Blindness News and Research

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Cataract treatment in the blink of an eye

Researchers at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand are pioneering the development of an eye drop to halt the development of cataracts.

10 May 2005

Study sheds light on long term outlook for babies born before 2 weeks

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has announced that it has allocated £3 million to fund the next phase of a unique study looking into the survival prospects and long-term health and social issues facing extremely premature babies.

9 May 2005

Dairy products lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in men

Men who include more dairy products in their diets, especially low-fat varieties, may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study in the May 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

9 May 2005

Internet may help prevent blindness in Medicaid patients with diabetes

A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center team is launching a high-tech study to determine if early screening using a special camera and images transmitted over the Internet can prevent blindness in Medicaid patients with diabetes.

4 May 2005

New laser-surgery technique to perform cornea-transplant surgery

A UC Irvine ophthalmologist and his team have invented a new laser-surgery technique to perform cornea-transplant surgery that can replace the use of traditional handheld surgical blades and potentially improve recovery time for patients.

3 May 2005

Glaucoma therapy patients often do not comply with their doctor’s prescribed medicine regimen

A study that appears in the May edition of Ophthalmology, the clinical journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, shows that as many as 47 percent of patients receiving glaucoma therapy do not comply with their doctor’s prescribed medicine regimen. This is in startling contrast to the 90 percent of doctors who believe that their patients are following the prescribed treatment.

2 May 2005

Solar cell implant may restore some sight for the blind

Ophthalmologists at Rush University Medical Center implanted Artificial Silicon Retina (ASR) microchips in the eyes of five patients to treat vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The implant is a silicon microchip 2mm in diameter and one-thousandth of an inch thick, less than the thickness of a human hair.

1 May 2005

Tumors of the pituitary gland are more common than thought

A recent study found that tumors of the pituitary gland are more common than many health care professionals realize, with national prevalence rates averaging 16.7 percent. To neurosurgeon Dr. Gail Rosseau, this isn't surprising.

1 May 2005

Age-related macular degeneration is triggered, possibly by an infection

Age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, occurs when a common inherited gene variation is triggered, possibly by an infection, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Iowa, with an international research team.

1 May 2005

Glaucoma therapy recipients do not comply with doctor's prescribed medicine regimen

A study that appears in the May edition of Ophthalmology, the clinical journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, shows that as many as 47 percent of patients receiving glaucoma therapy do not comply with their doctor's prescribed medicine regimen. This is in startling contrast to the 90 percent of doctors who believe that their patients are following the prescribed treatment.

1 May 2005

Research offers hope for treatment of age-related blindness

Rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with anti-inflammatory drugs are 10 times less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common form of blindness in people over 55, researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Saskatchewan have found.

27 Apr 2005

Scientists add an important piece to the intricate puzzle of type-1 diabetes

For some time, scientists have known that a regenerative or repair process -- involving the development of specialized structures called tubular complexes -- is switched on during physical and chemical trauma to the pancreas (the gland that manufactures and secretes crucial insulin in the body).

27 Apr 2005

Obesity sends Type 2 diabetes rates in children soaring

Research results revealed at the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference, show 22 children under 16 have Type 2 diabetes in East London alone. Past estimates suggest there were only around 100 children diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the UK but this figure now appears to be a vast underestimate.

23 Apr 2005

Body's 24-hour internal clock linked to obesity and diabetes

Obesity and diabetes in both adults and children are rising at alarming rates and a wide range of culprits -- super-sized food portions, lack of exercise due to television, computers, suburban sprawl and loss of gym classes, high-fat and fast foods, sugar-laden drinks and psychological trauma -- have been blamed.

21 Apr 2005

Smoking doubles the risk of macular degeneration

Smoking doubles the risk of the progressive and irreversible eye condition, macular degeneration, and may account for almost 30,000 cases in the UK, suggests research in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

19 Apr 2005

Bionic eyes from Stanford

Stanford physicists and eye doctors have teamed up to design a "bionic eye," of sorts. On Feb. 22 in the Journal of Neural Engineering, Daniel Palanker, Alexander Vankov and Phil Huie from the Department of Ophthalmology and the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory and Stephen Baccus from the Department of Neurobiology published a design of an optoelectronic retinal prosthesis system that can stimulate the retina with resolution corresponding to a visual acuity of 20/80

4 Apr 2005

Wolbachia genome reveals new targets to combat infectious disease

More than a billion people are at risk for infection with filarial nematodes, parasites that cause elephantiasis, African river blindness, and other debilitating diseases in more than 150 million people worldwide.

29 Mar 2005

Preventing eye disease in retinitis pigmentosa

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited eye disease that causes visual disability leading to blindness. Over the last 15 years, researchers have pinpointed defects in dozens of genes causing different forms of RP.

22 Mar 2005

Rubella no threat in U.S.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ,speaking at the National Immunization Conference Washington, DC, says the rubella virus, a major cause of serious birth defects such as deafness and blindness, also known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) is no longer considered to be a major public health threat in the United States.

21 Mar 2005

Genes play a substantial role in the development of age-related macular degeneration

Genes play a substantial role in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness among older individuals, according to an article in the March issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

14 Mar 2005