Epstein-Barr viral corneal stromal keratitis occurring during rheumatoid arthritis treatment: a case report.

BACKGROUND: A case of Epstein-Barr viral (EBV) corneal stromal keratitis during rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment is presented. CASE PRESENTATION: A 74-year-old female undergoing RA treatment was previously treated for bacterial corneal ulcer and herpetic keratitis and healed with antibiotic eye drops and topical anti-herpes ointment. At the first visit to our hospital, she presented with findings of monocular posterior interstitial keratitis with neovascularization mostly located in the inferior cornea with a corneal epithelial defect. The right eye showed no thinning of the corneal periphery and anterior uveitis. Her RA had subsided with oral steroid treatment, and infectious mononucleosis (IM) had not developed. EBV DNA could be detected in her corneal sample. After an extended but ineffective period to antibiotic treatment the corneal infiltrate responded rapidly to topical corticosteroids. CONCLUSION: EBV can cause stromal keratitis without IM during treatment for RA.

A Study Validating the Estimation of Anterior Chamber Depth and Iridocorneal Angle with Portable and Non-Portable Slit-Lamp Microscopy.

This study assessed the anterior chamber depth (ACD) and iridocorneal angle using a portable smart eye camera (SEC) compared to the conventional slit-lamp microscope and anterior-segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT). This retrospective case-control study included 170 eyes from 85 Japanese patients. The correlation between the ACD evaluations conducted with the SEC and conventional slit-lamp was high (r = 0.814). The correlation between the Van-Herick Plus grade obtained using two devices was also high (r = 0.919). A high kappa value was observed for the Van-Herick Plus grading (Kappa = 0.757). A moderate correlation was observed between the ACD measured using AS-OCT and the slit-lamp image acquired with the conventional slit-lamp microscope and SEC (r = 0.609 and 0.641). A strong correlation was observed between the trabecular-iris angle (TIA) measured using AS-OCT and Van-Herick Plus grade obtained with the conventional slit-lamp microscope and SEC (r = 0.702 and 0.764). Strong correlations of ACD evaluation and high kappa value of the Van-Herick Plus grading indicated the adequate subjective assessment function of the SEC. Moderate correlations between the ACD objective measurement and evaluation and strong correlation between the TIA and Van-Herick Plus grade suggested the good objective assessment function of the SEC. The SEC demonstrated adequate performance for ACD evaluation and angle estimation.

Minnamide A, a Linear Lipopeptide from the Marine Cyanobacterium Okeania hirsuta.

Minnamide A is a lipopeptide with a unique repeating structure consisting of hydroxy and proposed ß-branched methyl groups. The absolute configuration of minnamide A was determined by a combination of chemical degradation, chiral HPLC analyses, and synthetic methods. Minnamide A showed growth-inhibitory activity toward HeLa cells with an IC50 value of 0.17 µM and rapidly induced cell death at a concentration of 2 µM. Minnamide A induced the copper-mediated accumulation of reactive oxygen species.