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Background: Managing recurrent pterygium combined with symblepharon presents significant challenges in ophthalmology. Clinicians aim to reconstruct the ocular surface, alleviate eye movement restrictions, and minimize recurrence risks. Objective: Evaluation of efficacy and safety of continuous blanket sutures (CBS) for fixation of large autologous conjunctival grafts in patients with severe recurrent pterygium with symblepharon. Methods: Retrospective, observational case series. Thirty-nine patients (40 eyes) were included, all with severe recurrent pterygium with symblepharon. During surgery, CBS was employed to affix large autologous conjunctival grafts to the exposed sclera, aiming to restore the ocular surface to smoothness as much as possible. All patients were followed up for more than one year. Main outcome measures include the rate of recurrence, improvement of eye movement, and intraoperative and postoperative complications. Results: Nearly all patients exhibited a smooth ocular surface and largely restored physiological structures during the follow-up period. There were no graft loss or contraction cases until the last follow-up, with only three eyes experiencing a pterygium recurrence (recurrence rate 7.5%, 3/40). Preoperative eye movement limitations improved significantly from 2.10 ± 0.71 (range 1–3) to 0.33 ± 0.53 (range 0–2; p < 0.001) post-surgery. Other postoperative complications included varying degrees of corneal scarring and a single instance of conjunctival granulomatous hyperplasia (1 eye, 2.5%). Conclusion: When addressing severe recurrent pterygium with Symblepharon, using CBS to secure large autologous conjunctival grafts during surgery can achieve favorable postoperative outcomes. This surgical method is safe and feasible and effectively rebuilds a smooth ocular surface, improves the appearance of the ocular surface, and reduces the recurrence rate of pterygium after excision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate optical quality and intraocular scattering using the Optical Quality Analysis System (OQAS) II in branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) and to investigate the influences of retinal changes on optical quality. Sixty-two patients with diagnosis of BRVO were enrolled in this prospective, case–control study. The control group consisted of the patients' fellow eyes. Initial logMAR visual acuity, central macular thickness, and optical quality parameters including modulation transfer function cutoff frequency (MTF cut off), Strehl ratio (SR), objective scatter index (OSI) and OQAS values (OVs) at 100%, 20%, and 9% contrast levels were measured. Every BRVO-affected eye was treated with monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injection. We investigated the differences between clinical parameters of the BRVO-affected eye and those of the control eye and changes in those parameters on the basis of the clinical course of BRVO over 3 months. All the OQAS parameters measured except objective refraction error differed statistically significantly between the two groups. As macular thickness decreased and visual acuity improved, all the optical quality parameters except for objective refraction error and OV at 100% contrast gradually recovered with time after treatment but did not return to normal compared with the control eye. Only visual acuity was found to be significantly related to central macular thickness change (p =.027). BRVO resulted in declined visual acuity and optical quality. It is suggested that the optical quality parameters are affected by the inner layers of the retina in BRVO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most frequently occurring microvascular complications of diabetes. Recent evidence indicates that epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs) are critical pathogenic players in non‐neoplastic diseases, including diabetic cardiomyopathy and DR. However, the precise pathogenic mechanism of EGFR in DR has yet to be fully understood. In this study, we developed a type 1 diabetic early‐stage retinopathy mouse model using injections of streptozotocin and an oxygen‐induced end‐stage diabetic retinopathy (OIR) model characterized by hypoxia‐induced revascularization. We tested the hypothesis that the pathogenesis of DR can be reduced by the classic EGFR inhibitor, AG1478, in the mouse models. Our data indicated that treatment of AG1478 prevented retinal dysfunction, and reduced impairment of retinal structures as well as mitochondrial structures in retinal blood vessels in diabetic mice. Furthermore, AG1478 reduced neovascular tufts formation but had no effects on revascularization at the avascular sites when compared to untreated littermates in the OIR model. Our findings provide strong evidence that EGFR critically promoted retinal dysfunction, retinal structural impairment, and retinal vascular abnormalities in models of DR. We conclude that EGFR can be a potential important therapeutic target for treatment of DR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To illustrate the characteristics of perforating scleral vessels in macular regions between mCNV eyes and contralateral eyes in unilateral mCNV patients., Methods: This was a retrospective study that included patients with unilateral naive mCNV. The study aimed to identify and analyze the distribution of perforating scleral vessels (PSVs) in the macular region of mCNV eyes and contralateral eyes. The central macular choroidal thicknesses (mChT) were measured using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). The grades of myopic atrophic maculopathy (MAM) and macular myopic diffuse chorioretinal atrophy (DCA) were evaluated within groups. The number of PSVs and mChT were compared between contralateral and mCNV eyes based on the grade of DCA. The ROC curves were utilized to explore the diagnostic indexes for mCNV., Results: A total of 102 eyes from 51 patients with unilateral mCNV were included. There was no significance in the severity of MAM or the grade of DCA between mCNV eyes and contralateral eyes ( p  = 0.074, p  = 0.054, respectively). The mean number of PSVs in mCNV eyes was fewer than the contralateral eyes [1.00 (1.00-2.00) vs. 2.00 (0.75-3.00), p  = 0.030]. The mChT in mCNV eyes was thinner than the contralateral eyes [36.00 (25.00-53.75) μm vs. 46.00 (31.00-75.25) μm, p = 0.001 ]. The mean grade of DCA in mCNV eyes was higher than that in contralateral eyes [3.00 (3.00-3.00) vs. 3.00 (2.00-3.00), p = 0.004 ]. When DCA involved the macular region, there were more PSVs in contralateral eyes than in mCNV eyes [1.50 (1.00-2.00) vs. 2.00 (1.00-3.00), p = 0.042 ]. Similarly, when DCA involved the foveal region, there were more PSVs in contralateral eyes than in mCNV eyes [1.50 (1.00-2.00) vs. 3.00 (2.00-4.00), p  = 0.004]. The grade of DCA and mChT were valuable factors for predicting mCNV eyes ( AUC  = 0.6566, p  = 0.021; AUC  = 0.6304, p  = 0.029; respectively). When the extent of DCA exceeded the foveal region, the count of PSVs was a good diagnostic factor for predicting mCNV ( AUC  = 0.7430, p  = 0.003)., Conclusion: The mean amount of PSVs was significantly lower in the mCNV eyes compared to the contralateral eyes. When the extent of DCA exceeded the foveal region, the count of PSVs was a good diagnostic factor for predicting mCNV. Myopic eyes with a higher grade of DCA and a thinner mChT were more likely to develop mCNV., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Huang, She, Zhang, Zhang and Shen.)