With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), especially deep learning, AI research in the field of ophthalmology has presented a trend of diversification in disease types, generalization in scenarios and deepening in researches. The AI algorithm has showed a good performance in the studies of diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and other ocular diseases, yielding up the great potential of ophthalmic AI. However, most studies are still in their infancy, and the application of ophthalmic AI still faces many challenges such as lack of interpretability for results, deficiency of data standardization, and insufficiency of clinical applicability. At the same time, it should also be noted that the development of multi-modal imaging, the innovation of digital technologies (such as 5G and the Internet of Things) and telemedicine, and the new discovery that retina status can reflect systemic diseases have brought new opportunities for the development of ophthalmic AI. Learn the current status of AI research in the field of ophthalmology, grasp the new challenges and opportunities in its development process, successfully realizing the transformation of ophthalmic AI from research to practical application.
Vitrectomy is an important treatment for vitreoretinal diseases. After half a century of innovation and development, it has made a breakthrough from open type to micro-incision surgery. Minimally invasive vitrectomy has the advantages of wide indications and high cutting efficiency, which greatly improves the safety and efficacy of surgery, and minimizes the occurrence of trauma and complications during surgery. At present, with the development of surgical microscope system, ophthalmic microsurgery robot and other equipment, and the development and application of new artificial vitreous materials, vitrectomy is developing toward minimally invasive, accurate and intelligent development. The further development of vitrectomy innovative technology in the field of ophthalmology is hopeful in the future, so that clinicians can achieve the best surgical results with the minimum damage, and bring better light to patients.
Ocular fundus diseases is a kind of ophthalmic diseases that occur in the vitreous, retina, choroid and optic nerve, including a series of pathophysiological changes such as inflammation, exudation and proliferation. Because of high morbidity and high blindness rate, ocular fundus diseases has been paid more and more attention from medical community. With the continuous deepening of research on its etiology, anatomy and pathological mechanism in recent years, clinicians have obtained more abundant treatment methods than in the past, and the medical treatment of ocular fundus diseases have made many phased progress. However, due to its wide spectrum of diseases and complex pathological mechanism, clinicians still need to further explore more effective treatment methods, and improve the effect of diagnosis and treatment to ocular fundus diseases.
ObjectiveTo compare the choriocapillaris flow density and choroidal vessel volume (CVV) of acute and chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC).MethodsA cross-sectional observational clinical study. A total of 64 eyes of 64 patients (CSC group) diagnosed with CSC at Department of Ophthalmology of West China Hospital of Sichuan University from May 2019 to October 2020, and a total of 64 eyes of 64 age and gender matched healthy volunteers (control group) during the same period were included in this study. In the CSC group, there were 34 patients with acute CSC (acute CSC group) and 30 patients with chronic CSC (chronic CSC group). There was no significant difference in age (t=－0.041) and sex composition ratio (χ2=0.191) between CSC group and control group (P＞0.05). There were statistically significant differences in age (t=－1.872) and sex composition ratio (χ2=8.778) between acute CSC group and chronic CSC group (P＜0.05). Swept source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) was performed using VG200D. The scanning mode was 512×512 and scannig range was 12 mm × 12 mm. The choriocapillaris flow density of the 3 mm, 6 mm, 12 mm circular area and 1-3 mm ring, 3-6 mm ring, and 6-12 mm ring, and the CVV of the of the 3 mm, 6 mm, 12 mm circular area was automatically generated by the built-in software (v1.28.6). The age, choriocapillaris flow density and CVV were compared between two groups using independent sample t test.ResultsCompared with the control group, the choriocapillaris flow density decreased in the CSC group, and there were statistically significant differences in the 3 mm, 6 mm circular area (t=－7.210, －4.040; P＜0.001). There were statistically significant differences between CSC group and control group in the 3 mm, 6 mm, 12 mm circular area (t=1.460, 12.270, 11.250; P＜0.05). Compared with the acute CSC group, the choriocapillaris flow density decreased in the chronic CSC group, and there were statistically significant differences (P＜0.05) in the 3 mm, 6 mm circular area (t=3.230, 2.330), the total and four quadrants of 1-3 mm ring (t=2.780, 2.060, 2.140, 2.620, 3.770), the superior quadrants of the 3-6 mm ring (t=2.550), and the superior and temporal of 6-12 mm ring (t=3.070, 2.610). There was no significant difference of CVV in the 3 mm, 6 mm and 12 mm circular area between the acute CSC group and the chronic CSC group (t=0.250, 0.070, －0.110; P＞0.05).ConclusionCompared with acute CSC, chronic CSC exhibits significant decreased choriocapillaris flow density and no change in CVV.
Fundus disease is a kind of common ophthalmic disease with high blindness rate and great harm. Although great breakthroughs have been made in medical treatment, laser photocoagulation, radiotherapy and gene therapy of fundus disease, with the further understanding of the essence of fundus disease, there are higher requirements for the treatment of fundus disease. To strengthen scientific research on the etiology, pathological mechanism and clinical treatment of fundus diseases, to control the quality of research, to develop reasonable treatment plans and explore new treatment methods under the guidance of evidence-based medicine theory, to further improve the level of medical treatment and benefit patients with fundus diseases will still be a formidable challenge in the future.
Objective To explore the effect of aortic root perfusion of amiodarone when intractable ventricular fibrillation occurs during valve replacement. Methods Totally 42 patients were selected as a drug group, who underwent intractable ventricular fibrillation following ascending aortic opening in valve replacement in Beijing Anzhen Hospital from October 2006 to October 2016. There were 26 males and 16 females with an average age of 56.31±12.56 years. The aorta was re-blocked when intractable ventricular fibrillation occured, amiodarone (150 mg diluted to 20 ml) through the aortic root perfusion tube was applicated, and suction was repeated 8-10 times with the cumulative amount of 150-200 ml, and then the ascending aorta was opened and fast compressed with a frequency of 200 times/min. While 53 patients with the same condition during the same period were selected as a control group. There were 35 males and 18 females with an average age of 58.79±19.81 years. The commonly used clinical treatment method of intractable ventricular fibrillation was adopted, such as continuous intravenous injection of 1 mg/kg lidocaine, while ascending aortic was re-blocked. The warm blood perfusion was given until the heart re-beated. The clinical outcomes were compared between the two groups. Results There was one perioperative death in the drug group and two deaths in the control group during perioperative period. Defibrillation frequency (3.11±0.59 times vs. 4.91±1.34 times, t=–2.917, P=0.000), heart rate 5 min after re-beating (91.65±9.81 beats/min vs. 98.32±10.21 beats/min, t=–2.019, P=0.032), cardiopulmonary bypass time (71.68±10.21 min vs. 81.59±12.93 min, t=–2.512, P=0.032), dopamine dosage (4.32±1.28 μg·kg–1·min–1 vs. 5.79±1.98 μg·kg–1·min–1, t=–2.781, P=0.015), epinephrine dosage (0.03±0.01 μg·kg–1·min–1 vs. 0.06±0.02 μg·kg–1·min–1, t=–3.996, P=0.000) and norepinephrine dosage (0.01±0.01 μg·kg–1·min–1 vs. 0.03±0.01 μg·kg–1·min–1, t=–4.163, P=0.000) of the drug group were significantly shorter or lower than those of the control group. The rate of cardiac rhythm 5 min after re-beating (42.8% vs. 9.4%, χ2=11.211, P=0.000) of the drug group was higher than that of the control group. Conclusion During intractable ventricular fibrillation following ascending aortic opening in valve replacemen, re-blocking the aorta and amiodarone reperfusion of the aortic root can significantly improve the heart re-beating rate and avoid ventricular re-fibrillation, shorten the cardiopulmonary bypass time and reduce the dosage of inotropic drugs.
Objective To compare the features of OCT angiography (OCTA) between neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and myopic choroidal neovascularization (mCNV) patients before and after intravitreal anti-VEGF treatment. Methods A prospective cohort study. Twenty-nine patients (37 eyes) with nAMD (19 males and 10 females, aged 68.20±8.76) and 31 patients (34 eyes) with mCNV (9 males and 22 females, aged 43.10±11.80, with the mean diopter of −9.71±1.20 D) from Department of Ophthalmology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University during May and December 2017 were included in this study. Ranibizumab or Conbercept (0.5 mg/0.05 ml) was intravitreally injected in all eyes. The patients were follow-up for 3−6 months. The OCTA was conducted before treatment and 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 3−6 months after treatment. In order to ensure that the scanning position was the same, the tracking mode was adopted for each scanning. According to the OCTA images, the lesion area, parafoveal superficial vessel density and perfusion area were measured and analyzed contrastively between nAMD and mCNV patients. Results The mean lesion area before and 1 month after treatment in nAMD patients were 0.38±1.87 mm2 and 0.06±0.12 mm2, while in mCNV patients, those were 0.26±1.06 mm2 and 0.03±0.05 mm2, respectively. There were statistically significant differences (Z=4.181, 4.475; P＜0.001) in CNV lesion area before and 1 month after treatment between nAMD and mCNV patients. Compared with those before treatment, the absolute change (Z=1.853, P=0.064) and the percentage changes (t=2.685, P=0.010) of CNV lesion area 1 month after treatment in nAMD and mCNV patients show a statistical meaning. There were significantly decreases in both parafoveal superficial vessel density (F=8.997, P=0.003) and perfusion area (F=7.887, P=0.015) 3 months after treatment in nAMD patients, while decreases in parafoveal superficial vessel density (F=11.142, P=0.004) and perfusion area (F=7.662, P=0.013) could be detected 1 day after treatment in mCNV patients, before rising 1 month after treatment. Conclusions There are significantly differences in lesion area before and after the treatment of intravitreal anti-VEGF between nAMD and mCNV patients by OCTA examination. Moreover, the changes of both parafoveal superficial vessel density and perfusion area after anti-VEGF treatment are statistically different in two groups.
ObjectiveTo analyze the trend, hotspots and frontiers of diabetic retinopathy (DR) therapy by bibliometric method. MethodsData were taken from the Web of Science website of Science Citation Index. Articles from 2017 to 2021, which were related to the therapy of diabetic retinopathy (DR), were included. The bibliometric analysis softwares, VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to generate and analyze visual representations of the complex data input, including high-frequency keywords, keywords with the strongest citation bursts and co-occurrence networks of keywords. ResultsA total of 3,845 articles were included. The amounts of papers published from 2017 to 2021 is 633, 651, 708, 893, and 960 respectively, increasing over years. Chinese scholars published the most articles, followed by the United States. The number of articles funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ranks third. There were 47 high-frequency keywords clustered into DR treatment, pathogenesis of DR, diagnosis of DR, Oxidative stress, diabetic macular edema (DME), type 2 diabetes, optical coherence tomography and deep learning. Those keywords were research hotspots and new keywords were constantly emerging. Among the top 11 burst words, the burst values of “intravitreal bevacizumab”, “vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)”, “choroidal neovascularization”, “inhibition”, and “receptors” were all over 10. Highly cited references showed a significant clustering tendency, which were treatment of DME, review of DR, clinical research of anti-VEGF drug therapy. ConclusionsThe amount of paper related to DR therapy is on the rise; the specific treatment methods for the pathogenesis of DR are constantly research hotspots. In addition, formulating treatment strategies to reduce macular edema and other complications of diabetes, applying optical coherence tomography, deep learning and other technologies to improve the efficiency of DR diagnosis and treatment, improve targeted drug delivery systems, and finding new target points were research frontiers.
ObjectiveTo observe the clinical characteristics of retinoblastoma (RB) in Southwest China.MethodsA retrospective clinical study. From January 2010 to December 2017, 66 RB patients diagnosed in Ophthalmology Department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University were included in the study. All the patients underwent ocular B-ultrasound, orbital CT or MRI examination. Ten patients underwent RetCam examination at the same time. Twenty-nine patients were diagnosed by histopathological examination, and 37 patients were diagnosed by clinical symptoms and imaging examination. According to whether the tumor invaded the orbit and optic nerve, it could be divided into extraocular stage and intraocular stage. Intraocular tumors were divided into A-E stages according to the international intraocular RB classification. Treatments were performed according to different stages. The general information, age at diagnosis, course of diseases (the time between onset symptoms and diagnosis), causes of visiting a doctor, classification, treatment methods and eyeball preservation rate were retrospectively analyzed.ResultsPatients all came from Southwest China (56 patients from Sichuan Province, 2 patients from Yunnan Province, 2 patients from Guizhou Province, and 6 patients from Tibet). The permanent residence were identified in 43 patients, including 27 patients (62.8%) from rural areas. There were 38 males (57.6%); 50 unilateral tumors (75.8%) and 16 bilateral tumors (24.2%); 51 first-visiting patients (77.3%) and 15 re-visiting patients (22.7%). The average diagnostic age of first-visiting patients was 20.9±14.4 months, with 23.2±14.7 and 11.2±7.6 months for unilateral and bilateral tumors, respectively. There were 41 patients had definite course and causes, of whom the average course was 90.6±115.2 days. The most common cause was leucocoria in 32 patients (62.7%), followed by redness and swelling in 4 patients (9.8%), and other causes in 5 patients (12.2%). Among the 15 re-visiting patients, the average diagnostic age was 63.6±46.8 months, the average course was 32.8±45.5 months. Recurrence was occurred in 5 patients (33.3%), leucocoria in 4 patients (26.7%), postoperative complication in 3 patients (20.0%), protrusion in 2 patients (13.3%) and redness in 1 (6.7%) patient, respectively. Fifty out of 82 eyes were admitted to hospital, including 37 eyes of first-visiting patients and 13 eyes of re-visiting patients. Among 37 first-visiting eyes, there were 5 eyes (13.5%) in stage A-C, 26 eyes (70.3%) in stage D-E, 6 eyes (16.2%) in extraocular stage. Five eyes in stage A-C were treated with laser photocoagulation and (or) cryotherapy combined with systemic chemotherapy. Four eyes in stage D were treated with intraocular arterial chemotherapy. Nineteen eyes (51.3%) were performed with enucleation, 2 eyes (5.4%) with evisceration and 7 eyes (18.9%) abandoned treatment. Among 13 re-visiting eyes, 6 eyes (46.2%, with 5 eyes of recurrence) had been enucleated before, 4 eyes (30.8%) were in extraocular stage and 3 eyes (23.1%) in stage D-E. Five eyes (38.5%) were treated with evisceration, 4 eyes (30.8%) with enucleation, 1 eye with oculoplastic surgery and 3 eyes (23.1%) abandoned treatment. The rate of eye preservation was 18.0%, 29.0% for intraocular stage and 0% for extraocular stage, respectively.ConclusionRB patients in Southwest China have a longer course between onset symptoms and diagnosis, more advanced classification and lower rate of eye preservation.