Professor Of Ophthalmology Research Articles

Consultation with the specialist: Eye trauma: corneal abrasions.

1. Donald H. Tingley, MD* 1. 2. *Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, Rochester, NY. Eye trauma unfortunately is an all-too-common occurrence in the pediatric population. Despite the best precautions, eyes are injured often, even though they are well shielded in the orbits and the eyelid closure reflex is one of the fastest in the body. The damage usually is mild, although painful, with corneal abrasions being the most frequently evaluated trauma. In infancy, there is no gender predilection for eye trauma, but from the ages of 5 to 15 years, boys present with eye trauma more commonly than girls at a ratio of 2:1. The cornea is the transparent tissue at the front of the eye and is composed of several layers. In brief, the most exterior of these layers is the epithelium, which consists of five to six layers of cells and represents the anterior 10% of the cornea. The epithelium overlies Bowman membrane, a strong structural and protective layer. Beneath Bowman membrane is the corneal stroma, which represents about 90% of the thickness of the cornea and is composed of an extremely ordered arrangement of lamellar keratocytes. The stroma is separated from the underlying endothelium by Descemet membrane, another structural support layer. Trauma is defined as an injury by rough contact with a physical object. The trauma causing a corneal abrasion usually results in a loss of one or several of the layers of the corneal epithelium and typically remains superficial to Bowman membrane. Although this membrane is an effective barrier, it can be breached with more significant injury, such as with a sharp or pointed object or a projectile. When trauma is deeper than Bowman membrane, an opaque scar is more likely to result and may cause permanent glare or other visual impairment. In documenting injuries, legal definitions apply: Penetrating eye injuries pass into a structure or tissue without passing through …

NIH Panel Says More Study Is Needed to Assess Marijuana's Medicinal Use

IN 1988, Paul Palmberg, MD, PhD, was treating a glaucoma patient who did not respond to any of the conventional treatments. So his patient, Elvy Mussika, obtained marijuana from a federal government compassionate use program in hopes that it would lower her intraocular pressure. Last month, Palmberg told his fellow members of a panel specially convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md, that marijuana was the only agent that helped Mussika, who spoke during an activist-sponsored news conference at the meeting. "There may be a residual group of people for whom marijuana is essential. We ought to find out," Palmberg, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Miami School of Medicine in Miami, Fla, told the panel. After a day and a half of hearing expert testimony and patients' testimonials, panel members said they believe sufficient rationale exists to conduct additional studies on the therapeutic use

Samuel Theobald M.D.

Although ophthalmology today at the Johns Hopkins Hospital is synonymous with the name of Wilmer, it should be remembered that the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute was not founded until 1925. Thus, to appreciate fully the ophthalmic heritage of Johns Hopkins we must look back to the beginnings of the medical institutions. When the Johns Hopkins Hospital opened in 1889 and the medical school followed in 1893, Samuel Theobald, M.D., was appointed ophthalmic and aural surgeon, and later clinical professor of ophthalmology and otology. Dr. Theobald, a native Baltimorean, was a member of the prestigious Smith family, which distinguished itself in early American medicine. He was raised in the home of his grandfather, Dr. Nathan Ryno Smith who directed his education. Dr. Theobald studied ophthalmology and otology abroad before opening a practice in Baltimore in 1871. Before his appointment at Johns Hopkins he was one of the founders of the Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital in 1882. In addition to his teaching at the medical school and his work in the dispensary, he contributed many articles in journals, and presentations to society meetings. He is especially remembered for his development of 'Theobald lacrimal probes', the introduction of boric acid as a collyrium, and his text book Prevalent Diseases of the Eye. He was a member of the American Ophthalmological Society for 50 years and its 14th President. In 1925 at the age of 79 years, he retired and became emeritus.

William Thomson and Joseph Janvier Woodward.

William Thomson and Joseph Janvier Woodward were two of several exceptionally versatile and highly productive young physicians who volunteered for service with the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, and then were subsequently assigned to the Washington Area where they played significant roles and made major contributions towards the development of the Army Medical Museum. Both pioneered in photomicrography. While Thomson deserves priority, Woodward was the more prolific contributor whose work and publications helped draw attention to the Army Medical Museum as a center for excellence in pathology. After the War Thomson returned to Philadelphia where his interests in photography stimulated his pursuit of optics and eventually his becoming one of the first American physicians to specialize in ophthalmology. He became Professor of Ophthalmology at Jefferson Medical College.

William Fisher Norris: A Philadelphia ophthalmologist

In 1870, William Fisher Norris returned from studies abroad to find himself at the forefront of new developments in American ophthalmology. Recognition of the specialty was just beginning and Norris was named Professor of Ophthalmology in the department just established at the University of Pennsylvania. Norris was well-qualified for the job. As a member of a prominent Philadelphia family he had the right connections. He was dedicated to the science of ophthalmology and to medical education. He was a born leader, bending his efforts toward the development of a new department, and recruiting a faculty all dedicated to the creation of a new and better specialty.

The origins of the National Eye Institute 1933-1968. The Fifth Charles B. Snyder Lecture.

Many organizations and individuals prompted the authorization of the National Eye Institute by the United States Congress. The United States Marine Hospital and Public Health Service established a Laboratory of Hygiene in 1887, which became the research center of the National Institute of Health in 1930. The Albert D. and Mary Lasker Medical Foundation was mainly responsible for the 1945 conversion of the American Society for the Control of Cancer to the American Cancer Society, dedicated to medical research. Mildred Weisenfeld, a patient with retinitis pigmentosa, founded The Fight for Sight! in 1946 to provide funds for eye research. The Laskers invited Miss Weisenfeld to testify in support of a National Institute of Neurology, and her appeal was so persuasive that it emerged as the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. Congressman John Fogarty and Senator Lister Hill directed the attention of the Congress and the public to the need for the Federal support of medical research. In 1960 Jules Stein, the legendary founder of the Music Corporation of America (MCA), established a new philanthropy, Research to Prevent Blindness, which provided skilled leadership in detailing the need for research in blinding disease and obtaining Congressional and Presidential approval of a new institute. The Committee for Research in Ophthalmology and Blindness was instrumental in bringing the groups interested in the welfare of the blind into harmony with groups concerned with medical research in blinding disease. The Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology was the first medical society to support the need for a National Eye Institute. The National Eye Institute was formally approved 8 August 1968 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1993.

Implants Eyed for CMV Retinitis

TEN YEARS ago, patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) who developed cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis lived, on average, 2 months. Now that such patients survive more than 1 year on average, and some up to 3 years, the need for better therapy is becoming urgent. Implants that release drugs directly in the eye may help, says Jay S. Duker, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology at Tufts University Medical School, Boston, Mass. Phase III trials are now getting under way. The idea, he says, is to get higher levels of drug directly into the eye without the side effects of systemic absorption. Cytomegalovirus kills retinal cells that do not regenerate, leaving scotomata (blind spots), and eventually causing complete blindness by destroying the entire retina, causing retinal detachment or optic nerve damage. Number One Eye Problem Cytomegalovirus retinitis is the number one eye problem in AIDS. About 25% of patients with AIDS

Theodor Leber: A founder of ophthalmic research

Theodor Leber became famous for his dissertation on the ocular circulation in 1865 at the youthful age of twenty-five. He was Professor of Ophthalmology at Goettingen between 1870 and 1890 and at Heidelberg University between 1890 and 1910. By presenting his original descriptions of the disorders that bear his name, this article commemorates the death, seventy-five years ago, of a founder of ophthalmic research.

Professor Gama Pinto and the beginning of Portuguese ophthalmology.

Gama Pinto (Fig. 1) was born in 1853 in Goa, India. He studied medicine at the Royal Medical School in Lisbon. Following his medical studies, he went to Germany where he was trained in ophthalmology under Otto Becker at the university of Heidelberg. He became ‘Privat-Docent’ in Heidelberg and later even Professor of Ophthalmology. In spite of this academic success, Gama Pinto always had in mind to return to his country in order to develop ophthalmology on a scientific base. Gama Pinto returned to Lisbon in 1885, under the reign of King Luiz I. He proceeded to found the Lisbon Institute of Ophtamology (Fig. 2).

The first Danish chairs of ophthalmology.

In the last century German medical sciences made up the chief inspiration to the medical profession in Europe. The influence of German ophthalmology spread to Denmark, and accordingly the first Danish professor, Edmund Hansen Grut was trained in the Graefe clinic. His successor, Jannik Bjerrum grew up in southern Jutland, a district later on lost to the German Empire. The hitherto prevailing Danish sympathies with the neighbour in the south vanished after this. Bjerrum thus wrote all his papers in Danish and made no efforts to achieve an international reputation. In contrast, Marius Tscherning, received widespread recognition as a scientist. He spent many years in France. His scientific insights at last brought him to the Danish chair of ophthalmology. The history of the first three professors of ophthalmology, so different in their attitudes, has narrative value, but exemplifies as well the rapid development of the profession in the years 1886-1925.

Das Farbensehen der Tiere Von Carl von Hess bis heute

In 1912 Carl von Hess, Professor of Ophthalmology in Munich, published the first comprehensive monograph on color vision in animals. He concluded that fish and all invertebrates are color-blind. At the same time, Karl von Frisch demonstrated that fish and honeybees can see and distinguish colors. The theory of trichromacy (Young-Helmholtz) is valid only for primates and some (e.g., bees) but not all insects. Almost all animals can see colors, and the eyes of some invertebrates contain up to 11 types of spectrally different receptor cells. Most animals - with the exception of mammals and cephalopods - can see ultraviolet and/or far red light. Therefore, many animals perceive more colors than human beings.

Die Entwicklung der genetischen Forschung in der Augenheilkunde unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Schweiz

The relationship between ophthalmology and genetics has always been a very active one, and existed even before Mendel's laws of inheritance were known. The pedigree method in particular yielded satisfactory results even to the first researchers. Later, Helmholtz's invention of the ophthalmoscope (in 1851) and the rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity (in 1900) made major contributions to the progress of human genetics in ophthalmology. Credit is due to J. F. Horner of Zurich (1831-1886) for having first established the X-chromosomal inheritance of colorblindness. Subsequently, the development of genetic research was advanced in particular by Alfred Vogt, Professor of Ophthalmology in Zurich (1879-1943) and Adolf Franceschetti in Geneva (1896-1968) and their co-workers. We are indebted to Vogt for the first description of albinismus solum bulbi. Credit is also due to him for having made early diagnosis of myotonic dystrophy (Steinert) possible, a major discovery for genetic counseling. He was the first to detect, by slit-lamp examination, characteristic lens changes in the form of whitish, red, and green opacities in the anterior and posterior subcapsular regions. Franceschetti's achievements include the description of several clinical syndromes, of which mandibulofacial dysostosis has become well known. Among the hereditary retinal dystrophies, he described fundus flavimaculatus (yellowish lesions disseminated in the deeper layers of the posterior pole) as a new entity, attributed to degeneration of the pigment epithelium. In addition to more than 500 articles, he was also co-author, with J. François and J. Babel, of a monumental handbook in two volumes titled Hérédodégénérescences choriorétiniennes (of which an English translation appeared in 1974).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Artificial Lenses Under Development to Focus on Near, as Well as More Distant, Objects

THE HUMAN LENS can change its shape, becoming more spherical as the ciliary muscle contracts to focus the image of close objects on the retina. Each year about 1 million Americans have cataract surgery, 90% of them having their lens replaced by an intraocular prosthesis. Most artificial lenses now in use focus the image of distant objects. However, a lens that focuses near objects as well is being developed, according to Richard Keates, MD, professor of ophthalmology, The Ohio State University, Columbus. The lens has concentric optics, with the central one focusing near objects, and the circumferential one focusing far objects. Consequently, two images are projected onto the retina. If the optics have a difference of at least 3 diopters, the images are dissimilar enough for the brain to interpret them separately. The sharper image is selected and the more blurred image is suppressed. 200 Users Worldwide To date, Keates

Ingenuity Abounds as Researchers Explore New Ways of Delivering Medication to Eye

NEW APPROACHES continue to be explored for delivering drugs to the eye. Several novel methods were discussed at this fall's Research to Prevent Blindness science writers conference in Arlington, Va. A contact lens delivery system was described by Walter H. Stern, MD, professor of ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco. The spongelike lens is impregnated with medication, which is released over an extended period. Lenses are designed with various life spans (eight hours to three days), at the end of which they dissolve. The lenses are translucent but not transparent, giving a visual acuity of about 20/50. This leaves a patient with functional vision while wearing the lens medication system. Stern and his colleagues are developing the technique to deliver heparin. Heparin prevents the formation of fibrin, binds plasma derived growth factor, and inhibits the proliferation and contraction of fibroblasts. All of these prevent scar tissue formation after

WHO REMEMBERS THE FIRST PROFESSOR OF OPHTHALMOLOGY?

The cradle of modern ophthalmology was the Joseph's Academy which still stands in Vienna's ninth district. History records some famous names from the academic lineage which flourished there in the nineteenth century, but few people have heard of Joseph Barth, who became the first professor of ophthalmology in 1773. A biography of Joseph Barth is presented.

The professors of ophthalmology at the University of Leipzig in the first half of the 20th century.

History of medicine dealt principally with the curriculum vitae, the scientific and the clinical merits of the Leipzig ophthalmologists. Only little or nothing was reported concerning their personal lives. In the following, just this shall be done with the Leipzig professors of ophthalmology in the first half of our century. Their fate reflects the political and economical situation of Germany within two generations as numerously as perhaps at no other university. Four of these ophthalmologists had to suffer from the political change of the regime of the time. One of them saw the destruction of his clinic during the Second World War; two were obliged to flee from their places of work. Four lost nearly all their property. A seventy-year old ophthalmologist with a private practice in the town had nolens volens to take charge of the clinic.

An update in Neuro-Ophthalmology (in honor of William F. Hoyt, M.D.)

In honor of the sixtieth birthday of Professor William F. Hoyt, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Neurosurgery, a meeting was planned and organized by Creig Hoyt, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Pediatrics under the sponsorship of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of California Medical School San Francisco, California on December 11-12, 1986. This meeting was to highlight the latest advances in the field of Neuro-Ophthalmology and focus on new developments, particularly with reference to neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

In memory of Prof. Dr. h.c. Hans Sautter, Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology in Hamburg, deceased on September 7th, 1984 at the age of 73

In memory of Prof. Dr. h.c. Hans Sautter, Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology in Hamburg, deceased on September 7th, 1984 at the age of 73

Archives of Ophthalmology welcomes its seventh editor

This summer marks the debut of the seventh editor in the 115-year history of the American Medical Association'sArchives of Ophthalmology. He is Morton F. Goldberg, MD, professor and head, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago. Joel Sugar, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology, Eye and Ear Infirmary, University of Illinois, Chicago, also joins the monthly specialty journal in the newly created position of associate editor. The new editor succeeds Frederick C. Blodi, MD, who has been professor and chair, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City. Blodi will become director of academic affairs, Institute of Ophthalmology, King Khaled University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Goldberg has served as one of Blodi's editorial board members since 1980 and also has served on the editorial boards of ten other journals. A native of Lawrence, Mass, Goldberg graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College (the undergraduate program

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen: from the reminiscences of the Swiss ophthalmologist Ernst Wölfflin

A medical certificate concerning a rather serious eye condition suffered by the young W. C. Roentgen has been discovered in the archives of the German Roentgen Museum in Remscheid-Lennep. Written in French in 1865 by the Utrecht ophthalmologist Dr. H. Snellen, it suggested the idea of reporting some biographical details recorded by Ernst Wölfflin, professor of ophthalmology in Basel, about W. C. Roentgen, his friend of many years standing.