Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced FDA approval of Eylea (aflibercept) injection to treat all stages of diabetic retinopathy. Eylea is already approved for treatment of three conditions: neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration, macular edema resulting from retinal vein occlusion, and diabetic macular edema. This additional use of Eylea for diabetic retinopathy was approved based upon […]
Recent research spotlights a need to address certain risks and incapacities with which people with visual impairment are faced during hospital stays. Vision-impaired hospital patients have worse clinical outcomes, more readmissions, longer lengths of stay, and higher costs of care than non-vision-impaired patients, according to the authors. The article, published April 4, 2019 in JAMA […]
Low vision presents many challenges in managing daily living activities, with one of the most important being spot reading. This includes reading labels, instructions, envelope addresses, checkbooks, receipts, menus, food containers, recipes, clocks, signs, written notes, currency values, and on and on. With loss of functional eyesight, such normally routine tasks require either accommodating, seeking […]
Australian investigators have found that patients who consumed two or more eggs per week reduced their risk of developing wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) by 62% compared to those who consumed 1 or fewer. More than 3,600 patients from the Blue Mountains Eye Study, aged 49+ years, were examined across a 15-year follow-up period. 2,034 […]
Alkahest Inc. has reported that AKST4290, an oral medication for treatment of wet AMD, was shown in trials to be safe, effective, and “extremely promising”. Speaking at the 2019 Retina World Congress, Michael Stewart, MD (Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville), reported that 83% of subjects’ eyes had improved acuity of a mean 7+ letters, and 21% gained […]
Eye exams may soon serve a larger purpose than detecting vision changes. Because the retina is an extension of the brain and shares many similarities with the brain, researchers believe that the deterioration in the retina may mirror the changes going on in the blood vessels in the brain, thereby offering a window into the […]
Google has created a new Android app to help the visually impaired. Similar to Microsoft’s Seeing AI for Apple devices, the application, named Lookout, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify objects, read text, scan barcodes, and identify currencies. It is available to download though only for Google’s Pixel devices in the U.S. at this time. It is not clear […]
Researchers at the University of Oxford have carried out the world’s first gene therapy operation to tackle the root cause of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). An 80-year-old woman with AMD is the first of ten people to receive the treatment. The procedure was carried out at the John Radcliffe Hospital by Professor Robert MacLaren, Professor […]
by Dan Roberts Artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks. It provides us with human-like interactions with computers and helps us with difficult decision making. AI works by super-speed processing of large amounts of information (data), allowing the software to learn automatically […]
With recent successes in gene replacement therapy, scientists are enthused about studying how genetic variants play a part in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Previous research has identified 34 small genomic regions (“loci”) on the DNA molecule and 52 genetic variants (mutations) within those loci that are associated with AMD. Variants can regulate certain genes to […]