Ophthalmology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
The United Kingdom Glaucoma Treatment Study: a multicenter, randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial: baseline characteristics.
The United Kingdom Glaucoma Treatment Study (UKGTS) tests the hypothesis that treatment with a topical prostaglandin analog, compared with placebo, reduces the frequency of visual field (VF) deterioration events in patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) by 50% over a 2-year period. Additional goals are to evaluate study power with novel clinical trial outcomes: (1) VF deterioration velocity and (2) VF and quantitative imaging measurements modeled as joint outcomes. ⋯ This is the first randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of medical treatment in reducing VF deterioration in OAG. The baseline characteristics for eligible patients and eyes from this cohort are presented and compared with those of previous trials. The baseline characteristics are similar to those of the largely population-based Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial. The early stage of the glaucoma and relatively low IOP at diagnosis suggest remarkably sensitive case findings by community optometrists in the United Kingdom.
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Multicenter Study
Development of the functional vision questionnaire for children and young people with visual impairment: the FVQ_CYP.
To develop a novel age-appropriate measure of functional vision (FV) for self-reporting by visually impaired (VI) children and young people. ⋯ We have developed a novel, psychometrically robust self-report questionnaire for children and young people-the FVQ_CYP-that captures the functional impact of visual disability from their perspective. The 36-item, 4-point unidimensional scale has potential as a complementary adjunct to objective clinical assessments in routine pediatric ophthalmology practice and in research.
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To explore the cost-effectiveness of telemedicine for the screening of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and identify changes within the demographics of a patient population after telemedicine implementation. ⋯ The current teleretinal screening program is effective in terms of being cost-effective and increasing population reach. Future screening policies should give consideration to the age of patients receiving screenings and the system's patient pool size because our results indicate it is not cost-effective to screen patients aged older than 80 years or in populations with <3500 patients.
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Hypercholesterolemia (total cholesterol ≥ 200 mg/dl) is a significant risk factor for ischemic heart, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular disease. Increased cholesterol in the glandular secretion has been postulated to be necessary for the development of meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), a common form of chronic blepharitis. The purpose of this study was to investigate a possible correlation between MGD and hypercholesterolemia in young and middle-aged patients (aged 18-54 years). ⋯ The results suggest that young and middle-aged patients with MGD with no history of hypercholesterolemia may have higher blood cholesterol levels than controls of similar age without MGD. If this finding is confirmed by larger studies, MGD may become a marker of previously unknown hypercholesterolemia and ophthalmologists may increase their role in the early detection of an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease.