Virtual Reality Hemifield Measurements for Corrective Surgery Eligibility in Ptosis Patients: A Pilot Clinical Trial.

Purpose: We developed an accelerated virtual reality (VR) suprathreshold hemifield perimetry algorithm, the median cut hemifield test (MCHT). This study examines the ability of the MCHT to determine ptosis severity and its reversibility with an artificial improvement by eyelid taping on an HTC Vive Pro Eye VR headset and the Humphrey visual field analyzer (HVFA) to assess the capabilities of emerging technologies in evaluating ptosis. Methods: In a single visit, the MCHT was administered along with the HVFA 30-2 on ptotic untaped and taped eyelids in a randomized order. The primary end points were a superior field visibility comparison with severity of VF loss and VF improvement after taping for MCHT and HVFA. Secondary end points included evaluating patients' Likert-scaled survey responses on the comfort, speed, and overall experience with both testing modalities. Results: VR's MCHT superior field degrees visible correlated well for severe category margin to reflex distance (r = 0.78) compared with HVFA's (r = -0.21). The MCHT also demonstrated noninferiority (83.3% agreement; P = 1) against HVFA for detection of 30% or more superior visual field improvement after taping, warranting a corrective surgical intervention. In comparing hemi-VF in untaped eyes, both tests demonstrated relative obstruction to the field when comparing normal controls to severe ptosis (HVFA P < 0.05; MCHT P < 0.001), which proved sufficient to demonstrate percent improvement with taping. The secondary end point of patient satisfaction favored VR vision testing presentation mode in terms of comfort (P < 0.01), speed (P < 0.001), and overall experience (P < 0.01). Conclusions: This pilot trial supports the use of MCHT for the quantitative measurement of visual field loss owing to ptosis and the reversibility of ptosis that is tested when conducting a presurgical evaluation. We believe the adoption of MCHT testing in oculoplastic clinics could decrease patient burden and accelerate time to corrective treatment. Translational Relevance: In this study, we look at vision field outputs in patients with ptosis to evaluate its severity and improvement with eyelid taping on a low-profile VR-based technology and compare it with HVFA. Our results demonstrate that alternative, portable technologies such as VR can be used to grade the degree of ptosis and determine whether ptosis surgery could provide a significant superior visual field improvement of 30% or more, all while ensuring a more comfortable experience and faster testing time.

International pooled patient-level meta-analysis of ketamine infusion for depression: In search of clinical moderators.

Depression is disabling and highly prevalent. Intravenous (IV) ketamine displays rapid-onset antidepressant properties, but little is known regarding which patients are most likely to benefit, limiting personalized prescriptions. We identified randomized controlled trials of IV ketamine that recruited individuals with a relevant psychiatric diagnosis (e.g., unipolar or bipolar depression; post-traumatic stress disorder), included one or more control arms, did not provide any other study-administered treatment in conjunction with ketamine (although clinically prescribed concurrent treatments were allowable), and assessed outcome using either the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale or the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD-17). Individual patient-level data for at least one outcome was obtained from 17 of 25 eligible trials [pooled n = 809]. Rates of participant-level data availability across 33 moderators that were solicited from these 17 studies ranged from 10.8% to 100% (median = 55.6%). After data harmonization, moderators available in at least 40% of the dataset were tested sequentially, as well as with a data-driven, combined moderator approach. Robust main effects of ketamine on acute [~24-hours; ß*(95% CI) = 0.58 (0.44, 0.72); p < 0.0001] and post-acute [~7 days; ß*(95% CI) = 0.38 (0.23, 0.54); p < 0.0001] depression severity were observed. Two study-level moderators emerged as significant: ketamine effects (relative to placebo) were larger in studies that required a higher degree of previous treatment resistance to federal regulatory agency-approved antidepressant medications (≥2 failed trials) for study entry; and in studies that used a crossover design. A comprehensive data-driven search for combined moderators identified statistically significant, but modest and clinically uninformative, effects (effect size r ≤ 0.29, a small-medium effect). Ketamine robustly reduces depressive symptoms in a heterogeneous range of patients, with benefit relative to placebo even greater in patients more resistant to prior medications. In this largest effort to date to apply precision medicine approaches to ketamine treatment, no clinical or demographic patient-level features were detected that could be used to guide ketamine treatment decisions.Review Registration: PROSPERO Identifier: CRD42021235630.

Age Trends in Actigraphy and Self-Report Sleep Across the Life Span: Findings From the Pittsburgh Lifespan Sleep Databank.

OBJECTIVE: Sleep changes over the human life span, and it does so across multiple dimensions. We used individual-level cross-sectional data to characterize age trends and sex differences in actigraphy and self-report sleep dimensions across the healthy human life span. METHODS: The Pittsburgh Lifespan Sleep Databank consists of harmonized participant-level data from sleep-related studies conducted at the University of Pittsburgh (2003-2019). We included data from 1065 (n = 577 female; 21 studies) Pittsburgh Lifespan Sleep Databank participants aged 10 to 87 years without a major psychiatric, sleep, or medical condition. All participants completed wrist actigraphy and the self-rated Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Main outcomes included actigraphy and self-report sleep duration, efficiency, and onset/offset timing, and actigraphy variability in midsleep timing. RESULTS: We used generalized additive models to examine potentially nonlinear relationships between age and sleep characteristics and to examine sex differences. Actigraphy and self-report sleep onset time shifted later between ages 10 and 18 years (23:03-24:10 [actigraphy]; 21:58-23:53 [self-report]) and then earlier during the 20s (00:08-23:40 [actigraphy]; 23:50-23:34 [self-report]). Actigraphy and self-report wake-up time also shifted earlier during the mid-20s through late 30s (07:48-06:52 [actigraphy]; 07:40-06:41 [self-report]). Self-report, but not actigraphy, sleep duration declined between ages 10 and 20 years (09:09-07:35). Self-report sleep efficiency decreased over the entire life span (96.12-93.28), as did actigraphy variability (01:54-01:31). CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of age trends in multiple sleep dimensions in healthy individuals-and explicating the timing and nature of sex differences in age-related change-can suggest periods of sleep-related risk or resilience and guide intervention efforts.