Physiological growth of ocular axial length among Chinese children and teenagers: A 6-year cohort study.

To investigate the pattern and threshold of physiological growth, defining as axial length (AL) elongation that results in little refraction progression, among Chinese children and teenagers, a total of 916 children aged between 7 and 18 years from a 6-year longitudinal cohort study were included for analysis. Ocular biometry, cycloplegic refraction and demographic data were obtained annually. Physiological growth was calculated based on myopic progression and Gullstrand eye model, respectively.

Neonatal Nutrition and Brain Structure at 7 Years in Children Born Very Preterm.

Importance: Neonatal protein intake following very preterm birth has long lasting effects on brain development. However, it is uncertain whether these effects are associated with improved or impaired brain maturation.

Objective: To assess the association of neonatal protein intake following very preterm birth with brain structure at 7 years of age.

Meridional anisotropy in contrast sensitivity and visual evoked potential in adults with high myopic astigmatism.

Purpose: Astigmatism can lead to meridional amblyopia, an orientation-specific visual deficit. This study investigated the effects of astigmatism on meridional anisotropy in contrast sensitivity (CS) and steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) across a range of spatial frequencies.

Methods: Thirty-two young adults with a best-corrected distance visual acuity of logMAR 0 or better were categorized into two groups: highly astigmatic (HAS,  = 16) with spherical-equivalent error (SE) ≥ -6.

Associations of Retinal Microvascular Density and Fractal Dimension with Glaucoma: A Prospective Study from UK Biobank.

Objective: To explore the association between retinal microvascular parameters and glaucoma.

Design: Prospective study.

Subjects: The UK Biobank subjects with fundus images and without a history of glaucoma.

Risk of Infective Endocarditis Following Invasive Dental Procedures: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize evidence and determine the association between IE and dental procedures, including invasive and non-invasive procedures.

Methods: We conducted a systematic search of PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases for studies involving procedures such as tooth extraction, scaling, endodontic treatment, oral surgery, and periodontal treatment involving individuals aged ≥15 years. The primary outcome was the incidence of IE following these procedures.

Controlled PVA Release from Chemical-Physical Interpenetrating Networks to Treat Dry Eyes.

Dry eye disease is becoming increasingly prevalent, and lubricating eye drops, a mainstay of its treatment, have a short duration of time on the ocular surface. Although there are various drug delivery methods to increase the ocular surface residence time of a topical lubricant, the main problem is the burst release from these delivery systems. To overcome this limitation, herein, a chemical-physical interpenetrating network (IPN) was fabricated to take control over the release of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), a well-known therapeutic agent used to stabilize tear film, from gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels.

Retinal vascular fingerprints predict incident stroke: findings from the UK Biobank cohort study.

Objective: To investigate the associations between a comprehensive set of retinal vascular parameters and incident stroke to unveil new associations and explore its predictive power for stroke risk.

Methods: Retinal vascular parameters were extracted from the UK Biobank fundus images using the Retina-based Microvascular Health Assessment System. We used Cox regression analysis, adjusted for traditional risk factors, to examine the associations, with false discovery rate adjustment for multiple comparisons.

Long-Term Results of Pars Plana Vitrectomy with Internal Limiting Membrane Peeling for Vitreomacular Traction Syndrome: A Prospective Investigation in Central Asian Population.

There is a lack of research on the clinical characteristics of vitreomacular traction (VMT) in the Central Asian population, which evaluates the visual recovery and macular hole closure outcomes of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) with membrane peel in this population. This long-term prospective cohort study, conducted at the Kazakh Eye Research Institute from June 2015 to December 2021 with a follow-up period until December 2022, included 1574 patients (1784 eyes) with VMT syndrome. Among the eyes, 724 (40.

Aqueous Proteomic and Metabolomic Profiles in Low-Energy vs High-Energy Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery.

Purpose: To investigate the aqueous proteomics and metabolomics in low-energy and high-energy femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS).

Methods: In this prospective observational study, 72 patients were randomized to 3 groups: low-energy FLACS, high-energy FLACS, and conventional phacoemulsification (controls). Aqueous was collected after femtosecond laser treatment or at the beginning of surgery (controls).

Slit Lamp Report Generation and Question Answering: Development and Validation of a Multimodal Transformer Model with Large Language Model Integration.

Background: Large language models have shown remarkable efficacy in various medical research and clinical applications. However, their skills in medical image recognition and subsequent report generation or question answering (QA) remain limited.

Objective: We aim to finetune a multimodal, transformer-based model for generating medical reports from slit lamp images and develop a QA system using Llama2.

Ten-Year Change in Visual Function and Incidence of Visual Impairment in Highly Myopic Children and Adults.

Purpose: To investigate the 10-year changes in visual function and incidence of visual impairment (VI) in highly myopic eyes.

Methods: This longitudinal study enrolled highly myopic individuals who were followed up for 10 years. All participants underwent detailed ophthalmic examinations at baseline and follow-up visits.

Triazolide Complexes of Sodium and Potassium in the Gas Phase.

Aromatic organometallic complexes, such as ferrocene and the "inverse sandwich complex" [NaCp], are stabilized via charge-transfer (C-T) interactions and cation-π interactions (i.e., charge-induced dipole and charge-quadrupole interactions).

Validation and repeatability assessment of the Chinese version of the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI), 5-item dry eye (DEQ-5), and contact lens dry eye questionnaire-8 (CLDEQ-8) questionnaires.

Purpose: This prospective study aimed to validate the translated Chinese versions of the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI), 5-Item Dry Eye (DEQ-5), and Contact Lens Dry Eye Questionnaire-8 (CLDEQ-8) questionnaires and test their repeatability.

Methods: From August 2022 to July 2023, online (qualtrics.com) English and Chinese versions of OSDI, DEQ-5, and CLDEQ-8 questionnaires were distributed to residents of Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore ≥ 18 years old who could understand both written Chinese and English.

Evaluation of the peripheral visual performance of DIMS spectacle lenses versus single vision lenses.

Purpose: This study evaluates differences in the visual field performance when wearing the Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segments (DIMS) spectacle lens compared to wearing a conventional single vision (SV) spectacle lens.

Methods: Twenty-one children aged 9-14 years with spherical equivalent refraction (SER) between -1.13D to -4.

Recent updates on drug delivery approaches for improved ocular delivery with an insight into nanostructured drug delivery carriers for anterior and posterior segment disorders.

Ocular diseases have a major impact on patient's vision and quality of life, with approximately 2.2 billion people have visual impairment worldwide according to the findings from the World Health Organization (WHO). The eye is a complex organ with unique morphology and physiology consisting of numerous ocular barriers which hinders the entry of exogenous substances and impedes drug absorption.

Association of metabolomic aging acceleration and body mass index phenotypes with mortality and obesity-related morbidities.

This study aims to investigate the association between metabolomic aging acceleration and body mass index (BMI) phenotypes with mortality and obesity-related morbidities (ORMs). 85,458 participants were included from the UK Biobank. Metabolomic age was determined using 168 metabolites.

EyeGPT for Patient Inquiries and Medical Education: Development and Validation of an Ophthalmology Large Language Model.

Background: Large language models (LLMs) have the potential to enhance clinical flow and improve medical education, but they encounter challenges related to specialized knowledge in ophthalmology.

Objective: This study aims to enhance ophthalmic knowledge by refining a general LLM into an ophthalmology-specialized assistant for patient inquiries and medical education.

Methods: We transformed Llama2 into an ophthalmology-specialized LLM, termed EyeGPT, through the following 3 strategies: prompt engineering for role-playing, fine-tuning with publicly available data sets filtered for eye-specific terminology (83,919 samples), and retrieval-augmented generation leveraging a medical database and 14 ophthalmology textbooks.

Multi-omics analysis reveals alterations of breastmilk metabolites and proteins in Hong Kong lactating mothers.

The nutritional contents of breastmilk (BM) directly participate in neonatal metabolism via breastfeeding. Currently, there is limited research on BM metabolites and proteins compositions, and their alterations during the long lactation period in Hong Kong mothers. In this study, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics studies were applied to compare the compositions in BM of Hong Kong lactating mothers at the 2nd, 6th, and 12th months after delivery.

Impact of Forms of Visual Attenuation on Short-Term Eye Changes Under Controlled Reading Visibility.

Purpose: Animal studies have suggested that visual degradation impacts eye growth due to the attenuation of high spatial frequencies. However, the influence of perceptual visibility remains unclear in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of visibility on visual attenuation-related eye changes during reading.

Machine learning based metabolomic and genetic profiles for predicting multiple brain phenotypes.

Background: It is unclear regarding the association between metabolomic state/genetic risk score(GRS) and brain volumes and how much of variance of brain volumes is attributable to metabolomic state or GRS.

Methods: Our analysis included 8635 participants (52.5% females) aged 40-70 years at baseline from the UK Biobank.

Cortical structure of left superior parietal cortex is associated with cognition and dual tasking: A cross-sectional preliminary study between mild cognitive impairment and healthy controls.

Background: Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) exhibit poorer performance in cognition and dual-task paradigm, while the related cortical thickness and surface area alterations remains unclear.

Methods: Thirty participants with MCI and thirty healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive assessments and dual-task Timed Up and Go test (DT-TUG) were performed to assess cerebral cortical thickness and surface area, cognitive functions, and dual-task cost (DTC) of the execution time in TUG.