PurposeA pilot study showed that prediction of individual Humphrey 24-2 visual field (HVF 24-2) sensitivity thresholds from optical coherence tomography (OCT) image analysis is possible. We evaluate performance of an improved approach as well as 3 other predictive algorithms on a new, fully independent set of glaucoma subjects.MethodsSubjects underwent HVF 24-2 and 9-field OCT (Heidelberg Spectralis) testing. Nerve fiber (NFL), and ganglion cell and inner plexiform (GCL+IPL) layers were cosegmented and partitioned into 52 sectors matching HVF 24-2 test locations. The Wilcoxon rank sum test was applied to test correlation R, root mean square error (RMSE), and limits of agreement (LoA) between actual and predicted thresholds for four prediction models. The training data consisted of the 9-field OCT and HVF 24-2 thresholds of 111 glaucoma patients from our pilot study.ResultsWe studied 112 subjects (112 eyes) with early, moderate, or advanced primary and secondary open angle glaucoma. Subjects with less than 9 scans (15/112) or insufficient quality segmentations (11/97) were excluded. Retinal ganglion cell axonal complex (RGC-AC) optimized had superior average R = 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.67–0.76) and RMSE = 5.42 (95% CI, 5.1–5.7) dB, which was significantly better (P < 0.05/3) than the other three models: Naïve (R = 0.49; 95% CI, 0.44–0.54; RMSE = 7.24 dB; 95% CI, 6.6–7.8 dB), Garway-Heath (R = 0.66; 95% CI, 0.60–0.68; RMSE = 6.07 dB; 95% CI, 5.7–6.5 dB), and Donut (R = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.61–0.69; RMSE = 6.08 dB, 95% CI, 5.8–6.4 dB).ConclusionsThe proposed RGC-AC optimized predictive algorithm based on 9-field OCT image analysis and the RGC-AC concept is superior to previous methods and its performance is close to the reproducibility of HVF 24-2.

IMPORTANCE Acute macular neuroretinopathy (AMN) is a rare, idiopathic condition resembling other acute maculopathies such as paracentral acute middle maculopathy. The pathophysiology of AMN is not well understood, and the role of the choroid in the pathogenesis of AMN remains controversial.OBJECTIVE To describe initial and serial multimodal imaging findings in AMN, with attention to choroidal vascular changes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSRetrospective case series at a single institution, tertiary referral center. The case series included 7 patients with clinical diagnosis of AMN. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESMultimodal imaging findings, including fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), en face near-infrared imaging, fundus autofluorescence, optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and automated quantification of the regional structural context of choroidal flow interest between different imaging modalities, using an automatic algorithm.RESULTS Nine eyes from 7 patients (5 women and 2 men; mean age, 40.1 years) with a diagnosis of AMN were included. Mean duration of follow-up was 11 weeks (range, 1-25 weeks). All eyes had inner choroidal flow void on OCTA that topographically corresponded to regions of abnormal hyperreflectance of the outer retinal layers on spectral-domain OCT and hyporeflectance on en face near-infrared imaging (dice similarity coefficient, 0.76). For each patient, these areas of choroidal flow void on OCTA persisted during the follow-up period, while the abnormal hyperreflectance of outer plexiform layer and inner nuclear layer on spectral-domain OCT was observed to improve. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEThese findings suggest that areas of inner choroidal vascular flow void on OCTA are seen in patients with AMN. These areas may persist weeks after the onset of symptoms and suggest that vascular compromise of the inner choroid may be involved in the pathogenesis of AMN.

Since Dec 2019, China has experienced an outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV. A travel ban was implemented for Wuhan, Hubei on Jan 23 to slow down the outbreak. We found a significant positive correlation between population influx from Wuhan and confirmed cases in other cities across China (R 2 = 0.85, P < 0.001), especially cities in Hubei (R 2 = 0.88, P < 0.001). Removing the travel restriction would have increased 118% (91%-172%) of the overall cases for the coming week, and a travel ban taken three days or a week earlier would have reduced 47% (26%-58%) and 83% (78%-89%) of the early cases. We would expect a 61% (48%-92%) increase of overall cumulative cases without any restrictions on returning residents, and 11% (8%-16%) increase if the travel ban stays in place for Hubei. Cities from Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Capital Economic Circle regions are at higher risk.

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The Chinese central bank said the country's economy surged at an annualized rate of 14.9% in the second quarter. The US economy shrank at an annual rate of 1% in that period.' v

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In this study, we investigated the emission characteristics of condensable particulate matter (CPM) and sulfur trioxide (SO3) simultaneously through ammonia-based/limestone-based wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) from four typical coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) by conducting field measurements. Stack emissions of filterable particulate matter (FPM) all meet the Chinese ultralow emission (ULE) standards, whereas CPM concentrations are prominent (even exceed 10 mg/Nm3 from two CFPPs). We find that NH4 + and Cl– increase markedly through the ammonia-based WFGD, and SO4 2– is generally the main ionic component, both in CPM and FPM. Notably, the occurrence of elemental Se in FPM and CPM is significantly affected by WFGD. Furthermore, the established chemical profiles in FPM and CPM show a distinct discrepancy. In CPM, the elemental S mainly exists as a sulfate, and the metallic elements of Na, K, Mg, and Ca mainly exist as ionic species. Our results may indicate that not all SO3 are included in CPM and they co-exist in stack plume. With the substantial reduction of sulfur dioxide (SO2), S distributed in SO3, CPM, and FPM becomes non-negligible. Finally, the emission factors of CPM and SO3 under typical ULE technical routes fall in the ranges of 74.33–167.83 and 48.76–86.30 g/(t of coal) accordingly.

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) accounts for about 30% of all heart-transplant (HTx) patient deaths. For patients at high risk for CAV complications after HTx, therapy must be initiated early to be effective. Therefore, new phenotyping approaches are needed to identify such HTx patients at the earliest possible time. Coronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) images were acquired from 50 HTx patients 1 and 12 months after HTx. Quantitative analysis of coronary wall morphology used LOGISMOS segmentation strategy to simultaneously identify three wall-layer surfaces for the entire pullback length in 3D: luminal, outer intimal, and outer medial surfaces. To quantify changes of coronary wall morphology between 1 and 12 months after HTx, the two pullbacks were mutually co-registered. Validation of layer thickness measurements showed high accuracy of performed layer analyses with layer thickness measures correlating well with manually-defined independent standard (R = 0.93, y=1.0x-6.2μm), average intimal+medial thickness errors were 4.98 ± 31.24 µm, comparable with inter-observer variability. Quantitative indices of coronary wall morphology 1 month and 12 months after HTx showed significant local as well as regional changes associated with CAV progression. Some of the newly available fully-3D baseline indices (intimal layer brightness, medial layer brightness, medial thickness, and intimal+medial thickness) were associated with CAV-related progression of intimal thickness showing promise of identifying patients subjected to rapid intimal thickening at 12 months after HTx from OCT-image data obtained just 1 month after HTx. Our approach allows quantification of location-specific alterations of coronary wall morphology over time and is sensitive even to very small changes of wall layer thicknesses that occur in patients following heart transplant.