Acute post-partum vision loss due to pilocytic astrocytoma.

PURPOSE: We report an unusual case of a thirty-three-year-old woman who presented with acute unilateral vision loss following pregnancy and was ultimately discovered to have a pilocytic astrocytoma of the optic nerve. OBSERVATIONS: A thirty-three-year-old previously healthy female presented one month following Caesarean section with unilateral vision loss. She was found to have significantly decreased visual acuity, an afferent pupil deficit, proptosis, optic nerve edema and choroidal folds. Imaging revealed a large lesion of the optic nerve. Biopsy was performed and pathologic analysis revealed a pilocytic astrocytoma, WHO grade 1. The patient opted for close observation without further management and demonstrated mild improvement in visual function. CONCLUSIONS/IMPORTANCE: Optic pathway gliomas (OPG) most commonly present in the pediatric patient population with painless proptosis, slowly progressive vision loss, and clinical findings of chronic optic neuropathy.( Farazdaghi et al., 2019 Sep) 1 Acute presentations of this disease in adulthood are rare. This case demonstrates a rare case of acute optic nerve glioma presentation during the post-partum period.

Multimodal Evaluation of Visual Function in Geographic Atrophy versus Normal Eyes.

PURPOSE: To comprehensively evaluate visual function in eyes with geographic atrophy (GA) as compared to normal eyes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-three eyes from 63 patients ≥50 years old were recruited for this observational study; 31 were identified as normal macular health eyes and 32 with GA. Visual function was tested with best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), low luminance visual acuity (LLVA), low luminance deficit (LLD), reading speed, macular integrity microperimetry, fixation stability, and contrast sensitivity function (CSF). Anatomic function was evaluated with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and fundus autofluorescence (FAF). Quality of life and vision were assessed with the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25). RESULTS: Visual function and quality of life are reduced in patients with GA. Moderate and strong correlations in the GA group were found between maximum reading speed (r = 0.787) (p˂0.01), CS spatial frequency 3 cpd (r = 0.441) (p˂0.05), CS spatial frequency 6 cpd (r = 0.524) (p˂0.01), fixation P1 (r = 0.379) (p˂0.05), macular sensitivity (r = 0.484) (p˂0.05) and atrophic area (r = -0.689) (p˂0.01), and the VFQ-25 composite score. CONCLUSION: The decreased visual function is reflected in a poor quality of life in patients with GA. Reading speed, contrast sensitivity, fixation, and macular sensitivity are strongly associated with vision-related quality of life. The results suggest the importance of the reading letter size in patients with GA. Microperimetry and reading speed are useful tools to better assess visual impairment in patients with GA.

Endogenous Serratia marcescens panophthalmitis: A case series.

PURPOSE: - Two rare and unusual cases of endogenous panophthalmitis from Serratia marcescens are presented with mechanisms for infection explored. Observations - The first patient had history of intravenous drug use (IVDU) without any medical implants. The second patient, in addition to IVDU, had a history of end-stage renal disease with upper extremity arteriovenous fistula graft infection from Serratia marcescens confirmed by wound culture. One patient had a history of licking the needles prior to IV drug injection. Clinical exam in both cases revealed light perception vision, relative afferent pupillary defect, periorbital edema with limited extraocular motility, and hypopyon in the affected eyes. Cultures from the anterior chamber aspirate were positive for Serratia marcescens in the first case and demonstrated Gram-negative rods in the second. Attempted vitreous aspiration was unsuccessful at obtaining specimens. Computed tomography demonstrated orbital fat stranding without abscess, and histopathology showed intense neutrophilic infiltration in all layers of enucleated specimen in case one. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPORTANCE: Needle licking may be an underappreciated mechanism for endogenous endophthalmitis in intravenous drug users. This report includes the first case in the literature, to authors' knowledge, of non-nosocomial endogenous Serratia marcescens panophthalmitis with orbital cellulitis. The second case illustrates a rare consequence of the rise in arteriovenous fistula placement and dialysis across the United States, which may predispose to future cases of endogenous Serratia marcescens endophthalmitis. This series supports previous observations of Serratia marcescens endogenous endophthalmitis exhibiting a generally poor visual prognosis.

Enhanced Depth Imaging OCT of Ultrasonographically Flat Choroidal Nevi Demonstrates 5 Distinct Patterns.

PURPOSE: To characterize the enhanced depth imaging (EDI) OCT features of ultrasonographically flat choroidal nevi. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with ultrasonographically flat choroidal nevi identified over a 3-year period. METHODS: Comprehensive eye examinations and multimodal imaging were performed every 6 to 12 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Lesion thickness and features, EDI-OCT findings. RESULTS: A total of 102 nevi (98 patients) were included. Median follow-up was 9 months (range 0-144 months) and 1 to 8 (mean 2.1) OCTs were performed. On OCT, nevi were classified into 5 subtypes: 3.2% were "not visible," 37.2% had "hyperreflectivity confined within normal choroidal thickness," 16.0% had characteristic anteriorly bowed hyperreflectivity with "discrete" borders and cascading edges, 14.9% were "flat with posterior bowing," and 28.7% were "elevated." One nevus of the "elevated" type demonstrated clinically insignificant growth (<10% in thickness) after 22 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Five distinct EDI-OCT patterns of choroidal nevi seemed flat on ultrasonography, and many demonstrated thickness and elevation not measurable on B-scan ultrasonography. Lesion thickness can be measured using EDI-OCT.

FIVE-YEAR FUNCTIONAL OUTCOMES AFTER EPIRETINAL MEMBRANE SURGERY: A Prospective, Controlled Study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate 5-year functional outcomes involving the inner retina after epiretinal membrane (ERM) surgery. METHODS: The study eye (SE) and fellow eye (FE) of 20 patients undergoing ERM surgery were examined preoperatively and at 3, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months postoperatively. Retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GC-IPL) thicknesses were analyzed using spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Humphrey visual field mean deviation, pattern SD, and qualitative changes were assessed and compared over time. RESULTS: Mean GC-IPL thickness in SEs was less than that of FEs at all time points with progressive thinning in SEs after ERM surgery. There was significant thinning of the superotemporal GC-IPL in SEs as compared to FEs at 3 months and 60 months (P < 0.05). Humphrey visual field mean deviation was greater in SEs as compared to FEs but statistically significant only at 0, 12, and 24 months (P < 0.05). Pattern SD increased from baseline in SEs but remained near baseline in FEs. CONCLUSION: Surgical eyes after ERM surgery demonstrated progressive thinning of the GC-IPL and transient worsening trends in Humphrey visual field mean deviation and pattern SD as compared to controls after ERM surgery.

Automated intraretinal segmentation of SD-OCT images in normal and age-related macular degeneration eyes.

This work introduces and evaluates an automated intra-retinal segmentation method for spectral-domain optical coherence (SD-OCT) retinal images. While quantitative assessment of retinal features in SD-OCT data is important, manual segmentation is extremely time-consuming and subjective. We address challenges that have hindered prior automated methods, including poor performance with diseased retinas relative to healthy retinas, and data smoothing that obscures image features such as small retinal drusen. Our novel segmentation approach is based on the iterative adaptation of a weighted median process, wherein a three-dimensional weighting function is defined according to image intensity and gradient properties, and a set of smoothness constraints and pre-defined rules are considered. We compared the segmentation results for 9 segmented outlines associated with intra-retinal boundaries to those drawn by hand by two retinal specialists and to those produced by an independent state-of-the-art automated software tool in a set of 42 clinical images (from 14 patients). These images were obtained with a Zeiss Cirrus SD-OCT system, including healthy, early or intermediate AMD, and advanced AMD eyes. As a qualitative evaluation of accuracy, a highly experienced third independent reader blindly rated the quality of the outlines produced by each method. The accuracy and image detail of our method was superior in healthy and early or intermediate AMD eyes (98.15% and 97.78% of results not needing substantial editing) to the automated method we compared against. While the performance was not as good in advanced AMD (68.89%), it was still better than the manual outlines or the comparison method (which failed in such cases). We also tested our method's performance on images acquired with a different SD-OCT manufacturer, collected from a large publicly available data set (114 healthy and 255 AMD eyes), and compared the data quantitatively to reference standard markings of the internal limiting membrane and inner boundary of retinal pigment epithelium, producing a mean unsigned positioning error of 6.04 ± 7.83µm (mean under 2 pixels). Our automated method should be applicable to data from different OCT manufacturers and offers detailed layer segmentations in healthy and AMD eyes.

Individual Drusen Segmentation and Repeatability and Reproducibility of Their Automated Quantification in Optical Coherence Tomography Images.

PURPOSE: To introduce a novel method to segment individual drusen in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), and evaluate its accuracy, and repeatability/reproducibility of drusen quantifications extracted from the segmentation results. METHODS: Our method uses a smooth interpolation of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) outer boundary, fitted to candidate locations in proximity to Bruch's Membrane, to identify regions of substantial lifting in the inner-RPE or inner-segment boundaries, and then separates and evaluates individual druse independently. The study included 192 eyes from 129 patients. Accuracy of drusen segmentations was evaluated measuring the overlap ratio (OR) with manual markings, also comparing the results to a previously proposed method. Repeatability and reproducibility across scanning protocols of automated drusen quantifications were investigated in repeated SD-OCT volume pairs and compared with those measured by a commercial tool (Cirrus HD-OCT). RESULTS: Our segmentation method produced higher accuracy than a previously proposed method, showing similar differences to manual markings (0.72 ± 0.09 OR) as the measured intra- and interreader variability (0.78 ± 0.09 and 0.77 ± 0.09, respectively). The automated quantifications displayed high repeatability and reproducibility, showing a more stable behavior across scanning protocols in drusen area and volume measurements than the commercial software. Measurements of drusen slope and mean intensity showed significant differences across protocols. CONCLUSION: Automated drusen outlines produced by our method show promising accurate results that seem relatively stable in repeated scans using the same or different scanning protocols. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: The proposed method represents a viable tool to measure and track drusen measurements in early or intermediate age-related macular degeneration patients.

Inferior intravitreal injection site associated with a higher incidence of post-injection endophthalmitis / 国际眼科杂志(Guoji Yanke Zazhi)

?AlM:To determine whether inferior injections had a higher incidence of post-injection endophthalmitis than superior injections. The incidence of endophthalmitis is higher for inferior than superior trabeculectomy filtering blebs, possibly due to bacteria pooling in the inferior tear lake. ? METHODS: A practice - wide database of endophthalmitis cases identified 5 occurring during the two-year study period. A retrospective review of 8 672 injections in 1 121 eyes of 909 patients treated during the same two-year study period was performed in order to assess the injection site location. ?RESULTS: Five eyes developed presumed infectious endophthalmitis. Eighty percent of endophthalmitis cases were injected inferiorly, even though 84. 6% of the total cohort was injected superiorly. The odds ratio of infection associated with inferior injection location is 22. 1 (P=0. 006). ? CONCLUSlON: Endophthalmitis after intravitreal injection is rare, occurring in only 0. 025% of injections overall. Avoiding intravitreal injections in the inferior quadrants may further reduce the rate of endophthalmitis.

Exudative retinal detachment as a presenting sign in Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

PURPOSE: We present here a case of bilateral exudative retinal detachments in a patient with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia and describe the patient's response to induction chemotherapy and clinical course. METHODS: A retrospective case study with fundus photographs and optical coherence tomography. A 46-year-old woman presented with bilateral exudative retinal detachments. A systemic evaluation revealed acute lymphoblastic leukemia. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: This is an exceptional case in that the exudative retinal change so closely parallels systemic response to remission and relapse in a hematologic malignancy, and suggests that the clinical course of exudative retinal change may be a legitimate proxy for efficacy-or failure-of systemic therapy.

Non-selectivity of ERG reductions in eyes treated for retinoblastoma.

PURPOSE: We have monitored retinal function in patients treated for retinoblastoma (primarily, but not exclusively by intra-arterial chemotherapy infusion) by electroretinography (ERG) recordings for the past 7 years. We here present data from 599 ERG studies of 108 patients, in which a complete ERG protocol including both photopic and scotopic recordings was performed, in justification of our frequent practice of reporting primarily 30-Hz photopic flicker amplitude data. METHODS: Patients referred for treatment of retinoblastoma underwent ERG recordings during examination under anesthesia whenever possible: at baseline and following most treatment sessions. Correlations were calculated for the complete datasets between the four primary amplitude response parameters: photopic single flash b-wave, photopic 30-Hz flicker peak-to-trough, scotopic rod-isolating b-wave, and scotopic maximal flash b-wave. RESULTS: Using our adaptation of the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision-recommended standard ERG protocol, ERG responses of eyes of patients with untreated retinoblastoma or following traditional or intra-arterial treatment for retinoblastoma show very high correlations between 30-Hz flicker amplitude responses and three other standard photopic and scotopic ERG response amplitudes. Reductions in ERG amplitudes seen in these eyes following treatment show no significant difference between retinal dysfunction estimated using rod- or cone-dominated responses. CONCLUSION: These observations support the use of photopic response amplitudes (especially in response to 30-Hz flicker) as the primary ERG outcome measure in studies of treated and untreated eyes with retinoblastoma when more complete ERG protocols may be impractical.

Carboplatin +/- topotecan ophthalmic artery chemosurgery for intraocular retinoblastoma.

PURPOSE: Carboplatin administered systemically or periocularly can result in dramatic and prompt regression of retinoblastoma. However, both routes are rarely curative alone and have undesirable side effects. We aimed to assess the efficacy and toxicity of carboplatin +/- topotecan delivered by ophthalmic artery chemosurgery whereby chemotherapy is infused into the eye via the ophthalmic artery. METHODS: This retrospective, IRB-approved study investigated retinoblastoma patients whom received carboplatin +/- topotecan ophthalmic artery chemosurgery. Patient survival, ocular survival, hematologic toxicity, ocular toxicity, second cancer development and electroretinogram response were all evaluated. RESULTS: 57 carboplatin +/- topotecan infusions (of 111 total) were performed in 31 eyes of 24 patients. The remaining infusions were melphalan-containing. All patients were alive and no patient developed a second malignancy at a median follow up of 25 months. The Kaplan-Meier estimate of ocular survival at two years was 89.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 82.1-97.9%) for all eyes. Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia developed in two patients and one patient developed metastatic disease. By univariate analysis, neither increasing maximum carboplatin/topotecan dose nor cumulative carboplatin/topotecan dose was associated with statistically significant reduction in the electroretinogram responses. CONCLUSION: Carboplatin +/- topotecan infusions are effective for ophthalmic artery chemosurgery in retinoblastoma: they demonstrate low hematologic and ocular toxicity and no statistically significant influence on electroretinogram responses, and used in conjunction with melphalan-containing OAC, demonstrate excellent patient survival and satisfactory ocular survival.

Updated practical intraocular lens power calculation after refractive surgery.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Since its introduction in the 1980s, more than 40 million people worldwide have undergone some form of kerato-refractive surgery. Many of these individuals are now candidates for cataract surgery and pose the challenge of attaining first-rate refractive outcomes in nonvirgin eyes. Numerous approaches have been developed to estimate intraocular lens (IOL) power in eyes postrefractive surgery. This review highlights the most practical, relevant options for accurate IOL power determination in these cases. RECENT FINDINGS: With refined techniques and advances in instrumentation, more accurate assessments of true corneal power and thus, IOL power, are possible in postrefractive eyes. Optical coherence tomography and other corneal tomography instruments have markedly improved accuracy in this process. However, when expensive, modern equipments are not readily available, and online IOL calculators such as the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) calculator have become efficient, reliable options. Recent evidence confirms the accuracy of these online calculators. SUMMARY: Emerging literature supports the use of methods that do not rely on prior refractive data in IOL power determination. Online IOL calculators provide user-friendly, efficient options that greatly facilitate accurate IOL power determination for cataract surgery in eyes that have undergone prior kerato-refractive surgery.