Last update:

Ophthalmology news

Genetics

Scientists discover gene responsible for rare, inherited eye disease

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their colleagues have identified a gene responsible for some inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), which are a group of disorders that damage the eye's light-sensing ...

Ophthalmology

Case series offers insights on corneal epithelial ingrowth after small incision lenticule extraction surgery

Corneal epithelial ingrowth (EI) is a rare but significant complication following small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) surgery. Although this refractive procedure offers several advantages, such as a smaller incision ...

Immunology

Researchers discover new role of immune cells in eye health

The eye is an immune-privileged tissue because of the need to keep blood vessels away from the central pathway of light and to restrict entry of inflammatory cells that could cause damage. This has prompted questions about ...

Health

Your eyes could reveal the first signs of many diseases

Melissa, a 30-year-old educator, came to the emergency department with a sudden onset of double vision. She had not been in an accident or suffered any trauma and had never experienced this symptom before. However, she noted ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Laughter may be as effective as drops for dry eye disease

Dry eye disease (DED) is a chronic condition estimated to affect around 360 million individuals worldwide. Common symptoms include uncomfortable, red, scratchy or irritated eyes.

Genetics

Gene therapy found to be effective in hereditary blindness

Bothnia dystrophy is a form of hereditary blindness, prevalent in the region Västerbotten in Sweden. A new study at Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Communications shows that gene therapy can improve vision in patients ...

Genetics

100-fold improvement in sight seen after gene therapy trial

The vision of people with a rare inherited condition that causes them to lose much of their sight early in childhood was 100 times better after they received gene therapy to address the genetic mutation causing it. Some patients ...

Ophthalmology

Understanding Graves' disease

Graves' disease is a condition of the immune system that leads to an overactive thyroid. It is caused by antibodies attacking the thyroid by mistake. The thyroid and the hormones it produces are the gas pedal for the body. ...

Neuroscience

Visual short-term memory is more complex than previously assumed

Contrary to previous assumptions, visual short-term memory is not merely based on one kind of information about an object, such as only its color or only its name. Rather, several types of information can be retained simultaneously ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Research reveals how COVID-19 affects the eyes

Sore eyes are the most significant vision-based indicator of COVID-19, according to new research published in the journal BMJ Open Ophthalmology.

Neuroscience

Restoring a rudimentary form of vision in the blind

Restoration of vision in blind people through a brain implant is on the verge of becoming reality. Recent discoveries at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) show that newly developed high-resolution implants ...

Ophthalmology

Retinal transplant boost opens door to treat eyesight loss

Dying retinal cells send out a rescue signal to recruit stem cells and repair eye damage, according to the findings of a new study published today in the journal Molecular Therapy. The findings open the door to restoring ...

Ophthalmology

Targets for avoidable sight loss 'not being met'

Public health services across the world are failing to meet targets to reduce avoidable sight loss, according to a new study published today (1 December) in The Lancet Global Health.

Neuroscience

Seeing depression in the pupil

When people win or lose something, their pupils dilate slightly. Researchers have found that this dilation is less pronounced in acutely depressed patients than in healthy people. The more severely ill the patients were, ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

AI model uses retinal scans to predict Alzheimer's disease

A form of artificial intelligence designed to interpret a combination of retinal images was able to successfully identify a group of patients who were known to have Alzheimer's disease, suggesting the approach could one day ...

Neuroscience

Scientists develop new gene therapy for eye disease

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have developed a new gene therapy approach that offers promise for one day treating an eye disease that leads to a progressive loss of vision and affects thousands of people across the ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

COVID's collateral damage: Germicidal lamps may damage corneas

In a paper published in the journal of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation, physicians from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine reported that several patients using germicidal ...

Medical research

Stem cell-based screen identifies potential new treatments

Vision loss related to aging or inherited genetic disease, such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), respectively, is estimated to impact 16 million people worldwide and is often caused by defects ...

Neuroscience

Unique Schwann cells: The eyes have it

The insulation around nerve cell components in our corneas have unique properties, and little is known about them. But UConn School of Medicine neuroscience professor Royce Mohan believes his lab is on the verge of uncovering ...