Vision Loss News and Research

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MSU professor to lead acetazolamide clinical trial on idiopathic intracranial hypertension

A rare but increasingly more common disease striking overweight, younger women is the focus of a clinical trial at Michigan State University, where an osteopathic physician is testing the effectiveness of a certain drug against a potentially blindness-causing ailment.

8 Jun 2011

UCSD students study what happens when blood floods headward in microgravity

In space, the old movie slogan declares, "no one can hear you scream." On the other hand, you might look like it, with puffy face, swollen eyes and distended neck veins. This is what happens when, screaming or not, bodily fluids shift in the absence of gravity.

25 May 2011

New faceshields offer protection to football players with amblyopia

Game-worn football faceshields are more susceptible to breaking when subjected to high-velocity impact than are new faceshields, according to recent research.

24 May 2011

VIDAS TOXO IgG Avidity assay to test for recent Toxoplasma gondii infection receives FDA clearance

On May 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the first test to help determine whether a pregnant woman or a person with swollen lymph nodes testing positive for toxoplasmosis, sometimes known as cat scratch disease, developed the infection within the past four months.

20 May 2011

Modified vitamin A drug may help prevent age-related macular degeneration

Slowing down the aggregation or "clumping" of vitamin A in the eye may help prevent vision loss caused by macular degeneration, research from Columbia University Medical Center has found.

19 May 2011

Queen's University scientists partner to treat premature baby blindness with stem cells

Scientists from the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's University Belfast are teaming up to develop a cure to an illness that can lead to blindness in premature babies, thanks to funding from children's charity Action Medical Research.

18 May 2011

German doctors among first to treat ischemic stroke patients with new blood clot retrieval device

Doctors in Germany are among the first to treat ischemic stroke patients outside the United States with the REVIVE SE, a new self-expanding blood clot retrieval and removal device designed to remove blood clots and restore blood flow to the brain in patients having a stroke.

12 May 2011

Positive Ellex 2RT data demonstrates efficacy in treatment of early Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Ellex Medical Lasers Limited (ASX:ELX) today announced milestone clinical results for its breakthrough Retinal Regeneration Therapy (Ellex 2RT™) for the treatment of Early Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

2 May 2011

Avastin, Lucentis are equally effective for age-related macular degeneration treatment

Age-related macular degeneration, a disease that damages the retina and can destroy central vision, affects approximately 1.6 million Americans. For the past five years, there has been active debate over treatment options for AMD patients because ophthalmologists have not had accurate data regarding the true efficacy of the most commonly used medication.

29 Apr 2011

Researchers report Avastin is effective as Lucentis for AMD treatment

Researchers are reporting results from the first year of a two-year clinical trial that Avastin, a drug approved to treat some cancers and that is commonly used off-label to treat age-related macular degeneration, is as effective as the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug Lucentis for the treatment of AMD.

29 Apr 2011

Blood levels of inflammation-controlling protein linked to childrens' risk of developing diabetes

Decreasing blood levels of a protein that helps control inflammation may be a red flag that could help children avoid type 1 diabetes, researchers say.

28 Apr 2011

Ketogenic diet may reverse impaired kidney function in diabetics

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time determined that the ketogenic diet, a specialized high-fat, low carbohydrate diet, may reverse impaired kidney function in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. They also identified a previously unreported panel of genes associated with diabetes-related kidney failure, whose expression was reversed by the diet. The findings were published in the current issue of PLoS ONE.

21 Apr 2011

Older women with high vitamin D status less likely to have early AMD

Women under the age of 75 with high vitamin D status were less likely to have early age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in adults, a University at Buffalo study has shown. The disease affects approximately 9 percent of Americans aged 40 and older.

12 Apr 2011

Long-term delivery of CNTF slows loss of visual acuity caused by geographic atrophy

A phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of a severe form of age-related macular degeneration called geographic atrophy (GA) has become the first study to show the benefit of a therapy to slow the progression of vision loss for this disease. The results highlight the benefit of the use of a neurotrophic factor to treat GA and provide hope to nearly one million Americans suffering from GA.

8 Apr 2011

Bayer, Regeneron initiate two VEGF Trap-Eye Phase 3 trials in Diabetic Macular Edema

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer HealthCare announced that they have initiated the first of two Phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of VEGF Trap-Eye, an investigational new agent for the treatment of certain eye diseases, in the treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema.

8 Apr 2011

A2AAR-selective agonists may prevent permanent vision damage from traumatic optic nerve injury

Scientists want to protect the optic nerve when the eye takes a blow on the battlefield or in a car wreck.

7 Apr 2011

Neurotech’s NT-501 intraocular implant slows progression of vision loss in GA subjects

Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that it was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that its product candidate NT-501 slowed progression of vision loss in patients with geographic atrophy (GA) associated with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a Phase 2 study.

6 Apr 2011

ActiveSite's ASP-440 plasma kallikrein inhibitor effective in reducing diabetes-induced blood-retinal barrier breakdown

ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today the online publication of a study in the journal Diabetes that describes the effectiveness of its novel plasma kallikrein inhibitor ASP-440 in reducing blood-retinal barrier breakdown in a rodent model of diabetes.

28 Mar 2011

Genentech's Lucentis Phase III trials in DME meets primary endpoints

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, announced today that the second of two Phase III trials evaluating Lucentis in patients with diabetic macular edema met its primary endpoint.