PAAO-YO Research:
Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez Uña

Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez-Una, a Glaucoma and Cataract Specialist from the Instituto Universitario Fernandez-Vega, Fundacion de Investigacion Oftalmologica, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain has recently published two articles. Below are the salient points and links to the articles.

Femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery in shallow anterior chamber cases.

The effectiveness, safety and predictability of femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) in eyes with shallow anterior chamber was assessed. All eyes presented an anterior chamber depth (ACD) ≤2.1mm. Monofocal intraocular lens (mIOL) or trifocal intraocular lens (tIOL) were implanted. No intra or post-operative complications were found. Six months post-surgery, efficacy and safety indexes were 0.96 and 1.26 for the mIOL group, and 0.87 and 1.01 for the tIOL group, respectively. Intraocular pressure decreased in both groups, with a reduction of hypotensive treatment (p<0.05). ACD changed from 1.96±0.15mm to 3.75±0.30mm (p<0.05). FLACS may provide good efficacy, safety and predictability in these cases.

•  FLACS in cases of shallow AC presents as an effective, predictable and safe procedure, providing a low complication rate.
• In addition, a significant reduction of medical hypotensive treatment after surgery may be expected.
• FLACS has showed to be very useful especially for creating the anterior capsulotomy, which is particularly challenging in these cases.
• Early lens extraction might be considered in cases with very shallow AC or primary angle-closure suspect/primary angle-closure.

Fernandez-Vega Cueto A, Rodriguez-Una I, Rodriguez-Calvo PP, Alfonso JF. Femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery in shallow anterior chamber cases. Int Ophthalmol. Online ahead of print. 2020. doi: 10.1007/s10792-020-01628-6.

Systemic alterations of immune response-related proteins during glaucoma development in the murine model DBA/2J.

Quantifications of ten serum proteins were carried out by enzyme immunoassays in serum samples obtained from glaucomatous and control mice at 4, 10, and 14 months. A significative decrease in the concentration of complement C4a protein was identified in glaucomatous stages. Complement C4a, complement factor H, ficolin-3, apolipoprotein A4 and transthyretin predicted the transition to glaucoma in 78% of cases (89% to the advanced disease). Glaucoma development in DBA/2J mice was associated with important molecular changes in immune response and complement system proteins, demonstrating the utility of this model in identifying potential markers for the diagnosis of glaucoma.

• Systemic alterations of immune response-related proteins were observed in DBA/2J model.
• Lower levels of C4a and APOA4 were observed in glaucomatous DBA/2J mice.
• Higher levels of CFH and ITIH4 were detected in severe glaucoma mice.
• No age-related concentration changes were observed in the control groups.
• Protein panel predicted transition to advanced glaucoma in 89% of cases.

Fernández-Vega Cueto A, Alvarez L, García M, Artime E, Alvarez Barrios A, Rodríguez-Uña I, Coca-Prados M, González-Iglesias H. Systemic alterations of immune response-related proteins during glaucoma development in the murine model DBA/2J. Diagnostics. 2020;10:425. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics10060425.