Eyes and the heart: what a clinician should know.

The eye is prone to various forms of afflictions, either as a manifestation of primary ocular disease or part of systemic disease, including the cardiovascular system. A thorough cardiovascular examination should include a brief ocular assessment. Hypertension and diabetes, for example, would present with retinopathy and dyslipidaemia would present with corneal arcus.

Patient-Reported Outcome Measure Use in Guidelines Published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology: A Review.

Topic: We reviewed the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in the treatment of ophthalmologic conditions as recommended by the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO).

Clinical Relevance: Patient-reported outcome measures are standardized instruments that provide information regarding a patient's health status or health-related quality of life. Patient-reported outcome measures are increasingly used to inform study end points in ophthalmology studies.

Optic Nerve Head Gene Transcription Sequelae to a Single Elevated IOP Exposure Provides Insights Into Known Responses to Chronically Elevated IOP.

Purpose: To clarify the optic nerve head (ONH) gene expression responses associated with a single, axon-damaging exposure to elevated IOP in relation to the composite cellular events previously identified in models of chronically elevated IOP.

Methods: Anesthetized rats were exposed unilaterally to an 8-hour pulse-train controlled elevation of IOP (PT-CEI) at 60 mm Hg, while others received normotensive CEI at 20 mm Hg. ONH RNA was harvested at 0 hours and 1, 2, 3, 7, and 10 days after either CEI and from naïve animals.

Providing multimedia information to children and young people increases recruitment to trials: pre-planned meta-analysis of SWATs.

Background: Randomised controlled trials are often beset by problems with poor recruitment and retention. Information to support decisions on trial participation is usually provided as printed participant information sheets (PIS), which are often long, technical, and unappealing. Multimedia information (MMI), including animations and videos, may be a valuable alternative or complement to a PIS.

Cohort profile: rationale and methods of UK Biobank repeat imaging study eye measures to study dementia.

Purpose: The retina provides biomarkers of neuronal and vascular health that offer promising insights into cognitive ageing, mild cognitive impairment and dementia. This article described the rationale and methodology of eye and vision assessments with the aim of supporting the study of dementia in the UK Biobank Repeat Imaging study.

Participants: UK Biobank is a large-scale, multicentre, prospective cohort containing in-depth genetic, lifestyle, environmental and health information from half a million participants aged 40-69 enrolled in 2006-2010 across the UK.

Ocular Inflammatory Events Following COVID-19 Vaccination in the Paediatric Population: A Multinational Case Series.

Background: Ocular inflammatory events following COVID-19 vaccination have been reported in the adult population.

Methods: Multinational case series of patients under the age of 18 diagnosed with ocular inflammatory events within 28 days of COVID-19 vaccination.

Results: Twenty individuals were included.

Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and their role in treating neovascular age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular oedema.

The advent of intravitreal anti-VEGF injections has revolutionised the treatment of both neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD or wet AMD) and diabetic macular oedema (DMO). Despite their efficacy, anti-VEGF injections precipitate significant treatment burden for patients, caregivers and healthcare systems due to the high frequency of injections required to sustain treatment benefit. Therefore, there remains an unmet need for lower-burden therapies.

Diagnosis and management of keratoconus in the paediatric age group: a review of current evidence.

The diagnosis and management of keratoconus in the paediatric age group presents additional challenges to those encountered in adults. The most significant of these, encountered in some young patients, are delayed presentation of unilateral disease, more advanced disease at diagnosis, difficulty in obtaining reliable corneal imaging, faster rates of disease progression and challenges in contact lens management. The stabilisation effect of corneal cross-linking (CXL), more extensively studied in adults with randomised trials and long-term follow-up, has been much less rigorously examined in children and adolescents.

Association of OCT and OCT angiography measures with the development and worsening of diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes.

Objective: To assess if optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) measures are associated with the development and worsening of diabetic retinopathy (DR) over four years.

Methods: 280 participants with type 2 diabetes underwent ultra-wide field fundus photography, OCT and OCTA. OCT-derived macular thickness measures, retinal nerve fibre layer and ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness and OCTA-derived foveal avascular zone area, perimeter, circularity, vessel density (VD) and macular perfusion (MP) were examined in relation to the development and worsening of DR over four years.

The retina-brain axis and diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a major contributor to permanent vision loss and blindness. Changes in retinal neurons, glia, and microvasculature have been the focus of intensive study in the quest to better understand DR. However, the impact of diabetes on the rest of the visual system has received less attention.

Quantitative response of macular neovascularisation to loading phase of aflibercept in neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: To evaluate quantitative morphological changes in macular neovascularisation (MNV) network after aflibercept therapy in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) patients.

Methods: Consecutive treatment-naïve patients with optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography confirmed MNV due to nAMD who completed a loading phase of intravitreal aflibercept injections. A quantitative analysis of the vascular network remodelling was performed using a computational software (Angiotool).

Determinants of non-attendance at face-to-face and telemedicine ophthalmic consultations.

Background/aims: Evaluation of telemedicine care models has highlighted its potential for exacerbating healthcare inequalities. This study seeks to identify and characterise factors associated with non-attendance across face-to-face and telemedicine outpatient appointments.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study at a tertiary-level ophthalmic institution in the UK, between 1 January 2019 and 31 October 2021.

A Multi-Modal AI-Driven Cohort Selection Tool to Predict Suboptimal Non-Responders to Aflibercept Loading-Phase for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: PRECISE Study Report 1.

Patients diagnosed with exudative neovascular age-related macular degeneration are commonly treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents. However, response to treatment is heterogeneous, without a clinical explanation. Predicting suboptimal response at baseline will enable more efficient clinical trial designs for novel, future interventions and facilitate individualised therapies.

Development and international validation of custom-engineered and code-free deep-learning models for detection of plus disease in retinopathy of prematurity: a retrospective study.

Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a leading cause of childhood blindness, is diagnosed through interval screening by paediatric ophthalmologists. However, improved survival of premature neonates coupled with a scarcity of available experts has raised concerns about the sustainability of this approach. We aimed to develop bespoke and code-free deep learning-based classifiers for plus disease, a hallmark of ROP, in an ethnically diverse population in London, UK, and externally validate them in ethnically, geographically, and socioeconomically diverse populations in four countries and three continents.