Plasticity of visual attention in Isha yoga meditation practitioners before and after a 3-month retreat.

Meditation has lately received considerable interest from cognitive neuroscience. Studies suggest that daily meditation leads to long lasting attentional and neuronal plasticity. We present changes related to the attentional systems before and after a 3 month intensive meditation retreat. We used three behavioral psychophysical tests - a Stroop task, an attentional blink task, and a global-local letter task-to assess the effect of Isha yoga meditation on attentional resource allocation. 82 Isha yoga practitioners were tested at the beginning and at the end of the retreat. Our results showed an increase in correct responses specific to incongruent stimuli in the Stroop task. Congruently, a positive correlation between previous meditation experience and accuracy to incongruent Stroop stimuli was also observed at baseline. We also observed a reduction of the attentional blink. Unexpectedly, a negative correlation between previous meditation experience and attentional blink performance at baseline was observed. Regarding spatial attention orientation as assessed using the global-local letter task, participants showed a bias toward local processing. Only slight differences in performance were found pre- vs. post- meditation retreat. Biasing toward the local stimuli in the global-local task and negative correlation of previous meditation experience with attentional blink performance is consistent with Isha practices being focused-attention practices. Given the relatively small effect sizes and the absence of a control group, our results do not allow clear support nor rejection of the hypothesis of meditation-driven neuronal plasticity in the attentional system for Isha yoga practice

The electroretinogram:a useful tool for evaluating age-related macular disease?

With an ageing population, the number of age-related macular disease (ARMD) cases will inevitably rise. This gives greater impetus for the need to identify the disease earlier and assess treatments to slow disease progression. Differing electroretinogram (ERG) modalities have been reviewed in relation to the objective assessment of retinal function in ARMD and for monitoring the effectiveness of clinical interventions. Conflicting results have been found with regard to the efficacy of ERG findings in the investigation of ARMD in previous years. The newer multifocal ERG paradigm provides spatial topographical information about retinal function in ARMD. It has shown promising results in monitoring effectiveness of clinical interventions and studies are continuing in this area. Better knowledge of retinal function in ARMD may lead to enhanced treatments at each phase of the disease

A 6-month, subject-masked, randomized controlled study to assess efficacy of dexamethasone as an adjunct to bevacizumab compared with bevacizumab alone in the treatment of patients with macular edema due to central or branch retinal vein occlusion

Raj K Maturi,1,2 Vincent Chen,3 Dan Raghinaru,3 Laurie Bleau,1 Michael W Stewart4 1Midwest Eye Institute, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 2Department of Ophthalmology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 3Jaeb Center for Health Research, Tampa, FL, USA; 4Department of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA Aims: To determine if intravitreal bevacizumab combined with the dexamethasone intravitreal implant 0.7 mg improves visual acuity and macular thickness more than bevacizumab monotherapy in eyes with macular edema due to branch and central retinal vein occlusions. Methods: Thirty eyes were randomly assigned to receive either combination therapy or bevacizumab monotherapy. All patients received intravitreal bevacizumab at baseline, followed by dexamethasone implants or sham injections 1 week later. Monthly bevacizumab injections were given if the central subfield thickness (CST) was >250 µm, and the combined group received a second implant at month 4 or 5 if CST was >250 µm. Results: At 6 months, several secondary endpoints were met. Patients receiving combined therapy required fewer bevacizumab reinjections compared to those receiving monotherapy (two versus three; P=0.02), experienced greater mean reductions in CST from randomization (–56 µm versus +45 µm; P=0.01), and were more likely to have resolved all edema (CST <250 µm) (7/11 versus 2/14; P=0.02). The primary endpoint was not met since mean visual acuity changes from baseline were similar in the two groups (P=0.75). Conclusion: In patients with macular edema due to vein occlusions, bevacizumab with dexamethasone implants produces greater improvements in macular thickness compared to bevacizumab monotherapy, despite fewer bevacizumab injections. Keywords: dexamethasone implant, central retinal vein occlusion, branch retinal vein occlusion, vascular endothelial growth facto

Impact of Modifying Abicipar Manufacturing Process in Patients with Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: MAPLE Study Results

David Callanan,1 Rahul N Khurana,2 Raj K Maturi,3,4 Sunil Patel,5 Charles C Wykoff,6 David Eichenbaum,7,8 Arshad M Khanani,9,10 Tarek Hassan,11 Hanh Badger,12 Shraddha Mehta,12 Grace Le,12 Mayssa Attar,13 Jennifer Seal,13 Xiao-Yan Li12,14 1Texas Retina Associates, Arlington, TX, USA; 2Northern California Retina Vitreous Associates, Mountain View, CA, USA; 3Midwest Eye Institute, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 4Department of Ophthalmology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 5West Texas Retina, Abilene, TX, USA; 6Retina Consultants of Houston, Retina Consultants of America, Blanton Eye Institute, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA; 7Retina Vitreous Associates of Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA; 8Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA; 9Sierra Eye Associates, Reno, NV, USA; 10University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV, USA; 11Associated Retinal Consultants, Royal Oak, MI, USA; 12Allergan plc, Irvine, CA, USA, at the time of this work; 13Allergan, an AbbVie company, Irvine, CA, USA; 14VivaVision Biotech, Inc, Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: David Callanan, Texas Retina Associates, 801 West Randol Mill Road, Suite 101, Arlington, TX, USA, 76012, Tel +1 817-261-9625, Fax +1 817-261-9586, Email [email protected]: To evaluate the impact of modifying the abicipar pegol (abicipar) manufacturing process on the safety and treatment effect of abicipar in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).Methods: A new process for manufacturing abicipar was developed to reduce host cell impurities. In a prospective, Phase 2, multicenter, open-label, 28-week clinical trial, patients (n=123) with active nAMD received intravitreal injections of abicipar 2 mg at baseline (day 1) and weeks 4, 8, 16, and 24. Outcome measures included proportion of patients with stable vision (< 15-letter loss from baseline; primary endpoint), change from baseline in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT), and adverse events.Results: Overall, 8.9% (11/123) of patients experienced intraocular inflammation (IOI) and discontinued treatment. IOI cases were assessed as mild (2.4% [3/123]), moderate (4.9% [6/123]), or severe (1.6% [2/123]) and resolved with steroid treatment. Visual acuity in most patients with IOI (8 of 11) recovered to baseline BCVA or better by study end. No cases of endophthalmitis or retinal vasculitis were reported. Stable vision was maintained for ≥ 95.9% (≥ 118/123) of patients at all study visits. At week 28, treatment-naïve patients showed a greater mean improvement from baseline in BCVA compared with previously treated patients (4.4 vs 1.8 letters) and a larger mean CRT reduction from baseline (98.5 vs 45.5 μm).Conclusion: Abicipar produced using a modified manufacturing process showed a moderately lower incidence and severity of IOI compared with Phase 3 abicipar studies. Beneficial effects of treatment were demonstrated.Keywords: abicipar, age-related macular degeneration, inflammatio