Primary Vitreoretinal Lymphoma: A Retrospective Study of 20 Eyes.

Purpose: This study aimed to describe and analyze the clinical features of 20 eyes of 15 primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (PVRL) patients. Methods: This was a retrospective case series and a review of the literature. Fifteen PVRL patients (20 affected eyes) referred between February 2011 and December 2019 were recruited, and their medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Among these 15 PVRL patients, seven were men (46.67%), and five had bilateral PVRL (33.33%). The median onset age was 66 ± 9.26 years and six (40%) patients had central nervous system (CNS) involvement, and two of them died of CNS-related complications. The ocular symptoms varied from decreased vision to binocular diplopia. The ocular manifestations were diverse and involved both the anterior and posterior segments, including the vitreous cells, subretinal white-yellow lesions, cotton-wool spots, and ophthalmoplegia. The rate of misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose was 100%, and 30% of them were misdiagnosed as uveitis. We found five cases revealing rare characteristics of this malignancy. Among them, there were two cases with mild hypertensive retinopathy exhibiting cotton-wool spots, one case mimicking age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one case with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and one patient had extraocular muscle involvement. To the best of our knowledge, we reported PVRL exhibiting cotton-wool spots as the main manifestation and coexisting with extraocular myopathy for the first time. Conclusions: PVRL is a rare intraocular malignancy that commonly masquerades as uveitis. As the clinical signs and symptoms are atypical, ophthalmologists must carefully examine patients to avoid misdiagnosis or a failure to diagnose. Cotton-wool spots and extraocular myopathy might be the dominant initial symptoms in PVRL patients, and AMD should be considered a differential diagnosis of PVRL. SLE patients under immunosuppressive treatment could have spontaneous PVRL.

Rehabilitation of vision disorder and improved quality of life in patients with primary open angle glaucoma.

BACKGROUND: Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) is a common cause of irreversible blindness. The variable etiology of POAG poses significant challenges for treatment and rehabilitation. We analyzed a large POAG patient cohort during treatment to reveal possible causes of vision disorder, assess vision-related quality of life (VRQL), and to evaluate the efficacy of rehabilitative treatments. METHODS: We analyzed the visional disturbances in 500 POAG patients (890 eyes) by regular ophthalmic examination and visual field examination using Humphrey 30° perimetry. Appropriate rehabilitative treatments for POAG were prescribed based on results of clinical examination and included correction of ametropia, health education, counseling, and the fitting of typoscopes. VRQL was assessed before and after treatment by a VRQL self-assessment questionnaire. RESULTS: Scores on the VRQL self-assessment were significantly lower compared to healthy controls. The primary cause of the vision disturbances was ametropia (97.99%), and 51.61% of the ametropia eyes had not received appropriate correction. The secondary causes of visual impairment were glaucomatous neurodegeneration (26.29%), complicated cataract, or other accompanying eye diseases. The causes of the clinical low vision (44 patients) were glaucomatous neurodegeneration (32 eyes), fundus diseases (23 eyes), keratopathy (11 eyes), and other eye diseases (10 eyes). The VRQL scores of patients improved significantly after rehabilitation and the correction of ametropia (P < 0.01). Twenty-five patients with low vision were provided with typoscopes, and 21 (84%) experienced significant functional recovery, while the remaining low vision patients could see letter lines two or more levels lower (smaller) on visual charts in a near vision test. CONCLUSIONS: Vision disorders in POAG patients are common and severe. Appropriate rehabilitation, especially the correction of ametropia, can significantly improve VRQL as revealed by the self-assessment of POAG patients.

Anti-proliferation effects of Sirolimus sustained delivery film in rabbit glaucoma filtration surgery.

PURPOSE: To investigate the efficacy, safety, and mechanisms of Sirolimus sustained delivery film on prevention of scar formation in a rabbit model of glaucoma filtration surgery. METHODS: Sixty-four New Zealand white rabbits who underwent trabeculectomy in the right eye were randomly allocated to one of the four treatment regimens: Sirolimus sustained delivery film treatment group (Group A), or drug-free film treatment group (Group B), or 30 ng/ml Sirolimus-soaked sponge treatment group (Group C), or no adjunctive treatment group (Group D), and each group consists of 16 rabbits. Intraocular pressure (IOP), morphologic changes of bleb, anterior chamber flare, and corneal endothelial cell count and complications were evaluated over a 28-day period follow-up time. Aqueous humor samples were gathered from Group A, and the concentration of Sirolimus was measured regularly post-operation. Rabbits were sacrificed on the 7th, 14th, and 28th day post-operation separately, and the fibroblast hypertrophy, infiltration of inflammatory, and proliferation of new collagen fiber formation in each group were evaluated with HE and Masson staining. Proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and fibroblast apoptosis were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferasemediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay at the 28th day post-operation. RESULTS: Both Sirolimus sustained delivery film (Group A) and Sirolimus alone (Group C) were well tolerated in this model, and significantly prolonged bleb survival compared with no drug treatment group (Group B and D; p<0.001). Group A had the longest bleb survival time in comparison with other groups (p<0.001). There were significant differences in IOP readings between Group A and other groups at the last follow-up (p<0.05). The concentration of Group A maintained stable for over 2 weeks, drops from (10.56 ±0.05) ng/ml at day 3 to (7.74 ±0.05) ng/ml at day 14. The number of corneal endothelial cells of Group A was not statistically significant between pre and post-operation. Histologic examination demonstrated that eyes treated with Sirolimus, especially the Sirolimus sustained delivery film, showed an obvious reduction in subconjunctival fibroblast scar tissue formation compared with no drug treatment groups, and had minimal evidence of inflammatory cell infiltration and new collagen deposition in the subconjunctiva. Immunohistochemistry assay showed that PCNA-expression was lower in the Group A (16.25±3.24%) compared to other groups (p<0.01). TUNEL assay showed a significant increase in the number of apoptotic fibroblasts around the surgical area in Group A and Group C (9.75±1.71% and 8.50±1.92%) compared to the Group B and D (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Sirolimus drug sustained delivery film can inhibit inflammatory cell activity, impede fibroblast proliferation activity, and induce fibroblast apoptosis in the filtration surgery sites in rabbit. The results indicate a safe and effective treatment strategy in anti-scaring treatment in glaucoma surgery.

Fifty-eight cases of ocular ischemic diseases caused by carotid artery stenosis.

BACKGROUND: The blood supply to the eye comes from the retinal central vascular system of the ophthalmic artery and the ciliary vascular system. The ophthalmic artery stems from the ipsilateral internal carotid artery. If occlusion or stenosis occurs in the carotid artery, the blood perfusion to the ophthalmic artery becomes insufficient, leading to signs and symptoms of anterior and posterior ocular ischemia. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics and risk factors of ocular ischemic diseases caused by carotid artery stenosis. METHODS: This study was a retrospective review of 145 patients with carotid artery stenosis. Fifty-eight patients who had symptoms of ocular ischemic disease caused by carotid artery stenosis formed group A and the other 87 patients who only had carotid artery stenosis formed group B. We analyzed the causes and course of disease, and relative risk factors, by comparing the two groups. RESULTS: The degree of carotid artery stenosis in group A was higher than that in group B. And group A had a greater decrease of ophthalmic artery flow. Male, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and smoking were significantly related to carotid artery stenosis. Amaurosis fugax was the most common ocular symptom in group A. The ocular ischemic diseases mainly included ischemic optic neuropathy, central/branch retinal artery occlusion, ophthalmoplegia externa, and ocular ischemic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Carotid artery stenosis correlates with ocular ischemic diseases. Ophthalmologists must observe for ocular symptoms, which were the onset symptoms in some patients.

[Long-term effects of non-penetrating trabecular surgery versus trabeculectomy for treating glaucoma].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinical outcomes of non-penetrating trabecular surgery (NPTS) and trabeculectomy surgery (TS) in the treatment of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). METHODS: It was a case-control study. A total of 63 patients (63 eyes) with POAG were observed retrospectively. Thirty one eyes and 32 eyes underwent NPTS and TS, respectively. Intraocular pressure (IOP), filtration bleb, visual field and post-operative complications were observed for 6-60 months. The CMH χ(2) test was used to analyse the difference of them. RESULTS: After operation, the IOP in the NPTS group were from (13.87 ± 4.88) mm Hg (1 mm Hg = 0.133 kPa) to (24.01 ± 6.55) mm Hg, the IOP in the TS group were from (11.90 ± 4.92) mm Hg to (19.10 ± 7.43) mm Hg. The IOP in the NPTS group was significantly higher than that in the TS group (F = 5.137, P < 0.05). The ratio of sustained filtration bleb of NPTS group after surgery was 25/31 (80.6%), while 6/31 were flat filtration bleb. There were statistically significant difference in the rate of disappearance of filtration bleb between these two groups (χ(2) = 8.129, P < 0.05). The difference of visual field loss postoperatively between these two groups was not statistically significant. The incidence rate of newly developed cataract after NPTS and TS was 6/31 and 12/32, respectively. The difference of rate of complication between these two groups was statistically non-significant (χ(2) = 3.797, P < 0.05). The successful rate after NPTS and TS was 61.54% (16/26) and 14.29% (4/28), respectively. The difference of successful rate between these two groups was statistically significant (χ(2) = 14.463, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both NPTS and TS are effective methods for the treatment of POAG. Postoperative complications after NPTS are less than those of TS, But patients with TS could maintain a lower IOP than those with NPTS. Long-term efficacy of NPTS is uncertain, it's important to choose the suitable surgery to gain a high success rate.