COVID-19 Linked to Potentially Dangerous Eye Abnormalities

Radiological Society of North America :Researchers have found significant abnormalities in the eyes of some people with severe COVID-19.Of 129 COVID-19 patients in the study, nine had nodules in the macular region, the area in the back of the eye responsible for our central vision, with eight of them having nodules in both eyes.This is the first time these findings have been described using MRI.

Researchers using MRI have found significant abnormalities in the eyes of some people with severe COVID-19, according to a study published in the journal Radiology. The study results support the need for eye screening in these patients to provide appropriate treatment and management of potentially severe ophthalmological manifestations of COVID-19.

Caring for blindness: a new protein in sight?

INSERM: Vasoproliferative ocular diseases are responsible for sight loss in millions of people in the industrialised countries. Many patients do not currently respond to the treatment offered, which targets a specific factor, VEGF. A team of Inserm researchers at the Vision Institute (Inserm/CNRS/Pierre and Marie Curie University), in association with a team from the Yale Cardiovascular Research Center, have demonstrated in an animal model that blocking another protein, Slit2, prevents the pathological blood vessel development that causes these diseases. This work is published in Nature Medicine.

Retinal implant could offer best vision yet

Scimex: Stanford University researchers have developed a wireless retinal implant that they say could restore vision five times better than existing devices. Results in rat studies suggest it could provide functional vision to patients with retinal degenerative diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration. "The performance we're observing at the moment is very encouraging," said Georges Goetz, a lead author of the paper and graduate student in electrical engineering at Stanford. "Based on our current results, we hope that human recipients of this implant will be able to recognize objects and move about."

FDA approves first-of-its-kind corneal implant to improve near vision in certain patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the KAMRA inlay, a device implanted in the cornea of one eye (the clear, front surface) to improve near vision in certain patients with presbyopia. It is the first implantable device for correction of near vision in patients who have not had cataract surgery.
Presbyopia is the loss of the ability to change the focusing power of the eye. It occurs with normal aging and results in difficulty with near vision, generally in adults 40 to 50 years of age. The KAMRA inlay is an opaque, ring-shaped device intended for use in patients 45 to 60 years old who, in addition to not having had cataract surgery, are unable to focus clearly on near objects or small print and need reading glasses with +1.00 to +2.50 diopters of power—but do not need glasses or contacts for clear distance vision.

Eyeliner application may cause eye problems

Waterloo: People who apply eyeliner on the inner eyelid run the risk of contaminating the eye and causing vision trouble, according to research by a scientist at the University of Waterloo. This is the first study to prove that particles from pencil eyeliner move into the eye. Dr. Alison Ng and her colleagues used video recordings to observe and compare the amount of eyeliner particles that migrated into the tear film – the thin coating protecting the eye – after applying makeup in different styles. “We noticed that the makeup migration happened quicker and was greater when eyeliner was put on the inner lid margin,” said Dr. Ng. Each participant wore glitter eyeliner outside the lash line, and then on the inner lid area closer to the eye, or along the waterline.

Medical interventions for acanthamoeba keratitis

Cochrane: Acanthamoeba are microscopic, free-living, single-celled organisms. Infection of the eye by these organisms is known as Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK). Although very rare, if left untreated AK can lead to the loss of vision in the eye or, in extreme cases, loss of the eye itself. Contact lens wear is the most common risk factor for AK. The most common symptom of AK is severe pain, which is out of proportion to the clinical signs and associated with sensitivity to light, blurry vision, and tearing.

Nanowafer technology more effective than topical eye drops

Baylor College. US: While using eye drops to treat eye injuries may seem like a simple enough task, doing so multiple times per day can cause side effects such as irritation and toxicity from high drug concentrations, and poor patient compliance is also an issue. In response to this, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have developed a nanowafer drug delivery system, in which there is a slow drug release from a nanowafer, or a small transparent disc placed on the surface of the eye that contains arrays of drug-loaded nanoreservoirs.

Surgical interventions for childhood glaucoma

Cochrane: This review compared the effects of different surgeries for primary congenital glaucoma (PCG). No conclusions could be drawn from the trials included in this review due to paucity of data. More research is needed to determine which of the many surgeries performed for PCG are effective.

How a Single, Genetic Change Causes Retinal Tumors in Young Children

Chidren's Hospital Los Angeles. US: Retinoblastoma is a childhood retinal tumor usually affecting children one to two years of age.  Although rare, it is the most common malignant tumor of the eye in children. Left untreated, retinoblastoma can be fatal or result in blindness. It has also played a special role in understanding cancer, because retinoblastomas have been found to develop in response to the mutation of a single gene – the RB1 gene—demonstrating that some cells are only a step away from developing into a life-threatening malignancy.

Mechanism of Disease Progression in Conjunctival Lymphoma is Clarified- Contributing to the Development of a Curative Drug-

Hokudai University. Japan: Conjunctiva is the tissue that covers the surface of the eye, and is the first line of defense against pathogens from the outside. This defense mechanism is an immune mechanism controlled by the conjunctival lymphoid, which activates lymphocyte type B-cells, T-cells, and dendritic cells, when a pathogen is detected. The most frequent tissue type of malignant lymphoma on conjunctiva is extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, which is observed in 7% of cases of non-Hodgkin’s B-cell lymphoma⁴⁾.

Hope for those with visual loss

Kent University. UK: Together with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, a leading Scottish medical technology company, Optos plc, and Strathclyde University, Kent researchers will help develop a new laser technology which will be able to monitor the functions of cells in the eye. This new technology is aimed at detecting and monitoring eye disease at a very early stage.

Major cause of blindness linked to calcium deposits in the eye

University College London. UK: Microscopic spheres of calcium phosphate have been linked to the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a major cause of blindness, by UCL-led research.

How does the brain adapt to the restoration of eyesight?

Montreal University. Canada: Recent scientific advances have meant that eyesight can be partially restored to those who previously would have been blind for life. However, scientists at the University of Montreal and the University of Trento have discovered that the rewiring of the senses that occurs in the brains of the long-term blind means that visual restoration may never be complete.

Genetic discovery about childhood blindness

McGill University. Canada: Finding genes for retinal degenerations has immediate benefits for people living with blindness and vision loss, their families, and their physicians. Establishing a genetic cause confirms the clinical diagnosis at the molecular level, helps predict the future visual prognosis, suggests therapies, and allows some patients to join clinical trials. While more than 200 genes for retinal degenerations have been identified, approximately 40-50% of cases remain a mystery.

Gene therapy could help with inherited blindness (retinitis pigmentosa)

NHS.UK: "Procedure to restore sight in dogs gives hope for future blindness cure," The Independent reports. Researchers have restored some modest degree of light sensitivity (though not full vision) in animals who have a similar condition to retinitis pigmentosa.
Retinitis pigmentosa is an umbrella term for a group of human inherited eye conditions, affecting around 1 in 4,000 people, in which the normal light-sensing cells contained in the retina become damaged or die.

Retinitis pigmentosa

Orphanet. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited retinal dystrophy leading to progressive loss of the photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium and resulting in blindness usually after several decades.

Frequency of RP is reported to be 1/3,000 to 1/5,000. No ethnic specificities have been reported although founder effects are possible.

Amblyopia in children

Normally, the brain processes the information coming in from both eyes equally. This is needed for the best possible vision.
In some children, however, one eye is favored by the brain because it provides a better image. If this happens, the other eye is neglected from childhood on, and it does not get the chance to fully develop. This is known as amblyopia or "lazy eye." Amblyopia, the medical term for lazy eye, is taken from ancient Greek and means "dull vision."

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) Overview

Source: Plos Medicine. 2013.

The third leading global cause of blindness (after cataracts and glaucoma) is age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

This group of conditions is characterized by lesions in the macular (central) region of the retina, the tissue at the back of the eye that converts light into electrical messages and sends them to the brain.

AMD, which affects older people, destroys the sharp central vision that is needed for reading or driving, leaving only dim, blurred images or a black hole at the center of vision.

AMD can be diagnosed by examining digital photographs of the retina or by examining the retina directly using a special magnifying lens (slit lamp biomicroscopy).

There is no cure for AMD, although injections into the eye of certain drugs, such as bevacizumab, that block the activity of vascular endothelial growth factor can slow the rate of vision loss caused by some forms of AMD.