BackgroundPopulation-based data on prevalence, causes of blindness and extent of ophthalmological coverage is required for efficient implementation and evaluation of ocular health programs. In view of the scarcity of prevalence data for visual impairment and blindness in Malaysia, this study aims to estimate the prevalence and causes of visual impairment (VI) in the elderly, using Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) survey technique.MethodsMalaysia was divided into six regions, with each region consisting of 50 clusters. Multistage cluster sampling method was used and each cluster contained 50 residents aged 50 years and above. Eligible subjects were interviewed and pertinent demographic details, barriers to cataract surgery, medical and ocular history was noted. Subjects had visual acuity assessment with tumbling ‘E’ Snellen optotypes and ocular examination with direct ophthalmoscope. The primary cause of VI was documented. Results were calculated for individual zones and weighted average was used to obtain overall prevalence for the country. Inter-regional and overall prevalence for blindness, severe VI and moderate VI were determined. Causes of VI, cataract surgical coverage and barriers to cataract surgery were assessed.ResultsA total of 15,000 subjects were examined with a response rate of 95.3%. The age and gender-adjusted prevalence of blindness, severe visual impairment and moderate visual impairment were 1.2% (95% Confidence Interval: 1.0–1.4%), 1.0% (95%CI: 0.8–1.2%) and 5.9% (5.3–6.5%) respectively. Untreated cataract (58.6%), diabetic retinopathy (10.4%) and glaucoma (6.6%) were the commonest causes of blindness. Overall, 86.3% of the causes of blindness were avoidable. Cataract surgical coverage (CSC) in persons for blindness, severe visual impairment and moderate visual impairment was 90%, 86% and 66% respectively.ConclusionIncreased patient education and further expansion of ophthalmological services are required to reduce avoidable blindness even further in Malaysia.

To describe the long-term outcomes of primary trabeculectomies and primary Molteno implants performed in cases of primary open-angle glaucoma at Dunedin Hospital. Methods: Prospective comparative case series of 718 eyes (500 patients) and 260 eyes (195 patients) that had trabeculectomy and Molteno implants, respectively, at Dunedin Hospital as the first drainage operation for primary open-angle glaucoma between 1976 and 2007, and followed up for a mean of 7.7 (range, 0.0-28.0) and 5.0 (range, 0.0-27.4) years, respectively.

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ImportanceDespite persistent inequalities in access to eye care services globally, guidance on a set of recommended, evidence-based eye care interventions to support country health care planning has not been available. To overcome this barrier, the World Health Organization (WHO) Package of Eye Care Interventions (PECI) has been developed.ObjectiveTo describe the key outcomes of the PECI development.Evidence ReviewA standardized stepwise approach that included the following stages: (1) selection of priority eye conditions by an expert panel after reviewing epidemiological evidence and health facility data; (2) identification of interventions and related evidence for the selected eye conditions from a systematic review of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs); stage 2 included a systematic literature search, screening of title and abstracts (excluding articles that were not relevant CPGs), full-text review to assess disclosure of conflicts of interest and affiliations, quality appraisal, and data extraction; (3) expert review of the evidence extracted in stage 2, identification of missed interventions, and agreement on the inclusion of essential interventions suitable for implementation in low- and middle-income resource settings; and (4) peer review.FindingsFifteen priority eye conditions were chosen. The literature search identified 3601 articles. Of these, 469 passed title and abstract screening, 151 passed full-text screening, 98 passed quality appraisal, and 87 were selected for data extraction. Little evidence (≤1 CPG identified) was available for pterygium, keratoconus, congenital eyelid disorders, vision rehabilitation, myopic macular degeneration, ptosis, entropion, and ectropion. In stage 3, domain-specific expert groups voted to include 135 interventions (57%) of a potential 235 interventions collated from stage 2. After synthesis across all interventions and eye conditions, 64 interventions (13 health promotion and education, 6 screening and prevention, 38 treatment, and 7 rehabilitation) were included in the PECI.Conclusions and RelevanceThis systematic review of CPGs for priority eye conditions, followed by an expert consensus procedure, identified 64 essential, evidence-based, eye care interventions that are required to achieve universal eye health coverage. The review identified some important gaps, including a paucity of high-quality, English-language CPGs, for several eye diseases and a dearth of evidence-based recommendations on eye health promotion and prevention within existing CPGs.

Purpose To compare two forms of perimetry that use large contrast-modulated grating stimuli in terms of: their relative diagnostic power, their independent diagnostic information about glaucoma, and their utility for mfVEPs. We evaluated a contrast-threshold mfVEP in normal controls using the same stimuli as one of the tests. MethodsWe measured psychophysical contrast-thresholds in one eye of 16 control subjects and 19 patients aged 67.8 ± 5.65 and 71.9 ± 7.15 respectively (mean ± SD). Patients ranged in disease severity from suspects to severe glaucoma. We used the 17-region FDTperimeter C20-threshold program and a custom 9-region test (R9) with similar visual field coverage. The R9 stimuli scaled their spatial frequencies with eccentricity and were modulated at lower temporal frequencies than C20, and thus did not display a clear spatial frequency-doubling (FD) appearance. Based on the overlapping areas of the stimuli we transformed the C20 results to 9 measures for direct comparison with R9. We also compared mfVEP-based and psychophysical contrast-thresholds in 26 younger (26.6 ± 7.3 y, mean ± SD) and 20 older normal control subjects (66.5 ± 7.3 y) control subjects using the R9 stimuli. ResultsThe best intraclass correlations between R9/C20 thresholds were for the central and outer regions: 0.82 ± 0.05 (mean ± SD, p ≤ 0.0001). The areas under receiver operator characteristic plots for C20 and R9 were 1.0 ± 0.0 and 0.99 ± 0.012 (mean ± SE) respectively. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) showed significant correlation (r=0.638, p=0.029) with 1 dimension of the C20 and R9 data, indicating that the lower and higher temporal frequency tests probed the same neural mechanism(s). Low signal quality made the contrast-threshold mfVEPs non-viable. The resulting mfVEP thresholds were limited by noise to artificially high contrasts, which unlike the psychophysical versions, were not correlated with age. ConclusionThe lower temporal frequency R9 stimuli had similar diagnostic power to the FDT-C20 stimuli. CCA indicated the both stimuli drove similar neural mechanisms, possibly suggesting no advantage of FD stimuli for mfVEPs. Given that the contrast-threshold mfVEPs were non-viable we used the present and published results to make recommendations for future mfVEP tests.