The changes of pattern electroretinography at the early stage of photodynamic therapy

Put-pose: To evaluate the short-term changes in pattern electroretinography (PERG) after photodynamic therapy (PDT). Methods: Thirty eyes of 30 patients (17 males, 13 females) with choroidal neovascularization secondary to age related macular degeneration were included in this study. Standard PDT with verteporfin was performed on each patient. Serial PERG recordings were performed before, 1 week, and 1 month after PDT. Results: Mean age of the patients was 69.6 +/- 8.4 years (range 56 and 90 years). One month after PDT, the visual acuity improved in 16 eyes, remained unchanged in 12 eyes and deteriorated in two eyes. New hemorrhages were seen in two eyes in the first week after PDT and visual acuity was decreased in those patients. No other patient complained of ocular and systemic adverse events. There was a statistically significant reduction in the amplitudes of P-50 and N-95 waves at the first week recordings after PDT. At 1 month after PDT, no significant differences in the P-50 and N-95 amplitudes were observed compared with pre-PDT PERG recordings. There were no significant changes in the latencies of P-50 and N-95 at the first week and first month recordings when compared with pre-treatment PERG values. Conclusions: Reduction in P-50 and N-95 amplitudes suggests that transient impairments in macular function occur at the first week after PDT

Electrooculography after photodynamic therapy

Purpose: To evaluate the changes in electrooculography (EOG) after photodynamic therapy (PDT). Methods: Thirty-eight eyes of 38 patients (21 males, 17 females) with choroidal neovascularization secondary to age related macular degeneration were included in this study. Standart PDT with verteporfin was performed on each patient. Serial EOG recordings were performed before, 1 week, and 1 month after PDT. Results: Mean age of the patients was 69.8 +/- 9.7 years (range 56 and 90 years). Seven days after PDT the visual acuity improved in 17 eyes, remained unchanged in 16 eyes and deteriorated in 5 eyes. One month after PDT the visual acuity findings were the same as the first week. New hemorrhages were seen in three eyes in the first week after PDT and visual acuity was decreased in those patients. No other patient complained of ocular and systemic adverse events. There was a statistically significant reduction in the Arden ratio of the EOG 1 week after PDT and the reduction persisted in the first month recordings. Conclusions: The reduction in Arden ratio of EOG findings may indicate that retina pigment epithelium function could be affected after PDT

Color vision changes in young subjects acutely exposed to 3,000 m altitude

Introduction: Performance of mountaineers, civil aircraft pilots, and of the personnel involved in many military operations in high mountains may rely on color discrimination at these moderate levels. The authors aimed at investigating the effects of moderate altitude (3000 m) exposure on color vision. Methods: Sixteen high school students, ages ranging between 14 and 17 yr, were enrolled in this study. Their color vision was examined with the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue (FM-100 Hue) test at 1060 and 3000 m above the sea level and the total number of errors (all 4 sectors together) compared. Number of errors was also calculated for each of 4 sub-sectors and compared between these two altitudes. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in total number of errors (p = 0.001) as well as in number of errors in sector 1 (p = 0.007) and sector 3 (p = 0.013) at 3000 m when compared with 1060 m. Conclusions: Moderate altitude (3000 m) adversely affected the total number of errors on FM-100 Hue color vision testing of an acclimatized group of young individuals in a photopic environment and this deterioriation was significant in the blue-yellow range

Serum paraoxonase activity is decreased in the active stage of Behcet's disease

Aims: To evaluate paraoxonase1 (PON1) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, one of the end products of lipid peroxidation induced by reactive oxygen species in patients with Behcet's disease (BD) in the active stage

Serum paraoxonase 1 activity and lipid peroxidation levels in patients with age-related macular degeneration

Our objective was to investigate antioxidant paraoxonase 1 (PON1) activity together with malondialdehyde (MDA) levels to evaluate oxidative stress in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an important cause of blindness in the elderly population. Serum PON1 activity and MDA levels were analyzed in 37 patients with AMD and compared with 29 healthy controls using a spectrophotometric method. Serum MDA levels were significantly higher in the patient group (2.76 +/- 1.28 nmol/ml) than controls (1.00 +/- 0.36 nmol/ml; p < 0.001), whereas PON1 activity was lower in the patient group (132.27 +/- 63.39 U/I) than controls (312.13 +/- 136.23 U/I; p < 0.001). There was a negative correlation between MDA and PON1 levels (r = - 0.470, p < 0.001). We conclude that the observed increase in MDA levels may be related to decreased PON1 activity; the present data also demonstrated that an obvious negative correlation between PON1 activity and MDA levels exists in patients with AMD. PON1 is also an antioxidant agent, therefore effective antioxidant therapy to inhibit lipid peroxidation is necessary and agents to increase PON1 activity may be a therapeutic option in AMD. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel