Results of the United States Food and Drug Administration Clinical Trial of the CustomFlex Artificial Iris.

Purpose: To evaluate safety and efficacy of a custom-manufactured artificial iris device (CustomFlex Artificial Iris; HumanOptics AG) for the treatment of congenital and acquired iris defects.

Design: Multicenter, prospective, unmasked, nonrandomized, interventional clinical trial.

Participants: Patients with photophobia, sensitivity secondary to partial or complete congenital or acquired iris defects, or both.

Impact of Video Describing Cataract Surgical Simulator Training on Patients' Perceptions of Resident Involvement in Cataract Surgery.

 The aim of this article is to investigate the impact of a 1-minute video describing resident training with a cataract surgical simulator on patients' perceptions regarding resident involvement in cataract surgery and to identify factors associated with patient willingness to have cataract surgery performed by a resident.  Cross-sectional survey.  An anonymous Likert-style survey was conducted among 430 consecutive adult patients who presented for eye examination at the Penn State Health Eye Center.

Practice Patterns Among Eye Care Providers at US Teaching Hospitals With Regard to Assessing and Educating Patients About Smoking.

Purpose: To investigate practice patterns of eye care providers at academic medical centers in the United States (US) with regard to assessing patients' smoking status and exposure, educating patients regarding ocular risks of smoking, and counseling patients about smoking cessation.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Methods: An anonymous survey including multiple choice and Likert-style questions was constructed on http://www.

Severity of end-organ damage as a predictor of outcomes after implantation of left ventricular assist device.

The optimal timing of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation in the management of advanced heart failure remains controversial. We hypothesize that in patients with cardiogenic shock, the severity of end-organ dysfunction as determined by the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score is a determinant of outcomes after LVAD implantation. We determined the preoperative SOFA score and short- and long-term outcomes of 97 consecutive patients who received HeartMate II or HeartWare LVAD at our institution since January 2007.

The intramolecular allenolate Rauhut-Currier reaction.

An intramolecular Rauhut-Currier reaction utilizing alkynoates as the initial conjugate acceptor affords densely functionalized 5- and 6-membered rings from ynoate-enoate, ynoate-enenitrile, and alkynyl sulfone-enenitrile substrates. Trialkylphosphines catalyze the reaction, and TMSCN serves as a pronucelophile to effect turnover of the catalyst and the formation of a second C-C bond. Because of the highly electrophilic alkyne acceptor, this reaction yields products that cannot be easily accessed from the traditional Rauhut-Currier reaction.