Photodynamic therapy for choroidal neovascularisation secondary to inflammatory chorioretinal disease

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>To review the long-term outcome of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with verteporfin for inflammatory chorioretinal disease with subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) over a 1-year period.</p><p><b>MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>Retrospective review of eyes with subfoveal CNV for associated choroiditis that were treated with PDT using verteporfin over a 1-year period.</p><p><b>MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE</b>visual acuity.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Five eyes in 4 patients, with diagnoses including serpiginous choroiditis (2), ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (OHS, 1), and punctate inner choroidopathy (PIC, 2) underwent standard treatment procedure for PDT with verteporfin. Visual acuity, fluorescein angiography and treatment parameters were reviewed. Follow-up ranged from 12 months to 36 months (median, 36 months). Pre-PDT visual acuities ranged from 20/60 to 20/400 (median, 20/200). Post-PDT visual acuities ranged from 20/30 to 20/400 at 1 year (median, 20/300). Visual acuity was stabilised (within 1 line) or improved (greater than 1 line) in 3 eyes at 1 year and 4 of the 5 eyes at last follow-up.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>PDT for subfoveal CNV may stabilise, but rarely improves, visual acuity in eyes with choroidal neovascularisation secondary to inflammatory chorioretinal disease.</p>

Axial length: a risk factor for cataractogenesis

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>To evaluate whether eyes with longer axial lengths are associated more often with clinically significant cataracts than eyes with shorter axial lengths.</p><p><b>MATERIAL AND METHODS</b>Charts of consecutive patients who underwent cataract surgery by 4 resident surgeons at Los Angeles County Hospital from July 2001 through May 2002 were retrospectively reviewed. Those patients whose axial lengths were significantly different between the 2 eyes (>or=0.30 mm) and who had no pathology (other than cataracts) affecting visual acuity were included in the study. The 2 eyes in each patient were compared for preoperative best-corrected visual acuity and severity of cataracts.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Thirty-four of 353 patients had interocular axial length differences of at least 0.3 mm and were included in this study. Thirty-one patients had worse, 1 had equal, and 2 had better preoperative vision in the eye with longer versus the shorter axial length. Fourteen patients had more severe, 11 had the same, and 1 had less severe posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC) in the eye with longer axial length. In 8 patients, PSC severity could not be assessed due to obscuring nuclear sclerosis. Twenty-four patients had more severe, 7 patients had equal, and 3 patients had less severe nuclear sclerosis in the longer eye. Overall, longer axial lengths correlated with worse visual acuity, posterior subcapsular cataracts, and nuclear sclerosis. Diabetic status did not affect the correlation. The correlations were stronger with greater axial length asymmetry.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Eyes with longer axial lengths have a higher prevalence of cataracts.</p>