Purpose: We aimed to report on the clinical outcomes of scleral lens applications in Korean patients with various corneal disorders.
Methods: This retrospective review was conducted for 62 eyes of 47 patients who had been fitted with scleral lenses for various corneal disorders. The patients were referred for inadequate spectacle-corrected visual acuity and rigid gas permeable (RGP) or soft contact lens intolerance. Uncorrected visual acuity, habitually corrected visual acuity, best lens-corrected visual acuity, topographic indices, keratometry indices, and lens parameters were evaluated.
Results: Twenty-six eyes of 19 patients with keratoconus were enrolled. Other conditions included corneal scar (13 eyes of 12 patients), phlyctenules (three eyes), laceration (four eyes), chemical burn (one eye), keratitis (one eye), Peters' anomaly (one eye), fibrous dysplasia (one eye), ocular graft-versus-host disease (two eyes of one patient), irregular astigmatism (18 eyes of 12 patients), and corneal transplant status (five eyes of four patients). The mean topographic values of the eyes include flat keratometric value (43.0 ± 6.1 diopters [D]), steep keratometric value (48.0 ± 7.4 D), and astigmatism (4.9 ± 3.6 D). Of the eyes fitted with scleral lenses, best lens-corrected visual acuity (0.10 ± 0.22 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR]) was significantly better than the habitually corrected visual acuity (0.59 ± 0.62 logMAR, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Scleral contact lenses are a good alternative for patients with corneal abnormalities and those who are intolerable to RGP contact lenses, resulting in both successful visual outcomes and patient satisfaction, especially concerning keratoconus, corneal scar, and corneal transplant status.
Purpose: This study investigated the possibility of neurological etiologies causing acute acquired comitant esotropia (AACE) and to evaluate the differences in clinical features between younger children, older children, and adults.
Methods: In this retrospective analysis, patients who had been diagnosed with AACE between July 2017 and June 2021 were included. Data on clinical findings, medical history, brain or orbital imaging, and ophthalmological and orthoptic examinations were retrieved from medical records and analyzed. Patients were divided into three groups based on their age: younger children (<10 years), older children (10-18 years), and adults (>18 years).
Results: Overall, 41 patients with AACE (15 females and 26 males) were examined. Most patients were children. Mild hyperopia was observed in children, while adults had moderate to high myopia. The mean angle of esotropia at a distance fixation was 43.57 ± 9.77, 51.54 ± 8.75, and 30.14 ± 12.39 prism diopters (PD) in younger children, older children, and adult groups, respectively. The mean angle of esotropia at a near fixation was 43.57 ± 9.37, 51.15 ± 9.39, and 31.43 ± 12.15 PD in younger children, older children, and adult groups, respectively. Significant differences were found in the mean angles of esotropia in patients with AACE at both near and far distances according to their age (all p < 0.001). Among 36 patients with previous neuroimaging data, none had AACE secondary to intracranial lesions. Over 2 years, five patients who were under continuous observation did not develop any neurological abnormalities.
Conclusions: AACE was more common in children than in adults. The angle of deviation was larger in children than in adults. Coexisting or underlying neurological diseases were not present in patients with isolated AACE, which eliminated the need for neuroimaging. Continuous follow-up evaluations are warranted when signs of intracranial disease are observed in patients who have not undergone an imaging investigation.
Purpose: Thyroid receptor antibodies can quantify thyroid eye disease activity, predict outcomes and aid timing of interventions. The type and generation of assay is frequently unspecified, complicating meta-analyses. To determine the clinical and biochemical relationships between a second-generation thyrotropin receptor-binding inhibition antibody (TRAb) immunoassay, detecting stimulatory and blocking antibodies, with the thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI) bridging immunoassay detecting the stimulatory component only.
Methods: Retrospective review of 100 consecutive patients attending a regional specialist service. For each patient and visit, both a TRAb and TSI were performed, and a clinical activity score (CAS) recorded.
Results: A significant positive correlation between TRAb and TSI (rho = 0.828, p < 0.01) but a weaker correlation between the assays and CAS (TRAb: rho = 0.439, p < 0.01; TSI: r = 0.357, p < 0.01) were found. In 10% of the episodic data, patients had a TRAb level that was disproportionately high (39.41 ± 52.84 IU/L), compared to their TSI levels (9.53 ± 12.10 IU/L) with a higher-than-average CAS (2.47 ± 1.78; range, 0-5). Within 12 months of diagnosis, a significant positive correlation between CAS and TRAb (rho = 0.503, p < 0.01) as well as between CAS and TSI (rho = 0.329, p < 0.01) were found. In patients with a diagnosis over 12 months, the correlation with CAS for both TSI and TRAb were Spearman rank correlation coefficient of 0.347 (p < 0.01) and 0.327 (p < 0.01), respectively.
Conclusions: TRAb and TSI correlate strongly and to a lesser extent with the CAS. For most patients, TRAb can be replaced with the more economical TSI. TRAb also correlates better with newly diagnosed, more active patients than TSI. In a subset of patients, blocking antibodies may play a significant pathogenic role, requiring different treatment and monitoring. Further studies are required to investigate this relationship.
Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between interocular asymmetries of corneal hysteresis (CH) and visual field defects in Korean patients with glaucoma.
Methods: A total of 444 eyes from 222 participants with glaucoma in at least one eye were enrolled. CH was measured using an ocular response analyzer (Reichert Technologies Inc). Eyes of each participant were classified into "better eye" and "worse eye" based on the mean deviation (MD) value of visual field test. The correlation between interocular differences in intraocular pressure, axial length, central corneal thickness, CH, and MD values was evaluated using Spearman correlation analysis. To exclude the possible effect of antiglaucoma medication on corneal properties, additional analyses were performed on eyes without any glaucoma treatment at the time of CH measurement (treatment-naive group).
Results: Median (interquartile range) MD value was -3.71 dB (-6.87 to -1.30 dB) in the better eye and -10.20 dB (-16.32 to -5.62 dB) in the worse eye. When the correlation between the asymmetry of the MD value and asymmetry of intraocular pressure, axial length, central corneal thickness, and CH were evaluated, only interocular differences in CH were significantly associated with interocular differences in MD values (rho = 0.214, p = 0.001). Among the 222 participants, 60 (27.0%) were treatment-naive group. In these eyes, interocular differences in CH were also significantly associated with interocular differences in the MD values (rho = 0.285, p = 0.029).
Conclusions: The interocular asymmetry of CH was significantly correlated with the interocular asymmetry of visual field defects in glaucoma.
Purpose: To compare the clinical outcomes of intrascleral fixation of the three-piece intraocular lenses (IOLs) 2.5 mm posterior to the limbus with ciliary sulcus implantation and transscleral fixation 2.5 mm posterior to the limbus.
Methods: Sixty-five eyes of 65 patients who underwent ciliary sulcus implantation or transscleral or intrascleral fixation of the AMO Sensar AR40e IOL were retrospectively reviewed. The postoperative refractive prediction error, back-calculated effective lens position (ELP), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), and postoperative residual cylinder were compared.
Results: There were significant differences in the median (interquartile range) postoperative refractive prediction error (diopters [D]) among the three groups (p < 0.001): for ciliary sulcus implantation (33 eyes), -0.89 D (-1.21 to -0.56 D); for transscleral fixation (10 eyes), -0.40 D (-0.78 to -0.22 D); and for intrascleral fixation (22 eyes), 0.01 D (-0.28 to 0.34 D). Significant differences (p < 0.001) were observed in the median back-calculated ELP: for ciliary sulcus implantation, 4.35 mm (3.95 to 4.55 mm); for transscleral fixation, 4.51 mm (4.34 to 4.76 mm); and for intrascleral fixation, 4.90 mm (4.56 to 5.35 mm). There were no differences in the median postoperative CDVA (0, 0.10, and 0 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution, respectively; p = 0.083) and the residual cylinder (-0.75, -1.50, and -0.63 D, respectively; p = 0.074) among three groups.
Conclusions: Intrascleral fixation showed no myopic shift and the most posterior lens position, while ciliary sulcus implantation induced the greatest myopic shift and the most anterior lens position. However, there was no significant difference in the postoperative CDVA or astigmatism among the eyes with different IOL insertion methods, demonstrating good IOL stability and vision outcomes.
Purpose: To develop a deep learning model that can predict the axial lengths of eyes using ultra-widefield (UWF) fundus photography.
Methods: We retrospectively enrolled patients who visited the ophthalmology clinic at the Seoul National University Hospital between September 2018 and December 2021. Patients with axial length measurements and UWF images taken within 3 months of axial length measurement were included in the study. The dataset was divided into a development set and a test set at an 8:2 ratio while maintaining an equal distribution of axial lengths (stratified splitting with binning). We used transfer learning-based on EfficientNet B3 to develop the model. We evaluated the model's performance using mean absolute error (MAE), R-squared (R2), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used vanilla gradient saliency maps to illustrate the regions predominantly used by convolutional neural network.
Results: In total, 8,657 UWF retinal fundus images from 3,829 patients (mean age, 63.98 ±15.25 years) were included in the study. The deep learning model predicted the axial lengths of the test dataset with MAE and R2 values of 0.744 mm (95% CI, 0.709-0.779 mm) and 0.815 (95% CI, 0.785-0.840), respectively. The model's accuracy was 73.7%, 95.9%, and 99.2% in prediction, with error margins of ±1.0, ±2.0, and ±3.0 mm, respectively.
Conclusions: We developed a deep learning-based model for predicting the axial length from UWF images with good performance.
Purpose: To investigate the clinical results of vitrectomy alone as the primary treatment for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RD) in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD).
Methods: The medical records of patients with AD treated for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RD) were retrospectively reviewed. We investigated the characteristics of retinal breaks and detachments, applied surgical methods, and results.
Results: Twenty eyes of 14 patients with AD who presented with rhegmatogenous RD and treated by vitrectomy were included in this analysis. Sixteen eyes (80%) were treated with vitrectomy, either alone or in combination with cataract surgery, and the retina was successfully attached to 94% of the eyes. There were four cases in which vitrectomy was combined with encircling. Reoperation was needed in half of the eyes that received vitrectomy with encircling, which presented nearly total detachment, severe proliferative vitreoretinopathy, and pseudophakia.
Conclusions: Vitrectomy alone, in combination with cataract surgery, may be sufficient to treat rhegmatogenous RD in patients with AD. Additional encircling or buckling should still be considered in complicated cases.