Purpose To investigate the relationship between optical coherence tomography (OCT)-derived measurements of retinal morphology and visual acuity in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Design Retrospective cross-sectional study. Participants Two hundred sixteen consecutive patients (216 eyes) newly diagnosed with neovascular AMD, who underwent StratusOCT imaging at time of diagnosis. Methods Best-corrected Snellen visual acuity was recorded for each patient. Raw exported StratusOCT images for each patient were analyzed using publicly available custom software entitled “OCTOR”, which allows precise positioning of pre-specified boundaries on individual B-scans. Thickness/volume were calculated for morphologic parameters of interest: neurosensory retina, subretinal fluid (SRF), subretinal tissue (SRT), and pigment epithelial detachment (PED). Main Outcome Measures OCT-derived measurements of retinal morphology and visual acuity. Results An increased total volume of SRT was correlated with decreased visual acuity (r=0.370, P<0.0001). Decreased visual acuity was also modestly correlated with increased thickness of the neurosensory retina at the foveal center point (r=0.245, P=0.0004). No statistically significant association was detected between visual acuity and the total volume of SRF or PED. The association between visual acuity and both the neurosensory retina and the SRT, was stronger for lesions classified as minimally classic or occult on fluorescein angiography. For occult lesions, 20% of the variation in visual acuity could be predicted by a multiple regression model that incorporated age and SRT volume; while, for minimally classic lesions, 62% of the variation in visual acuity could be predicted by a multiple regression model that incorporated age, total neurosensory retinal volume, and total SRT volume. Conclusions The presence of increased SRT thickness/volume on OCT, and to a lesser extent increased neurosensory retinal thickness/volume, is associated with decreased visual acuity in neovascular AMD. However, due to the complex pathophysiology of neovascular AMD and, in part, the limitations of StratusOCT, these factors only account for a small degree of the variation in visual acuity which these patients exhibit. The detection of stronger correlations between retinal anatomy and visual acuity is likely to require the use of more advanced imaging modalities.

Purpose-To identify the best combination of Stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness parameters for the detection of glaucoma. Design-Observational cross-sectional study.Participants-Eighty-nine age-matched normal and perimetric glaucoma participants enrolled in the Advanced Imaging for Glaucoma Study.Methods-The Zeiss Stratus OCT system was used to obtain the circumpapillary RNFL thickness in both eyes of each participant. Right and left eye clock-hour data are analyzed together, assuming mirror-image symmetry. The RNFL diagnostic parameters were combined using either or-logic or and-logic approaches.Main Outcome Measures-Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AROC), sensitivity, and specificity are used to evaluate diagnostic performance.Results-Overall average RNFL thickness has the highest AROC value (0.89) of all single parameters evaluated, followed by the inferior and superior quadrants (0.88 and 0.86, respectively). The clock hours with the best AROC values are in the inferior and superior quadrants. The highest AROC (0.92) was achieved by the or-logic combination of overall, inferior, and superior quadrant RNFL thicknesses. The 3-parameter combination was significantly better than the overall average alone (P = 0.01) The addition of more quadrants or clock hours to the combination reduced diagnostic performance.Conclusions-The best stand-alone diagnostic strategy for Stratus OCT RNFL data is to classify an eye as glaucomatous if the overall, inferior quadrant, or superior quadrant RNFL thickness average is below normal.Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy characterized by irreversible loss of neural tissue and visual field (VF). Currently, definitive glaucoma diagnosis is based on VF testing. However, between 30% and 50% of the ganglion cells may be lost before abnormalities appear in perimetric Optical coherence tomography, first described by Huang et al, 4 is the only imaging modality with sufficiently fine depth resolution to measure the RNFL thickness directly. Measurements of the circumpapillary RNFL are reproducible 7-9 and useful in the early diagnosis of glaucoma. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Stratus (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA) is the most widely used OCT system for glaucoma diagnosis. Stratus measures the RNFL thickness profile along a 3.4-mm-diameter circle around the optic disc. Based on the profile, the averages of overall, quadrant, and clockhour RNFL thickness are computed and displayed. At present, the clinician has no clear guideline on whether one, several, or all of these diagnostic parameters should be used in the clinical diagnosis of glaucoma. Based on the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AROC), some studies have shown the overall RNFL thickness average to be the best diagnostic parameter. 11,13,14,16,19 Other studies have shown the inferior 10,17,20 or superior 21 quadrant RNFL thickness average to be the best, in agreement with clinical observation that glaucomatous optic...

In the absence of NM, HG, and main LG in rabbits, tear secretion was not decreased and significant improvement of dry eye phenotypes observed with time AE. Conjunctival AQPs are possibly involved in a compensatory tear fluid production.

MUC5AC is the most abundant gel-forming mucin in the ocular system. However, the specific function is unknown. In the present study, a Muc5ac knockout (KO) mouse model was subject to various physiological measurements as compared to its wide-type (WT) control. Interestingly, when KO mice were compared to WT mice, the mean tear break up time (TBUT) values were significantly lower and corneal fluorescein staining scores were significantly higher. But the tear volume was not changed. Despite the lack of Muc5ac expression in the conjunctiva of KO mice, Muc5b expression was significantly increased in these mice. Corneal opacification, varying in location and severity, was found in a few KO mice but not in WT mice. The present results suggest a significant difference in the quality, but not the quantity, of tear fluid in the KO mice compared to WT mice. Dry eye disease is multifactorial and therefore further evaluation of the varying components of the tear film, lacrimal unit and corneal structure of these KO mice may help elucidate the role of mucins in dry eye disease. Because Muc5ac knockout mice have clinical features of dry eye, this mouse model will be extremely useful for further studies regarding the pathophysiology of the ocular surface in dry eye in humans.

Results support the hypothesis that an optimal concentration of tear CLU is important for ocular surface health, and that this drops below the effective threshold in dry eye. Tear CLU measurement might identify patients that could benefit from supplementation. Information about concentration will aid development of therapeutic dosage parameters.

The effects of CXCR3 signaling in HSV infection are strongly dependent on mouse strain.

Complex molecular interactions dictate the developmental steps that lead to a mature and functional cornea and lens. Peters anomaly is one subtype of anterior segment dysgenesis especially due to abnormal development of the cornea and lens. MSX2 was recently implicated as a potential gene that is critical for anterior segment development. However, the role of MSX2 within the complex mechanisms of eye development remains elusive. Our present study observed the morphologic changes in conventional Msx2 knockout (KO) mice and found phenotypes consistent with Peters anomaly and microphthalmia seen in humans. The role of Msx2 in cornea and lens development was further investigated using IHC, in situ hybridization, and quantification of proliferative and apoptotic lens cells. Loss of Msx2 down-regulated FoxE3 expression and up-regulated Prox1 and crystallin expression in the lens. The FoxE3 and Prox1 malfunction and precocious Prox1 and crystallin expression contribute to a disturbed lens cell cycle in lens vesicles and eventually to cornea-lentoid adhesions and microphthalmia in Msx2 KO mice. The observed changes in the expression of FoxE3 suggest that Msx2 is an important contributor in controlling transcription of target genes critical for early eye development. These results provide the first direct genetic evidence of the involvement of MSX2 in Peters anomaly and the distinct function of MSX2 in regulating the growth and development of lens vesicles.

MicroRNA-125b (miR-125b) has been implicated in a variety of diseases as either repressors or promoters, and plays crucial roles in many cellular processes such as cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. Age-related cataract has become one of the most serious problems facing the aging population in the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of miR-125b in the development of age-related cataract. We demonstrated that miR-125b was downregulated in both age-related cataract tissue and lens epithelial cell apoptosis induced by UV irradiation. We also identified the impact of miR-125b on apoptosis in a lens epithelial cell line. In vitro, miR-125b regulates human lens epithelial cell apoptosis at least in part by directly targeting p53. In addition,an inverse relationship between miR-125b and p53 expression was seen in age-related cataract tissue. In conclusion,this study suggests that miR-125b might be closely involved in the pathogenesis of cataract, and has the potential to be a diagnostic biomarker or even a therapeutic modality for cataract.