ABSTRACT
The pit of the optic nerve head (ON) is a rare congenital defect that sometimes presents itself with a maculopathy of various neuroretinal layers for unknown reason. This study was focused, before and after pharmacological and parasurgical treatment, on the structural and functional visual assessment in a patient with optic pit maculopathy (OPM). In order to achieve this the latest generation of hi-tech diagnostic tests were used, such as Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT), Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP), full-field Electroretinography (ERG), multifocal ERG (mfERG), Microperimetry (MP-1), Standard Automated Perimetry (SAP), Fluorescein Angiography (FA) and Indocyanine Green Angiography (ICG). The research was conducted through a review of past and recent literature.
Subject(s)
Laser Therapy/methods , Optic Disk/pathology , Optic Nerve Diseases/drug therapy , Absorption , Adult , Angiography , Automation , Electroretinography , Evoked Potentials, Visual , Female , Fluorescein Angiography , Humans , Indocyanine Green/pharmacology , Lasers , Optic Nerve Diseases/surgery , Retinoschisis/drug therapy , Tomography, Optical Coherence , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the role of antioxidant drugs in the tonometric increase that follows the closed eyelid test (CET), a predicitive test for glaucoma, after administration of antioxidant substances was observed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 30 subjects of 54.57+/=5.62 years, 13 males and 17 females, were examined by measuring the ocular pressure after 1 hour from the CET, both in normal conditions and after the administration of antioxidants such as: vitamin A (50,000 IU/die), vitamin E (600 mg/die), and vitamin C (1000 mg/die). The increases in temperature of the iridocorneal angle and of the iris were also measured in the same conditions with an infrared Thermo-Precision tonometer (Sola Electro-Optics, China) both before and after CET. RESULTS: The results showed increased pressure after CET and decreased pressure after the administration of each antioxidant substance, although vitamin A was found to be more effective and with statistically significant values compared to vitamins E and C. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the responses obtained after administration of antioxidant drugs, the ocular hypertension induced after CET could be a response to mixed stress, oxidative and thermic, with degenerative effects on the trabecular meshwork (TM). Besides, in light of these considerations the research results underline that the open angle glaucoma (OAG) should be considered a multifactorial degenerative disease.
Subject(s)
Glaucoma, Open-Angle/diagnosis , Oxidative Stress , Antioxidants/pharmacology , Ascorbic Acid/pharmacology , Body Temperature , DNA Damage , Female , Glaucoma, Open-Angle/etiology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Vitamin A/pharmacology , Vitamin E/pharmacologyABSTRACT
This article describes the observations obtained with confocal microscopy (CM) on the corneal structure in course of corneal edema in a patient with Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FD). The patient was a 40 year old male, suffering from second stage FD, in course of corneal edema and bullous keratopathy. The tissue structure was analyzed with CM confoscan CS4 (Nidek Technologies(®), Birmingham, UK) using the 40x mode. The CM has shown the presence of gaps due to corneal edema and a diffuse stromal hyper reflectivity related to the alteration of the extracellular matrix. It has also showed the presence of binucleate cells, assimilable to keratocytes, in cytokinesis which presented a typical fusiform aspect with two highly reflective nuclei awaiting cell division. The total number of cells was much lower than that of healthy control subjects of similar age, sex and race. The CM in this case suggests a significantly lower number of cells, presumably keratocytes, compared to normal range, but mostly it shows the presence of cells undergoing cytokinesis, which witnesses the active processes of collagenogenesis and possible vasculogenesis that represent early stages of loss of the normal corneal transparency.
