Incipient Cataract Research Articles

EFFECT OF EXTRACT FROM CATARACTOUS HUMAN LENSES ON SENILE CATARACT

The nonoperative treatment of cataract has long been attempted by various therapeutic means. Since the advent of the study of immunity numerous attempts have been made to immunize the eye against the formation of cataract and to clear up existing opacities of the lens by stimulating the formation of antibodies. The results have not been encouraging. The first attempt to produce immune bodies in the treatment of cataract was made by Römer¹in 1908. Davis²and a few others have reported as high as 85 per cent of incipient subcapsular senile cataracts and a slightly lower percentage of senile cortical cataracts improved, arrested or retarded following the production of an active immunity by subcutaneous injections of an extract of beef lenses. The development and progress of senile cataract are variable. In some cases the condition progresses to full maturity in several months while in others (the majority

Suggested Use of Red Filters for Improving Vision

In the Klinische Wochenschrift for November 3, Dr. Arnold Berliner, editor of Die Naturwissenschaften, has advocated the use of a red filter for improving vision when the media of the eye are hazy, as from vitreous opacities, incipient cataract, etc., since in such media light of short wave-length is scattered more than that of longer wave-length. The theoretical validity of this physical argument is undoubted, but physiological considerations render it doubtful whether much advantage would accrue. It is interesting to note that somewhat similar improvement of vision has been predicted for a glass of very different transmission characteristics by Dr. Bireh-Hirschfeld (Z. Augenheilkunde, 77; 1932) and Dr. Danmeyer (Hansa Deutsche Schiffarts-Z., December 1933). This ‘neophan’ or ‘neodym’ glass contains neodymium, and is slightly blue-violet in colour. It will be remembered that Sir William Crookes made and investigated the light transmission of such a glass, which differs little from that of the ‘Crooke's glass now on the market, though it apparently has a rather more pronounced absorption band between 550 and 650. It is held that the diminution of the yellow reduces the dazzling effect upon the retina. Prof. H. Hartridge, however, has given good reasons for thinking that these rays of highest luminosity in the spectrum are those most important for accurate discrimination of the retinal diffusion image with incident white light.

CALCIUM CONTENT AND WEIGHT OF HUMAN CATARACTOUS LENSES

Variations in the calcium content of human lenses undergoing cataractous changes require further study for two reasons : (1) the association of cataract with hypoparathyroidism, a pathologic state resulting from insufficiency or absence of the glands which presumably regulate calcium metabolism, discussed extensively by Fischer and Triebenstein, 1 Kerr, Hasford and Shepardson, 2 Eiseman and Luckhardt, 3 Lenhard, 4 Kirby, 5 O'Brien 6 Evans and Kern, 7 and (2) the increase of calcium in cataractous lenses, shown by chemical analyses by Burge, 8 Adams, 9 Updegraff 10 and myself 11 and the joint work of Mackay, Stewart and Robertson. 12 According to these investigators the calcium content of cataractous lenses is extremely variable. In a previous publication I 11 pointed out that incipient cataracts contain little or no calcium ; however, only slight attention was paid at that time to the exact stage of maturity or to the slit-lamp examinations

DERMATITIS OF THE EYELIDS CAUSED BY DIONIN

Dermatitis of the eyelids often presents a problem in etiology. The following case is reported because no reference has been found to dionin as a cause of dermatitis venenata in the standard texts on dermatology or in the current literature, and because the sensitiveness to the drug did not appear until after it had been used steadily without untoward effect for over eleven years. REPORT OF A CASE Case 1.— Mrs. N., aged 68, had been seen by Dr. William Evans Bruner of Cleveland, in 1917. He found evidence of an incipient cataract and directed the instillation of 2 per cent aqueous solution of dionin into the conjunctival sacs. The solution was dropped into the eyes by the patient once a day for five days a week with great regularity until the appearance of the dermatitis. In the meantime, the strength of the solution had been gradually increased to 4

Calcium Determinations on Cataractous Human Lenses

The cataractous senile lens is remarkable for its relatively large calcium content, as compared with the normal lens, from which calcium has been recorded by several observers as entirely or almost entirely absent. The author's separate analysis of each of forty-five cataractous human lenses showed an average of 35.4 mg. per 100 gm. No calcium could be demonstrated in five lenses with incipient cataract, and the only black cataract examined also contained none. From the departments of ophthalmology and biochemistry, State University of Iowa.

Cataracta punctiformis (congenita?), erroneously considered as incipient glassblower's cataract

Cataracta punctiformis (congenita?), erroneously considered as incipient glassblower's cataract

Surgical Treatment of Senile Cataract Complicated by Glaucoma

This paper is based on twenty-six cases: ten of mature and hypermature and sixteen of incipient cataract. Such cases are more frequent than might be supposed. Cataract frequently complicates glaucoma and in its development may cause glaucoma. The share of lens toxicity in the latter group is uncertain. Incipient cataract should receive prompt treatment to arrest the glaucoma if possible; trephining being preferable to iridectomy. Where glaucoma exists after cataract extraction cyclodialysis may also be considered. Read before the Section on Ophthalmology, College of Physicians, November 18, 1926.

The General Management of Incipient Cataract of Adult Life

The General Management of Incipient Cataract of Adult Life

The Prognosis of Incipient Senile Cataract

The Prognosis of Incipient Senile Cataract

Treatment of Incipient Senile Cataract with Instillations of Salts of Iodine into the Eye

Treatment of Incipient Senile Cataract with Instillations of Salts of Iodine into the Eye

DOES THE OPACITY OF INCIPIENT CATARACT EVER REGAIN TRANSPARENCY?

Our problem is not the mere restoration of vision in a cataractous eye, as this may occur from absorption of the cortex or in traumatic opacity; nor is it the clearing of a diffuse cloudiness of the lens, as this has been observed to follow correction of eyestrain. It is rather the partial or complete transformation of opaque striae with diffuse opacity into clear lens. Such opacities are seen in the lenses of individuals past middle life, and in some cases are associated with such general diseases as diabetes, Bright's disease, syphilis, and arteriosclerosis; some with uncorrected refractive defects, and others with as yet undefined conditions. Progress, in the non-surgical management of incipient cataract, calls for the settlement of two questions: First. Do the opaque striae of incipient cataract ever become transformed into transparent lens? Second. What are the conditions under which transformation occurs? If the striated opacity of incipient

TEMPORARY CLEARING OF A CATARACTOUS LENS.

The writings of Risley, Jackson, de Schweinitz, Weeks, Knapp, Pyle and others, have introduced into the management of partial lens opacities considerations which make the old and easy classification of incipient and ripe cataracts unsatisfactory to the observer, and unjust or cruel to the patient. A few clinical truths seem to have been firmly established. We know that the situation of early opacities is of prognostic importance; that senility is neither the only nor the most important factor in etiology of so-called primary senile cataract; that the uveal tract, especially the choroid, should be minutely studied; that "spontaneous cures" now and then occur from absorption, with or without capsule puncture, or from luxation; that hygienic, optical and medicinal care are of importance, and seem to retard progress of lens-clouding: that ripening operations are unreliable, and probably entirely unnecessary; that if the opacity interferes with vision to a great degree, and

IMMATURE CATARACT AND ITS TREATMENT.

It may be asked: Why waste time on this hackneyed subject, which has so often been discussed, especially in our own country, for example, by Risley, 1 Woodward, 2 Alt, 3 W. L. Pyle, 4 and by others, and when we know that there is no specific treatment of incipient cataract and that all which can be done is to keep the patient in the best state of health and the affected eyes in the most perfect optical and nutritional conditions until that time arrives when the crystalline lenses may be safely extracted? While this is undoubtedly true, may it not be pertinently inquired whether a too strict adherence to this view of the case does not engender a species of unjustifiable pessimism and unwarranted therapeutic nihilism which drive patients out of legitimate consulting-rooms into the hands of irregular practitioners? In general terms, all complicated cataracts, especially those caused by

INCIPIENT CATARACT; ITS ETIOLOGY, TREATMENT AND PROGNOSIS.Read in the Section on Ophthalmology, at the Forty-second Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Washington, D. C., May, 1891.

In a brief paper published in the<i>University Medical Magazine</i>for March, 1889, I called attention to the underlying pathological factor in the etiology of<i>hard cataract</i>, and entered an urgent plea for the treatment of eyes afflicted with advancing opacity of the lens, before the stage of maturity. It was then claimed that by designating these cataracts as "senile" the tendency had been introduced to regard them as one of the unavoidable changes incident to the decline of life, and that by this means attention had been drawn away from other and more important factors in their production. It was shown that the hard and inelastic lens of even advanced life was not necessarily an opaque lens, and that approximately normal acuity of vision was quite compatible with old age. That the opaque lens was therefore an extraordinary occurrence to be explained by other causes than senility. In my

3. On the Cause and Cure of Cataract

The author's attention was called to this subject in consequence of having had an attack of incipient cataract forty years ago. The laminæ of the lens had separated so much as to exhibit rays of light, and the prismatic colours, round every source of light. At the end of eight months the laminæ came into optical contact, the rays and colours disappeared, and the eye became as perfect as the other, —a proof that cataract, in its incipient stage, may be discovered optically, and may be cured. During a series of experiments on the changes in the crystalline lenses of animals after death, the author observed that the capsule of the lens transmitted water into the lens till it burst; and hence he concluded that cataract might arise from an unhealthy state of the aqueous humour,—hard cataract from too much albumen in the aqueous humour, and soft cataract from too much water.