INTERESTING EYE NEWS & CLINICAL PEARLS

Healthday An interesting finding from this study is that after three weeks of donating blood, those with obesity lowered their systolic blood pressure from 148mmHg to 130mmHg.

http://www.iovs.org/content/early/2012/05/11/iovs.11-9413.abstract Conclusions: In this pilot proof-of-concept study of DME, minocycline as primarytreatment was associated with improved visual function, central macular edema and vascular leakage, comparing favorably with historical controls from previous studies. Microglial inhibition with oral minocycline may be a promising therapeutic strategy targeting the inflammatory etiology of DME.

Ophthalmology News Article | Smoking and Risk of Age-related Cataract: A Meta-analysis |4076465 This study shows that smoking increases the risk for nuclear cataract.

Stem-Cell Clinical Trials Move Debate Beyond Labs - WSJ.com This is very exciting because to date, there has been no definitive treatment for dry macular degeneration. Studies on rats have demonstrated treatment success for AMD using stem cells, but studies have not yet been done on humans.

Daily aspirin tied to risk of vision loss:study | Reuters Seniors who take aspirin daily are twice as likely to have late stage macular degeneration, an age-related loss of vision, than people who never take the pain reliever, according to a European study.

Pinkeye Treatment May Be on the Horizon In the past, it has been thought that there is no treatment for pink eye. This article introduces a possible eye drop treatment to stop pink eye in it's tracks may be developed.

Xanthelasmata Identified as Independent CV Risk Factor - Forbes "The authors conclude that the presence of xanthelasmata could help clinicians when they diagnose heart disease and associated conditions. And they add that their findings “could be of particular value in societies where access to laboratory facilities and thus lipid profile measurement is difficult.” An accompanying editorial concludes that, overall, the evidence highlights the importance of a comprehensive physical examination and suggests that xanthelasmata could be used by general clinicians to help identify people at higher risk of cardiovascular disease."