Presumed topiramate-induced retinopathy in a 58-year-old woman.

We present a case of presumed topiramate-induced retinopathy in a 58-year-old woman who presented with progressive, bilateral visual loss following a 3- to 4-year history of oral topiramate intake for migraine. She reported difficulty with light adaptation, hemeralopia, and color desaturation. Her best-corrected visual acuity was 1/60 (20/1200) in the right eye and 6/18 (20/60) in the left eye, and she performed poorly on Ishihara color plate testing. Anterior segment examination was normal; dilated funduscopy showed mild macular pigmentary changes. Optical coherence tomography revealed subtle thinning and reduced reflectivity of the subfoveal ellipsoid zone and interdigitation zone bilaterally, associated with increased foveal autofluorescence. Humphrey visual field 24-2 revealed central defects. Electrodiagnostic testing showed a reduced and delayed b-wave and a normal a-wave on photopic full-field electroretinogram (ERG), with normal scotopic responses; multifocal ERG revealed reduced responses in the inner 10° in both eyes. She underwent extensive investigations including whole-body computed tomography and positron emission tomography scan, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, uveitis screening, retinal autoantibody testing, and genetic testing on the retinal dystrophy panel to rule-out other causes for her presentation, all of which were normal or negative.

Safety and effectiveness of pre-emptive diabetic vitrectomy in patients with severe, non-fibrotic retinal neovascularisation despite panretinal photocoagulation.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the safety and effectiveness of pre-emptive vitrectomy in eyes with severe non-fibrotic proliferative diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: A multi-centre, retrospective, observational study. Pre-emptive vitrectomy was performed in non-fibrotic diabetic eyes with a visual acuity (VA) of 20/50 or better, where there was extensive persistent neovascularisation despite prior panretinal photocoagulation, and where the fellow eye had established sight loss despite vitrectomy for tractional complications. The primary outcome measure was the VA at last visit. RESULTS: Twenty patients were included. The mean age was 39 ± 14 years. Fifteen patients were Type 1 diabetic. The median baseline VA was 20/30 and remained stable at 20/28 at last visit (median follow-up period: 24 months). Eight eyes (40.0%) developed post-operative vitreous cavity haemorrhage; 4 of which required a vitreous cavity washout procedure. There were no post-operative retinal detachments. The index eye remained the significantly better eye at all time points bar one month post-surgery. Regression of retinopathy grading was observed in all eyes. CONCLUSION: In this pilot study, we found no sight loss with pre-emptive diabetic vitrectomy. Better eye status was maintained in this high-risk group. Further study with larger number of patients and longer-term follow-up is indicated.

"Delamination Plus": A Technique to Reduce Immediate Postoperative Diabetic Cavity Hemorrhage.

PURPOSE: To investigate the effectiveness of an intraoperative surgical technique to reduce the incidence of immediate postoperative cavity hemorrhage in patients undergoing vitrectomy for complications of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: A single-center, prospective study of 20 consecutive patients who underwent vitrectomy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy-related complications. A standard 3-port pars plana vitrectomy with either 23 g or 25 g was performed. At the end of surgery, the infusion was switched off to create transient hypotony and endolaser photocoagulation with long-duration burns were applied to actively leaking blood vessel. RESULTS: The average age was 56.2 + 12.8 years. Eleven eyes had actively bleeding vessels at the end of surgery and received endolaser photocoagulation. No patients were found to have hypotony at Day 1 postoperative. Preoperative median visual acuity was 20/1,600 improving to 20/40 at a median of 2.3 weeks post-op (range 0.4-8.5 weeks). Two eyes (10%) had a small postoperative cavity hemorrhage with 20/40 vision, which did not require further intervention. CONCLUSION: The described technique was found to be effective in reducing the incidence of postoperative cavity hemorrhage from up to 75% reported in literature to 10% in our pilot study. Further study with a larger number of patients is required.

Changing face of medical education during a pandemic: tragedy or opportunity?

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed forever the way we do certain things. Although the race for a cure and vaccine has taken centre stage, traditional face-to-face medical education has slowly metamorphosised in the background to a virtual world with innumerable webinars, virtual tutorials and lectures in the World Wide Web. Despite this seemingly 'perfect' solution, there remains a hidden cost. Educators are forced to learn new skills to engage students as well as manipulate the electronic platform. Impact on learning for students, both undergraduate and postgraduate from a lack of social interactions, remains unknown. In this article, the authors share their experiences from different specialities about the pros and cons of virtual learning and teaching. Suggestions and practical tips are offered to enhance the learning experience. More emphasis may need to be placed on the creation of learning communities rather than lecture-based curricula. Hybrid curricula or conferences may become the future norm. As we slowly move out of lockdown into a changed world and new ways of doing things, lessons learnt can be harnessed for future hybrid models that can combine the best of technology and physical teaching to reduce worldwide inequalities.

Diagnostic sensitivity of vitrectomy and vitreous biopsy for vitritis.

PURPOSE: To investigate sensitivity of diagnostic vitrectomy and vitreous biopsy for patients with vitritis of unknown aetiology. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of all vitrectomies and vitreous biopsies, performed at St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK, for vitritis between February 2001 and February 2019. Patients were identified using the VITREOR database and records were reviewed. Patients were categorised as infectious, non-infectious or masquerade based on final diagnosis. Sensitivity of both diagnostic pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and vitreous cutter biopsy in each category was investigated. Furthermore, data on gender, age, and method of anaesthesia were also collected. RESULTS: In our cohort, 64 patients underwent PPV with a diagnostic sensitivity of 67% (43/64) overall and 60% (18/30), 56% (9/16) and 89% (16/18) for those with infectious, masquerade and non-infectious aetiologies, respectively. In comparison, 96 patients underwent a vitreous cutter biopsy with diagnostic sensitivity of 74% (71/96) overall and 71% (55/77), 67% (4/6) and 92% (12/13) for those with infectious, masquerade and non-infectious aetiologies, respectively. No statistically significant difference in sensitivity was identified between the vitrectomy and vitreous biopsy groups for either aetiology. Patients undergoing vitrectomy were noted to be older (p = 0.02) and more likely to undergo a general anaesthetic (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Herein we demonstrate similar diagnostic sensitivity of PPV and vitreous cutter biopsy in patients with vitritis of unknown aetiology.

Intra and inter-rater agreement of inflammatory choroidal neovascular membrane measurements using optical coherence tomography angiography.

PURPOSE: Automated measurement algorithm software is not routinely available in optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) devices and manual measurement of choroidal neovascular membrane (CNVM) size is necessary. Our aim was to determine intra- and inter-rater agreement of inflammatory CNVM manual measurements obtained with OCTA. METHODS: OCTA (Triton® Topcon Corporation) images in patients with inflammatory CNVM were imported into ImageJ software v1.50 (NIH image). Two experienced observers performed manual area and perimeter measurements independently, and one of the observers performed the same measurements twice. Agreement was evaluated with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and concordance correlation coefficients (CCC). Bland-Altman plots were plotted to graphically assess concordance. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA v13.0. RESULTS: Sixteen eyes of 16 subjects, with a mean age of 39.0 ± 16.6 years (range 13-71), were included. Mean CNVM area and perimeter was 124.83 ± 117.80 and 4.20 ± 2.00 mm, respectively. Intra-rater ICC for both area and perimeter measured was 0.99 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.99-0.99). Inter-rater ICC for area and perimeter measured was 0.95 (95%CI 0.87-0.98) and 0.81 (95%CI 0.17-0.94), respectively. Intra-rater CCC for both area and perimeter measured was 0.99 (95%CI 0.99-0.99). Inter-rater CCC for both area and perimeter measured was 0.91 (95%CI 0.81-0.99) and 0.66 (95%CI 0.44-0.88), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Inflammatory CNVM manual measurement showed high intra-rater agreement and moderate inter-rater agreement. Repeatability and reproducibility studies are essential in manual analysis to establish thresholds that can distinguish measurements variation from true clinical change. An automatic algorithm may be helpful to accurately grade lesions and monitor disease activity and response to treatment.

Multimodal Evaluation of Presumed Tuberculous Serpiginous-Like Choroiditis.

Purpose: To evaluate multimodal imaging findings in longitudinal follow-up of a patient with presumed tuberculous serpiginous-like choroiditis (TB-SLC). Method: We evaluated multimodal imaging in a 62-year-old male with TB-SLC. Correlation between optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), swept-source OCT (SS-OCT) and fundus autofluorescence (FAF) at defined disease stages and evolution of observed imaging descriptors during long-term follow-up has not been previously reported. Results: OCTA of the active lesion demonstrated defined areas of choriocapillaris hypoperfusion, suggesting inflammatory vascular occlusive pathology. Over 9-month follow-up, OCTA illustrated sequential improvement in choriocapillaris flow, suggesting vascular remodeling. This correlated with progressive change in FAF signal and transition to diffuse hypoautofluorescence. SS-OCT demonstrated focal choroidal thickening and retinal pigment epithelium elevation in acute phase and resolution in time. Conclusion: Multimodal imaging, particularly novel non-invasive technologies such as OCTA and SS-OCT, improves our understanding of the pathogenesis and evolution of disease in TB-SLC.

Long-Term Outcomes and Complications of Baerveldt Glaucoma Drainage Implants in Adults with Glaucoma Secondary to Uveitis.

Purpose: This study investigated the efficacy and safety of Baerveldt glaucoma implants (BGI) in adults with uveitic glaucoma (UG) at the Manchester Uveitis Clinic.Methods: This was a retrospective study of 42 patients with UG who underwent BGI implantation between 2006 and 2015. Primary outcome measures were intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction and number of medications at 5-year follow-up. Three IOP success criteria were chosen: 1.IOP ≤21 mmHg and ≥20% reduction from baseline 2.IOP ≤17 mmHg and ≥20% reduction from baseline and 3.IOP ≤14 mmHg.Results: The mean pre-operative IOP was 29.5 ± 9.5 mmHg on 3.9 antiglaucoma drops. At 5-year follow-up, IOP reduced to 14.4 ± 7.0 mmHg (p < 0.005) on 1.4 drops. The cumulative probability of failure at 5 years based on criteria 1, 2, and 3 was 24.3%, 39.6%, and 56.3%, respectively.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that BGI are safe and effective in refractory UG, especially in younger adults with complex uveitis.

Incidence, management and outcome of raised intraocular pressure in childhood-onset uveitis at a tertiary referral centre.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the incidence, management and outcome of uveitis and raised intraocular pressure (IOP) in children treated at the Manchester Uveitis Clinic (MUC). METHODS: This was a retrospective, observational study of patients who presented with uveitis under the age of 16 to the MUC from July 2002 to June 2016. RESULTS: A total of 320 children were included in the study. Out of these, 55 (17.2%) patients (75 eyes) were found to have raised IOP requiring treatment. The mean age at diagnosis of uveitis and at first recorded raised IOP was 8.2±4.3 and 10.8±3.6 years, respectively. The pre-treatment IOP was 32.3±6.6 mm Hg and the IOP at the final visit was 15.5±3.7 mm Hg (median follow-up period, 43.7 months) on a median number of 0 medications. Twenty-eight eyes (37.3%) required glaucoma drainage surgery, and eight eyes (12.5%) had cyclodiode laser before this. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that 11.5% of eyes required glaucoma surgery at 1 year after diagnosis of raised IOP, increasing to 50.0% by 5 years. The best-corrected visual acuity at diagnosis of uveitis was 0.26±0.42 logMAR, which remained stable at 0.28±0.65 logMAR at final follow-up visit. Four eyes (5.3%) from four patients fulfilled the definition of blindness by the WHO criteria. The mean cup:disc ratio at final follow-up was 0.4. CONCLUSION: Our cohort of children with raised IOP appeared to have a good outcome overall through aggressive medical and surgical management. Regular long-term follow-up is recommended, and early surgical intervention in eyes with uncontrolled IOP can prevent loss of vision.

Association Between Season, Temperature and Causative Organism in Microbial Keratitis in the UK.

PURPOSE: Microbial keratitis (MK) is a major cause of corneal blindness worldwide. Variations in season and temperature can affect MK incidence due to specific causative organisms; however, few studies have examined these factors in the UK. METHODS: Retrospective review of all corneal scrapes from patients with MK presenting to Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, UK, between January 2004 and December 2015. Manchester's monthly temperature data were obtained from Met Office UK. Analysis was performed using logistic regression. RESULTS: From 4229 corneal scrapes, 1539 organisms grew (90.6% bacteria, 7.1% fungi, and 2.3% Acanthamoebae sp.). Gram-positive bacteria grew with increasing temperature [odds ratio (OR) 1.62, 95% CI: 1.11-2.39, P = 0.014], and fungi grew with decreasing temperature (OR 0.29, 95% CI: 0.16-0.51, P < 0.001). Moraxella sp. grew with decreasing temperature (OR 0.91, 95% CI: 0.86-0.96, P = 0.001). Compared with winter, overall culture positivity was significantly less likely in summer (OR 0.57, 95% CI: 0.38-0.87, P = 0.008) and spring (OR 0.65, 95% CI: 0.43-0.99, P = 0.045). Gram-negative bacteria were more likely in summer (OR 1.48, 95% CI: 1.06-2.09, P = 0.022) and autumn (OR 1.75, 95% CI: 1.24-2.47, P = 0.001). Candida sp. were less likely in summer (OR 0.25, 95% CI: 0.07-0.82, P = 0.027) and autumn (OR 0.18, 95% CI: 0.05-0.62, P = 0.009), and Acanthamoeba sp. were less likely in summer (OR 0.39, 95% CI: 0.15-0.92, P = 0.037) and spring (OR 0.26, 95% CI: 0.08-0.69, P = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: Herein we report variation in the incidence of MK-causing organisms by season and temperature; this finding may aid clinicians in predicting possible causative organisms for MK at differing times of the year.

An unusual case report of primary vitreoretinal lymphoma.

BACKGROUND: Primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL) is a rare ocular condition and its diagnosis remains a challenge. The clinical presentation is variable and it can masquerade as chronic intermediate or posterior uveitis. We report an unusual case of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) presenting as migrating retinal lesions with unique shapes. The diagnostic challenges are described and the clinical features of intraocular lymphoma are reviewed. CASE PRESENTATION: A 53 year-old gentleman presented with unilateral visual disturbance and a wide area of retinal whitening with sharp borders temporal to the macula, corresponding to hyper-reflective subretinal changes on optical coherence tomography (OCT). The lesion resolved spontaneously after 6 weeks but was replaced by multiple punctate sub-retinal and sub-retinal pigment epithelial lesions. The second eye was involved 4 months later and there were new areas of hyper-reflective changes in both eyes, which migrated nasally within a week, with no evidence of scarring in the previous sites. The diagnosis of diffuse B-cell lymphoma was made on brain biopsy when the patient subsequently presented with acute confusion and magnetic resonance imaging brain scan showed a frontal lesion. Following systemic chemotherapy, the sub-retinal changes resolved with complete restoration of retinal architecture and improvement in visual acuity. CONCLUSION: We report an unusual case of PVRL presenting as migrating retinal lesions with unique shapes. PVRL is a great imitator and a high index of clinical suspicion is required in unexplained ocular lesions to prevent a delay in diagnosis.

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Moraxella Keratitis.

PURPOSE: Changing trends of infective keratitis have been identified worldwide. The aim of this study was to define the clinical associations, characteristics, and outcomes of patients with culture-proven Moraxella keratitis from a large tertiary corneal unit in the United Kingdom. METHODS: Patients with confirmed Moraxella isolates presenting between January 2004 and November 2016 were analyzed. Patient-related factors were examined, including patient demographics, date of presentation, clinical presentation, predisposing factors, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), treatment plans, and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Eighty-six patients were identified, of whom 61 (70.9%) had at least one recognized predisposing factor. The median BCVA at presentation was 2.60 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR), which improved to median = 0.60 logMAR at final visit (P < 0.001). Visual improvement of more than 2 Snellen lines was achieved in 60.7% of eyes. A significant relationship (P = 0.003) between final vision and the presence of hypopyon was found, where for a fixed BCVA at presentation those with a hypopyon achieved a better final visual acuity of 0.69 logMAR. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that although most patients presented with at least one predisposing factor, some of the more traditionally perceived risk factors may need to be reconsidered. We have shown that with aggressive treatment, favorable visual outcomes can be achieved in most patients. Interestingly, the presence of hypopyon at presentation was linked to a better visual outcome, likely because such patients had more to gain in visual potential.

Vascularisation of the anterior lens capsule in an eye with excellent visual acuity.

A 53-year-old phakic female with a history of nanophthalmos and hyperopia was incidentally found to have unilateral neovascularisation on the left inferoanterior lens surface on routine review for ocular hypertension.

Repeatability of visual function measures in age-related macular degeneration.

PURPOSE: To assess repeatability of visual function measures in patients with early, intermediate or late age-related macular degeneration (AMD) without active neovascular disease in the study eye, but active neovascular AMD in the fellow eye. METHODS: One hundred subjects from an ongoing trial were screened for this study in which their LogMAR acuity, contrast sensitivity and reading performance were assessed using standardised protocols by trained optometrists. The same measures were repeated one month later and repeatability of the visual functions assessed. RESULTS: Data from 83 subjects satisfied inclusion criteria for analysis. Coefficient of repeatability was 14.9 letters for LogMAR visual acuity , 7.2 letters for Pelli Robson contrast sensitivity, 0.72 for LogMAR reading acuity, 110.4 words/ min for reading speed and 0.67 for LogMAR critical print size. Intraclass correlation coefficients allowed comparison between measures and were found to be 0.96 for LogMAR visual acuity, 0.93 for contrast sensitivity, 0.75 for LogMAR reading acuity, 0.79 for reading speed and 0.74 for LogMAR critical print size. Coefficients of variation were 9.4 %, 10.7 %, 48.4 %, 28.4 % and 31.8 % respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We found coefficients of repeatability that concurred with previous studies demonstrating variability of visual functions in patients with AMD. In addition, we found intraclass correlation coefficients to be better with visual acuity and contrast sensitivity than with measures of reading performance.

Unilateral acute angle closure glaucoma.

A 52-year-old gentleman presented with 1-week history of severe right-sided headache associated with reduced vision in his right, amblyopic eye. Examination revealed raised intraocular pressure at 64 mm Hg. The anterior chamber (AC) was shallow and there was a dense cataract with no red reflex or fundal view. The contralateral eye had a deep anterior chamber with normal pressure and a clear lens. He was treated initially for acute angle closure glaucoma. The anterior chamber remained shallow and the intraocular pressure uncontrolled, despite maximum medical therapy. Owing to the absent fundal view and unilateral AC shallowing, further imaging was performed and a choroidal mass was found to be responsible for anterior displacement of the lens and shallowing of the angle. He went on to have an enucleation of the right eye, and histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of choroidal melanoma.

Decisional answer tree analysis of exudative age-related macular degeneration treatment outcomes.

The use of intravitreal ranibizumab in exudative age-related macular degeneration (eAMD) has become commonplace. We aim to investigate the early predictors of this treatment outcome. Seventy-one treatment-naive eyes of 71 patients with eAMD of all lesion subtypes who received intravitreal ranibizumab treatment and completed 12 months of follow-up were included. All patients were loaded with three injections of ranibizumab at monthly intervals. Further injections were given if clinically indicated based on logMAR best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and optical coherence tomography findings. Casenotes of eligible patients were reviewed retrospectively. The main outcome measure was logMAR BCVA change at month 12. The mean number of injections given over 12 months was 5.4 ± 1.9. A total of 88.7 % of the patients achieved visual stabilisation (loss of <15 letters) and 15.0 % achieved visual improvement (gain of ≥15 letters). The mean letter change at 12 months was +0.3 letters. Regression analysis showed that baseline BCVA and letter change at month 3 predicted visual acuity outcome at month 12 (baseline BCVA: t = 6.97, p < 0.001; letter change: t = 5.84, p < 0.01) but age, gender and eAMD in the fellow eye were not predictive. Finally, a decisional answer tree model demonstrated that letter change at month 3 was a strong predictor of visual outcome at month 12 with an overall accuracy of 69 %. We found that letter change from baseline at month 3 was strongly predictive of visual outcome at month 12.