News Flashes (IGR 12-1 June, 2010)

• Gene therapy could be the panacea of all treatments (Glaucoma Opinion)

• Electrical activity enhances retinal ganglion cells' responsiveness to trophic factors (ES)

• Injecting microbeads in the anterior chamber creates a reproducible, and easily replicated rodent model of IOP elevation (ES)

• Drye eyes are more common among glaucoma patients and subjects with drye eyes have higher rates of adjunctive glaucoma treatment (ES)

• Hypercholesteremia and its treatment is protective against the development of progressive NTG (ES)

• Bevacizumab can reduce post-operative scarring (ES)

• There is no significant effect on outflow facility with a change in body position (ES)

• The presence of metabolic syndrome(MS) may have a significant effect on IOP, and treatment of MS may lower IOP (ES)

• The exact mechanism of the water drinking test is still unknown; expansion of the choroidal bed may cause an increased IOP (ES)

• SD-OCT is a powerful technique to study the deformation of the lamina cribrosa in living patients (ES)

• No single methodology can provide information on blood flow in all relevant ocular vascular beds (ES)

• Provocative gonioscopy and channelography may become diagnostic tools in routine canaloplasty (ES)

• Static anatomic risk factors do not fully explain the occurrence of ACG in patients with narrow angles (Glaucoma Dialogue)

• Intravitreal injection of BDNF has a modest and transient effect on cat ganglion cell survival one week after crush (ES)

• Scanning laser ophthalmoscope microperimetry and the central 10-2 program of the Humphrey Field Analyzer have similarities for evaluating macular function in glaucoma patients (ES)

• The contributory role of vascular factors in an optic nerve predisposed to glaucomatous damage cannot be excluded (ES)

• In eyes with low IOPs, further reduction of the IOP by use of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors may not necessarily be beneficial (ES)

• An association between CSF pressure and glaucoma has been demonstrated (ES)

• Agents which interfere with the formation of actin microfilaments increase aqueous humor outflow and lower intraocular pressure (ES)

• Patients with thin corneas must be watched more carefully (ES)

• Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is designed to give a result after the first follow-up examination, while topographic change analysis (TCA) requires two or more follow-up examinations to ensure adequate specificity (ES)

• Different technologies measure different aspects of glaucoma (ES)

• Minimal incremental structural deterioration has significant functional consequences (ES)

• Make sure you follow scrupulously this recipe and take your eye drops every day at the prescribed time: it's not only your sight you'll be preserving, it's your own life! Wouldn't this be a great line to boost patient compliance to glaucoma treatment? (ES)

• 'Whom to treat and whom to watch'; as with so many other questions in glaucoma: it depends (ES)

• The existence of a reproducible, easily replicated rodent model of IOP elevation (ES)

• Association between the use of IOP-lowering treatment and dry eye (ES)

• A link between hypercholesterolemia and its treatment with the development of glaucoma (ES)

• Non-adherent patients were less likely to feel the physician spent enough time with them (ES)

• PNT does not allow a durable IOP reduction in uncontrolled POAG (ES)

• We may be moving ever closer to clinically significant surgical IOP reduction without the hazards of a filtration bleb (ES)

• The use of a biodegradable collagen implant in filtering surgery has not proven superior to routine trabeculectomy (ES)

• When analyzing the results of a novel surgical technique or an innovative medical device efficiency, safety and risk profile should be compared to the well-established technique (ES)