Verteporfin photodynamic therapy cohort study: report 1: effectiveness and factors influencing outcomes.

Purpose: To compare the visual outcomes after verteporfin photodynamic therapy (VPDT) administered in routine clinical practice with those observed in the Treatment of Age-related macular degeneration with Photodynamic therapy (TAP) trials and to quantify the effects of clinically important baseline covariates on outcome.

Design: A prospective longitudinal study of patients treated with VPDT in 45 ophthalmology departments in the United Kingdom with expertise in the management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).

Participants: Patients with wholly or predominantly classic choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of any cause with a visual acuity >or=20/200 in the eye to be treated.

Retinal pigment epithelial cell DNA is damaged by exposure to benzo[a]pyrene, a constituent of cigarette smoke.

This study examined the effect of exogenous benzo[ a ]pyrene (BaP), an important constituent of cigarette smoke, on cultured bovine retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Evidence is presented for its metabolic conversion into benzo[ a ]pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE) and the consequent formation of potentially cytotoxic nucleobase adducts in DNA. Cultured RPE cells were treated with BaP at concentrations in the range of 0-100 microM.