Clinical Features of Pingueculitis Revealed by Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography Findings.

PURPOSE: To investigate clinical features and treatment outcomes of pingueculitis with morphological assessments using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT). METHODS: In this retrospective observational study, we examined 22 eyes of 22 patients with pingueculitis. All patients were treated with the same 2-week course of prednisolone acetate 1% drops four times per day. The clinical parameters evaluated were surface dimensions determined by slitlamp biomicroscopy, cross-sectional dimensions determined by AS-OCT, and symptom scores determined by patient surveys. Pretreatment and 1-month posttreatment values were compared with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Patients were followed up to 1 year after treatment. RESULTS: Twenty-two eyes from 22 patients (4 men and 18 women) with an average age of 37.7±8.8 (range, 27-57) years and an average duration of symptoms of 22 (range, 5-60) days were included. The average follow-up period was 14.7±0.8 (range, 12-22) months. Mean pretreatment horizontal length, vertical length, conjunctival thickness, and cross-sectional area were 2.4±0.69 mm, 2.0±0.6 mm, 1.82±0.60 µm, and 5.14±2.05 mm, respectively. Mean posttreatment horizontal length, vertical length, conjunctival thickness, and area were 1.93±0.5 mm, 1.52±0.6 mm, 1.03±0.46 µm, and 2.33±0.83 mm, respectively. Mean pretreatment and posttreatment dry eye symptom scores were 3.27±0.77 and 1.13±0.38, respectively. The median pretreatment and posttreatment changes were statistically significant by Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for horizontal length (P<0.001), vertical length (P<0.001), conjunctival thickness (P=0.003), cross-sectional area (P=0.003), and dry eye symptom scores (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Anterior segment optical coherence tomography allows the quantification of differences in the pingueculitis measurements before and after treatment. In this retrospective study, a short course of topical steroids effectively treated the inflammation in a sustained manner. Anterior segment optical coherence tomography demonstrated significant reduction in the thickness and cross-sectional area of the pinguecula and a conversion back to a homogeneous conjunctival stroma.

Cyclosporine 0.1% (Ikervis®) treatment in steroid-dependent dupilumab-associated conjunctivitis. / Tratamiento con ciclosporina al 0,1% (Ikervis®) en conjuntivitis corticodependiente asociada a dupilumab.

Dupilumab is a drug that has recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medical Agency (EMA) for the treatment of moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis in adults. An increase in frequency of conjunctivitis related to dupilumab treatment has been reported in recent publications and clinical trials. We report two steroid-dependent cases satisfactorily treated with cyclosporine 0.1% (Ikervis®). To our knowledge there are no reported cases of dupilumab-associated conjunctivitis treated with cyclosporine 0.1% (Ikervis®).

A new scale for the assessment of conjunctival bulbar redness.

PURPOSE: Current scales for assessment of bulbar conjunctival redness have limitations for evaluating digital images. We developed a scale suited for evaluating digital images and compared it to the Validated Bulbar Redness (VBR) scale. METHODS: From a digital image database of 4889 color corrected bulbar conjunctival images, we identified 20 images with varied degrees of redness. These images, ten each of nasal and temporal views, constitute the Digital Bulbar Redness (DBR) scale. The chromaticity of these images was assessed with an established image processing algorithm. Using 100 unique, randomly selected images from the database, three trained, non-physician graders applied the DBR scale and printed VBR scale. Agreement was assessed with weighted Kappa statistics (Kw). RESULTS: The DBR scale scores provide linear increments of 10 from 10-100 when redness is measured objectively with an established image processing algorithm. Exact agreement of all graders was 38% and agreement with no more than a difference of ten units between graders was 91%. Kw for agreement between any two graders ranged from 0.57 to 0.73 for the DBR scale and from 0.38 to 0.66 for the VBR scale. The DBR scale allowed direct comparison of digital to digital images, could be used in dim lighting, had both temporal and nasal conjunctival reference images, and permitted viewing reference and test images at the same magnification. CONCLUSION: The novel DBR scale, with its objective linear chromatic steps, demonstrated improved reproducibility, fewer visualization artifacts and improved ease of use over the VBR scale for assessing conjunctival redness.

[Use of high-frequency ultrasound for foreign body imaging in chronic conjunctivitis due to microtrauma]. / Fremdkörpernachweis mittels Hochfrequenzsonografie bei chronischer Konjunktivitis durch Mikrotrauma.

Conjunctivitis is a frequent disease mostly caused by infections. In the case of a single-sided manifestation and additional resistance to anti-infective therapy a widespread differential diagnosis has to be considered. The case report of a 41-year-old patient suffering from unilateral persistent conjunctivitis is presented. Initially, there was no biomicroscopic evidence for a penetrated ocular foreign body. The unilateral, chronic and sectoral conjunctivitis was resistant to topical application of antibiotics and steroids. After repeated in-depth anamnesis the patient recalled an inconsiderable trauma while he was working on a building site. High-frequency ultrasound was used to locate an intrascleral foreign body 3 mm behind the limbus corneae while slit lamp biomicroscopy and ophthalmoscopy failed to detect the foreign material. The precise localisation provided by the 20-MHz sector scanner optimised the management of operative intervention and consequently led to an uncomplicated extraction of the bulbar foreign body.

[Ultrasonic diagnosis of intrauterine fetal infection in pregnancy of a high-risk group]. / Ul'trazvukovaia diagnostika u beremennykh gruppy riska po vnutriutrobnomu infitsirovaniiu.

Ultrasonic scanning of 315 pregnant patients with infectious inflammatory diseases and 200 healthy pregnant women has demonstrated the echographic markers of intrauterine fetal infection: hydramnios, the presence of meconium in amniotic fluid, untimely maturation and signs of infectious involvement of the fetus, increased size of fetal abdomen as against the reference values after 35 weeks gestation. Twenty-six of the 37 mothers of the newborns with pyoseptic diseases had presented with at least three of these signs. Ultrasonic scanning is recommended for antenatal diagnosis of intrauterine infection as an objective method.

Quantification of ocular inflammation with technetium-99m glucoheptonate.

Histological and morphometric evaluation of ocular inflammation is difficult, particularly when there is extensive ocular involvement with abscess formation and necrosis. A quantitative imaging procedure applicable to humans would be important clinically. To establish such a procedure, turpentine-induced ocular inflammation was obtained by subconjunctival injection in the right eye of 55 rabbits. The left eye was used as control and injected with a volume of saline equal to the volume of turpentine in the right eye. Volumes of turpentine or saline were 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.2 and 0.6 ml, and the rabbits were divided into groups 1-5, according to these volumes. Imaging was performed 48 h after turpentine injection and 6 h after intravenous injection of 10 mCi of technetium-99m glucoheptonate (99mTc-GH). An inflammatory reaction index (IRI), defined as the ratio of counts of the right eye divided by counts of the left eye, was used. IRIs were proportional to the degree of inflammation and allowed the distinction of 3 subgroups: one represented by group 4, one by group 5 and one by groups 1, 2 and 3. This method of quantification of ocular inflammatory processes using 99mTc-GH is original, rapid, non-invasive, reproducible and safe, although unable to differentiate inflammatory processes caused by doses of turpentine which are very small and close to each other. It is conceivable that its application to humans will bring new insight into the ocular inflammatory process and response to therapy.

[Involvement of the eyes in yersiniosis]. / Porazhenia glaz pri iersiniosise.

The results of clinical examinations of 15 patients with yersiniasis are analyzed. Besides the involvement of the anterior segment of the eye, known before, the authors have detected for the first time 3 cases of the fundus oculi involvement; the impairments resemble multiplaquoid epitheliopathy. The clinical description is supplied with fluorescent angiograms. Yersiniasis is regarded as a possible etiologic factor responsible for multiplaquoid epitheliopathy; this extends the scope of our knowledge on the etiological structure of the fundus oculi impairments.