Working with guinea pigs, tuberculosis experts at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have closely mimicked how active but untreated cases of the underlying lung infection lead to permanent eye damage and blindness in people.
Findings provide a better understanding of the effects of normal aging, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases on the performance of everyday cognitive tasks.
Most people who wear contact lenses perceive themselves as following standard guidelines for lens wear and care—but only a tiny minority are actually compliant with all recommended care steps, according to a study in the November issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Whether comparing a man and a woman or a parent and a baby, we can still see when two people of different age or sex are genetically related. How do we know that people are part of a family? Findings from a new study published in the Journal of Vision increases our understanding of the brain’s ability to see through these underlying variations in facial structure.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and collaborators have discovered a powerful new protein in the eye of the fruit fly that may shed light on blinding diseases and other sensory problems in humans.
An appreciation of nature and enjoyment of the outdoors is not limited to those who can see. But nature trails that offer interaction with forests and the natural environment are quite limited for people who are visually impaired or blind. Well-designed environmental education programs, such as New Jersey’s Sensory Awareness Trail, can offer a look at nature through all the senses.
You’ve seen it on television: A doctor shines a bright light into an unconscious patient’s eye to check for brain death. If the pupil constricts, the brain is OK, because in mammals, the brain controls the pupil. Or does it? Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that in most mammals, in fact in most vertebrates, the pupil can constrict without any input from the brain. Their work, which also describes for the first time the molecular mechanism underlying this process, appears in the Nov. 3 issue of Nature.
Physical activity may be what the doctor orders to help patients reduce their risk of developing glaucoma. According to a recently published scientific paper, higher levels of physical exercise appear to have a long-term beneficial impact on low ocular perfusion pressure (OPP), an important risk factor for glaucoma.
Results from a recent scientific study in the U.K. may change the way that healthcare professionals measure eye pressure and allow them to assess the risk of glaucoma with greater accuracy. Glaucoma is the second most common cause of irreversible loss of vision worldwide.
Older adults with glaucoma are at increased risk of falls resulting in injury, reports a study in the November issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Two major drug trials conclude there was little risk from a drug aimed at age-related macular degeneration. Yet a Mayo Clinic ophthalmologist began to note something concerning in some of her patients: an increase in pressure inside the eye. It led to a retrospective study and findings that will be presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Orlando.
The vision research community is discussing with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) how to adopt and/or implement safe and effective endpoint measures for assessing glaucoma therapies in U.S. clinical trials. The group — composed of researchers, clinicians, policymakers and representatives from industry and vision associations — attended a one-day symposium sponsored by the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (NEI) and the FDA on Sept. 24, 2010.
Two new computerized tests increase the ability to measure remaining vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and other blinding diseases, reports a study in the October issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Overexposure to antibiotics has long been a concern in the medical community – most specifically the development of antibiotic resistant infections as a result of repeated use.
According to a study released this week in the Archives of Ophthalmology, ophthalmologic antibiotics promote antimicrobial resistance too, prompting a call from Vanderbilt Eye Institute physicians to be more judicial in the administration of certain classes of antibiotics.
Among older adults, falls are a common problem. About one-third of those over age 65 fall once each year. Visual information helps us to coordinate our movements so that we can successfully navigate our surroundings. In fall-prone older adults, however, the ability to collect visual information is compromised, and this group is not adequately compensating for this effect.
New scientific evidence on how feedback from the eye affects visual development may lead to more effective approaches to treating myopia (nearsightedness) in children, reports a paper in the September issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Drivers over age 65 are the fastest-growing segment of the driving population, and their eye care providers—ophthalmologists and optometrists—are playing an increasingly important role in assessing their ability to drive safely.
A team of researchers comparing the two leading treatment approaches for the eye condition uveitis, which is the fifth leading cause of blindness in the US, have found that a time-release corticosteroid implant placed surgically in the eye is similarly effective in treating the disease as anti-inflammatory corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs taken orally. The report was published online this week in the journal Ophthalmology.