1,721,366 research outputs found
Recommendations for the appropriate management of diabetic macular edema: Light on DME survey and consensus document by an expert panel
No full textPurpose: The Light on DME survey was designed to address several issues concerning the management of diabetic macular edema (DME) with the objective of producing practical recommendations for the appropriate treatment of this condition. Methods: The recommendations considered aspects of DME treatment that are controversial and insufficiently supported by the evidence and were based on a consensus reached by an expert panel. Consensus was achieved by means of the Delphi method. Thirty-one Italian retinologists were asked to rate the appropriateness of a comprehensive set of scenarios typically encountered in the management of DME in clinical practice. The results of the appropriateness evaluation were analyzed by the study panel and a second assessment round was conducted for those scenarios on which no consensus was reached. Results: Consensus was reached on several relevant aspects of current DME management, namely the initiation and course of treatment with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy, assessment of the outcomes of anti-VEGF therapy based on both functional and morphologic outcomes, combination of anti-VEGF with laser therapy, and management of nonresponders to anti-VEGFs. A few issues, including the definition of DME based on novel diagnostic tools, the need for stable metabolic parameters before initiating anti-VEGF therapy, and the use of a second anti-VEFG after failure of the first anti-VEGF, proved controversial. Conclusions: A clear consensus among DME experts was reached on several relevant aspects of DME management. Based on this consensus, detailed and practical recommendations to guide ophthalmologists in the use of novel approaches to DME could be developed. © 2015 Wichtig Publishing
Biofeedback rehabilitation of eccentric fixation in patients with stargardt disease
No full textPurpose: To evaluate the efficacy of biofeedback (BF) microperimetric rehabilitation in patients with Stargardt disease (STGD). Methods: Eighteen patients with STGD with unstable fixation located in the superior retina and bestcorrected visual acuity (BCVA) between 20/100 and 20/320 in the better eye were recruited. All the patients underwent Nidek MP-1 microperimetry and fixation analysis. Twelve patients underwent 8 consecutive BF training sessions of 10 minutes each, performed once a week in the better eye. Six patients did not receive any training and were used as controls. In both groups, BCVA, reading speed, contrast sensitivity, bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA), and retinal sensitivity were evaluated in the better eye at baseline and after 10 weeks. Paired and unpaired t tests were used as appropriate. Results: In the control group, after the follow-up period, fixation pattern did not show any modification and the other parameters worsened or remained unchanged. On the contrary, the BF group showed significantly improved stabilization of fixation (mean BCEA 68.2% from 5.63°2to 1.58°2), improved mean BCVA (from 34.00 to 37.67 letters), higher mean reading speed (from 66.67 to 84.00 words/min), higher contrast sensitivity (from 16.33 to 18.75 letters), and improved retinal sensitivity (from 10.68 to 12.29 dB). The comparison of the results obtained in the 2 groups was statistically significant for all the considered parameters except for retinal sensitivity. Conclusions: Biofeedback rehabilitation with the MP-1 increases quality of vision in patients with STGD, leading to a stabilization of fixation and a consequent improvement of patients' visual function and reading abilities. © 2013 Wichtig Editore
Cytomegalovirus retinitis following intravitreal dexamethasone implant in a patient with central retinal vein occlusion
No full textSystematic screening of Retinopathy in Diabetes (REaD project): An Italian implementation campaign
Full text linkPurpose: To evaluate the use of telemedicine retinal screening in Italy and to identify potential elements of implementation of this system. Methods: Patients with either new-onset diabetes or no ophthalmologic visit over the previous 2 years and attending 33 referral diabetic centers between mid-April 2013 and mid December 2015 were screened. Two partially overlapping nonstereoscopic 45° digital color images were captured from each eye using a fully automated nonmydriatic digital fundus camera. Factors limiting the assessment of retinopathy were explored. Results: Out of 24,473 eligible individuals, 22,466 had complete data. Among them, good-quality images enabling appropriate evaluation of at least one eye were obtained from 19,712 patients (both eyes, n = 18,887). Although nonmydriatic retinographs were provided, 39% of patients were evaluated using mydriasis. The rate of low-quality images in each center was inversely associated with the number of patients assessed. This was more evident for screening in mydriasis: adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.79 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.76-0.82) (p<0.001) vs 0.96 (95% CI 0.94-0.97) (p<0.001). Finally, both the number of patients assessed and use of mydriasis were inversely related to the presence of diabetic retinopathy (DR): adjusted OR 0.93 (95% CI 0.92-0.93) (p<0.001) and 0.88 (95% CI 0.82-0.96) (p<0.001), respectively. Conclusions: This program confirmed a role for teleophthalmology in the systematic screening of DR and provided important suggestions to improve the system deployed. A high level of training is required for operators to optimize imaging. The role of mydriasis should be evaluated furthe
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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