The risk of extraocular tumor spreading following intravitreal injections is low, and other adverse events are rare. Sixty-eight percent of the treated eyes achieved complete vitreous seed remission, and about half of them retained practical levels of vision. The intravitreal injection of melphalan is a safe and effective treatment for vitreous seeds.

IT has been reported that thyroid dysfunction is frequently associated with menstrual disturbances. Amenorrhea was one of the earlier known clinical changes associated with hyperthyroidism, as reported by von Basedow in 1840 [1]. Since then, amenorrhea has frequently been reported, along with a number of other changes in the menstrual cycle, including oligomenorrhea, hypomenorrhea and anovulation. These disturbances have been reported in more than half the patients with hyperthyroidism [2,3].On the other hands, hypermenorrhea and polymenorrhea have also been reported in about 50~80 % of patients with hypothyroidism [2-4]. These changes are sometimes related to ovulatory disturbance and subsequent infertility [5,6] and thus clinicians have focused on these problems for long time.However, these previous studies were performed in the 1950s and 1960s in a small number of patients with thyroid dysfunction. Abstract. The prevalence of menstrual disturbances, including secondary amenorrhea, hypomenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, hypermenorrhea, polymenorrhea and irregular menstrual cycle were prospectively examined in 586 patients with hyperthyroidism due to Graves' disease, 111 with hypothyroidism, 558 with euthyroid chronic thyroiditis, 202 with painless thyroiditis and 595 with thyroid tumor. In the overall patient group, the prevalence did not different from that in 105 healthy controls. However, patients with severe hyperthyroidism showed a higher prevalence of secondary amenorrhea (2.5%) and hypomenorrhea (3.7%) than those (0.2% and 0.9%, respectively) with mild or moderate hyperthyroidism. Moreover, patients with severe hypothyroidism had a higher prevalence (34.8%) of menstrual disturbances than mildmoderate cases (10.2%). Menstrual disturbances in thyroid dysfunction were less frequent than previously thought.

No abstract

We examined the effectiveness of trabeculectomy in decreasing the slope of mean deviation (MD) in Japanese patients with progressive normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) at low intraocular pressure (IOP) levels. The charts of patients who had undergone initial trabeculectomy with adjunctive mitomycin C for progressive NTG with medically controlled IOP < 15 mmHg in 2010–2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Seventeen eyes of 13 NTG patients who had undergone at least 5 times of visual field (VF) examinations in both of preoperatively and postoperatively with postoperative follow-up of ≥ 2 years were enrolled. Preoperative and postoperative MD slopes were compared to evaluate the effectiveness of trabeculectomy in slowing progression of VF. Mean IOP (8.1 ± 2.9 mmHg) and number of IOP-lowering medications (0.8 ± 1.5) were significantly lower postoperatively than preoperatively (13.9 ± 0.9 mmHg; P < 0.001 and 3.0± 0.4; P < 0.0001). In total, 91.7% of eyes with single-digit IOP postoperatively showed improvement in MD slope, whereas only 20.0% of eyes with IOP ≥ 10 mmHg postoperatively showed the improvement. Three eyes (17.6%) showed a decrease in visual acuity (VA) of ≥ 0.1 unit; this group had a lower mean postoperative IOP (6.0 ± 1.0 vs. 8.6 ± 3.0 mmHg; P = 0.1717) and a higher mean IOP reduction rate (56.2 vs. 38.5%; P = 0.8296) than eyes with a VA decrease of < 0.1 unit or no change. Thus, in this analysis of Japanese NTG patients with medically controlled IOP < 15 mmHg, achieving an IOP < 10 mmHg with trabeculectomy was beneficial for reducing the VF progression rate in progressive NTG at low IOP levels. However, an IOP < 7 mmHg by surgery would be required careful attention to VA decline.

No abstract

In Japanese children myopia progression did not slow in summer. Although axial elongation slightly decreased in summer, myopia progression seems to be fairly stable throughout the year.

For primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), laser treatment or surgery is used when the target intraocular pressure (IOP) cannot be achieved by pharmacological agents, such as prostaglandin (PG) analogs; these drugs also have varied effects. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 74 POAG patients (74 eyes) whose IOP was inadequately controlled by PG analogs (bimatoprost [13 eyes], latanoprost [34 eyes], tafluprost [11 eyes], and travoprost [16 eyes]) and underwent primary trabeculectomy. The proportion of patients with no recurrent IOP elevation within 24 months post-trabeculectomy was significantly (P < 0.001) lower in the bimatoprost group (31.3%) than in the latanoprost (83.2%), tafluprost (45.5%), or travoprost groups (65.6%). Deepening of the upper eyelid sulcus (DUES) was observed before trabeculectomy in 18 of 74 eyes (24.3%) treated with bimatoprost (9 eyes; 50.0%), latanoprost (3 eyes; 16.7%), tafluprost (1 eye; 5.5%) and travoprost (5 eyes; 27.8%). The proportion of patients with no recurrent IOP elevation up to 24 months post-trabeculectomy was significantly (P < 0.0001) lower in the DUES(+) group (34.7%) than in the DUES(-) group (74.3%). Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis, with no recurrent IOP elevation used as dependent variable, and bimatoprost, latanoprost, travoprost, tafluprost, β-blocker, carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, brimonidine, gender, age, preoperative IOP, mean deviation, duration of PG analog use before surgery, and the number of ophthalmic solutions used as independent variables, identified only bimatoprost as a significant independent factor (P = 0.0368). Thus, the outcome of trabeculectomy varied depending on the PG analog used preoperatively, and bimatoprost use was associated with a high risk of recurrent IOP elevation up to 2 years post-trabeculectomy. This may indicate that the incidence of DUES differed with the PG analog used. Patients with glaucoma who are treated with bimatoprost should be monitored for DUES, and when these patients undergo trabeculectomy, the postoperative course of IOP should be followed carefully.

Objective: Second primary malignancies have become the leading cause of death in retinoblastoma survivors. Although osteosarcoma is the most common second malignancy, little is known about its clinical and therapeutic features. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a database of patients with retinoblastoma and osteosarcoma occurring as a second malignancy between 1964 and 2010 at the National Cancer Center Hospital of Japan. Results: Among 857 patients with retinoblastoma registered in the database, 10 (1.1%) developed osteosarcoma as a second malignancy. The median age at the onset of retinoblastoma was 3 months, being bilateral in nine patients and unilateral in one. Systemic chemoreduction was performed in three patients and intra-arterial chemotherapy in six; all patients received external beam radiotherapy. The median age at the onset of second primary osteosarcoma was 11.2 years; four were radiation-related and six were located in an extremity. Among five patients treated at our institute, four patients with tumors on an extremity were treated by wide resection with neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy. Three of these four patients (75%) were good responders to high-dose methotrexate-based multi-agent chemotherapy and survived with no evidence of disease (median follow-up period, 17.3 years). One patient whose temporal bone was affected underwent radiotherapy with chemotherapy but died after local recurrence. Conclusions: The clinical outcomes of second primary osteosarcoma in an extremity occurring in retinoblastoma survivors may be more favorable than those of conventional osteosarcoma. Early diagnosis of radiation-related osteosarcoma arising in the craniofacial region should be made at a stage where complete resection is possible.