Feasibility and Safety of Intraoperative Optical Coherence Tomography-Guided Short-Term Posturing Prescription after Macular Hole Surgery.

PURPOSE: To assess closure rate and visual outcome of a court of patients with macular hole (MH) who underwent surgical repair with intraoperative optical coherence tomography (iOCT)-confirmed MH closure and short-term postoperative face-down posturing (FDP). Secondary aim was to assess the correlation between iOCT and postoperative OCT at day 1. METHODS: Retrospective clinical study conducted in the Miulli Hospital Acquaviva delle Fonti (Italy), enrolling patients with idiopathic MH who underwent 25-G pars plana vitrectomy plus internal limiting membrane peeling. During surgery, closure of MH was confirmed by iOCT and short-term FDP (12-24 h, until day-1 visit) was prescribed. All patients had measurement of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and spectral domain-OCT before the surgery and during follow-up (at 1 day, 1 month, 3 months). RESULTS: Twenty-nine eyes of 29 patients (14 males, 62.1%) were enrolled in the study. MH mean size was 451.7 ± 139.7 µm and baseline BCVA was 0.77 ± 0.26 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR). MH was confirmed to be closed in 100% of patients intraoperatively (iOCT) and at OCT during early follow-up (1-3 days). Mean time of FDP was 18 ± 2.6 h. At 3 months, MH closure rate was 93%; 2 eyes -underwent secondary MH repair surgery. Final BCVA was 0.39 ± 0.22 LogMAR (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: iOCT-based confirmation of MH closure could be a safe and useful tool for prescribing short-term FDP after surgery, with high closure rate and no additional complication. The execution of an OCT in the immediate postoperative days could be potentially unnecessary.

PROGRESSION OF RETINAL ISCHEMIA IN A CASE OF MACULAR TELANGIECTASIA TYPE 1 AFTER RANIBIZUMAB INJECTION: OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY FINDINGS.

PURPOSE: To describe a case of a 68-year-old man with macular telangiectasia (MacTel) Type 1 in the right eye, showing an increase in capillary ischemia after intravitreal ranibizumab. METHODS: The patient underwent complete ophthalmologic evaluation, including best-corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure, anterior segment and fundus examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and OCT angiography at baseline and on each visit. Fluorescein angiography was performed at baseline. The patient was followed up on monthly bases for 22 months. RESULTS: The patient presented a best-corrected visual acuity of 20/80 in the right eye and of 20/25 in the left eye at baseline. In the right eye, the fluorescein angiography images showed perifoveal capillary ectasia, late-frames dye leakage, and enlargement of the foveal avascular zone. The OCT showed intraretinal pseudocysts and microaneurysms, and the OCT angiography showed vascular rarefaction, capillary dropout, and capillary ectasia of the superficial plexus. After 16 months of follow-up and four ranibizumab injections, the best-corrected visual acuity was 20/60, and the OCT angiography disclosed a further enlargement of the foveal avascular zone area and increased capillary obliteration in the perifoveal nasal area. CONCLUSION: Optical coherence tomography angiography may represent an indispensable diagnostic technique, complementary to traditional imaging, in the evaluation of the effects of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy in patients with MacTel Type 1.

Panretinal Photocoagulation Does Not Change Macular Perfusion in Eyes With Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To quantify and compare the vessel density (VD) in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and the deep capillary plexus (DCP), as well as the size of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) before and after panretinal photocoagulation (PRP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: This prospective clinical study was conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology, Miulli Hospital Acquaviva delle Fonti, Italy. Each patient underwent measurement of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), fluorescein angiography, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), and OCT angiography (OCTA) at baseline. Patients received PRP within 7 days from baseline, using frequency-doubled Nd:YAG pattern scan laser. BCVA and OCTA were repeated at 1 month and at 6 months. Repeated measure one-way analysis of variance was used to investigate differences between OCTA parameters before and after PRP. RESULTS: Eighteen eyes of 14 patients with diabetes (11 males, 78.6%) were enrolled. Patients underwent a mean of four laser treatments. BCVA was slightly worse at baseline (0.30 ± 0.20) compared to the visual function after 6 months (0.25 ± 0.24; P = .3). FAZ (0.33 ± 0.19 mm2 vs. 0.33 ± 0.16 mm2; P = .6), foveal SCP (16.4 ± 8.0 vs. 16.5 ± 6.5; P = .4), foveal DCP (28.5 ± 8.6 vs. 28.2 ± 8.1; P = .8), parafoveal SCP (38.4 ± 5.7 vs. 38.6 ± 4.5; P = .9), and parafoveal DCP (46.1 ± 5.2 vs. 43.8 ± 5.1; P = .3) did not change 6 months after PRP. CONCLUSIONS: OCTA parameters were not significantly affected by peripheral laser treatment at both short- (1-month) and medium- / long-term (6-month) follow-up. Further analysis with larger samples and longer duration is warranted to confirm these results. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2019;50:174-178.].

Extracranial Internal Carotid Artery Aneurysm in a Patient with Marfan Syndrome.

Extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysms are rare and most of them are considered of atherosclerotic etiology. Marfan syndrome (MS) is a systemic connective tissue disorder caused by mutation in the extracellular matrix protein fibrillin 1. Clinical manifestations of the MS include aortic aneurysms, dislocation of the ocular lens, and long bone overgrowth. The presence of extracranial ICA aneurysm in patients with MS is very rare. We report a 62-year-old female patient with MS presented with an extracranial ICA aneurysm. She was treated with aneurysmectomy and end-to-end anastomosis, with good outcomes. Only 10 cases of patients with MS and extracranial ICA aneurysm have been described in the literature. Clinical presentation, treatment, and outcome of these patients are reviewed and discussed.

Hypoxia inducible factor as a therapeutic target for atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a highly prevalent disease that can significantly increase the risk of major vascular events, such as myocardial or cerebral infarctions. The anoxemia theory states that a disparity between oxygen supply and demand contributes to atherosclerosis. Hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a heterodimeric protein, part of the basic helix-loop-helix family and one of the main regulators of cellular responses in a low­oxygen environment. It plays a key role in the development of atherosclerosis through cell-specific responses, acting on endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and macrophages. Through the upregulation of VEGF, NO, ROS and PDGF, HIF-1 is able to cause endothelial cell dysfunction, proliferation, angiogenesis and inflammation. Activation of the NF-kB pathway in endothelial cells is an important contributor to inflammation and positively feedbacks to HIF-1. HIF-1 also plays a significant role in both the proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells - two important features of atherosclerosis, while the formation of foam cells (lipid-laden macrophages) is also a critical step in atherosclerosis and mediated by HIF-1 through various mechanisms such as dysfunctional efflux pathways in macrophages. Overall, HIF-1 exerts its effect on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis via a variety of molecular and cellular events in the process. In this review article, we examine the effects HIF-1 on vascular cells and macrophages in the development of atherosclerosis, highlighting the environmental cues and signalling pathways that control HIF-1 expression/activation within the vasculature. We will highlight the potential of HIF-1 as a therapeutic target on the disease development.