Month: October 2013

DSEK may be option in children with congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy

Descemet’s stripping endothelial keratoplasty can be an alternative to penetrating keratoplasty in children with congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy, offering early visual stabilization and a low risk of complications.In the retrospective, comparative, interventional study, five patients had a mean age of 6.6 years and underwent PK in one eye and DSEK in the fellow eye.

Expedited FDA reviews examined in new study

Of the drugs approved by the FDA in 2008, those that received expedited reviews were approved more quickly, were studied in fewer patients and still have unanswered safety questions, according to new data published in JAMA Internal Medicine.“Under the Obama administration, the FDA may also change the testing requirements for many drugs prior to approval; the stated rationales are promoting innovation and reducing the time and cost of discovering new drugs,” researchers wrote. “To inform the debate about the appropriate standards for testing new drugs, we studied the development times, (Read more...)

Long-Term Trends in Glaucoma-Related Blindness in Olmsted County, Minnesota – Corrected Proof

Objective: To determine the longitudinal trends in the probability of blindness due to open-angle glaucoma (OAG) in Olmsted County, Minnesota, from 1965 to 2009.Design: Retrospective, population-based cohort study.Participants: All residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota (aged ≥40 years) who were diagnosed with OAG between January 1, 1965, and December 31, 2000.Methods: All available medical records of every incident case of OAG were reviewed until December 31, 2009, to identify progression to blindness, defined as visual acuity ≤20/200 or visual field constriction to ≤20°. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to estimate the cumulative probability of glaucoma-related blindness. Population incidence of blindness within 10 years of (Read more...)

Corneal Topographic and Tomographic Analysis of Fellow Eyes in Unilateral Keratoconus Patients Using Pentacam – Corrected Proof

Purpose: To evaluate topographic and tomographic changes in fellow eyes in unilateral keratoconus (KCN) patients by comparing them with normal eyes.Design: Retrospective comparative case series.Methods: Fourteen eyes of 14 patients with unilateral KCN and 34 eyes of 34 refractive surgery candidates were divided into 3 diagnostic groups using a Pentacam rotating Scheimpflug camera: advanced KCN eyes of unilateral KCN (KCN group, 14 eyes), normal fellow eyes of unilateral KCN (fellow eye group, 14 eyes), and refractive surgery candidates (normal group, 34 eyes). Topographic and tomographic parameters, which were obtained from Pentacam using sagittal curvature, elevation, and corneal thickness maps, were (Read more...)