1,720,981 research outputs found
A rare case of endophthalmitis after bleb needle revision for glaucoma Xen® gel stent
No full textPurpose: To describe the first case of endophthalmitis caused by Sphingobacterium spiritivorum, a glucose non-fermenting Gram-negative rod, in a patient previously implanted with a Xen® gel stent. Case report description: An 83-year-old patient, affected by open-angle glaucoma and with a previous surgery of combined cataract extraction and Xen gel stent implantation, developed endophthalmitis 1 month after bleb needle revision with 5-fluorouracil injection. At presentation, best corrected visual acuity was hand movement, hypopyon was evident into the anterior chamber and a flat bleb with no sign of leakage was present over the Xen gel implant. Outcome: Immediate pars plana vitrectomy was performed, with intravitreal antibiotic administration and silicon oil tamponade. S. spiritivorum was isolated from vitreous bacterial culture. According to the antibiogram, patient was treated with topical fortified ceftazidime eyedrops and appropriate systemic antibiotics (intravenous meropenem, 500 mg every 8 h for 7 days, followed by oral cotrimoxazole, 160 + 800 mg, twice a day for 10 days). After 2 weeks of treatment, ocular inflammation was resolved, best corrected visual acuity was 0.1 (Snellen chart) and intraocular pressure was 18 mm Hg without topical hypotensive therapy. Conclusion: S. spiritivorum was isolated for the first time as a causative agent of endophthalmitis in humans. Bleb needle revision in patients with Xen gel implant is not free of complications, and an attentive follow-up is required
Treatment with citicoline eye drops enhances retinal function and neural conduction along the visual pathways in open angle glaucoma
No full textCytidine 51-diphosphocholine (Citicoline) in glaucoma: Rationale of its use, current evidence and future perspectives
No full textCytidine 51-diphosphocholine or citicoline is an endogenous compound that acts in the biosynthetic pathway of phospholipids of cell membranes, particularly phosphatidylcholine, and it is able to increase neurotrasmitters levels in the central nervous system. Citicoline has shown positive effects in Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in amblyopia. Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease currently considered a disease involving ocular and visual brain structures. Neuroprotection has been proposed as a valid therapeutic option for those patients progressing despite a well-controlled intraocular pressure, the main risk factor for the progression of the disease. The aim of this review is to critically summarize the current evidence about the effect of citicoline in glaucoma
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
Sector-Based Analysis with the Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph 3 Across Disc Sizes and Glaucoma Stages A Multicenter Study
No full textPurpose: To investigate the ability of sectorial analysis using the Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph 3 (HRT3) to discriminate between healthy and glaucomatous eyes and to determine whether this is affected by disc size and glaucoma severity.
Design: Multicenter, cross-sectional evaluation of diagnostic tests.
Participants: Two hundred thirty-three eyes from 137 normal subjects and 96 glaucoma patients classified by the presence of a repeatable visual field defect.
Testing: Participants underwent imaging with the HRT3, and the diagnostic accuracy of stereometric parameters, Moorfields regression analysis (MRA), and glaucoma probability score (GPS) were analyzed sector- ially by glaucoma stage and optic disc size.
Main Outcome Measures: Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC).
Results: Of stereometric parameters, the cup-to-disc area ratio of the inferotemporal sector had the largest AUC (AUC, 0.74). Both MRA and GPS algorithms showed the best diagnostic accuracy in the inferotemporal sector, with a sensitivity and specificity of 63% and 88% for MRA and 80% and 62% for GPS, respectively. In small discs, sectorial MRA analysis had higher diagnostic accuracy than the global optic nerve head (ONH) analysis (sensitivity of 70% and specificity of 82% in the inferonasal sector), and these findings were confirmed in very large discs (sensitivity of 74% and specificity of 85% in the inferotemporal sector). Similarly, stereometric parameters discriminated better sectorially rather than globally, with different parameters giving the best results in different optic disc size subgroups. MRA sensitivity was weak in the early-glaucoma stage, with slightly higher figures if considered sectorially rather than globally. GPS diag- nostic accuracy was very consistent across ONH sectors in each disc size and glaucoma stage subgroup, with no single sector demonstrating better diagnostic accuracy than the global analysis.
Conclusions: Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph 3 sectorial analysis showed moderate diagnostic performance and may offer potential advantages over global analysis in the clinical diagnostic process. Small discs are classified more accurately by examining the inferonasal sector, whereas larger discs are classified more accurately by examining the inferotemporal sector. Neither HRT parameters nor classification algorithms seem to be good at the earlier stage of the disease
Canaloplasty in the Treatment of Open-Angle Glaucoma: A Review of Patient Selection and Outcomes
No full textCanaloplasty is a relatively new non-penetrating surgery for the reduction of intraocular pressure in patients affected by glaucoma. The technique uses a microcatheter to perform a 360 o cannulation of Schlemm’s canal and leaves in place a tension suture providing an inward distension. It aims to restore the physiological outflow pathways of the aqueous humour and is independent of external wound healing. Several studies have shown that canaloplasty is effective in reducing intraocular pressure and has a low rate of complications, especially compared with trabeculectomy, the gold standard for glaucoma surgery. Currently, canaloplasty is indicated in patients with open-angle glaucoma, having a mild to moderate disease, and the combination with cataract phacoemulsification may provide further intraocular pressure reduction. This article reviews canaloplasty indications, results and complications and analyses its outcomes compared with traditional penetrating and non-penetrating techniques
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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