Ocular dominance and visual function testing.

PURPOSE: To show the distribution of ocular dominance as measured with sensory and eye sighting methods and its potential relationship with high and low contrast LogMAR visual acuity in presbyopic subjects. METHOD: Forty-four presbyopes (48.5 ± 3.5 years) participated in this study. Ocular dominance was determined by eye sighting (hole-in-card) and sensorial (+1.50 D lens induced blur) methods. According to the dominance detected with each method (RE: right eye or LE: left eye), patients were classified in dominance type 1 (RE/RE), type 2 (RE/LE), type 3 (LE/RE) and type 4 (LE/LE). RESULTS: Baseline refractive error (MSE) was RE:-0.36 ± 1.67 D and LE:-0.35 ± 1.85 D (P = 0.930). RE was the dominant eye in 61.4% and 70.5% of times as obtained from sensorial and sighting methods, respectively. Most frequent dominance was of type 1 (52.3%), in this case the RE showed statistically significant better distance low contrast LogMAR VA (0.04 LogMAR units) compared to the LE (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The dominance was more frequent in RE in this sample. The eye sighting and sensorial methods to define ocular dominance agreed in more than half of cases. Amount of MSE was not significantly different between dominant and non-dominant eye. But in case of right dominance, the RE presented better distance low contrast VA compared to the LE.

Multi-site clinical assessment of Complete Revitalens MPDS in 2981 contact lens wearers across Europe and USA.

PURPOSE: To evaluate ocular response and subject acceptance of a new multipurpose disinfecting solution (MPDS), Complete Revitalens (RevitaLens OcuTec in the US Market), for soft contact lens care in a large "real practice" setting. METHOD: This is an international multi-center, open-label assessment carried out in 10 countries across Europe and in the USA. Up to 10 subjects who were currently wearing soft contact lenses for at least 1 year and using a MPS as a lens care system were included at each investigational site. RESULTS: Data were collected from 996 European and 1985 American wearers, 75% of those patients wore silicone hydrogel contact lenses. Approximately 94% found the new MPDS "somewhat more effective" to "much more effective" in keeping contact lenses feeling clean and 88% found the new MPDS to be somewhat more effective to much more effective in keeping their lenses feeling comfortable in the evening. Over 93% reported an improvement in vision clearness in the evening after approximately 1 month while using the new MPDS. Wearers with grade 2, 3 or 4 of severity decreased by 11.3, 6.4 and 9.8% over 1 month period for redness, burning and irritation, respectively. After approximately 1 month 83% of wearers declared that they would prefer to use the new MPDS. CONCLUSIONS: Over 88% felt their lenses were somewhat to much more comfortable at the end-of-day and 94% found the new MPDS to be somewhat to much more effective in keeping their lenses feeling clean compared to their previous care system.

Multilocus sequence analysis of Streptococcus canis confirms the zoonotic origin of human infections and reveals genetic exchange with Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis.

Streptococcus canis is an animal pathogen that occasionally causes human infections. Isolates recovered from infections of animals (n = 78, recovered from 2000 to 2010 in three European countries, mainly from house pets) and humans (n = 7, recovered from 2006 to 2010 in Portugal) were identified by phenotypic and genotypic methods and characterized by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and emm typing. S. canis isolates presented considerable variability in biochemical profiles and 16S rRNA. Resistance to antimicrobial agents was low, with the most significant being tet(M)- and tet(O)-mediated tetracycline resistance. MLST analysis revealed a polyclonal structure of the S. canis population causing infections, where the same genetic lineages were found infecting house pets and humans and were disseminated in distinct geographic locations. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that S. canis was a divergent taxon of the sister species Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis and found evidence of acquisition of genetic material by S. canis from S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis. PFGE confirmed the MLST findings, further strengthening the similarity between animal and human isolates. The presence of emm-like genes was restricted to a few isolates and correlated with some MLST-based genetic lineages, but none of the human isolates could be emm typed. Our data show that S. canis isolates recovered from house pets and humans constitute a single population and demonstrate that isolates belonging to the main genetic lineages identified have the ability to infect the human host, providing strong evidence for the zoonotic nature of S. canis infection.