Patterns of Macular Edema in Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion Diagnosed by Optical Coherence Tomography.

INTRODUCTION: Branch Retinal vein occlusion is the most common retinal vascular disease after diabetic retinopathy in elderly populations. OBJECTIVES: To describe morphological patterns of macular edema in branch retinal vein occlusion using optical coherence tomography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It is a hospital based; descriptive, cross-sectional study. All patients with macular edema secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion diagnosed by optical coherence tomography and fulfilling the inclusion criteria from 2017 July 1 to 2018 July 1 were studied. RESULTS: A total of 84 eyes of 84 patients were enrolled. The mean age of the patient was 68.0833 ± 11.22 years (range, 35-74 years). Forty-five (53.57%) were male. Forty-four eyes had right eye involvement. Major and macular branch retinal vein occlusion was found in 50 and 34 eyes respectively. Forty eight eyes had superior and 36 eyes had inferior branch retinal vein occlusion. Morphological patterns of macular edema were classified: cystoid macular edema, cystoid macular edema with serous retinal detachment, diffuse macular edema and diffuse macular edema with serous retinal detachment of which 68 (80.95%) had cystoid macular edema. Out of 84 eyes, 30 (35.71%) had inner and outer segment (IS/OS) junction disruption. CONCLUSION: Optical coherence tomography is a safe and noninvasive technique. Serous retinal detachment and photoreceptors disruption may go unnoticed unless OCT is performed. It can measure the changes in retinal thickness and thus predict the visual outcomes in patients with macular edema.

Evaluation of an Artificial Intelligence System for Retinopathy of Prematurity Screening in Nepal and Mongolia.

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of a deep learning (DL) algorithm for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening in Nepal and Mongolia. Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected clinical data. Participants: Clinical information and fundus images were obtained from infants in 2 ROP screening programs in Nepal and Mongolia. Methods: Fundus images were obtained using the Forus 3nethra neo (Forus Health) in Nepal and the RetCam Portable (Natus Medical, Inc.) in Mongolia. The overall severity of ROP was determined from the medical record using the International Classification of ROP (ICROP). The presence of plus disease was determined independently in each image using a reference standard diagnosis. The Imaging and Informatics for ROP (i-ROP) DL algorithm was trained on images from the RetCam to classify plus disease and to assign a vascular severity score (VSS) from 1 through 9. Main Outcome Measures: Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the precision-recall curve for the presence of plus disease or type 1 ROP and association between VSS and ICROP disease category. Results: The prevalence of type 1 ROP was found to be higher in Mongolia (14.0%) than in Nepal (2.2%; P < 0.001) in these data sets. In Mongolia (RetCam images), the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for examination-level plus disease detection was 0.968, and the area under the precision-recall curve was 0.823. In Nepal (Forus images), these values were 0.999 and 0.993, respectively. The ROP VSS was associated with ICROP classification in both datasets (P < 0.001). At the population level, the median VSS was found to be higher in Mongolia (2.7; interquartile range [IQR], 1.3-5.4]) as compared with Nepal (1.9; IQR, 1.2-3.4; P < 0.001). Conclusions: These data provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the i-ROP DL algorithm for ROP screening in neonatal populations in Nepal and Mongolia using multiple camera systems and are useful for consideration in future clinical implementation of artificial intelligence-based ROP screening in low- and middle-income countries.

External Validation of a Retinopathy of Prematurity Screening Model Using Artificial Intelligence in 3 Low- and Middle-Income Populations.

Importance: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of preventable blindness that disproportionately affects children born in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In-person and telemedical screening examinations can reduce this risk but are challenging to implement in LMICs owing to the multitude of at-risk infants and lack of trained ophthalmologists. Objective: To implement an ROP risk model using retinal images from a single baseline examination to identify infants who will develop treatment-requiring (TR)-ROP in LMIC telemedicine programs. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this diagnostic study conducted from February 1, 2019, to June 30, 2021, retinal fundus images were collected from infants as part of an Indian ROP telemedicine screening program. An artificial intelligence (AI)-derived vascular severity score (VSS) was obtained from images from the first examination after 30 weeks' postmenstrual age. Using 5-fold cross-validation, logistic regression models were trained on 2 variables (gestational age and VSS) for prediction of TR-ROP. The model was externally validated on test data sets from India, Nepal, and Mongolia. Data were analyzed from October 20, 2021, to April 20, 2022. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary outcome measures included sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for predictions of future occurrences of TR-ROP; the number of weeks before clinical diagnosis when a prediction was made; and the potential reduction in number of examinations required. Results: A total of 3760 infants (median [IQR] postmenstrual age, 37 [5] weeks; 1950 male infants [51.9%]) were included in the study. The diagnostic model had a sensitivity and specificity, respectively, for each of the data sets as follows: India, 100.0% (95% CI, 87.2%-100.0%) and 63.3% (95% CI, 59.7%-66.8%); Nepal, 100.0% (95% CI, 54.1%-100.0%) and 77.8% (95% CI, 72.9%-82.2%); and Mongolia, 100.0% (95% CI, 93.3%-100.0%) and 45.8% (95% CI, 39.7%-52.1%). With the AI model, infants with TR-ROP were identified a median (IQR) of 2.0 (0-11) weeks before TR-ROP diagnosis in India, 0.5 (0-2.0) weeks before TR-ROP diagnosis in Nepal, and 0 (0-5.0) weeks before TR-ROP diagnosis in Mongolia. If low-risk infants were never screened again, the population could be effectively screened with 45.0% (India, 664/1476), 38.4% (Nepal, 151/393), and 51.3% (Mongolia, 266/519) fewer examinations required. Conclusions and Relevance: Results of this diagnostic study suggest that there were 2 advantages to implementation of this risk model: (1) the number of examinations for low-risk infants could be reduced without missing cases of TR-ROP, and (2) high-risk infants could be identified and closely monitored before development of TR-ROP.

Validation of smartphone-based screening for retinopathy of prematurity in a low-resource setting.

PURPOSE: To study the validity of smartphone-based screening to detect moderate-to-severe levels of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in a low-resource setting. METHODS: In this observational validation study, all new patients at a single center who met screening criteria for ROP (birth weight of ≤1700 g and gestational age of ≤35 weeks) were examined by a pediatric ophthalmologist using indirect ophthalmoscopy. At the first ROP examination, a trained photographer captured fundus images using a smartphone fitted on an adapter, the Paxos Scope. The photographs were graded by two retina specialists masked to results of the gold standard examination. RESULTS: A total of 100 children (200 eyes) were included. ROP was detected in 27.4% by indirect ophthalmoscopy, 16% of whom had moderate-to-severe ROP, defined as stage 3 in zone I or II, stage 2 in zone I or II, or pre-plus or plus disease. Sensitivity of fundus images reviewed by grader 1 against the gold standard in detecting moderate-to-severe ROP was 87.5%, and specificity was 82.1%. The positive predictive value was 48.3 %; the negative predictive value, 97.2%. The sensitivity of fundus images reviewed by grader 2 was 87.5%; the specificity, 81.6%. Positive predictive value was 47.5%; negative predictive value, 97.2%. The measured κ coefficient for intergrader agreement was 0.94. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is one of the few studies on smartphone-based telescreening for ROP. The results suggest that smartphones may have potential as a screening tool for ROP in low-resource settings.

Deep Learning for the Diagnosis of Stage in Retinopathy of Prematurity: Accuracy and Generalizability across Populations and Cameras.

PURPOSE: Stage is an important feature to identify in retinal images of infants at risk of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The purpose of this study was to implement a convolutional neural network (CNN) for binary detection of stages 1, 2, and 3 in ROP and to evaluate its generalizability across different populations and camera systems. DESIGN: Diagnostic validation study of CNN for stage detection. PARTICIPANTS: Retinal fundus images obtained from preterm infants during routine ROP screenings. METHODS: Two datasets were used: 5943 fundus images obtained by RetCam camera (Natus Medical, Pleasanton, CA) from 9 North American institutions and 5049 images obtained by 3nethra camera (Forus Health Incorporated, Bengaluru, India) from 4 hospitals in Nepal. Images were labeled based on the presence of stage by 1 to 3 expert graders. Three CNN models were trained using 5-fold cross-validation on datasets from North America alone, Nepal alone, and a combined dataset and were evaluated on 2 held-out test sets consisting of 708 and 247 images from the Nepali and North American datasets, respectively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Convolutional neural network performance was evaluated using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC), sensitivity, and specificity. RESULTS: Both the North American- and Nepali-trained models demonstrated high performance on a test set from the same population: AUROC, 0.99; AUPRC, 0.98; sensitivity, 94%; and AUROC, 0.97; AUPRC, 0.91; and sensitivity, 73%; respectively. However, the performance of each model decreased to AUROC of 0.96 and AUPRC of 0.88 (sensitivity, 52%) and AUROC of 0.62 and AUPRC of 0.36 (sensitivity, 44%) when evaluated on a test set from the other population. Compared with the models trained on individual datasets, the model trained on a combined dataset achieved improved performance on each respective test set: sensitivity improved from 94% to 98% on the North American test set and from 73% to 82% on the Nepali test set. CONCLUSIONS: A CNN can identify accurately the presence of ROP stage in retinal images, but performance depends on the similarity between training and testing populations. We demonstrated that internal and external performance can be improved by increasing the heterogeneity of the training dataset features of the training dataset, in this case by combining images from different populations and cameras.

Agreement and Diagnostic Test Accuracy on Grading Diabetic Retinopathy Using Fundus Photographs by Allied Medical Personnel at a Community Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Program in Nepal.

Purpose: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness in low- and middle-income countries. This study aims to assess the agreement and diagnostic test accuracy of DR grading using fundus photographs by the allied medical personnel (AMP) as compared to ophthalmologist at DR screening program.Methods: Two 45 degree disc-centred and macula centred fundus photographs captured using digital fundus camera from 1344 eyes were graded by six AMP twice at three months and six months of training. DR grading was done using Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study criteria. Retina specialist grading was taken as the reference standard. Percentage agreement using kappa coefficient (k) and diagnostic test accuracy were assessed.Results: Intra-rater agreement of most AMP was almost perfect for detection of any DR and vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR) at three and six months. Inter-rater agreement at 3 months at second grading was substantial for any DR (k = 0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.67-0.68) and VTDR (k = 0.63; 95% CI: 0.47-0.75). Inter-rater agreement in 6 months at second grading was also substantial for any DR (k = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.61-0.71) and VTDR (k = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.52-0.75). The sensitivity and specificity for any DR at second grading in 3 months was 94.99% and 63.97% and at 6 months was 95.55% and 66.91%, respectively.Conclusion: The inter-rater agreement of AMP as compared to ophthalmologists for any DR or VTDR was substantial at both 3 and 6 months. AMP can support as first-level DR graders for timely referral and treatment of VTDR.

Trend of Intravitreal Bevacizumab Dispensing Technique in Nepal.

INTRODUCTION: The main purpose of this survey was to find out what technique for bevacizumab injection is practiced by ophthalmologists in Nepal and to evaluate which is the best technique of drug dispensing and what possible hindrances are there in following it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was an online survey using google forms. RESULTS: There were a total of 34 participants in the survey. Most of the participants (58.8%) followed the same vial, multiple prick, multiple days method for giving intravitreal bevacizumab.. Majority of participants said they thought that aliquoting the drug and using it same day would be the best technique to prevent post injection endophthalmitis. Cost and unsuitability for small hospitals were the main factor preventing surgeons from practicing the best method. CONCLUSION: Risk of endophthalmitis can be reduced by following proper drug dispensing techniques. Aliquoting bevacizumab in smaller syringes under aseptic conditions can reduce the risk of endophthalmitis.

Agreement on Grading Retinal Findings of Patients with Diabetes Using Fundus Photographs by Allied Medical Personnel when Compared to an Ophthalmologist at a Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Program in Nepal.

INTRODUCTION: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the emerging cause of blindness in developing countries. This study aimed to assess the accuracy of grading retinal findings of patients with diabetes using fundus photographs by allied medical personnel (AMP) when compared to an ophthalmologist. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six AMPs were enrolled for grading fundus photographs of patients with diabetes after three and six months of training twice at two weeks interval. The total number of fundus photographs graded were 1,344. Grading by a retina specialist was used as the gold standard. Intra-rater and inter-rater agreement was assessed using the kappa coefficient (k). RESULTS: The intra-rater agreement of half of the AMPs in both three months and six months was almost perfect for grading of any retinal abnormalities, and substantial for retinal hemorrhages. In three months, the overall inter-rater agreement at the second rating was moderate for any retinal abnormalities (k=0.60) and retinal hemorrhage (k=0.48) and was fair for macular exudates (k=0.35). The overall inter-rater agreement of AMPs in six months at the second rating was substantial for any retinal abnormalities (k=0.61), fair for retinal hemorrhage (k=0.30), and moderate for macular exudates (k=0.49). The overall inter-rater agreement at first rating was almost similar to the second rating in both three months and six months. CONCLUSION: Intra-rater agreement of AMPs was almost perfect for any retinal abnormalities and substantial for retinal hemorrhage. The inter-rater agreement of AMP was substantial for any retinal abnormalities and moderate for retinal hemorrhages and macular exudates. The agreement results were almost similar at three months and six months. AMPs could be utilized in screening of DR and other retinal pathologies for timely referral to reduce the blindness in low-resource settings.

Inherited Macular Dystrophies in a Tertiary Care Centre.

BACKGROUND: Inherited macular dystrophies constitute a group of diseases characterized by bilateral central visual loss with symmetrical macular abnormalities usually presenting in the first two decades of life. The aim of this study were to find out the demographic characteristics and disease pattern of inherited retinal dystrophies in subjects attending retina outpatient department in a tertiary care center. METHODS: An observational study among twenty-six participants diagnosed as macular dystrophy visiting a tertiary care centre in Nepal, during January 2018 to June 2018 were included in the study. Detailed history, slit lamp examination, dilated fundus examination, coloured fundus photography, full field electroretinogram, multifocal electroretinogram, automated visual field and colour vision were done. RESULTS: A total of 52 eyes of 26 subjects were diagnosed with macular dystrophy. The male to female ratio was 1:1. The mean age of presentation was 28.38 years. Most common symptom was blurring of vision seen in 96.15%.The mean visual acuity was 0.67 log mar units in right eye and 0.71 log mar units in the left eye. The most common macular dystrophy was cone dystrophy followed by adult vitelliform macular dystrophy and Stargardts dystrophy. CONCLUSIONS: Cone dystrophy is the most common followed by Stargardt's disease and adult vitelliform macular dystrophy. Most presented in the first two decades of life and the most common presenting symptom was blurring of vision.

A Study on Pattern of Retinal Detachment in Patients with Choroidal Coloboma and Its Outcome after Surgery at a Tertiary Eye Hospital in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: To review the pattern of retinal detachment (RD) in patients with choroidal coloboma and type of reattachment surgery performed and to study its outcome in terms of retinal reattachment, visual acuity, and postsurgical complications. METHODS: Observational case series of a single tertiary eye institution of 13 eyes having choroidal coloboma with RD done from January 2015 to June 2017. RESULTS: Mean age of presentation was 29.3 years (Range 14-60 years). Males were two times more affected than females (2.25 : 1). The overall rate of anatomic success achieved after RD repair and silicon oil removal at 6 months was 92.3% (12/13 eyes). Following surgery, visual acuity improved in 6 out of 11 eyes (54.54%), remained unchanged in 4 eyes (36.36%), and worsened in 1 eye (9.1%). The most common complication following surgery was secondary glaucoma in 30.7% (4/11 eyes). CONCLUSION: The overall anatomic success rate of retina reattachment surgery in colobomatous eye is good, and the visual outcome following surgery can improve in majority of the cases or may remain same in few cases. Hence, timely surgery is advocated. But careful follow-up is required as the risk of postoperative complications is also high.

Prevalence and causes of low vision and blindness in an elderly population in Nepal: the Bhaktapur retina study.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore the prevalence and causes of low vision and blindness focused on retinal disease in a population above 60 years in Nepal. METHODS: Two thousand one hundred subjects were enrolled in a population-based cross-sectional study. History, presenting and best corrected visual acuity after subjective refraction, anterior and posterior segment examinations was obtained in detail. RESULTS: Among the total subjects, 1860 (88.57%) had complete information. Age varies from 60 to 95 (mean age: 69.64 ± 7.31) years. Low vision and blindness in both eyes at presentation was found in 984 (52.90%, 95% confidence interval (CI): 50.60-55.19) and 36 (1.94%, 95% CI: 1.35-2.66) subjects respectively. After best correction, bilateral low vision and blindness was found in 426 (22.92%, 95% CI: 21.01-24.88), and 30 (1.61%, 95% CI: 0.10-2.30) subjects respectively. As compared to 60-69 years old, risk of visual impairment was four times higher (95% CI:3.26-5.58) in the 70-79 year olds and 14 times higher (95% CI: 9.72-19.73) in the age group 80 years and above. Major causes of bilateral low vision were cataract (68.07%), followed by retinal disorders (28.64%), and for blindness; retinal disorders (46.66%), followed by cataract (43.33%). Illiteracy was significantly associated with visual impairment. CONCLUSION: Among the elderly population, prevalence of visual impairment was high. Refractive error, cataract and retinal disorders were the major cause of low vision. Screening the population at the age 60 years and above, focused on cataract and posterior segment diseases, providing glasses and timely referral can help reduce visual impairment.

Clinical characteristics and visual outcome, prognostic factor, visual acuity and globe survival in posterior segment intraocular foreign body at Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology.

PURPOSE: To evaluate clinical characteristics, visual outcomes and globe survival after intraocular foreign body removal from posterior segment via pars plana approach. METHODS: A hospital based retrospective study. All the patients of penetrating eye injury with intraocular foreign body in posterior segment as detected by computed tomography were enrolled from 2012 to 2014. RESULTS: Thirty patients of 30 eyes were included. The mean age was 27.7 years. (2-52). Twenty-four (80%) were male. Out of 30 eyes 19 (63.3%) eyes had injury at Zone 1 and 11 (36.7%) eyes had injury at Zone 2. The mean time spent between primary repair following surgery and intra ocular foreign body removal, was 15.47 days. Retinal detachment and endophthalmitis prior to intraocular foreign body removal was present in 9/30 of eyes. We looked for correlation between post operative Phthisis bulbi with zone of injury and pre operative endophthalmitis and preoperative retinal detachment. However, p value for the above correlation was more than 0.552 and 0.815 respectively, which was statistically not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The eyes with posterior segment intraocular foreign bodies showing clinical features of preoperative endophthalmitis, retinal detachment and the zone of injury also did not have any direct significance with globe survival.

Acute Endophthalmitis after Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injections at The Tertiary Centre in Nepal.

INTRODUCTION: There are many reports of endophthalmitis following Anti- VEG F use in developed countries and from India, but there are none from Nepal yet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to report the prevalence and management of acute endophthalmitis after intravitreal injection of bevacizumab. METHODS: This is a clinical, retrospective, non-comparative study, performed in Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, Kathmandu, Nepal from Jan 2015 till Dec 2016. All consecutive cases of intravitreal 1.25 mg of bevacizumab injections during the study period were collected from Bevacizumab registry of the operation theatre. A total number of endophthalmitis, following intravitreal bevacizumab injections were collected from Endophthalmitis registry. The statistical analysis was carried out by SPSS for percentage calculation and its 95% Confidence Interval (CI) calculation. RESULTS: There were 4182 injections performed during the study period for various retinal conditions. Two eyes of two patients with acute postoperative endophthalmitis were identified in the first week following intravitreal injections of 1.25 mg bevacizumab among a total of 4128 injections with a prevalence of 0.048% (95% CI: 0.00 to 0.12.). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of acute endophthalmitis following intravitreal Bevacizumab in our retrospective series was 0.048% and was comparable with the other studies conducted elsewhere. Acute post-injection endophthalmitis following intravitreal bevacizumab can result in severe loss of vision. Therefore prompt recognition and treatment are important part of its management in such patients.

Agreement on diabetic retinopathy grading in fundus photographs by allied ophthalmic personnel as compared to ophthalmologist at a community setting in Nepal.

INTRODUCTION: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the emerging cause of blindness in the developing world. Timely detection of DR could save vision from its avoidable blinding condition. OBJECTIVE: To assess the accuracy of DR grading in fundus photographs by the allied ophthalmic personnel (AOP) as compared to ophthalmologist at a community setting in Nepal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fundus photographs of known diabetes subjects attending for DR screening were graded by two groups of AOP and ophthalmologist. Agreement for DR grading by the AOP versus ophthalmologist was assessed using kappa coefficient (k). RESULTS: Fundus photographs of 864 eyes of 435 subjects with diabetes were evaluated in the study. The agreement was substantial for detection of normal versus abnormal retina by both the AOP 1 and AOP 2. For normal versus abnormal macula, the agreement was substantial for AOP 1 and moderate for AOP 2. The agreement for grading macular exudates, retinal hemorrhage, venous beading ranged from moderate to substantial for both the AOPs. There was overall substantial agreement for diagnosing cases with or without DR and CSME by both the AOP 1 and AOP 2. The agreement ranged from fair to moderate for diagnosing other stages of NPDR by both the AOPs. CONCLUSION: Allied ophthalmic personnel with training could be a first level DR screener and referral of vision threatening DR. Three out of five diabetics could be managed at community level and thus reduce work load of ophthalmologist. This DR screening modality can be useful in other resource limited countries.

Prevalence, pattern and risk factors of retinal vein occlusion in an elderly population in Nepal: the Bhaktapur retina study.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore the prevalence, pattern and risk factors of retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in an elderly population of Nepal. METHOD: One thousand eight hundred sixty subjects of age 60 years and above were enrolled in a population-based, cross-sectional study. Detailed history, visual acuity, anterior segment and posterior segment examinations were done. Blood pressure, non-fasting blood sugar, body mass index and abdominal girth were measured. Retinal vein occlusions were further divided into branch retinal (BRVO), hemi-retinal and central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). RESULT: Age ranged from 60 to 95 years with a mean of 69.64 ± 7.31 years. Overall population prevalence for RVO was 2.95% (95% Confidence interval (CI): 2.23-3.83), BRVO 2.74% (95% CI: 2.05-3.58) and CRVO 0.21% (95% CI: 0.06-0.55). BRVO was seen in 51 subjects (92.73%) and CRVO in 4 (7.27%). Among the total RVO, unilateral and bilateral involvement was 85.45% and 14.55%, respectively. Among the subjects with BRVO and CRVO, 37.25% and 50% had low vision, respectively. The risk of RVO increased with ageing and was more among males. There was an increased risk of RVO among those with hypertension, and with diabetes and hypertension. There was also an increased risk of RVO among subjects with hypermetropia, those with pseudophakia and those who were smokers and consumed alcohol. CONCLUSION: Retinal vein occlusion is a common retinal vascular disorder in the elderly population of Nepal. The main risk factors for RVO were increasing age and hypertension.

Prevalence of and risk factors for age-related macular degeneration in Nepal: the Bhaktapur Retina Study.

AIM: This study aimed to explore the prevalence of and risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in an elderly population in Nepal. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This is a population-based, cross-sectional study. A sample size of 2,100 was calculated. A total of 1,860 (88.6%) subjects aged >60 years were enrolled for the study from 30 clusters in the district. Detailed history, visual acuity, and anterior segment and posterior segment examinations were performed. AMD was graded according to the International ARM Epidemiological Study Group. RESULTS: Among the total study population, 659 subjects had any AMD (35.43%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 33.25-37.65), 484 had mild dry AMD (26.02%; 95% CI: 24.04-28.08), 143 had intermediate dry AMD (7.69%; 95% CI: 6.52-8.99), 19 had geographic atrophy (1.02%; 95% CI: 0.61-1.59), and 13 had wet AMD (0.70%; 95% CI: 0.37-1.19). The overall prevalence of early and late AMD was 33.71% and 1.72%, respectively. Among subjects with dry and wet AMD, 36.53% and 46.1% had visual impairment, while 2.78% and 23.08% were blind, respectively. In multivariate analysis, AMD was significantly higher in subjects with an increased number of cigarettes smoked per day (odds ratio [OR] 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01-1.04; P=0.007) and in subjects with pseudophakia (OR 1.45, 95% CI: 1.12-1.87; P=0.005). CONCLUSION: One-third of the population aged ≥60 years have some form of AMD. There was a significant association with the number of cigarettes consumed and with previous cataract surgery.

Intra- and inter-rater agreement between an ophthalmologist and mid-level ophthalmic personnel to diagnose retinal diseases based on fundus photographs at a primary eye center in Nepal: the Bhaktapur Retina Study.

BACKGROUND: Early detection can reduce irreversible blindness from retinal diseases. This study aims to assess the intra- and inter-rater agreement of retinal pathologies observed on fundus photographs between an ophthalmologist and two-mid level ophthalmic personnel (MLOPs). METHOD: A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among subjects 60 years and above in the Bhaktapur district of Nepal. Fundus photographs of 500 eyes of 500 subjects were assessed. The macula-centered 45-degree photographs were graded twice by one ophthalmologist and two MLOPs. Intra-rater and inter-rater agreements were assessed for the ophthalmologist and the MLOPs. RESULT: Mean age was 70.22 years ± 6.94 (SD). Retinal pathologies were observed in 55.6 % of photographs (age-related macular degeneration: 34.2 %; diabetic retinopathy: 4.2 %; retinal vein occlusion: 3.8 %). Twelve (2.4 %) fundus pictures were non-gradable. The intra-rater agreement for overall retinal pathologies, retinal hemorrhage, and maculopathy were substantial both for the ophthalmologist as well as for the MLOPs. There was moderate inter-rater agreement between the ophthalmologist and the first MLOP on second rating for overall retinal pathologies, [kappa (k); 95 % CI = 0.59 (0.51-0.66)], retinal hemorrhage [k; 95 % CI = 0.60 (0.41-0.78)], and maculopathy [k; 95 % CI = 0.52 (0.43-0.60)]. Inter-rater agreement between the ophthalmologist and the second MLOP for second rating was moderate for overall retinal pathologies [k; 95 % CI = 0.52 (0.44-0.60)], substantial agreement for retinal hemorrhage [k; 95 % CI = 0. 68 (0.52-0.84)], moderate agreement for maculopathy [k; 95 % CI = 0.59 (0.50-0.67)]. CONCLUSION: There is moderate agreement between the MLOPs and the ophthalmologist in grading fundus photographs for retinal hemorrhages and maculopathy.

Nd:YAG laser hyaloidotomy in the management of Premacular Subhyaloid Hemorrhage.

BACKGROUND: Premacular subhyaloid hemorrhage results in a sudden profound loss of vision. Among the modalities for its treatment, Nd:YAG laser hyaloidotomy is a non invasive method enabling rapid drainage of the obstructed macular area and improved vision within days. This study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy, visual outcome and complications following Nd:YAG laser hyaloidotomy for premacular subhyaloid hemorrhage. METHODS: Patients with premacular subhyaloid hemorrhage of more than 3 disc diameters (DD) of various etiologies, attending Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, Nepal from August, 2014 to February, 2015, were included. A comprehensive ocular evaluation was conducted and fundus photographs were taken to measure the size of the subhyaloid hemorrhage. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) were performed before and after treatment and on subsequent follow up visits. Fundus fluorescence angiography was done whenever necessary. Q switched Nd:YAG laser was applied to create an opening in the posterior hyaloids membrane for draining subhyaloid hemorrhage. The main outcome measures were success rate in performing hyaloidotomy, drainage of subhyaloid blood into vitreous cavity and its resorption, improvement in visual acuity, need for further intervention and postoperative complications. RESULTS: There were 21 eyes of 19 patients, 17(89.48%) male and 2(10.52%) female. In 3, premacular subhyaloid hemorrhage was bilateral. Mean age was 41.68 ± 17.08 years and a mean duration of symptoms 15.04 days. Mean pretreatment hemorrhage was 6.27DD. Nd:YAG laser hyaloidotomy was successful in 19 eyes(86.4%). In 2 patients, one each with Eales' disease and retinal vein occlusion the procedure was unsuccessful, necessitating pars plana vitrectomy, while in a case with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), vitrectomy was resorted for non clearing vitreous hemorrhage. Vision improved from a median of 3/60 pre-operatively to 6/6, at 6 months follow up. At 3 months, 2 patients with Eales' disease, one developed tractional detachment at macula while the other, an epiretinal membrane. No other complications were noted at 6 months. CONCLUSION: Nd:YAG laser hyaloidotomy is an inexpensive, effective and a safe outpatient procedure for premacular subhyaloid hemorrhage, producing rapid drainage with restoration of visual function avoiding more invasive procedures and enabling early assessment of the underlying retina. The final visual prognosis however, rests on the underlying cause of the subhyaloid hemorrhage and any accompanying retinal changes.

Anatomical and visual outcome of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with diabetic macular edema.

BACKGROUND: Intravitreal bevacizumab has been shown to be an effective treatment of diabetic macular edema. OBJECTIVE: To assess the anatomical and visual outcome of intravitrealbevacizumab (Avastin) in patients of diabetic macular edema. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 52 eyes of 33 patients with diabetic retinopathy with CSME were included in this study. Detailed ophthalmic examination, including best-corrected visual acuity(BCVA), stereoscopic biomicroscopy, and retinal thickness measurement by Optical coherence tomography (OCT), was done at baseline and at each follow- up visit. All patients were treated with 0.05 mL intravitreal injection containing 1.25 mg of bevacizumab and repeat injection was given in cases of recurrent/persistent subretinal or intraretinal fluid shown by OCT and deterioration of BCVA. RESULTS: All patients completed 6 months of follow-up with mean number of 2.78 intravitreal injections per eye.The mean BCVA at baseline was 0.80 log MAR, with significant changes 0.68 (p=0.012), 0.63 (p=less than0.001) and 0.60 log MAR (p=less than0.001) at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months respectively. Final BCVA analysis demonstrated that 25 eyes (48.07%) remained stable and 22 (42.30%) improved ≥2 lines on BCVA. The mean central retinal thickness was 449.03 µm at baseline and it decreased significantly to 410.09 (pless than0.001),345.76(p less than 0.001), 344.55(p less than 0.001) and 326.51(p less than 0.001) at 1st day, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months post injection, respectively. Mean macular volume changed significantly from baseline of 10.77 µm to 10.33µm (p less than 0.001) 8.97 (p less than 0.001), 8.82 (p less than 0.001), 8.95 (p less than 0.001) at 1st day, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months post injection respectively. CONCLUSION: Intravitreal bevacizumab injection resulted in significant improvement in BCVA, central retinal thickness and total macular volume in patients with diabetic retinopathy with CSME, and this beneficial effect is maximum at 6 weeks. Also, slight reduction in these parameters at 3 month follow up suggests that visual improvement and stable macular thickness can be maintained longer with injection frequency of probably 6-12 weeks.