From the American Academy of Ophthalmology
News from the FSO
From the American Academy of Ophthalmology
Investigators tested a new index they developed that estimates glaucoma severity based on functional measurements obtained by SAP and structural assessment by SD-OCT. Subjects included glaucoma patients and healthy controls. The index performed significantly better than isolated measures of structure and function for diagnosing preperimetric and perimetric glaucoma as well as for discriminating disease stages. Archives of Ophthalmology, September 2012
The Academy is calling on members to help stop a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposal to cut reimbursement for 27 office-based eye codes when two diagnostic services are billed by the same physician on the same day for a patient. The CMS proposal would cut the technical component for the second and subsequent services by 25 percent. The Academy believes these arbitrary cuts would have a negative impact on Medicare beneficiaries’ access to high-quality care, and make it increasingly difficult for physicians to maintain a comprehensive private practice.
This prospective, double-masked study randomized 286 dry eye patients to receive a single drop of 1% or 3% diquafosol or placebo ophthalmic solutions, six times a day for six weeks. Diquafosol, a P2Y2 receptor agonist, promotes secretion of aqueous tears and mucins on the ocular surface. At four weeks, fluorescein corneal staining scores, rose bengal corneal and conjunctival staining scores, and dry eye syndrome scores improved significantly with both dosages of diquafosol compared to placebo.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are advising physicians to halt use of any product originating from the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. For ophthalmology practices, this would include Avastin, which NECC compounds for use in intravitreal injections. |
From the American Academy of Ophthalmology
From the American Academy of Ophthalmology
From the American Academy of Ophthalmology
From the American Academy of Ophthalmology
This meta-analysis has found a pooled 2 percent reduced odds of myopia per additional hour spent outdoors per week in children and adolescents up to 20 years old. This is equivalent to an odds ratio of 0.87 for each hour outdoors per day. These results, considered in conjunction with a systematic review of studies not meeting the meta-analysis criteria, suggest that increasing time spent outdoors could confer a modest, but significant, reduced risk of developing myopia and its progression. Ophthalmology, October 2012
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