistochemical analysis to determine the presence and distribution of all three TFF peptides in epithelia of the lacrimal passage.