Review of Optometry articles from April 2004

Review of Optometry archives from April 2004

People who use angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have a lower risk for dry eye, according to the latest results from the Beaver Dam Eye Study.(In the News)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... People who use angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have a lower risk for dry eye, according to the latest results from the Beaver Dam Eye Study. Also, arthritis and thyroid disease, shown to be risk factors in previous studies, were...

The FDA has approved Refractec's NearVision CK (conductive keratoplasty) for the treatment of presbyopia.(In the News)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... The FDA has approved Refractec's NearVision CK (conductive keratoplasty) for the treatment of presbyopia. Conductive keratoplasty uses radiofrequency waves to alter the shape of the cornea.

Researchers in Japan have found that an extract of ginkgo biloba may have a neuroprotective effect in chronic glaucoma.(In the News)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... Researchers in Japan have found that an extract of ginkgo biloba may have a neuroprotective effect in chronic glaucoma. When given the extract, rats with induced glaucoma developed significantly less retinal ganglion cell loss than untreated...

Can patients guess their intraocular pressure?(In the News)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... Can patients guess their intraocular pressure? Probably not, says a study in February's American Journal of Ophthalmology. Patients who thought they could guess their IOP were no more accurate than patients who believed they couldn't.

1-800 acquires lens manufacturer: could this mean that the company aims to shut out other lens makers?(News Review)
April 15, 2004... In March, 1-800 Contacts announced the purchase of VisionTec, a British contact lens manufacturer that makes low-cost disposable contact lenses. 1-800 will continue to pay a per unit royalty on VisionTec products for ten years. 1-800...

Forensic experts question ocular finding for shaken baby syndrome.(News Review)
April 15, 2004... Perimacular retinal folds, an ocular finding used to diagnose shaken baby syndrome (SBS), may not be diagnostically valid because it is not supported by scientific evidence, say researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center....

Which are the best vision screening tests? (And why it doesn't really matter).(News Review)
April 15, 2004... Four children's vision screening tests have been found to rank above the rest, according to a new study. (1) The American Academy of Ophthalmology praised the study, saying it helps those who perform vision screenings to understand the...

Antihistamine can cause oculogyric crisis in children.(News Review)
April 15, 2004... The seasonal allergy medication Zyrtec (cetirizine, Pfizer) has demonstrated a confirmed side effect of oculogyric crisis. Investigators Frederick W. Fraunfelder, M.D., and Frederick T. Fraunfelder, M.D., of the Casey Eye Institute, Oregon...

Blacks have higher incidence of cataract.(News Review)
April 15, 2004... Blacks are twice as likely to develop cataracts as whites, and are three times more likely to develop cortical cataracts than whites, according to a study published in the March issue of Ophthalmology. The study also showed that women were...

Monocular drug trial is not predictive.(News Review)
April 15, 2004... A monocular drug trial "is a sound therapeutic maneuver and one that is heavily and consistently substantiated in the medical literature," write optometrists Randall Thomas and Ron Melton in their 2003 Clinical Guide to Ophthalmic Drugs. (1)...

How do you define a successful O.D.? Don't undervalue the basics. Success is as much about staying alive as it is about forging ahead.(Editor's Page)(Doctor of Optometry)(Editorial)
April 15, 2004... The next time you encounter an optometry student, ask him or her, "What characteristics make any given optometrist a leader or a role model?" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If you asked today's students how they define a successful O.D., some...

Infectious disease? Party on! Excellent! SECO: a great opportunity to see the latest in eye care--and see celebrities.(Chairside)
April 15, 2004... While shaking hands with world-renowned infectious disease guru, Dr. Cal Roberts, I realized that our chosen profession is truly an inclusive society, in which all are welcome and important. Dr. Roberts and his brilliant colleagues in...

Reader's choice: optometric humanitarians; Some of these doctors--each nominated by our readers--volunteer in faraway lands, others in their hometowns.(Optometric Humanitarian)
April 15, 2004... Optometrists are a generous bunch. There is no shortage of stories to write about O.D.s who give of their time, their hearts, their wallets, and themselves. With that in mind, we've selected a handful of optometrists--all nominated by our...

How to win the non-compliance war: the top seven reasons our patients don't comply with their medications, and how we can help them.(Ophthalmic Drugs)
April 15, 2004... Because we see so many patients in a day, we tend to forget that simply writing a script is not enough to ensure medication compliance. While we will never be able to get all of our patients to comply with their drug regimens, by becoming...

Change your perception of pediatric practice: here's how one optometrist found treating children more rewarding that he imagined.(Practice Profile)
April 15, 2004... "I prefer not to examine children." Sound familiar? How about when you walk in the exam room and there's a child in the chair dissecting your ophthalmoscope and a screaming baby on mommy's lap? Good grief, it's a nightmare. I always swore that...

Contact Lens Report.
April 15, 2004... Like many of you, more than one-third of my income comes from fitting and dispensing contact lenses. So, you can imagine my concern when I read that 2.7 million Americans dropped out of contact lenses in 2002 alone, according to the Centre for...

What's driving the dropouts? These statistics illustrate why patients discontinue contact lens wear and what you can do about it.(Contact Lens Report)
April 15, 2004... According to the Center for Contact Lens Research (CCLR) at University of Waterloo College of Optometry, some 2.7 million patients become dropouts each year. The good news? You can prevent many of those dropouts by knowing why they...

A four-step approach to preventing dropouts: how following a S.O.A.P. exam format can help you diagnose and correct contact lens problems before patients give up wear.(Contact Lens Report)
April 15, 2004... The 29-year-old accountant, a new patient in optometrist Douglas Benoit's Concord, N.H., practice was ready to give up on contact lens wear. He experienced dryness and decreased vision with his daily wear soft lenses as the day progressed....

Case report: LASIK evaluation uncovers degeneration.(Contact Lens Report)
April 15, 2004... A 50-year-old white male presented for a pre-op LASIK evaluation. He complained of blur with his best spectacle correction and indicated that he had been unsuccessful with soft contact lenses several years earlier because the lenses "didn't fit...

Material does matter.(Contact Lens Report)
April 15, 2004... A 50-year-old white female wearing five-year old gas permeable lenses (material unknown) presented to our office to obtain different contact lenses. She said she experienced dry, irritated eyes in the morning, and her lenses filmed up at the...

Case report: a useful approach for keratoconus.(Contact Lens Report)
April 15, 2004... A 25 year-old white male was referred by a corneal specialist for a "final attempt" at a contact lens fitting. He had discontinued lens wear six months ago. The patient was diagnosed with keratoconus five years earlier and had several...

Case report: high DK for dry eye.(Contact Lens Report)(Diffusionskonstante)(Acuvue 2 lens)
April 15, 2004... A 45-year-old, white male patient had tried many times over the past 16 years to wear contact lenses, but significant dry eye symptoms limited his wear to four hours per day on the weekends only. He had tried many lens materials and designs...

Case report: from monovision to multifocal.(Contact Lens Report)
April 15, 2004... A 53 year-old white female physical therapist and avid tennis player presented one year ago with interest in resuming contact lens wear. She had stopped wearing contact lenses two years earlier, but before that had successfully worn PMMA and...

Allergy challenge series III: how to identify allergy patients in your practice; Identifying allergy patients is the first key to successful allergy management.
April 15, 2004... We know that allergies can wreak havoc on patients' eyes when grass, tree or ragweed pollens are in season. The itching, redness, chemosis, lid swelling and tearing affect comfort, productivity and quality of life of all allergy sufferers....

A road map to treatment options: how corneal topography can help you correct patients' usual and unusual contact lens fitting problems.(Optometric Study Center)
April 15, 2004... Many of us have an instrument in our practice that suffers from underutilization. In fact, it also maybe a victim of narrow practice perspective. I am speaking of our corneal topographers. These instruments are an affordable way to analyze the...

Corneal infiltrative complications associated with contact lens wear.
April 15, 2004... AS AN AVASCULAR and transparent tissue, the cornea and its overall structural integrity remains the principal criterion by which clinicians judge the safety of contact lens wear. Much has been written of the cornea's need for adequate levels of...

Lesion masquerades as AMD finding: suspected choroidal neovascular membrane was really adult-onset foveomacular dystrophy.(Case Report)
April 15, 2004... A 77-year-old white male with primary open-angle glaucoma and atrophic macular degeneration presented for an IOP check and dilated fundus exam O.U. The patient has a one-year history of open-angle glaucoma and atrophic macular degeneration...

Cataracts after refractive surgery: a new set of complications present as baby boomers near the age of cataracts.(Comanagement Q & A)
April 15, 2004... Q I'm finding that keratometry and A-scan ultrasonography do not always accurately determine the IOL correction on patients who have undergone refractive surgery. Why does this happen, and how can we assure a better outcome? A The choice...

Pause the pain of pemphigoid: how a scleral lens can offer symptomatic relief and improved vision.(Cornea & Contact Lens Q & A)
April 15, 2004... Q I have a patient with significant ocular cicatrical pemphigoid (OCP) who uses immunosuppressants, has excessive dry eye and is beginning to form symblepharon. Which contact lenses might provide comfort and improved vision for this patient?...

Is only seeing eye now threatened? This diabetic patient already lost vision in one eye and now has a lesion in the other.(Retina Quiz)
April 15, 2004... A 46-year-old Hispanic male with a history of diabetic retinopathy presented for a regular follow-up examination. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The patient has had type 1 diabetes since age 2. Eight years before this visit, he went blind in...

New drug class battles resistance: how oxazolidinones may help kill drug-resistant organisms.(Therapeutic Review)
April 15, 2004... As multidrug-resistant infections become more prevalent, we continually need improved antibiotics that are effective against these pathogens. Vancomycin resistance in pathogens such as Enterococcus is one of our most serious concerns. We've...

CK gets the OK for presbyopia: a review of clinical data for treating emmetropic and hyperopic presbyopes.(Research Review)
April 15, 2004... Due to last month's U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of NearVision CK (Refractec), we are now able to offer our emmetropic and hyperopic presbyopic patients a low risk procedure that may not only enhance their lives, but may also...

Small frame progressive.(Ophthalmic Lenses)
April 15, 2004... Varilux Ellipse lenses are the latest enhancement to Essilor of America's Varilux line. This small-frame progressive lens features a minimum fitting height of 14mm for patients with short corridor PALs. The company says the lens reaches 85% of...

Multilateral approach.(Ophthalmic Lenses)
April 15, 2004... Rodenstock's new progressive lens, Multigressiv 2, employs free-form technology to create an aspheric front surface and atoric back surface. The company says each lens is designed and manufactured to match the unique characteristics of each...

Satisfaction guaranteed.(Contact Lenses)(by CIBA Vision Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... CIBA Vision now offers a money-back guarantee to all patients who purchase Focus Night & Day lenses through the end of 2004. The Night & Day Platinum Guarantee offers patients a full refund (up to four boxes with a limit of two opened) if they...

GP enhanced.(Contact Lenses)(Blanchard Contact Lens Inc. introduced the CSA Enhancement)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... More add power is now available to your patients who wear gas permeable lenses. Blanchard Contact Lens Inc. introduces the CSA Enhancement, which allows you to increase add correction in any series of the company's Essential or Essential Xtra...

Redesigned system.(Contact Lens Care)(LifeStyle Company introduced its PuriLens Pluscleaning and disinfecting system )(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... The LifeStyle Company recently introduced its new PuriLens Plus cleaning and disinfecting system for soft contact lenses. No chemicals are involved in the process, and no rubbing is necessary. The PuriLens Plus UV-C Cleaning and...

Ortho-K care.(Contact Lens Care)(from Bausch & Lomb Inc. Contact Lens Div.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... In response to the growing popularity of corneal reshaping, a new lens care kit for orthokeratology lenses is available from Bausch & Lomb. The Boston Advanced Ortho-K Care System kit contains lens care products designed specifically for...

Auto Lensometer.(Diagnostic Instruments)(Reichert Ophthalmic Instruments )(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... The vertically oriented design of the AL500 Auto Lensometer from Reichert Ophthalmic Instruments saves space in your exam lane. You can tilt the high-contrast, color LCD screen for glare-free viewing while seated or standing. Additional...

3-D imagery.(Diagnostic Instruments)(Talia Technology)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... The 3-D Anatomy Imager, powered by Talia Technology's RTA (retinal thickness analyzer), reconstructs a 3-D volume visualization of a 3X3mm area of the retina, according to your specifications. The section is automatically overlaid on the...

Feminine features.(Ophthalmic Frames)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... Marchon's Tres Jolie optical collection now features these new lightweight metal styles in its Crystal line: * TJ47, an almond-shaped frame, in soft colors such as silver sand, shiny brown, orchid and misty rose-sand. It is available in...

Sweet group.(Ophthalmic Frames)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... The Sweethearts group is the latest offering by Viva International Group in its Candie's Eyes brand. Three styles, designed in monel metal, feature an openheart grommet design with rhinestone outlines on both temples. Styles include: * C...

Hi-tech.(Ophthalmic Frames)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... Luxottica's 2004 collection feature high-tech materials in these three new styles: * LC 1341T and LC 1342T. These full-rim titanium frames come in colors gold, silver and steel. LC 1341T is a small butterfly shape available in sizes...

Lobob Labs.(GP Contact Lens Cleaning)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... Lobob Labs is offering a free starter kit of its Optimum formulations for gas permeable lenses. The system is approved for use with fluorosilicone acrylate, silicone acrylate and hard contact lenses. The starter kit includes: [ILLUSTRATION...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
April 15, 2004... The February 2004 Review of Optometry article, titled "Solution Update," included an older version of the package for Alcon's Opti-Free Express Multipurpose disinfecting solution for soft contact lenses. Opti-Free Express MPDS cleans and...

Eye Designs.(Office Design)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... Eye Designs presents the Classic Collection of freestanding displays featuring elegant moldings and details. A variety of contemporary and traditional styles are available. Call 1-800-346-8890, or go to www.eyedesigns.com. [ILLUSTRATION...

Guess who?(Sunwear)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... Viva International's Guess brand introduces new sun and optical styles for spring 2004. * Optical. GU 4135 is a combination metal front with plastic temples. It is available in size 50/18-145 and colors black, brown and navy. GU 1210 is a...

Meetings & conferences.(Calendar)
April 15, 2004... April * 18. Mid-America Vision Conference 2004, St. Louis, Mo. Co-sponsored by the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Optometry and the Ophthalmic Education Institute. CE hours: 8. Contact Lis Ellerbusch, 8001 Natural Bridge Rd.,...

Blurry driver steers into exam lane.(Diagnostic Quiz)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2004... History A 22-year-old black female presented complaining of blurry vision in both eyes while driving. The problem was worse at night. She explained that she had noticed this problem for the last five years but that it did not bother her...