Ophthalmology Commons^™

Gene Expression In Human Accessory Lacrimal Glands Of Wolfring, John L. Ubels, Ilene K. Gipson, Sandra J. Spurr-Michaud, Ann S. Tisdale

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

The accessory lacrimal glands are assumed to contribute to the production of tear fluid, but little is known about their function. The goal of this study was to conduct an analysis of gene expression by glands of Wolfring that would provide a more complete picture of the function of these glands. METHODS: Glands of Wolfring were isolated from frozen sections of human eyelids by laser microdissection. RNA was extracted from the cells and hybridized to gene expression arrays. The expression of several of the major genes was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Of the 24 most highly expressed genes, 9 were …

Gene Expression In Human Accessory Lacrimal Glands Of Wolfring, John L. Ubels, Ilene K. Gipson, Sandra J. Spurr-Michaud, Ann S. Tisdale

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

PURPOSE: The accessory lacrimal glands are assumed to contribute to the production of tear fluid, but little is known about their function. The goal of this study was to conduct an analysis of gene expression by glands of Wolfring that would provide a more complete picture of the function of these glands. METHODS: Glands of Wolfring were isolated from frozen sections of human eyelids by laser microdissection. RNA was extracted from the cells and hybridized to gene expression arrays. The expression of several of the major genes was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Of the 24 most highly expressed genes, 9 …

Choroidal Neovascularization Regression On Fluorescein Angiography After Vegf Blockade., Diana V. Do, Lark Greenwald, Mohamed Ibrahim, Yasir J. Sepah, Quan Dong Nguyen

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

BACKGROUND: Intravitreal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors stabilize vision in a majority of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and can improve vision in almost 40% of patients. However, some individuals who respond to anti-VEGF treatment still lose vision due to the formation of geographic atrophy (GA). While optical coherence tomography is often the primary imaging modality used, fluorescein angiography (FA) can provide useful information on GA development after choroidal neovascularization (CNV) regression.

METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted to evaluate the changes seen on FA over a 47-month period for 3 patients with neovascular AMD treated …

Isolated Endogenous Nocardia Endophthalmitis After Immunosuppression., Lisa Y. Chen, Muge R. Kesen, Abdalhossein Ghafourian, Quan Dong Nguyen, Charles G. Eberhart, Diana V. Do

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

PURPOSE: This study is aimed to report a case of endogenous Nocardia endophthalmitis in the setting of immunosuppression from chronic steroid use.

METHODS: A case report was conducted.

RESULTS: A 79-year-old woman presented with decreased vision with floaters in the left eye. Ophthalmic examination revealed severe inflammation in the anterior chamber, vitreous opacities, and retinal detachment. Vitreous cultures grew Nocardia farcinica without any systemic foci of infection found during further workup. The patient was treated with intravitreal amikacin and oral trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and her retinal detachment was later repaired in the operating room. The patient has since remained stable with no …

Characterization Of Macular Lesions In Punctate Inner Choroidopathy With Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography., Roomasa Channa, Mohamed Ibrahim, Yasir J. Sepah, Peykan Turkcuoglu, Jeong Hee Lee, Afsheen Khwaja, Elham Hatef, Millena Bittencourt, Jangwon Heo, Diana V. Do, Quan Dong Nguyen

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

PURPOSE: Punctate inner choroidopathy (PIC) is an ocular inflammatory disease. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) allows detailed visualization of retinal and choroidal structures. We aimed to describe the retinal changes on SD-OCT associated with PIC lesions localized in the macula.

METHODS: Retrospective case series: PIC lesions not associated with choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and captured by macular SD-OCT scans were identified and characterized.

RESULTS: Twenty-seven PIC lesions from seven patients (eight eyes) were identified and classified into four categories according to disease activity and temporal changes. Among clinically inactive patients, two main patterns were noted on OCT: (1) retinal pigment …

Genetics For The Ophthalmologist., Karthikeyan A Sadagopan, Jenina Capasso, Alex V Levin

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

The eye has played a major role in human genomics including gene therapy. It is the fourth most common organ system after integument (skin, hair and nails), nervous system, and musculoskeletal system to be involved in genetic disorders. The eye is involved in single gene disorders and those caused by multifactorial etiology. Retinoblastoma was the first human cancer gene to be cloned. Leber hereditary optic neuropathy was the first mitochondrial disorder described. X-Linked red-green color deficiency was the first X-linked disorder described. The eye, unlike any other body organ, allows directly visualization of genetic phenomena such as skewed X-inactivation in …

Automatic And Robust Calibration Of Optical Detector Arrays For Biomedical Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy, Michael A. Mastanduno, Shudong Jiang, Roberta Diflorio-Alexander, Brian W. Pogue, Keith Paulsen

Dartmouth Scholarship

The design and testing of a new, fully automated, calibration approach is described. The process was used to calibrate an image-guided diffuse optical spectroscopy system with 16 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), but can be extended to any large array of optical detectors and associated imaging geometry. The design goals were accomplished by developing a routine for robust automated calibration of the multi-detector array within 45 minutes. Our process was able to characterize individual detectors to a median norm of the residuals of 0.03 V for amplitude and 4.4 degrees in phase and achieved less than 5% variation between all the detectors …

Attentive And Pre-Attentive Processes In Change Detection And Identification, Howard C. Hughes, Gideon Paul Caplovitz, Rebecca A. Loucks, Robert Fendrich

Dartmouth Scholarship

In studies of change blindness, observers often have the phenomenological impression that the blindness is overcome all at once, so that change detection, localization and identification apparently occur together. Three experiments are described that explore dissociations between these processes using a discrete trial procedure in which 2 visual frames are presented sequentially with no intervening inter-frame-interval. The results reveal that change detection and localization are essentially perfect under these conditions regardless of the number of elements in the display, which is consistent with the idea that change detection and localization are mediated by pre-attentive parallel processes. In contrast, identification accuracy …

Healing Of Cornea Following An Electric Burn, Tanveer Anjum Chaudhry, Farheen Shaikh, Khabir Ahmad

Department of Surgery Docs

ABSTRACT Electrical injuries have become a significant health problem in developing countries because of increase in access to electricity in the last few decades and lack of adequate safety measures. Electrical injuries of eyes are relatively uncommon. A case report of a rapid and complete corneal healing accompanied by satisfactory visual recovery after an electric burn event in a 20-year-old male is reported. The patient had accidental exposure to high voltage live wire while he was repairing it, resulting in severe ocular and superficial body burn. He was not wearing any protective equipment at the time of injury. On examination, …

A Refractive Surgery Candidate With Optic Nerve Head Cupping., Ivan Goldberg, L Jay Katz, Kaweh Mansouri, Mohammad Pakravan, Shahin Yazdani

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

No abstract provided.

Macular Sensitivity And Fixation Patterns In Normal Eyes And Eyes With Uveitis With And Without Macular Edema., Yasir J. Sepah, Elham Hatef, Elizabeth Colantuoni, Jianmin Wang, Mathew Shulman, Fatima I. Adhi, Abeer Akhtar, Mohamed Ibrahim, Afsheen Khwaja, Roomasa Channa, Raafay Sophie, Millena Bittencourt, Jangwon Heo, Diana V Do, Quan Dong Nguyen

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the relationship between macular sensitivity and thickness in eyes with uveitic macular edema (UME).

DESIGN: This study is a prospective observational case series.

METHODS: The setting for this study was clinical practice. The study included 59 (28 with UME, 31 without UME) eyes of 26 patients with uveitis and 19 eyes of 10 normal subjects. The procedure followed was fundus-related perimetry and retinal thickness map with an automated fundus perimetry/tomography system. Main outcome measures included quantification of macular sensitivity, fixation pattern, and relationship between macular sensitivity and thickness.

RESULTS: Fixation stability revealed that 56 …

Resolution Of Bilateral Ptosis After Reduction Of Unilaterally Elevated Intraocular Pressure In A Child With Axenfeld-Reiger Spectrum Disorder., Ketki Soin, Alex V. Levin

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

We report a 9-month-old boy with bilateral pseudoptosis associated with elevated IOP. The patient had previously undergone bilateral trabeculectomies and Ahmed tube placement and right cataract extraction and penetrating keratoplasty. At presentation, the right eye IOP was 24 mm Hg and the left eye IOP was 32 mm Hg. Approximately 2 weeks after dorzolamide was added to the treatment regimen for the left eye, the mother reported that the ptosis had resolved. We suggest several explanations for the resolution of the ptosis.

Hospitalized Cardiovascular Events In Patients With Diabetic Macular Edema., Bao-Anh Nguyen-Khoa, Earl L. Goehring, Winifred Werther, Anne E. Fung, Diana V. Do, Rajendra S. Apte, Judith K. Jones

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

BACKGROUND: Microvascular and macrovascular complications in diabetes stem from chronic hyperglycemia and are thought to have overlapping pathophysiology. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence rate of hospitalized myocardial infarctions (MI) and cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) compared with diabetic patients without retinal diseases.

METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of a commercially insured population in an administrative claims database. DME subjects (n = 3519) and diabetes controls without retinal disease (n = 10557) were matched by age and gender. Healthcare claims were analyzed for the study period from 1 January …

Corneal Replication Is An Interferon Response-Independent Bottleneck For Virulence Of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 In The Absence Of Virion Host Shutoff, Tracy J. Pasieka, Vineet D. Menachery, Pamela C. Rosato, David A. Leib

Dartmouth Scholarship

Herpes simplex viruses lacking the virion host shutoff function (Δvhs) are avirulent and hypersensitive to type I and type II interferon (IFN). In this study, we demonstrate that even in the absence of IFN responses in AG129 (IFN-αβγR^−/−) mice, Δvhs remains highly attenuated via corneal infection but is fully virulent via intracranial infection. The data demonstrate that the interferon-independent inherent replication defect of Δvhs has a significant impact upon peripheral replication and neuroinvasion.

Structural Changes In Glaucoma: A Volumetric Mri Study, John Lackey, Alice L. Williams, Srinivas Gatla, Sheryl S. Wizov, Thomas Chia, George Spaeth, Song Lai

Department of Radiology Faculty Papers

Purpose: To investigate brain structural changes in patients with glaucoma.

Methods: High resolution 3D T1-weighted MP-RAGE MRI images were collected in 11 glaucoma patients (5 female, 6 male, 65+/-11 yrs), and 11 age- and gender-matched controls (64+/-12 yrs). The images were first analyzed using an automatic voxel-based morphometry technique which combines a fully automated spatial normalization approach, dubbed HAMMER [1], in conjunction with a tissue mass preserving framework called RAVENS [2]. Four consecutive steps were carried out: removal of non-brain voxels, tissue segmentation, spatial normalization to a standardized template, and generation of a mass-preserving tissue density map (i.e. RAVENS map) …

Preliminary Evaluation Of The Incharge Program Among Older African Americans In Rural Alabama, Cynthia Owsley, Gerald Mcgwin Jr., June Weston, Beth T. Stalvey, Karen Searcey, Christopher A. Girkin

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Objective: Blindness rates among older African Americans are two times higher than for older whites. Our purpose was to understand attitudes about eye care and perceived barriers to care among older African Americans living in rural Alabama and to determine whether an educational program reduced perceived barriers to care. InCHARGE, an eye health education program for older African Americans, promotes eye disease prevention by conveying the personal benefits of annual dilated comprehensive eye care and by teaching strategies to minimize barriers to eye care.

Design and Participants: InCHARGE was presented in five senior centers to 111 individuals. Using a questionnaire …

Keratouveitis From Euphorbia Cyparissias Exposure Is A Temporal Phenomenon, D. Fleischman, J. J. Meyer, W. C. Fowler

Osteopathic Medicine, Jerry M. Wallace School of

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Time Domain And Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography In Measurement Of Macular Thickness In Macular Edema Secondary To Diabetic Retinopathy And Retinal Vein Occlusion., Elham Hatef, Afsheen Khwaja, Zubir Rentiya, Mohamed Ibrahim, Matthew Shulman, Peykan Turkcuoglu, Yasir J. Sepah, Jianmin Wang, Roomasa Channa, Millena Bittencourt, Abeer Akhtar, Jangwon Heo, Diana V. Do, Quan Dong Nguyen

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

Purpose. To evaluate macular thickness, agreement, and intraclass repeatability in three optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices: the time domain (TD) Stratus OCT and two spectral domain (SD) OCTs, Spectralis and Cirrus SD-OCT, in eyes with macular edema secondary to diabetic retinopathy (DR) and retinal vein occlusion (VO). Methods. In a prospective observational study at a university-based retina practice, retinal thickness tomography was performed simultaneously for fifty-eight patients (91 eyes) with DR and VO employing a time domain and two spectral domain OCTs. Agreement in macular measurements was assessed by constructing Bland-Altman plots. Intraclass repeatability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficients …

Post-Cataract Outcomes In Patients With Noninfectious Posterior Uveitis Treated With The Fluocinolone Acetonide Intravitreal Implant., John D. Sheppard, Quan Dong Nguyen, Dale W. Usner, Timothy L. Comstock

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

PURPOSE: To describe visual acuity (VA) and inflammation following cataract surgery in eyes with noninfectious posterior uveitis (NIPU) that were being treated with a fluocinolone acetonide (FA) intravitreal implant compared with those that were not.

DESIGN: Post hoc, subgroup analysis of data from a 3-year, dose-masked, randomized, multicenter trial evaluating the FA implant for the treatment of NIPU.

PARTICIPANTS AND CONTROLS: The subset of eyes that underwent cataract surgery during the 3-year trial. Eyes were either implanted with a 0.59- or a 2.1-mg FA implant, or, in the case of affected fellow eyes, received standard-of-care local treatment.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: …

Corneal Swapping In A Bomb Blast Victim, Tanveer Anjum Chaudhry, Tahreem Aman, Farheen Shaikh, Khabir Ahmad

Section of Ophthalmology

The case of a 40-year-old-man who presented to our clinic with bilateral blindness as a consequence of bomb blast injuries is reported. He had a completely opaque cornea, partially damaged posterior segment and perception of light in the right eye, while a clear cornea, totally damaged posterior segment and no light perception in the fellow eye. His corneas were successfully swapped which gave him navigational vision.

A Rare Cause Of Upper Airway Obstruction In Neonates, Rana Alia, Irfan Jeeva, Lawrence Miall, Vernon Long

Section of Ophthalmology

No abstract provided.

Vorinostat: A Potent Agent To Prevent And Treat Laser-Induced Corneal Haze, Ashish Tandon, Jonathan C. K. Tovey, Michael R. Waggoner, Ajay Sharma, John W. Cowden, Daniel J. Gibson, Yuanjing Liu, Gregory S. Schultz, Rajiv R. Mohan

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

PURPOSE—This study investigated the efficacy and safety of vorinostat, a deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, in the treatment of laser-induced corneal haze following photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in rabbits in vivo and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1) -induced corneal fibrosis in vitro.

METHODS—Corneal haze in rabbits was produced with −9.00 diopters (D) PRK. Fibrosis in cultured human and rabbit corneal fibroblasts was activated with TGFβ1. Vorinostat (25 μm) was topically applied once for 5 minutes on rabbit cornea immediately after PRK for in vivo studies. Vorinostat (0 to 25 μm) was given to human/rabbit corneal fibroblasts for 5 minutes or 48 …

Gene Therapy In The Cornea: 2005--Present, Rajiv R. Mohan, Jonathan C. K. Tovey, Ajay Sharma, Ashish Tandon

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Successful restoration of vision in human patients with gene therapy affirmed its promise to cure ocular diseases and disorders. The efficacy of gene therapy is contingent upon vector and mode of therapeutic DNA introduction into targeted cells/tissues. The cornea is an ideal tissue for gene therapy due to its ease of access and relative immune-privilege. Considerable progress has been made in the field of corneal gene therapy in last 5 years. Several new gene transfer vectors, techniques and approaches have evolved. Although corneal gene therapy is still in its early stages of development, the potential of gene-based interventions to treat …

Vip And Host Immunity, Xiaoyu Jiang

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of the current dissertation was to examine how VIP regulates host immunity and corneal healing, specifically, its control of growth factors and TLR expression in the P. aeruginosa infected cornea. Firstly, VIP treatment increased growth factor expression (EGF, GHF, FGF and VEGF) in infected cornea. Notably, treatment with a mixture of EGF, FGF and HGF prevented corneal perforation, reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines and bacterial plate count, while increasing anti-inflammatory cytokines and antimicrobials such as murine beta-defensin2 and 3.

We also investigated the expression of TLR-signaling pathways in P. aeruginosa infected corneas with or without VIP treatment. PCR array and …

Attenuation Of Corneal Myofibroblast Development Through Nanoparticle-Mediated Soluble Transforming Growth Factor-Β Type Ii Receptor (Stgfβrii) Gene Transfer, Ajay Sharma, Jason T. Rodier, Ashish Tandon, Alexander M. Klibanov, Rajiv R. Mohan

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose: To explore (i) the potential of polyethylenimine (PEI)-DNA nanoparticles as a vector for delivering genes into human corneal fibroblasts, and (ii) whether the nanoparticle-mediated soluble extracellular domain of the transforming growth factor–β type II receptor (sTGFβRII) gene therapy could be used to reduce myofibroblasts and fibrosis in the cornea using an in vitro model.

Methods: PEI-DNA nanoparticles were prepared at a nitrogen-to-phosphate ratio of 30 by mixing linear PEI and a plasmid encoding sTGFβRII conjugated to the fragment crystallizable (Fc) portion of human immunoglobulin. The PEI-DNA polyplex formation was confirmed through gel retardation assay. Human corneal fibroblasts (HCFs) were …

Absence Of Altered Expression Of Optineurin In Primary Open Angle Glaucoma Patients., Khaled K Abu-Amero, Taif Anwar Azad, George L Spaeth, Jonathan Myers, L Jay Katz, Marlene Moster, Thomas M Bosley

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

PURPOSE: To investigate the expression level of the optineurin gene (OPTN) in the blood of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients to determine if altered expression is playing a role in primary open angle glaucoma systemically.

METHODS: Patients (n=47) were eligible for inclusion if they met standard clinical criteria for POAG, including age greater than 40 years, intraocular pressure ≥21 mmHg in at least one eye before treatment, normal-appearing anterior chamber angles bilaterally on gonioscopy, and optic nerve injury characteristic of POAG. Control subjects (n=27) were recruited who were free from glaucoma by examination. DNA from patient was sequenced to …

Substance P And The Host Immune Response, Megan Elizabeth Foldenauer

Wayne State University Dissertations

This body of work examined the mechanism by which SP regulates host immunity, specifically, its control of growth factors and TLR expression in the P. aeruginosa-infected cornea. The role of mTOR and VIP in corneal infection and inflammation also was tested.

SP has a dual role in bacterial infection, unexpectedly upregulating growth factor production. This was accompanied by macrophage-specific upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, downregulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines, and upregulation of anti-apoptotic genes, as well as a decrease in arginase-producing macrophages (M2 cells), important in stromal healing in these mice. All of these lead to worsened disease, despite the stimulatory effects …

Giant Fornix Syndrome: A Case Series., Kiran Turaka, Robert B Penne, Christopher J. Rapuano, Azin Abazari, Ralph C Eagle, Kristin M. Hammersmith, Brandon Ayres

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

PURPOSE: To describe the demographics, characteristics, and treatment of giant fornix syndrome, a rare cause of chronic purulent conjunctivitis in the elderly.

METHODS: Retrospective chart review of five patients with giant fornix syndrome evaluated by the Cornea Service, Oculoplastics and Orbital Surgery Service and the Department of Pathology at the Wills Eye Institute.

RESULTS: The median age of the 5 female patients was 75 years (mean 80, range 70-95). The median duration of eye symptoms before presentation was 2 years (mean 2.4, range 1-4). Before referral, the chronic conjunctivitis was treated with topical antibiotics in all 5 cases and with …

Unaltered Myocilin Expression In The Blood Of Primary Open Angle Glaucoma Patients., Khaled K Abu-Amero, Taif Anwar Azad, George L Spaeth, Jonathan Myers, L Jay Katz, Marlene Moster, Thomas M Bosley

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

PURPOSE: To investigate the expression of the myocilin gene (MYOC) in the blood of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients to determine if altered systemic expression is playing a role.

METHODS: Patients (n=47) were eligible for inclusion if they met standard clinical criteria for POAG. Control subjects (n=27) were recruited who were free from glaucoma by examination. RNA was extracted from leukocytes of patients and controls and converted to cDNA by reverse transcriptase enzyme, and quantitative PCR was used to assess expression levels of MYOC and the house keeping gene β-globulin (HBB). The ratio of MYOC expression to HBB expression …

Factors Associated With Myopia In School Children In China: The Beijing Childhood Eye Study, Qi Sheng You, Li Juan Wu, Jia Li Duan, Yan Xia Luo, Li Juan Liu, Xia Li, Qi Gao, Wei Wang, Liang Xu, Jost Jonas, Xiu Hua Guo

Research outputs 2012

Purpose: To assess factors associated with myopia in school children in rural and urban parts of Greater Beijing. Methods: The Beijing Pedriatic Eye Study was a population-based cross-sectional study, in which one school of each level (primary, junior high, senior high) was randomly selected from nine randomly selected districts out of 18 districts of Greater Beijing. The children underwent non-cylcoplegic refractometry and their parents an interview. Results: Of 16,771 eligible students, 15,066 (89.8%) children (7,769 (51.6%) girls) participated, with 8,860 (58.8%) participants living in the rural region. Mean age was 13.263.4 years (range:7–18 years). In multivariate analysis, prevalence of myopia …