Neovascular age-related macular degeneration: A review of findings from the real-world Fight Retinal Blindness! registry

The use of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors has revolutionised the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) since the pivotal Phase III studies demonstrated their efficacy more than 10 years ago. The Fight Retinal Blindness! project was developed to track the treatment outcomes of patients with nAMD in real-world practice. Data from this registry have been used to answer several clinically relevant questions related to the treatment of nAMD including the effect of under-treatment, the comparative effectiveness of different anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents, long-term treatment outcomes, identifying optimal treatment regimens and the rate and outcomes of rare adverse events. Observational studies are a valuable complement to the shortcomings of clinical trials and a combination of data from real-world settings and clinical trials are necessary to provide evidence on how to achieve the best outcomes for individual patients with nAMD

Tear physiology in dry eye associated with chronic GVHD

The purpose of this study was to compare tear physiology characteristics of chronic GVHD (cGVHD)-associated dry eye to dry eye caused by Sjogrens syndrome (SS), a extreme form of aqueous-deficient dry eye, and meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), the major cause of evaporative dry eye. Tear turnover rate, evaporation and osmolarity along with meibomian gland dropout and lipid layer interferometric patterns were assessed in the right eyes of 12 patients with dry eye associated with cGVHD, 12 age-matched patients with SS and 12 age-sex matched subjects with MGD. In cGVHD, the decrease in tear turnover rate was similar (P=0.33), but the number of non-functioning meibomian glands was significantly higher (P<0.01) than in SS. Tear evaporation rate in cGVHD dry eye was found to be similar to that in MGD (P=0.36) and significantly higher than in SS (P<0.01). The lipid layer was most unstable in cGVHD compared with other groups. There was no variation in tear volume across all groups. Although statistical significance was not detected, the mean tear osmolarity (333.51±14.67mOsm/L) was highest in cGVHD. Major aspects of tear physiology were severely impaired in cGVHD-associated dry eye