Intraoperative optical coherence tomography assisted analysis of pars Plana vitrectomy for retinal detachment in morning glory syndrome: a case report.

Background: The pathogenesis of non-rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (non-RRD) associated with morning glory syndrome (MGS) is not established, as well as best surgical approach to treat RD. Our purpose was to analyse intraoperative optical coherence tomography data (iOCT) in all steps of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for non-RRD in MGS, in order to follow pathophysiological aspects of the disease and to understand the tissues behaviour during surgical workflow.

Case Presentation: Intraoperative spectral domain optical coherent tomography (iSD-OCT) assisted PPV using Rescan 700 (Carl Zeiss Meditech, Jena, Germany) with epiretinal membrane (ERM) and internal retinal membrane (ILM) peeling, and air endotamponade was performed on the only eye of a 21 years old female with non-RRD associated with MGS.

Comparative cyto-histological study of needle tip aspirates and entry sites after intravitreal injection using different needle types.

A comparison of the cellular content of needle tip aspirates and entry sites after transconjunctival intravitreal injection (IVI) using different needle types was performed. White outbred rats and human cadaver eyes were used for IVI by hypodermic 27 gauge (G) and 30G needles, and spinal anesthesia Pencan 27G needles. Aspiration of vitreous for quantitative morphological and cell cultivation analysis, as well as cyto-histological analysis of aspirates and entry sites were carried out.

The VEGF rise in blood of bevacizumab patients is not based on tumor escape but a host-blockade of VEGF clearance.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has become a major target in cancer treatment as it promotes tumor angiogenesis. Therapy with anti-VEGF antibody bevacizumab reportedly induces high levels of circulating VEGF which may potentially contribute to resistance. Based on animal or computational models, mechanisms of VEGF induction by bevacizumab have been proposed but not verified in the clinical setting.

Chemotherapy of colorectal liver metastases induces a rapid rise in intermediate blood monocytes which predicts treatment response.

We have previously reported that intermediate monocytes (CD14(++)/CD16(+)) were increased in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, while the subset of pro-angiogenic TIE2-expressing monocytes (TEMs) was not significantly elevated. This study was designed to evaluate changes in frequency and function of intermediate monocytes and TEMs during chemotherapy and anti-angiogenic cancer treatment and their relation to treatment response. Monocyte populations were determined by flow cytometry in 60 metastasized CRC (mCRC) patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab.

Needle size in intravitreal injections - pain evaluation of a randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of the needle size used for intravitreal (IVT) injections on patients' pain experience in a randomized, double-armed, single-blinded, clinical trial.

Methods: Patients included were randomized to have an IVT injection performed with a 27-gauge needle (group 1) or with a 30-gauge needle (group 2). The topical anaesthesia before the injection was standardized.

INTRASURGICAL MICROSCOPE-INTEGRATED SPECTRAL DOMAIN OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY-ASSISTED MEMBRANE PEELING.

Purpose: To evaluate microscope-integrated intrasurgical spectral domain optical coherence tomography during macular surgery in a prospective monocenter study.

Methods: Before pars plana vitrectomy and before, during, and after membrane peeling, 512 × 128 macular cube scans were performed using a Carl Zeiss Meditec Cirrus high-definition OCT system adapted to the optical pathway of a Zeiss OPMI VISU 200 surgical microscope and compared with retinal staining.

Results: The study included 51 patients with epiretinal membranes, with 8 of those having additional lamellar macular holes, 11 patients with vitreomacular traction, and 8 patients with full-thickness macular holes.

Impact of visceral fat and pro-inflammatory factors on the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: Previous studies have indicated that the immune system is involved in the pathogenesis of the AMD. Increased visceral fat, in addition, has a pro-inflammatory effect on the organism by producing or influencing different kinds of inflammatory factors. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship of body fat distribution in patients with age-related macula degeneration in comparison to a control group in the Austrian population.

Vitrectomy combined with endolaser or an encircling scleral buckle in primary retinal detachment surgery: a pilot study.

Purpose: To compare pars plana vitrectomy and 360° endolaser therapy with pars plana vitrectomy and an encircling scleral buckle for the treatment of primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachments in a randomized pilot study including 60 patients.

Methods: Main outcome measures were single-surgery anatomic success rate and final best-corrected visual acuity at 6 months follow-up. Cofactors analysed were complication rates, patients' comfort, refractive outcome and macula status assessed using a spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Deficiency in thrombopoietin induction after liver surgery is associated with postoperative liver dysfunction.

Background And Aims: Thrombopoietin (TPO) has been implicated in the process of liver regeneration and was found to correlate with hepatic function in patients with liver disease. With this investigation we aimed to determine if perioperative TPO levels were associated with postoperative outcome in patients undergoing liver resection.

Methods: Perioperative TPO was analyzed prior to liver resection as well as on the first and fifth postoperative day in 46 colorectal cancer patients with liver metastasis (mCRC) as well as 23 hepatocellular carcinoma patients (HCC).

Spontaneous closure of an idiopathic macular hole 9 months after unsuccessful vitreoretinal surgery.

Purpose: To report spontaneous closure of a persistent idiopathic macular hole (MH) 9 months after cataract and vitreoretinal surgery, and subsequent gas reinjection.

Methods: Baseline and follow-up examinations after surgery included slit-lamp biomicroscopy, best-corrected distance visual acuity and near visual acuity, spectral domain optical coherence tomography, and microperimetry.

Results: Spectral domain optical coherence tomography scans showed a persistent MH after surgery until 5 months of follow-up, with an increasing base diameter of the MH and decreasing best-corrected visual acuity.

Effect of photodynamic therapy on short-wavelength fundus autofluorescence in eyes with acute central serous chorioretinopathy.

Purpose: To evaluate short-wavelength FAF as a parameter of retinal pigment epithelium function in eyes with acute symptomatic central serous chorioretinopathy after indocyanine green angiography-guided verteporfin photodynamic therapy with half-fluence rate.

Methods: A retrospective review over a period of 1 year of short-wavelength FAF images of 15 consecutive patients treated with half-fluence rate (25 J/cm) indocyanine green angiography-guided verteporfin photodynamic therapy due to acute symptomatic central serous chorioretinopathy was performed. Short-wavelength (488 nm) FAF gray values were evaluated with a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope at a 350-μm diameter and a 1,200-μm diameter circle centered on the fovea.

Choroid, Haller's, and Sattler's layer thickness in intermediate age-related macular degeneration with and without fellow neovascular eyes.

Purpose: To analyze choroidal, Sattler's, and Haller's layer thickness maps in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients having eyes with bilateral large drusen and pigment changes (intermediate AMD), in patients having intermediate AMD eyes with neovascular fellow eyes (nAMD), and in healthy subjects using three-dimensional (3D) 1060-nm optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Methods: Automatically generated choroidal thickness (ChT), retinal thickness, and Sattler's and Haller's layer thickness maps were statistically analyzed in 67 subjects consisting of intermediate AMD (n = 21), intermediate AMD (n = 22) with fellow nAMD eyes (n = 22), and healthy eyes (n = 24) with no age and axial eye length difference between groups of eyes (P > 0.05, ANOVA).

Choroidal Haller's and Sattler's layer thickness measurement using 3-dimensional 1060-nm optical coherence tomography.

Objectives: To examine the feasibility of automatically segmented choroidal vessels in three-dimensional (3D) 1060-nmOCT by testing repeatability in healthy and AMD eyes and by mapping Haller's and Sattler's layer thickness in healthy eyes.

Methods: Fifty-five eyes (from 45 healthy subjects and 10 with non-neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) subjects) were imaged by 3D-1060-nmOCT over a 36°x36° field of view. Haller's and Sattler's layer were automatically segmented, mapped and averaged across the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study grid.

A prospective, randomised, multicenter trial for surgical treatment of central retinal vein occlusion: results of the Radial Optic Neurotomy for Central Vein Occlusion (ROVO) study group.

Background: To compare the surgical outcomes and evaluate the effectiveness of two treatments for central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), radial optic neurotomy (RON) and intravitreal triamcinolone (IVT), in comparison to natural history.

Methods: A prospective, placebo-controlled, randomised and multi-center study. Patients with CRVO were treated in three groups - with either RON, a single intravitreal injection of 4 mg triamcinolone acetonide, or a placebo treatment.

Comparing treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration with sequential intravitreal Avastin and Macugen versus intravitreal mono-therapy--a pilot study.

Purpose: To examine if the sequential treatment of Avastin and Macugen is safe and more efficient than the mono-therapies in a prospective randomized masked pilot study.

Materials And Methods: Subjects with exudative age-related macular degeneration were randomized to receive three intravitreal injections of either 1 mg of Avastin, 0.3 mg Macugen, or first 1 mg Avastin followed by retreatment of 0.

Copy number variation in the complement factor H-related genes and age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: To determine the contribution of copy number variation (CNV) in the regulation of complement activation (RCA) locus to the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods: A multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification assay was developed to quantify the number of copies of CFH, CFHR3, CFHR1, CFHR4, CFHR2, and CFHR5 in humans. Subjects with (451) and without (362) AMD were genotyped using the assay, and the impact on AMD risk was evaluated.

Implication of CD21, CD35, and CD55 in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: To determine a possible implication of CD21, CD35, and CD55 in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by assessing the difference in expression rates of these factors on AMD patients and a control group.

Design: Case-control study.

Methods: Fifty unrelated AMD patients and 48 unrelated sex- and age-matched control subjects participated in this case-control study.

Epidermal growth factor: the driving force in initiation of RPE cell proliferation.

Background: To analyze whether epidermal growth factor (EGF) exerts regulatory effects on proliferation and differentiation in ARPE19 cells after different incubation periods (24 vs. 48 h) for obtaining ideal conditions for feasible rejuvenation and autologous transplantation of retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE cells).

Methods: To evaluate gene expression patterns of RPE-specific differentiation and proliferation markers as well as transcriptional and translational changes of beta-catenin (ß-catenin)-signaling markers by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) and reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) after 24 h of EGF treatment.

Reproducibility of segmentation error correction in age-related macular degeneration: Stratus versus Cirrus OCT.

Introduction: The accuracy of retinal thickness measurement in age-related macular degeneration by optical coherence tomography (OCT) is affected by threshold algorithm line errors. The reproducibility of error correction in Stratus and Cirrus OCT should be examined.

Methods: OCT examinations of a consecutive series of 104 patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration included in another study were reviewed.

Circulating angiopoietic cells and diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus, with or without macrovascular disease.

Purpose: To investigate different types of circulating angiopoietic cells, such as vasculogenic circulating progenitor cells (CPCs), endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), and mature EPCs (matEPCs) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with or without diabetic retinopathy (DR) and with or without macrovascular disease (MVD).

Methods: One hundred twenty-six patients with T2DM-66 with MVD and 60 without MVD-were enrolled in a case-control study. MVD comprised coronary heart disease, peripheral arterial disease, stroke, or various combinations of those conditions.

Feasibility of intrasurgical spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of intrasurgical spectral-domain optical coherence tomography in a pilot study.

Methods: Using a Carl Zeiss Meditec Cirrus HD-OCT system adapted to the optical pathway of a Zeiss OPMI VISU 200 surgical microscope, 512 × 128 macular cube scans were performed during various steps of microsurgical procedures in 25 cases. The acquired volume data were postprocessed and visualized using a ray-traced three-dimensional display system.

Spectral domain optical coherence tomography for higher precision in the evaluation of vitreoretinal adhesions in exudative age-related macular degeneration.

Aim: The role of changes at the vitreoretinal interface and vitreomacular traction forces in pathogenesis, and the course of exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) need further exploration. This study examines the localisation of adhesion and the direction of traction lines in eyes with exudative AMD.

Methods: The cubes 512×128 of Cirrus optical coherence tomography (OCT) and volume scans of Spectralis OCT were reviewed in a consecutive series of patients presenting between December 2008 and March 2009 with vitreomacular adhesion in exudative AMD.

Trends in primary retinal detachment surgery: results of a Bicenter study.

Purpose: To assess trends and outcomes in retinal detachment (RD) surgery based on a retrospective, interventional, bicenter study.

Methods: Baseline demographic data, surgical procedures, and outcomes from 230 patients with a diagnosis of primary rhegmatogenous RD, who underwent surgery between January 2007 and December 2008 at the Rudolf Foundation Clinic, Vienna (Center 1) and the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, (Center 2) were analyzed using a regression model.

Results: Besides the baseline parameters, lens status (P = 0.

Serum VEGF and CFH in exudative age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: To determine serum vascular endothelial growth factor 165 (VEGF165) levels and the association of the complement factor H gene (CFH) Y402H polymorphism in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in comparison to unaffected control subjects.

Methods: Sixty-six AMD patients and 66 healthy age- and gender-matched controls were included in this case-control study. The serum VEGF165 was assayed by ELISA (R&D).