Necrotic uveal melanoma presenting as orbital cellulitis with intraocular hemorrhage: A case report.

PURPOSE: To report a case of necrotic uveal melanoma presenting as orbital cellulitis with an intraocular hemorrhage. OBSERVATIONS: A 61 year-old non-verbal male presented with a two-week history of right eyelid swelling and erythema unresponsive to antibiotics. In addition to these signs of orbital cellulitis, he presented with an opaque media precluding fundus visualization. He was later found to have a collar-button shaped mass consistent with uveal melanoma on B scan ultrasonography during an exam under anesthesia. The patient underwent enucleation with histopathology confirming a necrotic uveal melanoma. CONCLUSION AND IMPORTANCE: This case demonstrates how necrotic uveal melanoma can present as orbital cellulitis and the importance of keeping the diagnosis on the differential.

Nampt/PBEF/visfatin serum levels: a new biomarker for retinal blood vessel occlusions.

The main objective of the study was to quantify serum levels of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (Nampt/pre-B-Cell colony-enhancing factor 1/visfatin) in subjects with a history of retinal vascular occlusions (RVOs), disease conditions characterized by pronounced ischemia, and metabolic energy deficits. A case-control study of 18 subjects with a history of RVO as well as six healthy volunteers is presented. Serum Nampt levels were quantified using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. Serum Nampt levels were 79% lower in patients with a history of RVO compared with that in healthy volunteers (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference among the types of RVOs, specifically branch retinal vein occlusions (n=7), central retinal vein occlusions (n=5), hemiretinal vein occlusions (n=3), and central retinal artery occlusions (n=3; P=0.69). Further studies are needed to establish the temporal kinetics of Nampt expression and to determine whether Nampt may represent a novel biomarker to identify at-risk populations, or whether it is a druggable target with the potential to ameliorate the long-term complications associated with the condition, ie, macular edema, macular ischemia, neovascularization, and permanent loss of vision.

A simple technique to reduce evaporation of crystallization droplets by using plate lids with apertures for adding liquids.

A method is described for using plate lids to reduce evaporation in low-volume vapor-diffusion crystallization experiments. The plate lids contain apertures through which the protein and precipitants were added to different crystallization microplates (the reservoir was filled before fitting the lids). Plate lids were designed for each of these commonly used crystallization microplates. This system minimizes the dehydration of crystallization droplets containing just a few nanolitres of protein and precipitant, and results in more reproducible diffraction from the crystals. For each lid design, changes in the weight of the plates were used to deduce the rate of evaporation under different conditions of temperature, air movement, droplet size and precipitant. For comparison, the state of dehydration was also visually assessed throughout the experiment. Finally, X-ray diffraction methods were used to compare the diffraction of protein crystals that were conventionally prepared against those that were prepared on plates with plate lids. The measurements revealed that the plate lids reduced the rate of evaporation by 63-82%. Crystals grown in 5 nl drops that were set up with plate lids diffracted to higher resolution than similar crystals from drops that were set up without plate lids. The results demonstrate that plate lids can be instrumental for improving few-nanolitre crystallizations.