Ophthalmology

Education ministry of China has requested all the students of the country to adopt eye exercises twice a day to beat myopiadefine, which lately has attained epidemical situation in all its provinces.

London -- An expert at Oregon Health and Science University has identified an area of the brain tapped by people blinded early in life to develop better hearing than individuals with their visions intact.

Alexander Stevens says that blind people co-opt the medial occipital-part of the visual system that plays a crucial role in registering visual signals by setting the threshold at which they are noticed by the brain-to help detect sounds.

In a study, the researcher played a series of sounds to blind subjects, each of which was preceded by a cue. He scanned their brains as they heard the sounds.

Washington -- Researchers have discovered that uveitis, an inflammatory eye disease may be treated with a compound that blocks the action of aldose reductase, an enzyme essential to the production of inflammatory signaling molecules.

Uveitis, the inflammation of the uvea, a layer of tissue that lies just below the outer surface of the eyeball and includes the iris, is a condition that can be caused by both autoimmune and infectious diseases.

As yet, the only treatment that can be offered to reduced inflation is steroids, but these have serious side effects.

Washington -- A professor from the university of Tel Aviv has developed a novel laser device that can revolutionize the treatment of glaucoma.

Glaucoma, nicknamed the silent sight thief, is the second leading cause of blindness in the West.

Prof. Ehud Assia, of Tel Aviv University‘s Sackler School of Medicine has designed the device called the OTS134 that is expected to give most practicing eye surgeons the ability to master complex glaucoma surgery very quickly.

"Glaucoma is a serious problem that starts to cause nerve damage to people without them realizing that anything is happening to their eyesight, often before it is too late, " says Prof. Assia, who is also the director of Ophthalmology at Meir Hospital in Israel, which treats thousands of glaucoma patients each year.

Washington -- A new study has found that the intake of fish oil, containing Omega-3 fatty acids could provide relief for those suffering with Multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic, inflammatory and cureless disease that affects the central nervous system.

MS, believed to be the result of damage around nerve cells, can cause a variety of symptoms, including changes in sensation, visual problems, muscle weakness, depressiondefine, difficulties with coordination and speech, severe fatigue, cognitive impairment, problems with balance, overheating, and pain. In severe cases, the debilitating disease can lead to impaired mobility and disability.

Washington -- Lissamine green, an eye-drop stain used by ophthalmologists to detect damaged cells on the eye’s surface, can reveal staining patterns that are key to diagnosing dry eye syndrome earlier than other methods, confirms a new study at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The new findings suggest that the eye-staining technique can provide doctors with more options for treating the potentially sight-stealing disease.

Washington -- A new study has found that current and past smokers might be at a higher risk of developing eye disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), than those who have never smoked.

Macular degeneration results in a gradual distortion of central vision, and sometimes leads to a central blind spot called a scotoma. When central vision is impaired, one may have difficulty recognizing faces and colours, driving a car, reading or doing close handwork, such as sewing or other handcrafts.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Jennifer S. L. Tan at University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

London -- Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a method that helps an adult recover function in an eye that has been damaged and dysfunctional from birth.

The study may help treat Amblyopia, or lazy eye as it showed that complete visual loss promoted subsequent recovery in an eye that has had severely compromised vision throughout life.

Clinical studies have demonstrated that the probability to recover amblyopia, caused by unilateral cataract, depended on the age at which the cataract was removed. The probability to recover fully was maximum when the cataract was removed by the age of three.

Washington -- A University College London (ULC) study has found that beta-amyloid proteins involved in Alzheimer's, are also implicated in a major eye disease glaucoma, and that drugs targeted for Alzheimer’s may be used to treat glaucoma.

Glaucoma causes damage to the optic nerve in the eye. However little is known about what caused the disease, it is traditionally attributed to increased pressure in the eye (known as ‘intraocular pressure’, and clinical treatments attempt to lower this pressure).

Washington -- Ophthalmologists at the University Clinic of the University of Navarra have confirmed the efficacy of a self-designed, novel method of adult stem cell growth for its capacity to grow corneadefine stem cells in animal studies.

Ana Fernandez Hortelano, ophthalmologist at the hospital, applied the growth technique for the treatment of diseases of cornea in 70 rabbits for the purpose of regaining the damaged epithelium, and thus restoring transparency to the cornea.