A study, the results of which were published in Optometry and Vision Science, shows that anisometropia is more prevalent in older adults.

 

The researchers followed 118 patients over 12 years. Their average age was 67 at the start of the study and 79 at the end. During this period, the prevalence of anisometropia, which is a significant difference in vision between the eyes, almost doubled. When the patients approached 80 years of age, 32% had the condition.

 

Most cases were related to differing degrees of farsightedness between the eyes. Others were caused by unequal blurring of the lens of the eye, even though none of the subjects had cataracts as such.

 

Differences could begin to occur at any age, and a few patients actually saw their anisometropia decrease over the course of the study.

 

“Whatever the cause of the increase in anisometropia with aging, the fact that significant anisometropia is at least ten times more common in those over 75 years of age than in children needs to be clearly emphasized to clinicians,” says the study’s authors.

 

“Uncorrected anisometropia is likely to lead to disturbances in binocular vision and stereopsis, which in turn may contribute to falls in the elderly,” says Gunilla Haegerstrom-Portnoy, lead author and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131126155834.htm

 

Oral contraceptives may be a risk factor for glaucoma, according to a study presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

 

The study was led by the University of California, Duke University, in North Carolina, and Nanchang University, in China. The scientists based their research on the medical records of 3,406 American women aged 40 years or older. They discovered that the women who had taken oral contraceptives for three or more years, regardless of the type, were 2.05 times more likely to develop glaucoma.

 

The study found no direct causal link between the contraceptives and glaucoma, but indicates that long-term use of the products could be a potential risk factor for glaucoma. “This study should be an impetus for future research to prove the cause and effect of oral contraceptives and glaucoma,” said Shan Lin, lead researcher, from the University of California San Francisco. “At this point, women who have taken oral contraceptives for three or more years should be screened for glaucoma and followed closely by an ophthalmologist, especially if they have any other existing risk factors.”

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131118091418.htm

 

In France, the Institut de la Vision inaugurated the Artificial Street on November 26, 2013. This is a research and development environment that supports the creation of technologies and treatments to assist people with impaired vision.

 

The new platform, called STREETlab, resembles a basic commercial street. But it is in fact a forum for research and development available to researchers and the sector’s manufacturers. It contains sophisticated equipment used to control the parameters of the environment – lighting, ambient sound, decorative features – and to quantitatively assess the improvement in living conditions of people who participate in the tests, for instance in mobility. Standardized tasks can be developed within an environment that reproduces various concrete situations.

 

The platform also monitors the behaviour of visually impaired people, using biometric sensors to analyze movement, eye trackers to analyze visual strategies, or infrared cameras to help follow and record experiences.

 

One of the first projects to use the Artificial Street focuses on motor ability and low vision. The objective is to identify optimal strategies for visual movement in patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa in tasks such as locomotion or visual research.

Source:

http://www.institut-vision.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=361%3Ainaugurationstreetlab&catid=1%3Aactualites&Itemid=27&lang=fr

 

 

 

Researchers from the Center for Value-Based Medicine^® estimate that cataract surgeries performed in the United States in one year will save $123.4 billion over the next 13 years.

 

An operation performed on a single eye, which costs about $2,653, will save an average of $121,198 over 13 years. The Center says that these operations provide a 4.567% return on investment to society.

 

The majority of the $123.4 billion in savings from cataract surgery come from patient healthcare savings after the operation (39.4%), savings in Medicare, the public health care system for Americans over age 65 (29.5%), and profits tied to employment/productivity (20.6%).

 

“Most people regard healthcare costs, which are estimated at $2.81 trillion in 2012, as expenditures and not investment dollars that return patient value and financial value,” said lead researcher Melissa M. Brown. “Our data demonstrates that this approach is far too simplistic and that estimating the return on investment provides a more complete picture. Cataract surgery is a paradigm for the premise that healthcare interventions, in addition to greatly improving patients’ lives, can also create considerable economic wealth.”

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131115104553.htm

 

Residents of major cities, such as Chicago and New York, and their suburbs are four times more likely to develop dry eye syndrome than people who live in less urban areas, where the air is less polluted, according to a new study presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO).

 

This is the first study involving a large population of patients from across the United States to link dry eye syndrome with atmospheric conditions. Residents of metropolitan areas, namely New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, are subject to high pollution rates and show high prevalence (17 to 21%) of this syndrome.

 

In addition, dry eye syndrome is 13% higher in high-altitude areas. High humidity and strong winds, however, reduce the risk of developing this syndrome.

 

“Many people living in arid and polluted cities would readily attest to the irritating effect air pollution has on dry eye,” said lead researcher Anat Galor, assistant professor at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. “Our research suggests that simple actions, such as maintaining the appropriate humidity level indoors and using a high-quality air filter, should be considered as part of the overall management of patients suffering from dry eye syndrome.”

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131116171106.htm