Analysis of Choriocapillaris Reperfusion Topography Following Faricimab Treatment for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration in Therapy-Naïve Patients.

INTRODUCTION: To assess changes in choriocapillaris (CC) vascular density surrounding macular neovascularization (MNV) in treatment-naïve age-related macular degeneration (AMD) after faricimab application using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). METHODS: Twenty-five eyes of 25 treatment-naïve individuals who underwent intravitreal faricimab injections for neovascular AMD (nAMD) with type 1 MNV were included. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images and en-face swept-source OCTA images were analyzed, and the percentage of CC flow deficit (FD%), FD average area (FDa) and FD number (FDn) in five progressive 20.0-µm-wide concentric rings (R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5) surrounding the dark halo around the MNV were calculated. Image acquisition was carried out prior to the first faricimab injection (T0) and 1 month after the injection (T1). RESULTS: The topographical sub-analysis revealed noteworthy changes in all rings at T1 compared to T0. There was a notable progressive reduction in FD% at T1 compared to T0 values across all rings, indicating a gradual CC reperfusion following anti-VEGF treatment. Additionally, the average size of FD decreased after the loading phase. Although not reaching statistical significance, there was a progressive reduction in the FDa across all rings. CONCLUSION: Our study highlights a CC FD reduction following the administration of three consecutive faricimab injections. This effect was detected in all rings surrounding the dark halo. These observations suggest a partial CC reperfusion surrounding the MNV, potentially serving as an indicator for disease regression.

Analysis of Choriocapillaris Reperfusion Topography following Faricimab Treatment for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration in Non-Treatment-Naïve Patients.

To assess changes in choriocapillaris (CC) vascular density surrounding macular neovascularization (MNV) in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) when transitioning from various anti-VEGF treatments to faricimab, using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). 25 eyes of 22 individuals who underwent intravitreal faricimab injections for neovascular AMD with type 1 MNV were included. OCTA images were obtained prior to (T0), after one (T1), and after three faricimab injections (T2); Noteworthy changes occurred in the first ring at T2 in comparison to T0. The percentage of CC flow deficit (FD%), FD average area (FDa), and FD number (FDn) in 5 rings (R1-R5) surrounding the dark halo around the MNV were calculated. A reduction in FD% at T2 compared to T0 (50.5 ± 10.2% at T0, 46.4 ± 10.6% at T2; p = 0.020) was seen, indicating CC reperfusion. Additionally, we observed a reduction in the average FDa (140.2 ± 172.1% at T0, 93.7 ± 101.8% at T2; p = 0.029). Our study highlights an FD% after three consecutive faricimab injections. The most pronounced effect was observed in the first ring, directly adjacent to the dark halo, suggesting a partial CC reperfusion surrounding the MNV, potentially indicating disease regression.

Cataract-1K Dataset for Deep-Learning-Assisted Analysis of Cataract Surgery Videos.

In recent years, the landscape of computer-assisted interventions and post-operative surgical video analysis has been dramatically reshaped by deep-learning techniques, resulting in significant advancements in surgeons' skills, operation room management, and overall surgical outcomes. However, the progression of deep-learning-powered surgical technologies is profoundly reliant on large-scale datasets and annotations. In particular, surgical scene understanding and phase recognition stand as pivotal pillars within the realm of computer-assisted surgery and post-operative assessment of cataract surgery videos. In this context, we present the largest cataract surgery video dataset that addresses diverse requisites for constructing computerized surgical workflow analysis and detecting post-operative irregularities in cataract surgery. We validate the quality of annotations by benchmarking the performance of several state-of-the-art neural network architectures for phase recognition and surgical scene segmentation. Besides, we initiate the research on domain adaptation for instrument segmentation in cataract surgery by evaluating cross-domain instrument segmentation performance in cataract surgery videos. The dataset and annotations are publicly available in Synapse.

Janus Kinase Inhibitors: Next-Generation Treatment for Uveitis. / Januskinase-Inhibitoren: Next-Generation-Therapie der Uveitis.

A large proportion of patients with visual impairment secondary to non-infectious uveitis may require DMARDs. Although these are highly effective, some patients may require alternatives to the currently available immunomodulators due to an inadequate response or undesirable side effects. Janus Kinase Inhibitors (JAKi) are already approved for several autoimmune diseases in rheumatology, gastroenterology and dermatology. To date, JAKi have been studied in phase 3 trials in various types of uveitis. Mechanism of Action: JAKi work by inhibiting the phosphorylation of Janus kinases, which are transmembrane proteins. This blocks the activation of transcription factors, which in turn downregulates cytokine expression and inflammatory mediators. JAKi represent an extremely effective novel therapeutic approach in rheumatology, gastroenterology and dermatology. They have already been approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, ulcerative colitis and atopic eczema. In earlier comparative studies with conventional biologics, a better therapeutic response was reported in some cases. Several published case reports report reduced cortisone levels in patients with uveitis who had responded poorly to conventional and biological DMARDs. Approval studies are under way for JIA-associated and ANA-positive anterior uveitis. In summary, JAKi represent an innovative treatment option for patients with non-infectious uveitis in whom DMARDs are contraindicated or ineffective.

[Combined transepithelial PTK and topography-guided PRK for treatment of trauma-related corneal scarring]. / Kombinierte transepitheliale PTK und topografiegesteuerte PRK zur Behandlung von traumatisch bedingten Hornhautnarben.

BACKGROUND: Corneal scars can severely impair visual performance and treatment can be challenging. The study aimed to evaluate a promising minimally invasive option in the treatment of corneal scars using transepithelial topography-guided ablation. METHODS: This retrospective interventional study involved four eyes of four patients who developed corneal scarring and irregular surfaces due to trauma and were treated with topography-guided photorefractive keratectomy (TG-PRK) between 2017 and 2020. The ablation profile was calculated in all four cases using CRS-Master (Zeiss, Jena, Germany). The main outcome measures were uncorrected and best-corrected distance visual acuity, manifest refraction and corneal regularity by topographic images. The mean age was 34.75 ± 15.39 years and the follow-up time was 6 months for all patients. RESULTS: In three cases full subjective refraction was corrected in one session and one patient had a refractive error of +0.5 D. Only corneal surface smoothing without additional refractive correction was performed in this case. All four patients showed improvement in uncorrected (2-3 Snellen lines) and corrected (3 Snellen lines) distance visual acuity. No complications occurred during or after the treatment and there was no reduction of visual acuity in any case. CONCLUSION: The use of TG-PRK in patients with corneal scarring improves visual acuity in selected cases. In myopic patients most of the refractive error can also be corrected in a single session.

Effects of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Smoking on Changes in Corneal Endothelial Morphology and Cell Density.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the corneal endothelial morphology and cell density of diabetic smokers and nonsmokers with 50 to 70 age-matched healthy subjects and to determine whether smoking increases the effects of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) on these corneal parameters. METHODS: This prospective cohort study included 200 patients who were assigned to 4 groups, including smokers with type 2 DM (group 1), nonsmokers with type 2 DM (group 2), healthy smokers (group 3), and healthy nonsmokers (control group, group 4). Noncontact specular microscopy was used to measure central endothelial cell density (ECD), coefficient of variation of cell area, percentage of hexagonal cells, and central corneal pachymetry (CCT). RESULTS: According to the ECD and CCT values ( P < 0.001 and P = 0.013, respectively), a significant difference was observed between the groups. The mean ECD was lowest in diabetic smokers (1917 ± 399 cells/mm 2 ). Healthy smokers and diabetic smokers had significantly lower ECD compared with the control group ( P = 0.03 and P < 0.001, respectively). Healthy smokers and diabetic smokers had significantly lower ECD compared with diabetic nonsmokers ( P = 0.012 and P < 0.001, respectively). The cornea was significantly thicker in the diabetic smokers than in the control group ( P = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS: The coexistence of DM and smoking causes a significant decrease in ECD and an increase in CCT. Cigarette smoking is more harmful to corneal endothelial cells than DM alone.

Automatic detection of pupil reactions in cataract surgery videos.

In the light of an increased use of premium intraocular lenses (IOL), such as EDOF IOLs, multifocal IOLs or toric IOLs even minor intraoperative complications such as decentrations or an IOL tilt, will hamper the visual performance of these IOLs. Thus, the post-operative analysis of cataract surgeries to detect even minor intraoperative deviations that might explain a lack of a post-operative success becomes more and more important. Up-to-now surgical videos are evaluated by just looking at a very limited number of intraoperative data sets, or as done in studies evaluating the pupil changes that occur during surgeries, in a small number intraoperative picture only. A continuous measurement of pupil changes over the whole surgery, that would achieve clinically more relevant data, has not yet been described. Therefore, the automatic retrieval of such events may be a great support for a post-operative analysis. This would be especially true if large data files could be evaluated automatically. In this work, we automatically detect pupil reactions in cataract surgery videos. We employ a Mask R-CNN architecture as a segmentation algorithm to segment the pupil and iris with pixel-based accuracy and then track their sizes across the entire video. We can detect pupil reactions with a harmonic mean (H) of Recall, Precision, and Ground Truth Coverage Rate (GTCR) of 60.9% and average prediction length (PL) of 18.93 seconds. However, we consider the best configuration for practical use the one with the H value of 59.4% and PL of 10.2 seconds, which is much shorter. We further investigate the generalization ability of this method on a slightly different dataset without retraining the model. In this evaluation, we achieve the H value of 49.3% with the PL of 18.15 seconds.

Choroidal Infiltration as First Clinical Manifestation of T-cell Large Granular Lymphocyte (T-LGL) Leukemia.

Purpose: To report of a 55-year-old woman suffering from choroidal infiltrates as a first clinical manifestation of T-LGL leukemia. Methods: Retrospective case report. Results: A healthy woman presented with photophobia in both eyes since 1 month. She showed a panuveitis with anterior chamber as well as vitreous cells, creamy-white choroidal lesions in both eyes and a cystoid macular edema in the left eye. Lab testing showed only a moderate lymphocytosis, all other tests, including a pars plana vitrectomy and an anterior chamber tap, were negative. Due to the persistent lymphocytosis, she was referred to the oncologist. A biopsy of the bone marrow revealed T-LGL leukemia. A subsequent biopsy of the choroid showed an infiltration of T-LGL and therefore systemic therapy with cyclophosphamide was started. Conclusions: This is a very rare case describing an involvement of the choroid in T-LGL leukemia.

Ocular toxicity due to Trametinib and Dabrafenib.

BACKGROUND: To report a case of uveitis and neuroretinal detachment in a patient treated with Trametinib and Dabrafenib due to metastatic cutaneous melanoma stage IV. CASE PRESENTATION: We evaluated slit lamp examination, fundoscopy, optical coherence tomography, fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography in a 66 years old man suffering visual loss. Fundoscopy showed serous neuroretinal detachment of the fovea accompanied with white spots surrounding the fovea in both eyes. Although therapy with Trametinib and Dabrafenib was stopped uveitis anterior was seen 2 weeks later. After a year, the therapy was started again and the serous neuroretinal detachment appeared once more, however without inflammatory reaction of the anterior chamber. CONCLUSION: Patients treated with Trametinib and Dabrafenib should undergo consecutive eye examinations from the beginning of the therapy.

Associations of Independent IL2RA Gene Variants with Intermediate Uveitis.

PURPOSE: The genetic background for the concomitance of uveitis and other autoimmune diseases remains elusive. Here the role of two IL2RA gene variants (rs11594656 and rs12722495) was investigated in intermediate uveitis and HLAB27 acute anterior uveitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred fifty-nine patients with HLAB27 acute anterior uveitis, 85 patients with intermediate uveitis, 138 HLAB27 negative controls and 100 HLAB27 positive controls were recruited for this case-control study. Main outcome measures were genotype distribution and allelic frequencies determined by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: The frequencies of carriers of the minor allele at rs11594656 and rs12722495 were significantly different in patients with intermediate uveitis compared to HLAB27 positive and negative controls combined (p<0.05). For rs12722495 the minor G allele was protective (genotypic OR: 0.29 [0.12-0.69]), and for rs11594656 the minor A allele conferred risk (genotypic OR: 1.59 [1.09-2.32]). No significant differences in genotype distribution were found between patients with HLAB27 acute anterior uveitis and HLAB27 positive or negative control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: We found rs11594656 and rs12722495 to be associated with intermediate uveitis but not with HLAB27 acute anterior uveitis. The genetic heterogeneity found at the IL2RA locus could help explain patterns of concomitance with other autoimmune diseases.

Retropupillary Fixation of Iris-Claw Intraocular Lens for Aphakic Eyes in Children.

PURPOSE: To report outcome, complications and safety of retropupillary fixated iris-claw intraocular lenses in a pediatric population. DESIGN: Retrospective study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ten consecutive pediatric patients (15 eyes) underwent placement of retropupillary fixated iris-claw intraocular lenses between October 2007 and July 2013 at the Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University Graz and General Hospital Klagenfurt, Austria. Postoperative visual acuity and complications were analyzed. RESULTS: Median final best-corrected visual acuity improved by 0.12 logMAR from preoperative baseline. Mean postoperative spherical equivalent was -0.05 ± 1.76 D. No serious complications were observed intra- or postoperatively during the entire follow-up period of up to 40 months. One patient experienced a haptic disenclavation with IOL subluxation immediately after a car accident. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that iris-claw intraocular lens implantation behind the iris is safe in children with lack of capsular support and yields excellent visual outcome with low complication rate.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Safety of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Inhibitors for the Treatment of Retinopathy of Prematurity.

INTRODUCTION: Laser photocoagulation is the current gold standard treatment for proliferative retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). However, it permanently reduces the visual field and might induce myopia. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors for the treatment of ROP may enable continuing vascularization of the retina, potentially allowing the preservation of the visual field. However, for their use in infants concern remains. This meta-analysis explores the safety of VEGF inhibitors. METHODS: The Ovid Interface was used to perform a systematic review of the literature in the databases PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library. RESULTS: This meta-analysis included 24 original reports (including 1.457 eyes) on VEGF inhibitor treatment for ROP. The trials were solely observational except for one randomized and two case-control studies. We estimated a 6-month risk of retreatment per eye of 2.8%, and a 6-month risk of ocular complication without the need of retreatment of 1.6% per eye. Systemic complications were only reported as isolated incidents. DISCUSSION: VEGF inhibitors seem to be associated with low recurrence rates and ocular complication rates. They may have the benefit of potentially allowing the preservation of visual field and lower rates of myopia. Due to the lack of data, the risk of systemic side effects cannot be assessed.

Endogenous endophthalmitis after carotid endarterectomy due to exudative macular degeneration.

A 78-year-old male patient with unilateral exudative macular degeneration developed endogenous endophthalmitis 11 days after carotid endarterectomy. The endophthalmitis could not be treated by intravitreal application of antibiotics. The patient underwent vitrectomy and systemic application of vancomycin. Six days later, the eye was quiet and the patient was discharged with a visual acuity of 0.9 logMAR.Patients with exudative macular degeneration have a higher risk for developing endogenous endophthalmitis after vascular surgery of the carotid arteries and prolonged postoperative application of systemic antibiotics might be considered in these patients.

Analysis of functional polymorphisms in apoptosis-related genes in primary open angle glaucoma.

PURPOSE: Glaucoma is a disease with high heritability in which the degradation of retinal ganglion cells occurs via apoptosis. Therefore, we investigated the role of four functional apoptosis-related gene variants (Akt1 rs1130233, Bax rs4645878, Fas rs223476, and FasL rs763110) in patients with primary open angle glaucoma. METHODS: 334 patients with primary open angle glaucoma and 334 controls were recruited for this case-control study. The main outcome measures were genotype distribution and allelic frequencies determined with PCR. RESULTS: After adjustment for multiple testing, no significant difference in either the genotype distribution or the allelic frequencies of any investigated gene variant was found. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the investigated gene polymorphisms are unlikely to be major risk factors for primary open angle glaucoma in Caucasian patients.

Use of true net power in intraocular lens power calculations in eyes with prior myopic laser refractive surgery.

Intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation following laser refractive surgery is still one of the most challenging aspects in cataract surgery. This study was initiated to investigate the application of true net power (TNP; Pentacam, software version 6.02r10, Oculus, Germany) in IOL power calculations in eyes with prior laser refractive surgery. Our data contribute to the notion that the TNP of the Pentacam is a reliable alternative to determine the IOL power in cases where the historical data are missing. Based on our data, we recommend implementing the TNP to obtain the true corneal power and thus, reliable IOL power calculations.