Retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness and visual disability in working-aged people. The pathogenesis of retinopathy is an actual and still open query. Alterations contributing to oxidative and nitrosative stress, including elevated nitric oxide and superoxide production, changes in the expression of different isoforms of nitric oxide synthase or endogenous antioxidant system, have been implicated in the mechanisms how this ocular disease develops. In addition, it was documented that renin-angiotensin system has been implicated in the progression of retinopathy. Based on comprehensive preclinical and clinical researches in this area, the role of above-mentioned factors in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy and ischaemic proliferative retinopathy is reviewed in this study. Moreover, the genetic susceptibility factors involved in the development of the retinopathy and possible strategies that utilize antioxidants as additive therapy are also highlighted here.

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This paper presents the long-term results of single dose stereotactic radiosurgery for intraocular uveal malignant melanoma, and summarizes the results of the retrospective study in 170 Slovak patients. A group of uveal melanoma patients (149 choroidal melanoma, 21 ciliary body melanoma) from 20 to 92 years of age with 59 year median were treated in 2001-2016. There were 81males (47.7%) and 89 females 89 (52.3%). The median overall follow-up time was three years. The median tumor volume at baseline was 0.5 cm3 (ranging from 0.2 to 1.6 cm3). The therapeutic dose was 35.0 Gy by 99% of dose volume histogram. The survival after single dose stereotactic radiosurgery was 96% in one year, 93% in two years, 84% in five years, 80% in seven years and 52% in eleven years. Secondary enucleation was necessary for 22 patients because of secondary glaucoma complication. The enucleation free interval ranged from one to six years. The survival rates in five year intervals and necessity of secondary enucleation due to complications after single dose stereotactic radiosurgery is comparable to other techniques.

In malignant tumors including uveal melanoma there is a continuous effort in search for additional and relevant factors with predictive value and possible therapeutic indications. In the present work we evaluated the 5-year mortality in a group of patients with surgically treated uveal melanoma and its relation to selected demographic, clinical and histopathological parameters, including the expression of apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) in the neoplastic tissue.We analyzed retrospectively the clinical data of patients with uveal melanoma treated surgically (enucleation, endoresection, exenteration) in the period from 2001 to 2007 (n=54). Immunohistochemical detection of AIF expression in formalin fixed and in paraffin embedded tissue samples was evaluated semiquantitatively, intensity and percentage multiplicative Quick Score (QS) was calculated and compared between patients with over 5 year (n=32) and less than 5 year (n=22) survival. In the analyzed group of 54 patients the 5 year mortality was 41 %. We confirmed the negative prognostic significance of some of the known prognostic factors as the tumor size and volume, T3 and T4 stage in the TNM classification and the mixed histological type of the tumor. Immunohistochemistry performed on 49 melanoma specimens showed AIF cytoplasmic positivity, no nuclear translocation was detected. The cut-off value of AIF expression QS ≥ 4 (18) in tumor cells separated the 5 year survival of patients (P = 0.018), odds ratio 5.2 (1.24 - 21.73). Moderate and strong expression of AIF in tumor cells also correlated with less favorable prognosis. Confocal microscopy proved colocalization of AIF with mitochondrial marker in neoplastic cells.The prognosis of patients with uveal melanoma can be more accurate with inclusion of immunohistochemical detection of AIF expression. Increased expression of the AIF protein appears as a new negative prognostic factor predicting the 5 year survival.