Purpose: To evaluate the epidemiology of persistent post-surgical pain (PPP) manifesting as dry eye (DE)-like symptoms 6 months after surgery. Methods: The single-center study population included 119 individuals whose cataract surgeries were performed by a single surgeon at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and who agreed to participate in a phone survey six months after surgery. Patients were divided into two groups: PPP group was defined as those with a Dry Eye Questionnaire-5 (DEQ5) score≥6 and without PPP (WoPPP) as those with DEQ5 score<6 at six months after cataract surgery. Results: The mean age of the study population was 73±8.0 years; 55% (n=66) were female. PPP was present in 34% (n=41) of individuals six months after surgery. Factors associated with an increased risk of PPP were female gender (Odds ratio (OR)=2.68, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.20–6.00, p=0.01), autoimmune disorder (OR=13.2,CI=1.53–114,p=0.007), non-ocular chronic pain disorder (OR=4.29,CI=1.01–18.1,p=0.06), antihistamine use (OR=6.22,CI=2.17–17.8,p=0.0003), anti-reflux medication use (OR=2.42,CI=1.04–5.66,p=0.04), antidepressant use (OR=3.17,CI=1.31–7.68,p=0.01), anxiolytic use (OR=3.38,CI=1.11–10.3,p=0.03), and anti-insomnia medication use (OR=5.28,CI=0.98–28.5,p=0.047). PPP patients also reported more frequent artificial tears use (p<0.0001), higher ocular pain levels (p<0.0001), and greater neuropathic ocular pain symptoms, including burning (p=0.001), wind sensitivity (p=0.001), and light sensitivity (p<0.0001). Conclusions: PPP in the form of persistent dry eye-like symptoms is present in approximately 34% of individuals six months after cataract surgery. The frequency of PPP after cataract surgery is comparable with that of other surgeries including laser refractive surgery, dental implants, and genitourinary procedures.

While humans exhibit a significant degree of neuropathological changes associated with deficits in cognitive and memory functions during aging, non-human primates (NHP) present with more variable expressions of pathological alterations among individuals and species. As such, NHP with long life expectancy in captivity offer an opportunity to study brain senescence in the absence of the typical cellular pathology caused by age-related neurodegenerative illnesses commonly seen in humans. Age-related changes at neuronal population, single cell, and synaptic levels have been well documented in macaques and marmosets, while age-related and Alzheimer's disease-like neuropathology has been characterized in additional species including lemurs as well as great apes. We present a comparative overview of existing neuropathologic observations across the primate order, including classic agerelated changes such as cell loss, amyloid deposition, amyloid angiopathy, and tau accumulation. We also review existing cellular and ultrastructural data on neuronal changes, such as dendritic attrition and spine alterations, synaptic loss and pathology, and axonal and myelin pathology, and discuss their repercussions on cellular and systems function and cognition.

Cells are not uniformly distributed in the human cerebral cortex. Rather, they are arranged in a regional and laminar fashion that span a range of scales. Here we demonstrate an innovative imaging and analysis pipeline to construct a reliable cell census across the human cerebral cortex. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to establish a macroscopic reference coordinate system of laminar and cytoarchitectural boundaries. Cell counting is obtained with both traditional immunohistochemistry, to provide a stereological gold-standard, and with a custom-made inverted confocal light-sheet fluorescence microscope (LSFM) for 3D imaging at cellular resolution. Finally, mesoscale optical coherence tomography (OCT) enables the registration of the distorted histological cell typing obtained with LSFM to the MRI-based atlas coordinate system.