PURPOSE: To examine the retinal inflammatory response to ischemia-reperfusion in nondiabetic and diabetic rats injected with either an omega-3-polyunsaturated fatty acid (docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) or a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor (pravastatin). METHODS: Diabetes was induced by an intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin, and retinal ischemia was induced by ligation of ...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between homocysteine and homocysteine metabolism components and retinal microvascular disorders in subjects with and without Type 2 diabetes. In this population-based study of 256 participants, aged 60-85 years, we determined total plasma homocysteine, SAM (S-adenosylmethionine) and SAH (S-adenosylhomocysteine) in ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate tear film stability and tear secretion in patients with diabetes after phacoemulsification. METHODS: Twenty-five diabetic cataract patients and 20 age-matched non-diabetic cataract patients as control underwent phacoemulsification. Tear film break-up time (TFBUT), Schirmer I test (SIT), corneal fluorescein staining, and dry eye symptoms were measured pre- and ...

PURPOSE: Oxidative damage and growth factors are implicated in the pathogenesis of retinopathy in diabetes. Recent studies have shown that two dietary carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin (Zx), that are specifically concentrated within ocular tissues, may play important roles in maintaining their integrity. This study is to evaluate the potential protective ...

The advanced glycation end product (AGE)-receptor for AGE (RAGE) pathway is involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic microvascular damage. The special distribution of RAGE and its engagement has an impact on the development of diabetic retinopathy. In the present study, we used immunofluorescence and confocal laser microscopy to study RAGE ...

PURPOSE: In another study, it was demonstrated that NADPH oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important for ischemia-induced increases in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and retinal neovascularization. Diabetes-induced increases in retinal ROS, VEGF expression, and vascular permeability are accompanied by increases in the NADPH oxidase catalytic subunit NOX2 within ...

Inhibitors of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase (statins) reduce signs of diabetic retinopathy in diabetic patients and animals. Indirect clinical evidence supports the actions of statins in improving cardiovascular function, but the mechanisms of their protective actions in the retina are not understood. Prior studies have implicated oxidative stress and NADPH oxidase-mediated ...

Diabetes-induced increase in oxidative stress is postulated as playing a significant role in the development of retinopathy. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) which forms part of the retinal blood barrier has been reported to be affected in diabetes. Besides functioning as a neurotransmitter, the radical nitric oxide (NO) can act ...

Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) are implicated in the etiology of diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Here, we show that some SOCS members are induced, while others are constitutively expressed, in retina and examine whether persistent elevation of SOCS levels in retina by chronic inflammation or cellular stress predisposes to ...

Asteroid hyalosis (AH) is a common degenerative process in which fatty calcium globules collect within the vitreous humour. The condition rarely causes visual disturbances, and surgical removal is only rarely required. The presence of AH has been associated with systemic diseases such as diabetes; however, research in this area has ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate erythropoietin (Epo) and Epo receptor (EpoR) expression in the retina and in vitreous fluid from diabetic and nondiabetic donors. To gain insight into the mechanisms responsible for the regulation of Epo production in the retina, we also assessed retinal expression of ...

PURPOSE: To determine the variation in optical coherence tomography (OCT)-measured macular thickness in diabetic eyes without clinical edema and to investigate factors that might influence variation in macular thickness. DESIGN: Retrospective, observational case series from a clinical practice. METHODS: Review of clinical charts and longitudinal OCT measurements of a consecutive ...

Diabetes increases the risk for microvascular disease. The retina and the brain both have intricate microvascular systems that are developmentally similar. We sought to examine whether microvascular lesions in the retina and in the brain are associated and whether this association differs among people with and without diabetes. The analysis ...

PURPOSE: To assess the relationship between foveal microcirculation and central retinal function in diabetic patients having both an enlarged foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and a preserved visual acuity (0.6 or better). METHODS: Twenty-five patients with diabetes type 1 or 2 with an enlarged FAZ (largest diameter > 650 microm) measured ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To investigate the combined therapeutic effects of Nd:YAG laser membranotomy and intravitreal tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) (Actilyse; Boehringer Ingelheim, Ingelheim, Germany) injection with perfluoropropane (C3F8, 100%) injection on massive diabetic premacular hemorrhage. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Nd:YAG laser membranotomy was performed on the hemorrhagic membrane of premacular hemorrhage, ...

PURPOSE: To study the effect of dorzolamide on the preretinal oxygen tension (RPO(2)) in retinal areas affected by experimental branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) in pigs. METHODS: Experimental BRVO was induced by diathermy close to the optic disc. RPO(2) was measured with an oxygen-sensitive electrode 0.5 mm above the BRVO-affected ...

To evaluate optical coherence tomography (OCT) thickness of the macula in people with diabetes but minimal or no retinopathy and to compare these findings with published normative data in the literature from subjects reported to have no retinal disease. Cross-sectional study. In a multicenter community- and university-based practices setting, 97 ...

BACKGROUND: Diabetic retinopathy is accompanied with changes in the autoregulation of retinal blood flow secondary to changes in the systemic blood pressure and the retinal metabolism. In the present study we tested the working hypothesis that there is an interaction between these mechanisms that might be relevant for understanding and ...

PURPOSE: To assess ocular and systemic factors associated with diabetes mellitus in the adult population in rural and urban China. METHODS: The Beijing Eye Study 2006, a population-based, cross-sectional cohort study, included 3251 subjects aged 45 years and more (participation rate: 73.2%). Blood samples were available for 2960 (91.0%) subjects. ...

Early diabetic retinopathy is characterized by changes in subtle visual functions such as contrast sensitivity and dark adaptation. The outcome of several studies suggests that glutamate is involved in retinal neurodegeneration during diabetes. We hypothesized that the protein levels of ionotropic glutamate receptor subunits are altered in the retina during ...

To explore and evaluate the protective effect of erythropoietin (EPO) on retinal cells of chemically induced diabetic rats after EPO was injected intravitreally at the onset of diabetes. Diabetes was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ). At the onset of diabetes, a single intravitreal injection of ...

PURPOSE: Azurocidin, released by neutrophils during leukocyte-endothelial interaction, is a main cause of neutrophil-evoked vascular leakage. Its role in the retina, however, is unknown. METHODS: Brown Norway rats received intravitreal injections of azurocidin and vehicle control. Blood-retinal barrier (BRB) breakdown was quantified using the Evans blue (EB) dye technique 1, ...

PURPOSE: To quantify the magnitude of change of retinal arteriolar hemodynamics induced by a combined isocapnic hyperoxia and glucose provocation in diabetic patients with early sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy (DR) and in age-matched control subjects and to compare the response to that of an isocapnic hyperoxia provocation alone. The study hypothesis ...

PURPOSE: To investigate the impact of diabetic retinopathy on quantitative retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) assessment and diagnostic power for glaucoma by scanning laser polarimetry (GDx-VCC) and optical coherence tomography (StratusOCT). METHODS: The individual RNFL parameters of GDx and OCT were obtained for 170 eyes (one eye from each of ...

BACKGROUND: Pegaptanib sodium, the first aptamer therapeutic approved for use and the first antiangiogenic agent used to treat ocular neovascular disease, acts by inhibiting the 165 isoform of vascular endothelial growth factor believed primarily responsible for pathologic ocular neovascularization and vascular permeability. OBJECTIVE: To briefly present the pharmacology, clinical efficacy ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate microglial activation in human diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: Paraffin sections from 21 eyes of 13 patients with diabetic background, preproliferative, or proliferative retinopathies and 10 normal eyes of 9 individuals were studied with immunolabeling of microglia with antibodies against HLA-DR antigen, CD45, or CD68. RESULTS: In the healthy ...

BACKGROUND: Whether microvascular disease contributes to the development of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is unclear. We examined the relationship of retinal microvascular signs with LVH in an African-American population. METHODS: A population-based, cross-sectional study of 1,439 middle-aged African-American participants in Jackson, Mississippi. A retinal photograph of one randomly selected eye ...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to describe prevalent vascular retinal lesions among patients with type 2 diabetes enrolled in the ADVANCE Retinal Measurements (AdRem) study, a substudy of the Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron MR Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) trial. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Seven-field ...

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the mechanism of the unique beneficial effect of intravitreal steroid therapy on diabetic macular edema, we investigated the effect of locally administered triamcinolone acetonide (TA) on the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A and its receptors in retinas of rats with streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes. We then ...

Objective: To describe prevalent vascular retinal lesions among patients with type 2 diabetes enrolled in the ADVANCE Retinal measurement study (AdRem), a sub-study of the Action in Diabetes and Vascular disease - Preterax and Diamicron Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) trial. Research Design and Methods: Seven field stereoscopic photographs of both eyes ...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the aqueous humor and serum levels of chromium (Cr) in cataract patients with and without diabetes mellitus. METHODS: Levels of Cr were measured using atomic absorption spectrometry in the serum from 20 patients and aqueous humor aspirates taken during anterior segment surgery from 20 eyes of 20 ...

BACKGROUND: Despite advances in the understanding of diabetic retinopathy, the nature and time course of molecular changes in the retina with diabetes are incompletely described. This study characterized the functional and molecular phenotype of the retina with increasing durations of diabetes. RESULTS: Using the streptozotocin-induced rat model of diabetes, levels ...

This case describes a diabetic with blood glucose levels in the 400s for 3 weeks with severe loss of visual acuity over the past 2 weeks. The exam showed only feather-shaped opacities in her lens, consistent with a cataract. With insulin and fluids alone, her visual acuity dramatically improved and ...

L-carnitine has a wide-ranging role in several physiological processes, but perhaps most significantly in long-chain fatty acid oxidation in the mitochondrial matrix. Osmolytic (or osmoprotective) properties have also been suggested for the compound. Importantly, the ability of L-carnitine to improve insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant diabetic patients may, together with the ...

To evaluate agreement in diabetic retinopathy severity classification by retina specialists performing ophthalmoscopy versus reading center (RC) grading of seven-field stereoscopic fundus photographs in a phase 2 clinical trial of intravitreal bevacizumab for center-involved diabetic macular edema. Clinicians' grading scale used four levels: microaneurysms only, mild/moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), ...

PURPOSE: To determine the overall reported incidence and causes of registrable blindness and low vision in Taipei, Taiwan, that have occurred in the previous 10 years. METHODS: Study data were obtained from disability identification registration forms completed between January 1995 and December 2004. Definitions of low vision and blindness were ...

PURPOSE: To determine whether inflammatory reactions are involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic macular edema, we examined the relationship between diabetic macular edema and the ratio of T helper 1 (Th1) to T helper 2 (Th2) cells. METHODS: Thirty-nine diabetic patients with diabetic retinopathy were evaluated at our hospital between ...

BACKGROUND: Macular oedema tends to be a more rapid complication of diabetic retinopathy and represents the major cause of blindness. Among subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus, it can be found in 15% of those who use insulin and 4% of those who do not. Use of thiazolidinediones (glitazones) has ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to investigate if absolute values and reproducibility of thickness maps obtained from 2 optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanning protocols, regular high-resolution and fast low-density mode, differ in patients with diabetic macular edema. METHODS: A total of 26 consecutive patients undergoing fluorescein angiography and ...

THE RETINAL VESSELS HAVE TWO BARRIERS: the retinal pigment epithelium and the retinal vascular endothelium. Each barrier exhibits increased permeability under various pathological conditions. This condition is referred to as blood retinal barrier (BRB) breakdown. Clinically, the most frequently encountered condition causing BRB breakdown is diabetic retinopathy. In recent studies, ...

PURPOSE: In proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and other angiogenesis-associated diseases, increased levels of cytokines, inflammatory cells, growth factors, and angiogenic factors are present. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) appears to play a central role in mediating microvascular pathology in PDR. The purpose of the present study was to search for ...

PURPOSE: To investigate the role of inflammatory and angiogenic factors in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy, we determined, in diabetic patients and controls, vitreous and serum concentrations of interferon-induced protein (IP)-10, monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1alpha, MIP-1beta, regulated upon activation, normal T-expressed and secreted (RANTES), and vascular ...

PURPOSE: Cortistatin (CST), a neuropeptide with strong structural and functional similarities to somatostatin, is abundant in the vitreous fluid, and it is decreased in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The aims of the present study were to explore whether the retina produces CST, and to compare its expression between diabetic ...

BACKGROUND: Many eyes with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) require vitreous surgery despite complete regression of new vessels with pan retinal laser photocoagulation (PRP). Changes in the vitreous caused by diabetes mellitus and diabetic retinopathy may continue to progress independent of laser regressed status of retinopathy. Diabetic vitreopathy can be an ...

PURPOSE: Hyperglycemia and hypertension contribute to the development of diabetic retinopathy, and this may involve alterations in the normal retinal cell cycle. In this work, we examined the influence of diabetes and hypertension on retinal cell replication in vivo and the relationship between these changes and several early markers of ...

We report a case of severe diabetic macular edema (DME) that developed after pioglitazone was used by a patient with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. A 30-year-old woman with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus visited our clinic in 2004. She had moderate pre-proliferative diabetic retinopathy OU. Because of the rapid progression ...

We hypothesize that late-life depression is a manifestation of microvascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. We conducted a clinic-based cross-sectional study, comparing retinal vascular caliber, a marker of microvascular disease, in participants with type 2 diabetes with major depression (n=34), without depression (n=27) and healthy non-diabetic controls (n=38). ...

Diabetic retinopathy, a retinal vascular disease, is inhibited in animals treated with aminoguanidine, an inhibitor of inducible nitric-oxide synthase. This treatment also reduces retinal protein nitration, which is greater in diabetic rat retina than nondiabetic retina. As an approach to understanding the molecular mechanisms of diabetic retinopathy, we sought the ...

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is the major cause of vision loss in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR). The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of DR and DME in a community in China and to analyze the characteristics of their optical coherence tomography (OCT) images. This study ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of retinal vascular caliber to incident diabetes in a population-based cohort. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) Study recruited adults aged 25+ years across Australia in 1999-2000, with a follow-up 5 years later in 2004-2005. Participants' glycemic status was classified ...