Visual Impairment News and Research

Latest Visual Impairment News and Research

Diabetic retinopathy more prevalent in South Asians and occurs earlier

South Asians with type 2 diabetes are significantly more at risk of losing their eyesight and losing it at an earlier age, compared to White Europeans with the same condition.

24 Mar 2009

Health insurance status associated with frequency of eye care visits

Individuals with no or inconsistent health care coverage appear less likely to regularly seek eye care, even if they are visually impaired, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

10 Mar 2009

Are insulin pens safe for blind people?

Ann Williams, a National Institute of Health-supported postdoctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University, understands what it means to live with diabetes.

16 Feb 2009

Protease inhibitor found to aid diabetic retinopathy treatment

Researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, and ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Francisco, announced today that they have demonstrated that a specific inhibitor of the protease plasma kallikrein, ASP-440, developed by ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals, may provide a new therapeutic approach for treatment of diabetic retinopathy, the most common eye-related complication of diabetes.

21 Jan 2009

New cataract early detection device

A compact fiber-optic probe developed for the space program has now proven valuable for patients in the clinic as the first non-invasive early detection device for cataracts, the leading cause of vision loss worldwide.

8 Jan 2009

People with blindness from cataract are poorer than those with normal sight

A new study conducted in three developing countries-Kenya, the Philippines, and Bangladesh-finds that people with cataract-induced visual impairment are more likely to live in poverty than those with normal sight.

16 Dec 2008

Presbyopia may affect more than 1 billion worldwide

It is estimated that more than 1 billion individuals worldwide in 2005 had presbyopia, or age-related difficulty in seeing objects nearby, with an estimated 410 million with the condition unable to perform tasks requiring near vision, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

8 Dec 2008

Research targets diabetes-related eye conditions

World Diabetes Day is on 14 November this year highlighting that diabetes is on the increase and to create awareness to aid prevention of figures growing larger. To help prevent diabetes becoming a burden to the NHS resources in the future, new research projects commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research's Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme will evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of different screening tests used in diabetic eye care.

23 Oct 2008

Diabetics more likely to lose their vision

Experts in the United States have found that vision loss is more common in people with diabetes than those without the disease.

14 Oct 2008

Visual impairment more common in people with diabetes

Visual impairment appears to be more common in people with diabetes than in those without the disease, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

13 Oct 2008

Children who spend more time outdoors are less likely to develop short-sightedness

"The results of this study are consistent with an American study which found that outdoor sport was protective, however our study shows that the crucial feature is being outdoors irrespective of the activity you are doing."

11 Aug 2008

Laser therapy more effective than corticosteroids in long term treatment of diabetic macular edema

A promising new drug therapy used to treat abnormal swelling in the eye - a condition called diabetic macular edema - proved less effective than traditional laser treatments in a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

29 Jul 2008

Research targets diabetes-related eye conditions

New research projects commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research's Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme will evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of different screening tests used in diabetic eye care.

15 May 2008

Factors affecting survival, disability of extremely premature infants identified

Gestational age has long been the factor most commonly used to predict whether an extremely low-birth-weight infant survives and thrives, but four additional factors that can help predict a preemie's outcome have been identified by the National Institutes of Health Neonatal Research Network, of which Yale is a member.

29 Apr 2008

Older corneas suitable for transplantation

The age pool of corneas for transplant should be expanded to include donors up to 75 years of age, based on findings from a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

2 Apr 2008

Glaucoma associated with increased risk of cardiovascular death in black patients

In a population of African origin, persons with diagnosed and treated glaucoma appeared to have an increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes, according to a study by Suh-Yuh Wu, and colleagues in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Ophthalmology at Stony Brook University, the University of the West Indies, and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

12 Mar 2008

Glaucoma associated with increased risk of cardiovascular death in black patients

Black patients with diagnosed and treated glaucoma and those with high pressure in their eyes appear to have an increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

11 Mar 2008

Role gound for glaucoma gene and a signaling pathway

Researchers have found that a gene and a related signaling pathway play a role in the development of glaucoma, which is a common cause of visual impairment and blindness worldwide.

18 Feb 2008

Trabectome procedure for glaucoma

Glaucoma is a devastating disease that harms the eye without manifesting early signs or symptoms.

4 Feb 2008

Older children more likely to develop cross-eye and lazy eye

In a study of more than 6,000 Los Angeles-area children – the largest study of its kind – researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) found that both strabismus (commonly known as cross-eyed or wall-eyed) and amblyopia (often referred to as lazy eye) were more prevalent in older children than in younger children.

16 Nov 2007