eyes Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Want to Ditch Your Glasses After Cataract Surgery? This New Artificial Lens May Help

AHA Publisher — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 08:00:29 +0000

American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) via Newswise – NEW ORLEANS, La. – Cataract surgery is one of the most successful medical procedures performed in the United States, with nearly 4 million Americans choosing to have their cataracts removed every year. While the procedure has a success rate of about 97 percent, it is not uncommon for people to still need glasses after surgery, especially reading glasses. A new study released at AAO 2021, the 125th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, showed that a new kind of artificial lens allowed over 90 percent of patients to see well enough that they no longer needed glasses. A cataract is the clouding of the eye’s natural clear lens. During cataract surgery, an ophthalmologist surgically removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with an artificial lens called an intraocular lens (IOL). The most common IOL type is a monofocal IOL and it allows people to see well at distance, but it can’t fix presbyopia, that annoying part of aging that slowly robs people of their near vision. Researchers have been working for years to develop a presbyopia correcting IOL that can correct the full range of vision: up close, at arms-length, and far away. While these presbyopia correcting IOLs can correct near or intermediate vision, they don’t effectively correct the full range of vision. This new IOL attempts to change that by combining two presbyopia-correcting IOL technologies, multifocal and extended depth-of-focus, to achieve full vision correction. It’s called the Tecnis Synergy from Johnson & Johnson Vision. The U.S. FDA approved the Tecnis Synergy IOL in May 2021. In the study presented today, researchers in Bakersfield, Calif. and 14 other sites across the U.S. compared visual outcomes in patients who received either a monofocal IOL or the new presbyopia correcting IOL during cataract surgery. Of the 272 patients enrolled in the study, 88 percent of those who received the Tecnis Synergy presbyopia correcting IOL never used glasses compared with just 3 percent in the monofocal IOL group. “My career goal has always been to conquer presbyopia—before it conquers me,” said lead researcher Daniel H. Chang, MD. “This lens is a key addition to our ability to treat presbyopia. The Tecnis Synergy provides the best near vision of any lens I’ve ever used. For patients not wanting glasses, this is the lens I recommend.” To read the original article click here.

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Vision Impairment Is Associated With Mortality

AHA Publisher — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 07:00:08 +0000

Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan via EurekAlert – The global population is aging, and so are their eyes. In fact, the number of people with vision impairment and blindness is expected to more than double over the next 30 years. A meta-analysis in The Lancet Global Health, consisting of 48,000 people from 17 studies, found that those with more severe vision impairment had a higher risk of all-cause mortality compared to those that had normal vision or mild vision impairment. According to the data, the risk of mortality was 29% higher for participants with mild vision impairment, compared to normal vision. The risk increases to 89% among those with severe vision impairment. Importantly, four of five cases of vision impairment can be prevented or corrected. Globally, the leading causes of vision loss and blindness are both avoidable: cataract and the unmet need for glasses. The study’s lead author, Joshua Ehrlich, M.D., M.P.H., sought to better understand the association between visual disabilities and all-cause mortality. The work compliments some of Ehrlich’s recent research, also in The Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health, that highlighted the impact of late-life vision impairment on health and well-being, including its influence on dementia, depression, and loss of independence. “It’s important these issues are addressed early on because losing your vision affects more than just how you see the world; it affects your experience of the world and your life,” says Ehrlich. “This analysis provides an important opportunity to promote not only health and wellbeing, but also longevity by correcting, rehabilitating, and preventing avoidable vision loss across the globe.” To read the original article click here.

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Diagnosing Retinal Disease with Artificial Intelligence

AHA Publisher — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 07:00:32 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – Over a billion people around the world are at high risk for retinal eye diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. And yet more than 75 percent of these people do not receive regular screenings. The reasons vary but, in general, visiting an ophthalmologist can be expensive (depending on insurance coverage), impractical (requiring time off from work) and inconvenient (it can sometimes take months to get an appointment). But what if the ability to do an eye scan moved from a specialist to your family doctor or local hospital clinic? That’s what Israeli startup AEYE Health hopes to accomplish with its camera-based artificial intelligence software for quickly diagnosing retinal disease. The problem is significant. Over 80% of people with diabetes will develop retinopathy within 15 years. Glaucoma, which can be prevented if diagnosed early, is the leading cause of avoidable blindness over the age of 60. The risk of getting age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which can also be vision-threatening, is 30% after the age of 75. AEYE Health (pronounced A-Eye, like AI – artificial intelligence) simplifies the screening process by removing the ophthalmological middleman. The company’s software can process and deliver the results of a scan of the fundus (the lower part of the eyeball opposite the pupil) in just a couple of minutes from any type of camera – including, eventually, the cameras on standard smartphone – and from any type of medical office. The software uses artificial intelligence and neural networks to compare the images from a patient’s eye scan with AEYE Health’s online database of healthy and diseased eye images. “We can train statistical models to discriminate between the two groups,” Zack Dvey-Aharon, the company’s CEO, tells ISRAEL21c. Once the models are up and running, “you just need to activate them. They’re already trained to make a fast call.” Artificial intelligence in the medical space has generally been used more for decision support than actual diagnosis, but when it comes to ophthalmology, where there is both a shortage of professionals and long wait times for appointments, there is a push toward allowing autonomous AI to do full “diagnostic screening, where the AI makes a medical decision,” Dvey-Aharon says. Only if the retina scan is flagged as worrisome would you be referred to an eye specialist. Opening the Door to Diagnosis Software algorithms can outperform human ophthalmologists in some areas. “AI can look at a retinal image and tell the age of a patient,” Dvey-Aharon says, “something even the best doctor can’t do.” And it can catch hidden problems. “The eye is the only place in the body that, without doing any cutting, gives you a direct view to the blood vessels and nervous system,” Dvey-Aharon says. “That opens the door to diagnosis of many systemic conditions. You can detect problems like hypertension, cardiovascular issues, different types of cancer, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.” The Covid-19 pandemic has only increased the need for technologies like those from AEYE Health. One way the novel coronavirus has been shown to spread is through the eyes, leading some patients to forego a visit to the eye clinic. Might they be more willing to come in for a test through their general practitioner? AEYE Health’s location in Israel has been a key advantage for the 14-person company, which has its R&D in the heart of Tel Aviv. “It’s not easy to find top data scientists” in other parts of the world, not to mention finding a group of the real stars in the space, Dvey-Aharon points out. Location and expertise have helped AEYE Health raise $3 million since the company was founded in 2018. Dvey-Aharon says he isn’t worried by the fact that Google and IBM are crunching data in an effort to make sense of health scans. He sees giant companies more as possible collaborators, pointing out that neither has released a commercial application for retinal scanning. Clinical Trials AEYE Health is currently conducting clinical trials in the United States. The company hopes to receive FDA certification by the end of 2020. That would enable the company to sell its software to hospitals, which Dvey-Aharon says are the most suitable environments for AEYE Health’s offering, since you’ll find specialists in geriatrics, endocrinology (who deal with diabetes) and ophthalmology under one roof. While AEYE Health has developed a software solution, the company plans to partner with hardware manufacturers to offer an integrated bundle to potential customers. In July, AEYE Health announced a new partnership with UMass Health Care in Massachusetts. The partnership is backed by a BIRD Foundation grant just shy of $1 million. “The idea is to make sure this works for a large hospital setting,” Dvey-Aharon explains. Using AEYE Health’s software, clinics can upload data from the camera into the hospital’s system, schedule appointments automatically, generate billing paperwork and transfer results to a patient’s electronic medical record. Dvey-Aharon envisions a subscription model that would make AEYE Health a “one-stop shop,” he says. AEYE Health is also eyeing underserved countries “where access to ophthalmologists is very limited,” Dvey-Aharon adds. “Saving people from blindness is important anywhere. And screening is the most important phase.” He explains that the brain “does amazing things bypassing local problems, so that by the time people don’t see well, it’s too late to treat.” Dvey-Aharon, an alumnus of the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit, has a PhD in machine learning. He founded AEYE Health with Danny Margalit, the former founding partner of Aladdin Knowledge Systems, where for 24 years he was the company’s CTO. Ready to scan your retina the fast and easy way? AEYE Health hopes to begin sales in 2021. For more information, click here. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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Researchers Discover Stem Cells in Optic Nerve That Preserve Vision

AHA Publisher — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 07:00:03 +0000

University of Maryland School of Medicine via EurekAlert – Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have for the first time identified stem cells in the region of the optic nerve, which transmits signals from the eye to the brain. The finding, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), presents a new theory on why the most common form of glaucoma may develop and provides potential new ways to treat a leading cause of blindness in American adults. “We believe these cells, called neural progenitor cells, are present in the optic nerve tissue at birth and remain for decades, helping to nourish the nerve fibers that form the optic nerve,” said study leader Steven Bernstein, MD, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “Without these cells, the fibers may lose their resistance to stress, and begin to deteriorate, causing damage to the optic nerve, which may ultimately lead to glaucoma.” The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (NEI), and a number of distinguished researchers served as co-authors on the study. More than 3 million Americans have glaucoma, which results from damage to the optic nerve, causing blindness in 120,000 U.S. patients. This nerve damage is usually related to increased pressure in the eye due to a buildup of fluid that does not drain properly. Blind spots can develop in a patient’s visual field that gradually widen over time. “This is the first time that neural progenitor cells have been discovered in the optic nerve. Without these cells, the nerve is unable to repair itself from damage caused by glaucoma or other conditions. This may lead to permanent vision loss and disability,” said Dr. Bernstein. “The presence of neural stem/progenitor cells opens the door to new treatments to repair damage to the optic nerve, which is very exciting news.” To make the research discovery, Dr. Bernstein and his team examined a narrow band of tissue called the optic nerve lamina. Less than 1 millimeter wide, the lamina lies between the light-sensitive retina tissue at the back of the eye and the optic nerve. The long nerve cell fibers extend from the retina through the lamina, into the optic nerve. What the researchers discovered is that the lamina progenitor cells may be responsible for insulating the fibers immediately after they leave the eye, supporting the connections between nerve cells on the pathway to the brain. The stem cells in the lamina niche bathes these neuron extensions with growth factors, as well as aiding in the formation of the insulating sheath. The researchers were able to confirm the presence of these stem cells by using antibodies and genetically modified animals that identified the specific protein markers on neuronal stem cells. “It took 52 trials to successfully grow the lamina progenitor cells in a culture,” said Dr. Bernstein, “so this was a challenging process.” Dr. Bernstein and his collaborators needed to identify the correct mix of growth factors and other cell culture conditions that would be most conducive for the stem cells to grow and replicate. Eventually the research team found the stem cells could be coaxed into differentiating into several different types of neural cells. These include neurons and glial cells, which are known to be important for cell repair and cell replacement in different brain regions. This discovery may prove to be game-changing for the treatment of eye diseases that affect the optic nerve. Dr. Bernstein and his research team plan to use genetically modified mice to see how the depletion of lamina progenitor cells contributes to diseases such as glaucoma and prevents repair. Future research is needed to explore the neural progenitors repair mechanisms. “If we can identify the critical growth factors that these cells secrete, they may be potentially useful as a cocktail to slow the progression of glaucoma and other age-related vision disorders.” Dr. Bernstein added. The work was supported by NEI grant RO1EY015304, and by a National Institutes of Health shared instrument grant 1S10RR26870-1. “This exciting discovery could usher in a sea change in the field of age-related diseases that cause vision loss,” said E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. “New treatment options are desperately needed for the millions of patients whose vision is severely impacted by glaucoma, and I think this research will provide new hope for them.” To read the original article click here.

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First In-Human Trial of Synthetic Cornea Starts in Israel

AHA Publisher — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 07:00:04 +0000

Israel21c Staff via Israel21c – The first-in-human implantation of the revolutionary CorNeat KPro synthetic cornea has been approved for 10 corneally blind patients at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. CorNeat KPro was developed by CorNeat Vision of Ra’anana. The implant is designed to replace deformed, scarred or opacified corneas and is expected to fully rehabilitate the vision of corneally blind patients immediately following implantation. The device’s lens, which provides optical quality equivalent to a perfect cornea, integrates with the patient’s ocular tissue using a unique patented nano-fabric skirt placed under the conjunctiva. “Following rigorous preclinical testing and successful animal trials, we feel confident moving on and proving our device’s safety and efficacy in humans,” said Dr. Gilad Litvin, CorNeat chief medical officer and the KPro’s inventor. “Our device’s implantation procedure, which has been developed and perfected in the past four years, does not rely on donor tissue, is relatively simple and takes less than an hour to perform. We expect it will enable millions of blind patients around the world, even in areas where there is no corneal practice nor culture of organ donation, to regain their sight.” The clinical trial at Beilinson will be led by Dr. Irit Bahar, chief of ophthalmology. Test patients will be people who are not candidates for, or have failed one or more corneal transplantations. “The technology behind this implant, which enables to permanently and bio-mechanically attach synthetic materials to live human tissue, is key in turning the tide on global corneal blindness,” said Bahar. Additional trial sites are planned to open later this year in eight hospitals in Canada, the United States, France, China and the Netherlands. “CorNeat Vision’s implant is poised to revolutionize corneal transplantation,” said Canadian ophthalmologist Dr. David Rootman. “This new solution is completely synthetic and does not rely on donor tissue, which can carry a virus or any other disease – a key differentiator during this COVID-19 crisis, which greatly impacted the availability of corneal tissue.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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URI Engineering Professor Helping ALS Patients Use Their Brains to Communicate

AHA Publisher — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 07:00:20 +0000

University of Rhode Island via Newswise – Doug Sawyer was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, 11 years ago. His only muscles that still function are those that control eye movement. Despite his disability, Sawyer still works as an engineer from his home, designing electronics for Hayward Industries. Using only his eyes, the 57-year-old writes reports and other papers, draws pictures and schematics, talks on the phone, sends text messages and emails, and attends meetings online multiple times a week. However, Sawyer’s gaze weakens as he gets tired, causing the technology he currently uses to become ineffective. That’s why the Seekonk, Massachusetts resident was eager to work with University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor Yalda Shahriari to develop a new way for ALS patients to communicate. Shahriari and her team of student researchers in URI’s College of Engineering are developing a way for those with severe motor deficits such as ALS to communicate using brain signals, eliminating the need for patients to maintain fine eye-gaze control. Her project, funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, has two main goals. The first is to develop multimodal personalized algorithms to improve the robustness of the brain-computer interface (BCI) systems for patients with severe motor deficits. The second is to develop an autonomous hybrid system for non-communicative patients who are without residual motor control, such as those who lose their fine eye-gaze control in the late stages of ALS. Through longitudinal recordings taken of several patients with ALS during this and previous projects, Shahriari and her group have noticed significant day-to-day variations in brain-computer interface performance. “These variations are speculated to be associated with several factors, including cognitive fluctuations and environmental factors,” said Shahriari. “Developing personalized algorithms will enable us to predict these fluctuations and optimize performance based on each patient’s specifications and needs.” To ensure more accurate readings of brain activity, two non-invasive techniques are implemented simultaneously: electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals. EEG detects electrical activity in the brain using small, metal discs called electrodes. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy is an optical imaging technique in which an emitter transmits near infrared light and a detector detects the light reflected from the surface of the brain. This technique measures oxygen changes in the concentration of hemoglobin in the brain. The higher the concentration, the more activity is taking place. “We will use a hybrid of EEG and fNIRS signals to compensate for each neuroimaging modality shortage and use the complementary features obtained from each modality to improve our system,” said Shahriari. For patients in the later stages of ALS who experience cognitive dysfunction, such as memory loss and the inability to maintain eye gaze on objects, Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy has shown to be a more accurate method of measurement. Shahriari and her students have developed a visuo-mental dual task paradigm which relies on conventional oddball-based protocols, but require the subjects to do some mental arithmetic tasks. This BCI approach is accomplished by displaying a grid of letters and numbers and intermittently flashing an image (matrix of digits) over each row and column. “By giving the patient higher demanding tasks to focus on, we can trigger several cognitive functions and extract the associated signatures or neural biomarkers,” said doctoral student Bahram Borgheai. “The computer can then decode the pattern of neural activities that appear after the patient performs the tasks. The patterns can be used for diagnostic and communication purposes.” Shahriari has collaborated with the National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies on projects since 2012. With the support of the national center, the Rhode Island Chapter of the ALS Association and Rhode Island Hospital, the professor would like to add more patients to the study. “Our analysis of the data becomes much more powerful if we can significantly increase the number of patients in the study,” said Shahriari. Patients will be asked to wear a cap with sensors attached that can record brain activity in the comfort of their homes or at a care center. Recordings of those with healthy brains will take place in Shahriari’s Neural Processing and Control Laboratory in URI’s Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering. All data processing and analysis will be conducted in the lab. Once enough patients have volunteered to participate in the research project, Shahriari plans to partner with more local hospitals and medical schools to take advantage of their clinical expertise. Sawyer has relished the opportunity to participate in the study. “Taking part in the brain activity study has been very rewarding,” said Sawyer. “I enjoy learning new things and staying abreast of the latest technology. Dr. Shahriari and her team have been willing to share their progress. They make me feel as if I’m part of their team and not just a test number.” Sawyer hopes that his participation will help Shahriari develop a way for ALS patients to work and communicate after their motor functions have ceased. “I don’t consider myself a victim of ALS and I don’t consider myself handicapped,” Sawyer said. “I just need help sometimes. There are people out there far worse off than me. Hopefully the time I give to Dr. Shahriari will someday improve their lives.” To read the original article click here.

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How the Eyes Might Be Windows to the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

AHA Publisher — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 20:35:23 +0000

University of California San Diego Health via News Wise – Researchers say how quickly a person’s pupil dilates while taking cognitive tests. Newswise — Alzheimer’s disease (AD) begins to alter and damage the brain years — even decades — before symptoms appear, making early identification of AD risk paramount to slowing its progression. In a new study published online in the September 9, 2019 issue of the Neurobiology of Aging, scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say that, with further developments, measuring how quickly a person’s pupil dilates while they are taking cognitive tests may be a low-cost, low-invasive method to aid in screening individuals at increased genetic risk for AD before cognitive decline begins. In recent years, researchers investigating the pathology of AD have primarily directed their attention at two causative or contributory factors: the accumulation of protein plaques in the brain called amyloid-beta and tangles of a protein called tau. Both have been linked to damaging and killing neurons, resulting in progressive cognitive dysfunction. The new study focuses on pupillary responses which are driven by the locus coeruleus (LC), a cluster of neurons in the brainstem involved in regulating arousal and also modulating cognitive function. Tau is the earliest occurring known biomarker for AD; it first appears in the LC; and it is more strongly associated with cognition than amyloid-beta. The study was led by first author William S. Kremen, PhD, and senior author Carol E. Franz, PhD, both professors of psychiatry and co-directors of the Center for Behavior Genetics of Aging at UC San Diego School of Medicine. The LC drives pupillary response — the changing diameter of the eyes’ pupils — during cognitive tasks. (Pupils get bigger the more difficult the brain task.) In previously published work, the researchers had reported that adults with mild cognitive impairment, often a precursor to AD, displayed greater pupil dilation and cognitive effort than cognitively normal individuals, even if both groups produced equivalent results. Critically, in the latest paper, the scientists link pupillary dilation responses with identified AD risk genes. “Given the evidence linking pupillary responses, LC and tau and the association between pupillary response and AD polygenic risk scores (an aggregate accounting of factors to determine an individual’s inherited AD risk), these results are proof-of-concept that measuring pupillary response during cognitive tasks could be another screening tool to detect Alzheimer’s before symptom appear,” said Kremen. Co-authors include: Matthew S. Panizzon, Jeremy A. Elman, Anders M. Dale, Daniel E. Gustavson and Nathan Whitsel, UC San Diego; Eric L. Granholm, UC San Diego and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System; Ole A. Andreassen, Oslo University Hospital; Nathan A. Gillespie and Michael C. Neale, Virginia Commonwealth University; Mark W. Logue, VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University; Michael J. Lyons, Boston University; and Chandra A. Reynolds, UC Riverside. Funding for this research came, in part, from the National Institute on Aging (grants R01AG050595, R01AG022381, P01AG055367, R01AG059329, K08AG047903, AG054509), the Research Council of Norway and Stiftelsen KG Jebsen. Additional support from the CA San Diego Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health and the Cooperative Studies Program of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. To read the original article click here.

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