Ocular complications after cosmetic periocular diode laser application to the eyelids.

A 25-year-old woman underwent diode laser application on the both upper eyelids in the dermatology department of a private hospital to obtain a cosmetic healing of the reddish look on her eyelids without any protective lenses. The patient experienced severe uveitis, atonic pupils, raised intraocular pressure, and increased sensitivity to light in her eyes on the following day of the procedure. Topical steroids and pressure-lowering agents were able to treat the acute uveitis and glaucoma, unfortunately the patient suffered from irreversible atonic and atrophic pupils and photosensitivity. It is recommended that cosmetic laser application on the periocular area should be avoided, and if it is still to be performed, it should be applied cautiously and the patient should be informed of the potential ocular complications.

Evaluation of the effect of fluorescein angiography on retinal vessel diameter: an optical coherence tomography study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of fluorescein angiography on retinal vessel diameter with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 81 eyes of 81 patients who were performed fluorescein angiography (FA) procedure were included. Retinal vessels were examined with the Spectral-domain OCT at baseline and immediately after FA procedure. A cube scan consisting of seven horizontal scans were placed at the inferior border of the disk to include the inferior temporal retinal vessels. Vessels diameters were measured at five measurement points (480-1440 µm inferiorly from the optic disk border). RESULTS: The mean age of the study subjects was 58.02 ± 14.1 years. At baseline, the mean diameter of the retinal artery was 120.16 ± 24.56 µm and of the vein 157.94 ± 32.34 µm at the measurement point of 480 µm, with a gradual decrease to 114.91 ± 25.59 and 152.17 ± 28.17 µm, respectively, at 1440 µm. After FA procedure, the mean diameter of the retinal artery was 122.85 ± 26.35 and of the vein 158.30 ± 32.21 µm at the measurement point of 480 µm, with a gradual decrease to 115.22 ± 22.91 and 151.94 ± 28.93 µm, respectively, at 1440 µm. There were no statistical differences for either of these comparisons at any of the points of both artery and vein measurements. CONCLUSION: There was not any clinically significant change in retinal artery diameter such as a dilatatory response after FA procedure in patients with hypertension, diabetes, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The prevalence of Behçet's disease in a city in Central Anatolia in Turkey.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of Behçet's disease (BD) is much higher in countries along the ancient Silk Route, extending from Japan to Mediterranean countries including Turkey, than in northern Europe and the USA. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of BD in Kayseri, a city in Central Anatolia in Turkey. METHODS: This study investigated cross-sectional prevalences of BD in individuals aged >10 years in Kayseri, Turkey, in two stages. The first stage aimed to identify individuals with recurrent oral ulcers (ROUs) through home visits, and the second stage aimed to further examine those with ROUs for the presence of other BD-related manifestations under hospital conditions. The study was conducted using the criteria defined by the International Study Group for Behçet's Disease. The sample size was determined to be 4697 with an expected sampling error of 5.5 per 10,000, with a 95% confidence interval. A standard questionnaire was administered to a total of 5218 individuals. RESULTS: A history of ROU was recorded in 470 (9.0%) of the 5218 residents, and a previous diagnosis of BD was recorded in nine individuals. The prevalence rate of BD was estimated as 17 cases per 10,000 population in Kayseri, Turkey. CONCLUSIONS: The present study contributes towards estimations of prevalences of BD in Turkey and towards raising public awareness about the disease. It also supports previous studies that have reported the world's highest prevalences of BD in Turkey.

Utilization of artificial neural networks in the diagnosis of optic nerve diseases.

This research is concentrated on the diagnosis of optic nerve disease through the analysis of pattern electroretinography (PERG) signals with the help of artificial neural network (ANN). Multilayer feed forward ANN trained with a Levenberg Marquart (LM) backpropagation algorithm was implemented. The designed classification structure has about 96.4% sensitivity, 90.4% specifity and positive prediction is calculated to be 94.2%. The end results are classified as healthy and diseased. Testing results were found to be compliant with the expected results that are derived from the physician's direct diagnosis. The end benefit would be to assist the physician to make the final decision without hesitation.

Experimental posterior perforating ocular injury in rabbit eyes: effects of radiotherapy with or without intravitreal cyclosporin on vitreous proliferation.

Double perforating ocular injuries were made in 30 rabbits and the effects of radiotherapy (RT) alone or in combination with cyclosporin (CS) on vitreous proliferation investigated. Thirteen rabbits in group 1 received RT alone (600 cGy), and 13 rabbits in group 2 received RT combined with 100 microg of intravitreal CS. No treatment was given to 4 rabbits in the control group (group 3). All animals were ophthalmologically examined on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th and 28th days following the injury and the clinical findings scored; they were sacrificed on the 28th day, and histopathological scoring was made. The median histopathological score of the RT group (4.0; range: 0-8) was significantly higher than that of the CS + RT group (1.0; range: 0-5; p = 0.018). We conclude that intravitreal CS may be used as an adjunctive agent to RT to inhibit intraocular proliferation following penetrating ocular injury in rabbits.

Serum paraoxonase 1 activity and lipid peroxidation levels in patients with age-related macular degeneration.

Our objective was to investigate antioxidant paraoxonase 1 (PON1) activity together with malondialdehyde (MDA) levels to evaluate oxidative stress in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an important cause of blindness in the elderly population. Serum PON1 activity and MDA levels were analyzed in 37 patients with AMD and compared with 29 healthy controls using a spectrophotometric method. Serum MDA levels were significantly higher in the patient group (2.76 +/- 1.28 nmol/ml) than controls (1.00 +/- 0.36 nmol/ml; p < 0.001), whereas PON1 activity was lower in the patient group (132.27 +/- 63.39 U/l) than controls (312.13 +/- 136.23 U/l; p < 0.001). There was a negative correlation between MDA and PON1 levels (r = -0.470, p < 0.001). We conclude that the observed increase in MDA levels may be related to decreased PON1 activity; the present data also demonstrated that an obvious negative correlation between PON1 activity and MDA levels exists in patients with AMD. PON1 is also an antioxidant agent, therefore effective antioxidant therapy to inhibit lipid peroxidation is necessary and agents to increase PON1 activity may be a therapeutic option in AMD.

Plasma homocysteine and retinal artery occlusive disease: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have documented that elevated plasma homocysteine is a risk factor for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and peripheral vascular disease. In a case-control study, we sought to determine whether elevated homocysteine (HCY) is a risk factor for retinal artery occlusive disease PATIENTS AND METHODS. Study subjects consisted of 20 patients (12 male, 8 female) (mean age, 55.8; range 42-70 years) with clinical and objective evidence of retinal vascular occlusive disease and 20 age-matched control subjects (9 males, 11 females) (mean age, 55.3 years; range 50-68 years). Hyperhomocysteinemia was defined as a plasma HCY level >15 micromol/L by HPLC. We also measured concentrations of triglycerides, and total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol. RESULTS: The mean plasma HCY level in the patient group was 21.23+/-9.53 micromol/L (range, 8.00-43.99 micromol/L) compared with 12.59+/-4.97 micromol/L (range, 6.38 to 22.88 micromol/L) in the control group (P<0.008). There was no correlation between HCY and serum triglycerides or cholesterol levels within each group. We conclude that high plasma HCY level may be a risk factor for retinal artery occlusive disease.

Determination of nontoxic concentrations of piperacillin/tazobactam for intravitreal application. An electroretinographic, histopathologic and morphometric analysis.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the highest nontoxic intravitreal dose of piperacillin/tazobactam in rabbits. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty New Zealand white albino rabbits were used in this study. The rabbits were divided into four equal groups (10 rabbits in each) and the right eyes were treated with 0.1 ml intravitreal injections of 1,000 microg piperacillin/tazobactam in group 1, 500 microg in group 2, 250 microg in group 3, and 100 microg in group 4. The left eyes served as controls and were injected with 0.1 ml of saline solution. Ganzfeld electroretinogram (ERG) was performed on all eyes before and after 4 weeks of intravitreal injections. Then, the rabbits were killed and the eyes were enucleated for histopathological evaluation of the retina. Retinal sections were evaluated by morphometric analyses on cell counts of ganglion cell layer and thickness of the various retinal layers. RESULTS: Baseline ERGs were similar among the groups (p > 0.05). After 4 weeks of injection, there were a reduction of the b-wave amplitude and extension of the b-wave implicit time in photopic and scotopic ERGs in group 1 and group 2 when compared with controls (for each, p < 0.001). Intravitreal injection of 100 and 250 microg piperacillin/tazobactam did not cause any deterioration of the b-wave of ERGs throughout the follow-up period of 4 weeks (for each, p > 0.05). After morphometric analysis of retinal sections in all groups, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean number of surviving ganglion cells, thickness of the whole retina and the inner plexiform layer compared with controls (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: 250 microg/0.1 ml piperacillin/tazobactam is the highest nontoxic dose to the normal retinas of adult albino rabbits as intravitreal injection. Piperacillin/tazobactam may be a new, potentially important drug in the treatment of endophthalmitis as it has a broad antimicrobial spectrum.