Eye News and Research

Latest Eye News and Research

Bypassing politics, insurers pay for end of life talks

These doctor-patient conversations had been labeled "death panels" by opponents of the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, in a bid to reduce backlogs, Medicare offers a deal to hospitals to pay 68 percent of short-term stay medical claims that were rejected by outside auditors.

3 Sep 2014

Researchers develop new test to identify sickle cell disease in minutes

Within minutes after birth, every child in the U.S. undergoes a battery of tests designed to diagnose a host of conditions, including sickle cell disease. Thousands of children born in the developing world, however, aren't so lucky, meaning many suffer and die from the disease each year.

2 Sep 2014

New technology holds potential to identify cardiac disease using video monitoring

To the careful observer, a person's face has long provided insight into what is going on beneath the surface. Now, with the assistance of a web camera and software algorithms, the face can also reveal whether or not an individual is experiencing atrial fibrillation, a treatable but potentially dangerous heart condition.

29 Aug 2014

New method could help doctors better understand how drug abuse affects the brain

A new method for measuring and imaging how quickly blood flows in the brain could help doctors and researchers better understand how drug abuse affects the brain, which may aid in improving brain-cancer surgery and tissue engineering, and lead to better treatment options for recovering drug addicts.

29 Aug 2014

Reticular pseudodrusen predicts late-stage AMD

Reticular pseudodrusen increases the likelihood of people with choroidal neovascularisation in one eye also developing late-stage, age-related macular degeneration in the other eye, researchers report.

28 Aug 2014

Lifestyle factors modify vision impairment risk

Smoking, drinking alcohol and physical activity are modifiable behaviours that influence the risk of vision impairment, show findings from the Beaver Dam Eye Study.

28 Aug 2014

Macular ischaemia, retinal thinning linked to reduced visual function in diabetic retinopathy

Macular ischemia and retinal thinning are associated with reduced visual function in patients with diabetic retinopathy, research suggests.

28 Aug 2014

Simple colour test could detect early onset of nAMD in the UK

A simple colour test that could detect the early onset of a condition which accounts for over half of visual impairment certifications in the UK is being researched by scientists at Aston University.

28 Aug 2014

Tiny eye implant enables patients to battle glaucoma

For the 2.2 million Americans battling glaucoma, the main course of action for staving off blindness involves weekly visits to eye specialists who monitor - and control - increasing pressure within the eye.

27 Aug 2014

Findings encourage investigation on fear, safety and sleep in human PTSD

The effectiveness of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment may hinge significantly upon sleep quality, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System in a paper published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.

27 Aug 2014

Zebrafish and virus help scientists map the living brain

A virus and a zebrafish are helping scientists map the living brain. "You can kinda draw a diagram and see how cells within it are connected in a functioning brain," said Dr. Albert Pan, neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.

26 Aug 2014

EVERYAWARE develops AirProbe and Widenoise apps to increase awareness of environment

Air and noise pollution are among the most insidious threats to our health. But what if we could monitor both from our smartphones? The AirProbe and Widenoise apps, developed by an EU-funded research project called EVERYAWARE, have made this possible.

26 Aug 2014

Current x-ray- examinations capture only 20% of lung cancer cases

Each year, nearly 3000 Norwegians develop lung cancer. Current x-ray- examinations capture only 20 percent of cases. With modern ultralow-dose CT, the radiologists hit the bull's eye 90 per cent of the time.

26 Aug 2014

UT Southwestern researchers discover crucial link between high insulin levels and obesity pathways

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a crucial link between high levels of insulin and pathways that lead to obesity, a finding that may have important implications when treating diabetes.

26 Aug 2014

Finding suggests that retina acts as type of window to the brain

Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes and University of California, San Francisco have shown that a loss of cells in the retina is one of the earliest signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in people with a genetic risk for the disorder-even before any changes appear in their behavior.

25 Aug 2014

Half-glass rule can limit alcohol consumption

Sticking to a general rule of pouring just a half glass of wine limits the likelihood of overconsumption, even for men with a higher body mass index.

25 Aug 2014

Researchers develop novel way to use a laser to improve lives of many diabetes sufferers

Princeton University researchers have developed a way to use a laser to measure people's blood sugar, and, with more work to shrink the laser system to a portable size, the technique could allow diabetics to check their condition without pricking themselves to draw blood.

22 Aug 2014

Subcortical brain regions play key role in memorization process during sleep

According to researchers at the University of Montreal, the regions of the brain below the cortex play an important role as we train our bodies' movements and, critically, they interact more effectively after a night of sleep.

22 Aug 2014

Fungal infections that sicken HIV/AIDS patients grow on trees

Researchers have pinpointed the environmental source of fungal infections that have been sickening HIV/AIDS patients in Southern California for decades. It literally grows on trees.

22 Aug 2014

Penn Medicine launches CAROT to build novel therapies for retinal and ocular disorders

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has launched the Penn Center for Advanced Retinal and Ocular Therapeutics (CAROT) to build on its previous success developing novel therapies for the personalized diagnosis and treatment of retinal and ocular disorders.

22 Aug 2014