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General Vision and
Eye News Archive for 2009-2010

...continued from Current Eye News

Know About the Glow: Photos Can Be Early Warning for Children's Eye Diseases

LOS ANGELES, December 2010 — When Benjamin Webber's aunt noticed that a white reflection that kept appearing in one of his eyes in vacation photos, she told his mom, Megan, that it might indicate a tumor. Megan took action, bringing Benjamin to eye doctors at The Vision Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, who diagnosed the condition as Coats' disease.

The condition involves undeveloped blood vessels of the retina, and Benjamin had a retinal detachment in one eye. Although he was legally blind in that eye, after treatment he has regained some vision.

The episode illustrates the importance of taking action when you see a white or yellowish glow in a person's eye, whether in a dimly lit room or in a photograph. In addition to Coats' disease, a glow can also be a sign of retinoblastoma (a curable childhood cancer), Norrie disease (which causes abnormal development of the retina), trauma, retinopathy of prematurity, congenital cataract, a coloboma, amblyopia and more. According to a press release from The Vision Center, one in 80 children will have a glow in either one or both eyes.

Also, note that the glow is easy to miss during a physical or a vision screening, which is why it's important to take your child to an eye doctor for regular, comprehensive eye exams, starting at an early age.

Megan Webber and The Vision Center have started a "Know About the Glow" campaign to alert parents to the possibility of detecting abnormal eye conditions through photographs.

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Perceptual Training Improves Age-Related Vision Problems in Study

RIVERSIDE, Calif., December 2010 — To see whether people over 65 could improve their vision through training, researchers had participants undergo a series of tests and tasks.

One was a texture discrimination test, during which participants were shown a letter embedded in the center of a field of horizontally oriented lines, an object formed with diagonal lines off to the side and a masking pattern. The task was to identify the central letter and the peripheral object.

Training occurred in one-hour sessions and lasted for two days. Vision improvements, such as increased contrast sensitivity, lasted for up to three months, and the researchers found evidence that the training had changed the brain in the area of the visual cortex (where the brain processes visual information).

The researchers concluded that the brain is highly plastic in the elderly and that such training could help older people recover from age-related vision decline and improve their ability to avoid falls and automobile accidents.

The study, conducted at the University of California, Riverside, and Boston University, was funded with a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The study report appeared in the November issue of the Journal of Vision.

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Eye Damage Found in Anorexic Patients

ATHENS, December 2010 — Anorexia nervosa causes a decrease in the thickness of the macular and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), according to a recent study.

The small study compared the eyes of 13 female patients with anorexia nervosa without visual failure with those of 20 healthy females matched for age.

The scientists found that visual acuity, visual fields, color vision and dark adaptation were normal for all. However, the decrease in macular and RNFL thickness, as well as a decrease found in the electrical activity of the macula, are signs of eye damage and cause for concern.

The study appeared on the British Journal of Ophthalmology website in October.

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Inhaling Poppers Leads to Vision Loss

PARIS, November 2010 — Ophthalmologists in France reported that four of their patients had experienced eye and vision damage this year after using "poppers," a term for a group of chemicals called alkyl nitrites. Poppers are used as recreational drugs and are inhaled for a quick high.

One patient had reduced vision and a central bright dot in both eyes after using poppers and consuming about half a bottle of alcohol. Her eye doctor found a yellow foveal dot in both eyes, indicating damage to the outer segment of the fovea. After a month the symptoms were still present.

Three other patients also had visual loss after inhaling isopropyl nitrite; the symptoms resolved for two of the patients after several weeks.

The ophthalmologists concluded that the visual problems resulted from a large release of nitric oxide. It is unclear how the nitric oxide damaged the retina in each patient. The doctors speculated that it may have increased light sensitivity of the retinal cells or that, since nitric oxide dilates blood vessels, it may have caused high pressure in the back of the eye.

Vision loss after use of poppers is rarely reported, and the doctors said that so many cases within a short time may indicate increased use of poppers or more powerful popper formulations.

The doctors described the phenomenon in a letter published in the October 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Are We Finally Making Progress? Visually Impaired
Population Decreases by 10 Percent

GENEVA, Switzerland, November 2010 — The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that over the past 10 years, the global initiative called Vision 2020: The Right to Sight has contributed to a 10 percent reduction in the number of people worldwide who are visually impaired.

The WHO announcement, made on World Sight Day (Oct. 14), was even more notable considering that during the same period the number of people over 50 has increased by 18 percent, and it is this segment of the population that is most susceptible to vision impairment.

In addition, the number of blind people has fallen by 5.2 million since 2004, to 39.8 million today. This is a decline of 16 percent.

Vision 2020's goal is to eliminate the principal causes of avoidable blindness by 2020. This includes a lack of eye exams and glasses to correct nearsightedness and other common vision problems.

To learn how you can help reach this goal, read about the work of Vision 2020 supporter Optometry Giving Sight (OGS). For every $5 donation, OGS can provide an eye exam and a pair of glasses to a needy person who, without glasses, would be visually impaired and unable to work or go to school.

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Eyetracker May Save Lives by Waking Drowsy Drivers

ILMENAU, Germany, October 2010 — One in four highway traffic deaths results from driver drowsiness, according to the German Road Safety Council. But a new eyetracking system can monitor a driver's eye movements and sound an alarm before he or she falls asleep at the wheel.

In the Integrated Eyetracker system shown here, two cameras record images of the eyes in three dimensions; they evaluate up to 200 images per second to determine the line of vision, even when the driver's head moves from one side to the other.

According to the developers, if one or both eyes close for longer than the user-defined interval, the alarm goes off.

Even in a driver-assistance system using four or six cameras, the Eyetracker is just half the size of a matchbox and could be mounted behind the sun visor and in the dashboard.

It doesn't require a personal computer; instead, the information is stored in a standard interface that lets it be connected to the car's trip computer.

The Integrated Eyetracker was developed by Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT and will be on display Nov. 9-11 at the Vision trade fair in Stuttgart, Germany.

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Feeding Beforehand Reduces Eye Exam Stress for Preemies

KINGSTON, Ontario, Canada, October 2010 — Premature babies are commonly examined for retinopathy of prematurity, a serious eye condition. But such babies often find the exam stressful and show changes in heart rate and blood pressure, along with more crying.

Often parents and nurses withhold feeding before such an exam, believing that the exam stress will increase the likelihood of stomach upset and vomiting.

But a study of 34 infants found that feeding an hour before the exam actually reduced stress, without increasing vomiting or gas. The feeding may comfort the infants, which makes it easier for them to undergo the eye exam.

Investigators from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada conducted the study, which was reported in the Journal of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus in August.

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Documentary Shows How People Cope With Vision Loss

NEW YORK CITY, September 2010 — A new documentary film by former ABC News 20/20 producer Joseph Lovett aims to increase public awareness about vision loss from various causes and how people deal with low vision or blindness in their everyday lives. Lovett knows the subject well, since he has lost a significant amount of vision to glaucoma.

The film interweaves Lovett's own story with the stories of others who are dealing with vision loss. They include a photographer who went completely blind in just eight months from diabetic retinopathy, a young boy who has low vision from nystagmus and albinism, as well as an 85-year-old architect with macular degeneration.

Lovett produced the film to encourage us all to actively preserve and prolong our eyesight, especially since our population is aging and will be dealing with more sight loss in the coming years. He also has produced broadcasts about the AIDS epidemic, for which he has won The AIDS Action Foundation AIDS Leadership Award.

Going Blind will debut in New York City's Quad Cinema on Oct. 8 and will run through World Sight Day on Oct. 14.

The film also is available on DVD for a fee, for educational and institutional licensing, such as for a library, medical practice or university. Call Lovett Productions at (212) 242-8999 ext. 13 for more information.

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Could Eye-Tracking Replace Polygraph Tests?

SALT LAKE CITY, August 2010 — University of Utah researchers and educational psychologists John Kircher, David Raskin and others on their team say they are the first to develop and test effective software and methods for tracking eye movement to detect lies, according to a press release.

The university has licensed the technology to Credibility Assessment Technologies (CAT), for commercialization.

Lie detection with polygraph testing measures a person's emotional reaction to lying. But eye-tracking measures his or her cognitive reaction while reading and answering true-or-false questions on a computer.

The technology relies on the assumption that lying requires more work than telling the truth, so it looks for indications that the liar is working hard, such as dilated pupils and taking longer to read and answer the questions during the test. The test also measures reading and rereading time, as well as errors.

"We have gotten great results from our experiments," said Kircher in the release. "They are as good as or better than the polygraph, and we are still in the early stages of this innovative new method to determine if someone is trying to deceive you."

Eye tracking tests may cost less than polygraph tests, because they take much less time, can be available in any language and don't require qualified polygraph examiners.

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Vision Screenings With Just an Eye Chart Can Miss
Hyperopia and Astigmatism

LIDCOMBE, Australia, August 2010 — In a study of 2,353 adolescent students in Sydney, vision screenings using eye charts viewed at a distance were found to be reliable indicators of nearsightedness (myopia), but not of farsightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism.

Hyperopia is a risk factor for crossed eyes (strabismus) and lazy eye (amblyopia), which can cause serious vision problems over time.

The study included data for year 7 students with an average age of 12.7 years at 21 secondary schools in Sydney. To detect the hyperopia and astigmatism, the researchers used cycloplegic autorefraction (lens assessment after special drops are used to paralyze the pupil) and keratometry.

In vision screenings that use only eye charts, "many children with clinically significant levels of hyperopia and astigmatism would not be referred for treatment," wrote the study authors in their report that appeared in the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

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Eye-Tracking Glasses Bring Sci-Fi to the Supermarket

FALLS CHURCH, Va., July 2010 — If you begin to see people wearing large, oddly shaped eyeglasses at your favorite store, here's why: In the never-ending quest to find out why people buy what they do, Tobii Technology has debuted Tobii Glasses, an eye-tracking device that market research study participants can wear while they shop.

In market research, eye-tracking is used to link shoppers' visual behaviors to actual purchases made. Tobii Glasses are designed to capture behaviors such as scanning products on shelves, reading advertisements and labels and picking up products to try them or to inspect them more closely.

And it does this without the need for obtrusive mirrors, cameras, human observers or bulky equipment. According to the company, shopping remains a more natural activity, and the data collected has a higher level of validity than with other methods.

The information is captured instantly and analyzed with software, bypassing the need for time-consuming manual analysis.

No, these glasses don't look like normal eyewear. But the company developed Tobii Glasses to be as unobtrusive as possible, with a lightweight design that doesn't obstruct the shopper's frontal view.

Tobii Technology just debuted the glasses at the Shopper Insights in Action 2010 conference in Chicago, where General Manager of Tobii North America Barbara Barclay commented, "We expect this technology will open up opportunities for discovery within many fields of research."

Perhaps in vision care as well?

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EyeXam iPhone App Provides Eye Tests

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2010 — EyeXam is a free iPhone app that you can use to test your eyes. Developed by two optometrists and distributed by Global EyeVentures, the application is designed to test visual acuity at distance and near, as well as the ability to distinguish colors.

It also offers an Amsler grid, which helps you find possible blind spots in your visual field, a test to help you find your dominant eye and an astigmatism test. An included eye exercise is designed to help you improve your ability to converge your eyes. And an eye alignment test checks whether your eyes tend to posture outward, inward or normally.

Of course, EyeXam is mostly an educational tool that cannot replace a comprehensive eye exam. But the tests can alert you to a vision problem you might not have noticed before that should be brought up with your eye doctor. If you don't have an eye doctor, you can find one through the application.

During the first month it was available on the Apple iTunes store, EyeXam was downloaded more than 100,000 times and was the second-most downloaded free iPhone application in the medical category.

To download, just visit the iTunes store. You can also watch a video about it on YouTube.

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Want To Go Blind? Then Try This

SAN DIEGO, June 2010 — Starting in the United Kingdom, the fad called "vodka eye shots" or "vodka eyeballing" has made its way to other areas of the world where college kids get drunk together.

In case you don't know, vodka eyeballing involves pouring vodka into the eye or holding a vodka-filled bottle or shot glass directly on the eye. It's very painful.

Why does vodka eyeballing hurt so much? It's because vodka typically contains 35 to 50 percent alcohol (sometimes more), which can burn the cornea.

This leads to infection and/or corneal ulcers, scarring, vision loss and even blindness.

Another side effect is constant watering of the eyes, which may last indefinitely.

According to a statement issued by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, "Eyeballers do not even get a 'quick high' as claimed, because the volume of vodka absorbed by the conjunctiva and cornea is too small to have that effect."

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Altering Orange Corn To Boost Vitamin A Production
and Curb Blindness in Developing Countries

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., May 2010 — Yellow corn and especially orange corn contain beta-carotene, which in the body converts to vitamin A, a substance important to good eye health.

Since 250,000 to 500,000 children go blind each year because of vitamin A deficiency (according to the World Health Organization), researchers have been studying how to breed new types of corn that would digest to produce more vitamin A than before.

"We're sort of turbocharging corn with desirable natural variation to make it darker and more nutritious," said Torbert Rocheford, the Patterson Endowed Chair of Translational Genomics and professor of agronomy at Purdue University, in a release. He said also that increasing beta-carotene levels in grains such as corn is an economical way to address the vitamin A deficiency in developing countries.

Humans convert beta-carotene into vitamin A during digestion. Rocheford's group found that reducing the function of a certain gene in corn that inhibits some of that conversion would increase the amount of vitamin A in the body.

Another finding of the research was that boosting the function of that same gene would produce more zeaxanthin, which may protect against macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in people over 55 in industrialized Western countries. So corn distributed there might be altered for that purpose instead.

Orange corn is unusual in the United States and Africa, but in South America and some parts of Asia it is preferred over white corn.

The research findings were published in Nature Genetics in March.

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Ocular Shingles May Increase Risk of Stroke

ST. PAUL, Minn., April 2010 — In a one-year study of 658 people with ocular shingles and 1,974 without, researchers determined that those with shingles were four-and-a-half times more likely to have a stroke than those without.

Age, gender, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and medications were noted, but made no difference in the results. However, stroke risk factors such as cigarette smoking were not taken into account, and the scientists said that more research is necessary.

The people with ocular shingles were also more likely to have ischemic stroke (such as a blood clot) and less likely to have hemorrhagic stroke (such as bleeding in the brain) than those without shingles.

About 10 to 20 percent of people with shingles have ocular shingles, which is an eye infection of the eye itself as well as nearby skin, caused by the chickenpox virus.

The study report appeared in the online issue of the journal Neurology in March.

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High Altitude Affects Cornea but Not Vision in Study

ZURICH, Switzerland, March 2010 — Mountain climbing at high altitudes can cause swelling of the cornea but does not appear to affect vision, according to a new study.

Study results show that, at high altitudes, a decrease in oxygen can cause mountain sickness and cornea changes.

Researchers at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, studied 28 volunteers who climbed Mount Muztagh Ata in western China. Participants reached about 6,300 meters or 20,670 feet.

One group of climbers had less time to acclimate before ascending. The researchers studied the climbers' corneal thickness, visual acuity and blood oxygen levels before, during and after ascent.

In both groups, corneal thickness and blood oxygen levels increased as the altitude increased; they decreased after descent. The researchers also found a correlation between corneal thickness and mountain sickness.

The group that had less time to acclimate had a greater increase in corneal thickness.

Altitude did not affect visual acuity significantly in either group.

The researchers noted that although vision was not affected at 6,300 meters, more extreme altitudes may cause damage to the cornea that could potentially lead to vision loss.

The study appeared in Archives of Ophthalmology in February.

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Bifocals for Children? They May Slow Myopia Progression

HONG KONG, March 2010 — Children with myopia (nearsightedness) at high progression rates may benefit from bifocals, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University examined about 130 Chinese Canadian children with an average age of 10 years. They were divided into three groups of different eyeglass lenses: regular lenses, bifocal lenses and prismatic bifocals (which help the eyes work together).

After 24 months, they found that myopia progression was the most rapid among the group that wore regular, single-focus lenses. Progression was slower among the children who wore bifocals and slowest among those who wore prismatic bifocals.

The researchers concluded that bifocal treatment could benefit children with myopia, but long-term studies are needed.

The study appeared in the January issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

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Link Between Untreated Poor Vision and Dementia

ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 2010 — Can poor vision left untreated lead to cognitive decline and dementia? New research suggests it may be a contributing factor.

Researchers at the University of Michigan studied 625 elderly patients from the Health and Retirement Study and Medicare files over an eight-and-a-half-year period. All participants had normal cognitive function at the start of the study.

Participants with poor vision who did not receive proper eye care had a 9.5-fold increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (the most common form of dementia) and 5-fold increased risk for cognitive impairment.

The participants with very good vision at the beginning of the study had a 63 percent reduced risk of dementia.

Of the participants over 90 years old, 78 percent of those who had normal cognition had had one or more eye procedures previously, compared with only 52 percent of those who had Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers concluded that untreated poor vision is associated with cognitive decline and the development of dementia. The study report appeared in the American Journal of Epidemiology, published online in February.

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Keratoconus Almost Retired Olympic Bobsledder,
But a New Procedure Saved His Sight

VANCOUVER, B.C., Canada, February 2010 — Steve Holcomb says he is seeing 20/20 now, after an eye procedure helped him overcome the keratoconus that was ruining his vision.

Holcomb was seeing 20/500 before, which meant he faced retirement from his role as the U.S. Olympic Team's four-man bobsled pilot.

In March 2008, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, an ophthalmologist and refractive surgeon who practices in Los Angeles, embedded implantable contact lenses in Holcomb's eyes to improve his vision.

Then he performed his 30-minute C3-R procedure, in which he applied riboflavin eye drops to the cornea and activated them with a special light. The procedure is also called collagen crosslinking or corneal crosslinking, and it is used to strengthen the corneal tissue.

(Dr. Boxer Wachler is also a member of All About Vision's Editorial Advisory Board.)

Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease that causes the cornea to bulge outward. The cornea becomes thinner, and vision is blurred. Holcomb's case had become so severe that glasses and contacts could not correct his vision adequately to allow him to compete in bobsledding.

For more information about Holcomb's condition and the surgery that saved his sight, click on the image above to watch the NBC Nightly News video, served by YouTube.

And in case you're wondering, Holcomb and his U.S. team did win the Olympic gold medal in the four-man bobsled competition on Feb. 26-27.

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Surgeons Developing Artificial Muscles To Restore Blinking

SACRAMENTO, Calif., February 2010 — With implantation of artificial muscles, people with facial paralysis can regain their ability to blink, according to surgeons at UC Davis Medical Center.

Thousands of people can't close their eyelids because of injury, stroke or facial surgery, which is a problem because blinking is necessary to wipe clean and maintain lubrication of the eyes.

The surgeons are developing a procedure that would implant an electroactive polymer artificial muscle (EPAM) to create an eyelid blink and improve facial appearance. The muscle would be powered with an implanted battery.

Current methods of reactivating a blink include transferring a leg muscle to the face and suturing a gold weight inside the eyelid. But both have significant drawbacks.

The researchers believe that EPAMs will be available within the next five years, according to a UC Davis Medical Center press release.

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Solar-Powered Retinal Implant in Development

PALO ALTO, Calif., February 2010 — Stanford University scientists are developing an artificial retina implant that uses photovoltaic power (or solar power) as its power source.

Such an implant may have advantages over other implants that are powered in other ways. The implant would be placed in the back of the eye of people who have lost vision to retinitis pigmentosa and other eye diseases.

While the implant cannot restore normal vision, the researchers hope it could increase visual acuity to 20/100, according to a report in The Stanford Daily.

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Could Egyptian Eye Makeup Have Actually Been
Medicine for Eye Disease?

PARIS, February 2010 — Some ancient Egyptians believed that the black eye makeup that Queen Nefertiti and other royal family members wore was magically protective against certain illnesses.

Since the makeup was lead-based and therefore toxic, most modern scientists have denied that possibility.

But scientists in France analyzed 52 samples from ancient Egyptian makeup containers kept in the Louvre museum and identified four lead-based substances that increase nitric oxide production by up to 240 percent in cultured human skin cells.

Among other things, nitric oxide increases the immune system's ability to fight diseases such as the bacterial eye infections suffered by people living in the tropical marshy area of the Nile River. These infections probably occurred when the eyes came into contact with contaminated water.

The researchers also noted that two of the compounds don't occur naturally and must have been created by Egyptian chemists, perhaps to help prevent or treat eye disease, though this speculation is unproven.

The findings appeared in the Jan. 15 issue of Analytical Chemistry.

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Ethnic Background May Affect Vision Disorder Rates in Young Children

LOS ANGELES, February 2010 — The Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS) assessed the prevalence of nearsightedness, farsightedness and anisometropia in more than 6,000 Hispanic and African-American children, to see if differences existed in the rates of vision disorders between the two groups.

The children were 6 months to 6 years old. About 90 percent were in the "normal" range of nearsightedness and farsightedness. African-American children were more likely than Hispanic children to be myopic (6.6 percent vs. 3.7 percent), but rates declined with age, which the results suggested was normal. But other studies have shown that both groups show an increase in myopia when they become schoolchildren.

Hyperopia was more common in the Hispanic children (26.9 percent vs. 20.8 percent). It stabilized or increased between 6 and 24 months, and the 2- to 3-year-old time period is when eye misalignment (esotropia) is likely to occur. The researchers believe that persistent hyperopia and esotropia could be related.

A difference in refractive error between the eyes (anisometropia) occurred in 4 to 6 percent of preschoolers in both groups. Anisometropia can lead to strabismus or amblyopia (lazy eye).

A report on the MEPEDS research appeared in the January issue of Ophthalmology.

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Our Desires May Affect Our Visual Perceptions

ITHACA, N.Y., February 2010 — If we really want something, we see it as physically closer to us than something we don't want, concludes a set of studies conducted by scientists at Cornell University.

In one experiment, participants estimated how far a water bottle was from where they were sitting. Half were very thirsty, and they estimated that the water was closer to them than the other half did.

In another experiment, participants tossed a beanbag toward a gift card on the floor; they won the card if the beanbag landed on it. If the gift card was worth $0, the participants threw the beanbag much farther than if the gift card was worth $25. The researchers said they underthrew the beanbag for the valuable gift card because they perceived the card as closer to them.

The studies were reported in the January issue of Psychological Science.

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Nearsightedness Becoming More Common

BETHESDA, Md., January 2010 — The prevalence of myopia among Americans increased significantly during the 30 years ending in 2004, according to the National Eye Institute.

Researchers examined results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of people ages 12 to 54. The myopia incidence rate increased from 25 percent in 1971-1972 to 41.6 percent in 1999-2004.

In both time frames, the prevalence was higher in white individuals than blacks. Myopia cases among black individuals increased from 13 percent to 33.5 percent. Among whites, myopia prevalence increased from 26.3 percent to 43 percent.

According to the report in the December issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, the high prevalence costs Americans billions of dollars each year in vision correction. The authors stated that identifying myopia risk factors could lead to more cost-effective strategies.

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Man Treated for Spider Hairs in His Eye

LEEDS, England, January 2010 — A British man went to the hospital for an irritated eye that turned out to be caused by his pet tarantula. The incident was reported in The Lancet by colleagues at St. James's University Hospital in Leeds, England.

For three weeks prior to going to the hospital, his eye was red, watery and light-sensitive. When conjunctivitis treatment did not clear his symptoms, doctors examined his cornea with high-magnification lenses. To their surprise, there were hair-like projections in his cornea.

After finding the hairs, the patient recalled that his pet Chilean Rose tarantula had released a "mist of hairs" in his eyes and face when he was cleaning the tank weeks before. Upon diagnosis, the doctors treated the eye with topical steroids because the hairs were too small to be removed.

The doctors explained in the article that Chilean Rose tarantulas dislodge hairs into the air as a defense mechanism. Although incidents are rare, doctors recommended that tarantula owners wear protective eyewear when handling their pets. In addition, they emphasized the importance of doctor and patient collaboration, which was key to the man's diagnosis.

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Man Has Eyeglasses Tattooed on His Face

LOS ANGELES, January 2010 — The Internet is exclaiming over a Los Angeles man who decided to get a permanent eyeglass tattoo.

The man, who posted pictures of the process on Flickr under the account name MatthewG15, chose a chunky '70s style frame shape, tattooed in black.

A tattoo aficionado who already has significant amounts of ink on much of his body, "Matthew" reportedly agreed to the eyeglass tattoo to participate in Ray-Ban's "Never Hide" viral marketing campaign.

But did his girlfriend approve? Apparently yes, judging from her smiles in the photos. Watch the video.

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iPhone Apps for the Eyes

CUPERTINO, Calif., December 2009 — It seems like there's an iPhone app for everything, and now we're hearing about a few for the eyes, available online in the iTunes App Store.

We haven't tried these, so no guarantees here (read other users' reviews before you download!). But you might want to check them out:

• You can use your iPhone 3GS as a magnifying glass with the Eye Glasses app, which autofocuses on the reading material and magnifies it from 2X to 8X. Sounds helpful for reading the menu in those dimly lit restaurants!
• Colorblind Helper is a color identifier. You take a photo with your iPhone's camera and touch various parts of the scene to see their colors described in English. Color deficient users report that this is especially helpful when deciding what to wear. Other apps for color blindness work similarly, such as ColorHelper, so compare before you download.
   
  Visolve is a little different: it's an iPhone app version of existing PC software that will make certain colors brighter or darker, depending on your criteria. For instance, if you have trouble distinguishing between red and green, Visolve can make the redder colors brighter. Or it can darken all colors except the color you specify.
• When you're on the go you can test your visual field for distortion with MaculaTester, a kind of Amsler grid for the iPhone or iPod Touch that may provide early warning signs of macular dysfunction. (Caution: Do not rely on this test to diagnose macular degeneration or any other eye disease. You need to visit an eye doctor for that.) A portion of the proceeds from this $2.99 app goes to various macular degeneration foundations.

If you know of other iPhone or iPod Touch apps that are related to eyes or vision, will you please contact our editor? We'd also love to hear about your experiences while using them.

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Tips for Choosing Safe Toys This Holiday Season

SAN FRANCISCO, December 2009 — For a safer holiday season for both children and adults, the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) has released these eye safety tips:

• Don't buy toys with sharp, protruding or projectile parts. Particularly dangerous are BB guns, darts, pellet guns and paintball guns.
• Supervise children when they play with potentially hazardous toys or games.
• When you give sports equipment as a gift, provide appropriate protective eyewear with polycarbonate lenses. Your eye doctor is the best source for information on the right eyewear for various sports. (In the AAO's most recent Eye Injury Snapshot, a nationwide report by eye doctors of the eye injuries they saw in one day, more than 78 percent of people were not wearing eyewear at the time of injury.)
• Choose games and sports gear that are appropriate for your child's age and maturity level; check the age recommendations on the packaging.
• Keep toys for older kids away from younger kids.
• When untying your tree, be careful and wear safety glasses. The branches can easily burst forward and injure your eyes.
• Hang glass ornaments out of reach of children.

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Americans Uninformed About Age-Related Vision Problems

ST. LOUIS, December 2009 — How much do you know about glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts and other age-related eye diseases?

Unfortunately, most Americans would have to answer, "Not very much," according to this year's American Eye-Q survey conducted by the American Optometric Association (AOA). For instance, less than a quarter of Americans understand the effects of glaucoma, and 89 percent believe it is preventable (though actually it can be treated only if detected early). And only 18 percent know that macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness if you're 65 or older.

These topics are not generally taught in school, so it's not surprising that many people would know little about them. Still, most people feel that vision is the most valuable of the senses, so taking care of it would seem to be a high priority.

The AOA survey found that 92 percent of respondents understood that regular visits to their eye doctor could help reduce their risk for age-related vision problems. But only 40 percent knew that not smoking and 30 percent knew that eating a low-fat, low-salt diet would also reduce their risk.

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Diminished Visual Field Can Make Driving Dangerous;
Scientists Think Special Glasses May Help

BOSTON, December 2009 — People with hemianopia (blindness in half of the visual field in both eyes) have a lot more trouble detecting pedestrians than do people with normal vision, according to a small study conducted by scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute.

The study included 12 people with hemianopia and 12 people with normal eyesight. Using a driving simulator, all drove for about two hours on both city roads and rural highways. The participants pressed a button whenever they saw pedestrians, who appeared at random along the side of the road and at intersections. The researchers measured both detection rates and response times.

The people with hemianopia detected on average about 45 percent of the pedestrians, and when detection occurred on the blind side, response times were about twice as long as those of the drivers with normal sight. The blind-side detection rate varied widely among the hemianopes: from 6 percent to 100 percent, with the lower rates among the older participants.

In at least 22 states and several countries, people with hemianopia are not allowed to drive. The scientists said they plan to test the ability of special glasses to improve the detection rate for pedestrians on the blind side.

Study results appeared in the November issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

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Survey Says Americans Are Reducing Doctor Visits
Because of the Recession

ST. LOUIS, November 2009 — Thirty-six percent of Americans said they are visiting their doctors less because of the recession, in a survey released by the American Optometric Association (AOA). When asked which doctors they are visiting less, 52 percent indicated their eye doctor.

The situation was worse for primary care physician visits (59 percent) and dentists (63 percent).

"These statistics are very worrisome," said Dr. David Cockrell, optometrist and AOA trustee, in a press release. "We know that many eye and vision problems have no obvious signs or symptoms, so early diagnosis and treatment are critical. This is true beyond just eye care. Health issues of any kind are not things that Americans should ignore."

One possible reason that eye doctor visits are down less than those in other health areas is the fear of losing eyesight, which in another study was feared most by 43 percent of respondents, vs. memory loss (32 percent) and the ability to walk (12 percent).

Respondents' ethnicity played a role in their answers: 49 percent of Hispanics, 36 percent of African-Americans and 33 percent of Caucasians are limiting doctor visits. Also, more women than men and more rural than urban people are doing so.

"The longer patients go between doctor visits, the greater the opportunity for additional health problems that ultimately can be much more expensive than routine checkups and early-stage treatment," noted Dr. Cockrell. "That is another reason that identifying health problems in the early stages is ideal."

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New Findings Help Eye Doctors Tell the Difference
Between Alzheimer's and a Visual Problem

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, November 2009 — Some Alzheimer's patients experience the disease first as problems with their vision, not with memory or other brain functions. This is called a visual variant of Alzheimer's disease, or VVAD.

The problem is, standard eye exams may not help with the diagnosis. A study of 10 patients with unexplained vision loss who were finally diagnosed with VVAD revealed some clues that eye doctors may use to diagnose VVAD and refer the patients for further tests and care. The benefit is that early diagnosis and treatment for Alzheimer's generally produces better outcomes.

When VVAD patients report their visual problems, often they are younger than Alzheimer's patients who first display memory loss. Only three of the 10 patients in this study reported loss of memory, and the median age was 65. Still, all but one had difficulty with reading, eight with writing and six with basic math. All had trouble identifying colored numbers, and eight had difficulty recognizing and interpreting parts of a complex image, an early indicator of Alzheimer's-related brain damage.

The researchers, from Jules Gonin Eye Hospital in Switzerland, said that eye doctors should suspect VVAD when someone has good visual acuity but has unusual or severe vision complaints. In this case, the person should be referred for a neurological exam.

The study results were presented at this year's joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology.

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Scientists Find Alzheimer's-Related Lesions in the Eyes

IRVINE, Calif., November 2009 — Scientists examining mice that were genetically altered to have Alzheimer's found amyloid plaque lesions in their retinas. Such lesions occur in the brain of Alzheimer's patients and may be a good indicator of the onset of the disease.

The study results could lead to retinal imaging technology that would help diagnose and treat Alzheimer's patients less invasively, less expensively and more easily than brain imaging.

"Brain tissue isn't transparent, but retinas are," said Zhiqun Tan, a University of California — Irvine neuroscientist leading the research, in a press release. "I hope in the future we'll be able to diagnose the disease and track its progress by looking into the eyes."

The study report appeared in the November issue of the American Journal of Pathology.

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Peripheral Vision Important in Identifying Surroundings

MANHATTAN, Kan., November 2009 — When you look at a scene, is central vision or peripheral vision more helpful to you in describing it?

A study found that central vision lets us determine the details of the scene, but peripheral vision is more important in letting us know what kind of scene we're viewing (a mountain vs. a street, for example).

The Kansas State University researchers said they were surprised to discover such an important role for peripheral vision in getting the gist of a scene. They added that this knowledge could help us better understand eyewitness testimony in court cases, assist people in designing advertising campaigns and even build better robotic eyes that would help a robot of the future identify what it sees.

The study report appeared in the September issue of Journal of Vision.

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Retina Cells Grown from Stem Cells

MADISON, Wis., October 2009 — Recently scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health grew retina cells from stem cells, which may mean that eye surgeons will be able to repair damaged retinas with cells grown from the patient's own skin.

"This is an important step forward for us, as it not only confirms that multiple retinal cells can be derived from human iPS cells (a type of stem cell) using the Wisconsin approach, but also shows how similar the process is to normal human retinal development," said David Gamm, MD, PhD, in a release.

"That is quite remarkable given that the starting cell is so different from a retinal cell and the whole process takes place in a plastic dish," he added. "We continue to be amazed at how deep we can probe into these early events and find that they mimic those found in developing retinas. Perhaps this is the way to close the gap between what we know about building a retina in mice, frogs and flies with that of humans."

Growing retina cells may be useful in finding treatments for eye diseases, too. For example, skin from a patient with retinitis pigmentosa could be reprogrammed into iPS cells, then retina cells, which would allow researchers to screen large numbers of potential drugs for the condition.

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Can Color Blindness Be Cured With Gene Therapy?

GAINESVILLE, Fla., October 2009 — Apparently so, judging from the experience of two squirrel monkeys named Dalton and Sam.

Scientists added red sensitivity to cone cells in the animals' eyes, helping them to gain the ability to distinguish between red and green. This inability is the most common form of color blindness in people.

Researchers at the University of Washington had trained the monkeys previously to communicate which colors they were seeing, via a vision testing technique called the Cambridge Colour Test.

University of Florida researchers developed a gene-transfer technique to use an adeno-associated virus to deliver particular genes into the retina to produce a protein called long-wavelength opsin. This protein makes pigments that are sensitive to red and green.

In about five weeks, the monkeys began to detect colors that they had not seen before. After a year and a half of testing, the scientists found that the monkeys were detecting 16 different hues.

More research is needed, but for those who have achromatopsia, a hereditary blindness condition that causes almost complete color blindness and poor central vision, this type of gene therapy may be the answer. Others, with vision-damaging diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, may have some vision restored if the retina's cone cells are treated in this way.

A report about this study appeared in September in the online edition of Nature.

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Prevent Blindness America Tackles Lack of Children's Eye Care

CHICAGO, October 2009 — Prevent Blindness America (PBA) has received a grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, a government agency, to promote eye care for young children.

PBA plans to establish the National Universal Vision Screening for Young Children Coordinating Center. The Center will help develop statewide vision screening and eye health programs for all children before they enter school. It will also help states coordinate their existing vision screening programs, as well as create a standardized performance measure for the screenings.

Prevent Blindness America will also build a National Expert Panel on Young Children's Vision Screening, including experts from the fields of ophthalmology, optometry, pediatrics and public health.

PBA hopes to improve the current situation, in which more than 12.1 million school-age American children have some type of vision problem, yet only one in three children has received eye care before the age of 6. Significant vision problems that are common among children include lazy eye, crossed eyes and high amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.

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Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics May Cause Double Vision

PORTLAND, Ore., September 2009 — Investigators at Casey Eye Institute have been checking into reports of double vision associated with systemic fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics used for bronchitis, pneumonia, sinusitis and certain skin infections.

They found 171 cases between 1986 and 2009; in 53 patients medication was discontinued, and the double vision ended.

Tendon dysfunction is one of the side effects of fluoroquinolones, and one possibility is that tendinitis in muscles around the eyes may cause double vision.

A report in the September issue of Ophthalmology noted that one of the researchers, Frederick W. Fraunfelder, MD, said that doctors should take special care when prescribing fluoroquinolones to people who are over 60, have had renal failure or are taking steroids.

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Eye Disease Treatment May Be Lowering Death Rate
in Ethiopian Children

SAN FRANCISCO, September 2009 —The antibiotic azithromycin, used to control the infectious eye disease trachoma, may be lowering the death rate among children in Ethiopia.

Comparing the mortality rate of children who were treated with the antibiotic with that of untreated children, researchers found a 49 percent lower odds of death among the treated children.

The scientists said that infectious diseases are the leading cause of death in Ethiopian children, and azithromycin seems effective against bacteria that cause lower respiratory infections, diarrhea and malaria. However, they added, over-prescribing antibiotics leads to higher death rates from drug-resistant organisms, so further studies may be needed before determining public health policies in rural Ethiopia.

The study report appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association in September.

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Charity Provides Safety Eyewear To Reduce Eye Injuries
in Developing Nations

INDIANAPOLIS, September 2009 —Working Vision is the name of a nonprofit organization that aims to reduce work-related eye injuries in developing nations.

The charity is asking for donations of new and lightly used safety eyewear to distribute to workers in countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, South Africa and Kenya. Cash donations are welcome, too, and in fact just $5 is enough to buy and ship a pair of safety eyewear to a worker abroad.

Medical student Grant Moore founded Working Vision in 2007. While serving as a research intern in Nepal in 2008, he was surprised by the large number of patients he saw who had work-related eye injuries. Most developing countries don't have government-mandated occupational safety standards, and poverty-stricken workers are unlikely or unable to buy safety eyewear on their own.

Recently the Cornea Research Foundation of America announced its fiscal sponsorship of Working Vision. For information or to donate, please contact Grant Moore at workingvision@gmail.com.

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Gene Therapy in Development for Retinitis Pigmentosa

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, August 2009 — The hereditary disease retinitis pigmentosa causes severe vision loss. But recently, scientists from the United States and Saudi Arabia have used gene therapy to restore lost vision in animal models of the disease.

During their investigations, researchers sent to the back of the eye the receptor protein MERTK, expressed in the pigmented cell layer just outside the retina that interacts with photoreceptors in maintaining visual function.

People who have lost MERTK function have a defect in the removal of pathogens and cell debris. This debris accumulates between the photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium; the photoreceptors die, and vision loss results. After delivery, the MERTK gene corrects the mutant gene causing retinitis pigmentosa and restores vision.

After demonstrating that the procedure is safe, the researchers plan to start a human clinical trial in seven patients, possibly as early as spring of 2010.

The studies are funded in part by the Prince Salman Center for Disability Research in Saudi Arabia. In the United States, retinitis pigmentosa affects one in 3,000 to 4,000 people.

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New Book Reveals Groundbreaking Insights About Human Vision

TROY, N.Y., July 2009 — In The Vision Revolution: How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew About Human Vision (BenBella Books), neuroscientist and vision expert Mark Changizi presents human vision in a whole new light. His concepts go deeper than how the human eye works and analyze why humans see the way we do.

Written for non-experts and experts alike, The Vision Revolution explores the surprising new notion of human vision as superpowers, such as telepathy and X-ray vision. These powers explain key "why" questions including why humans see in color, why our eyes face forward unlike other animals' eyes, why we see illusions and why reading comes so naturally to us when it's a relatively new phenomenon in our evolutionary time line.

Changizi, an assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer ­Polytechnic Institute in New York, aims to show how recent research identifies culture as a leading influence for human vision development. For example, he suggests that color vision evolved to give humans insight into other people's health and mental states by analyzing skin color. He also notes that the development of color vision closely parallels humans' loss of facial hair, which reveals the skin and color changes of the skin.

According to Changizi, our forward-facing eyes are like X-ray vision because we can see beyond objects. This enabled our primate ancestors to see targets in densely vegetated environments. He also makes the interesting point that the distance between eyes often correlates to an animal's habitat. Animals with closer-set eyes tend to live in forests, and those with eyes further apart often reside in plains.

Other visual "superpowers" are described in the book and depicted with color illustrations. Ultimately, The Vision Revolution indeed presents revolutionary concepts and may have a significant impact on our understanding of human vision.

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Men's Risk for Dry Eye Increases with Age

RIDGEWOOD, N.J., June 2009 — A new study reports that dry eye prevalence among men increases with age, affecting 3.9 percent of males who are 50 to 54 and 7.67 percent of men 80 years and older. Risk factors for dry eye in older men include hypertension, benign prostatic hyperplasia (nonmalignant enlargement of the prostate gland) and antidepressant use.

The researchers believe that one reason dry eye becomes more common with age is deterioration of the meibomian glands, which lubricate the eyelid. Deterioration of these glands also leads to the deficiency of androgen, a male hormone. It is believed that a decline in androgen is linked to eye problems.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (also known as BPH or an enlarged prostate) increases the risk for dry eye because treatment involves anti-androgen medications. The condition is more common in men 50 and older.

The researchers found that the use of antidepressants is the most significant association among non-visual conditions or medications. Study participants had a nearly twofold higher risk for dry eye if taking an antidepressant. Although dry eye may not be listed as a side effect of antidepressants, some patients report blurred vision, which can be caused by dry eye.

Currently, dry eye affects 1.68 million men age 50 or older in the United States. Using projected census figures, the researchers predict that the number will rise to more than 2.79 million by 2030. They recommend further studies to understand what influences dry eye disease in an effort to develop more targeted interventions for patients.

The study was reported in the June issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

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Uveitis: Yet Another Reason Not To Smoke

TORONTO, May 2009 — Smokers are more likely than non-smokers to have uveitis (inflammation of the eye's uvea), says a new study.

A review of records of 565 uveitis patients showed that past or current smoking was associated with a 2.4 times greater than normal risk of having the condition. Uveitis symptoms include eye pain, redness, light sensitivity, blurred vision, floaters and tearing. The condition is chronic in some people.

The researchers noted that smoking has been associated with a poor prognosis in other inflammatory diseases as well.

The study results were presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

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New Study Found No Visual Complications from ED Medications

INDIANAPOLIS, April 2009 — Reports indicate that some men taking erectile dysfunction (ED) medications experience blurred vision and altered light perception; but a new study found no significant visual effects in men taking ED medications over a six-month period.

The study, reported in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, measured visual differences among 194 healthy men ages 30 to 65. The researchers assigned one group to 5 milligrams of tadalafil (sold as Cialis), one group to 50 milligrams of sildenafil (sold as Viagra) and one group to a placebo.

The men underwent visual function tests, measurements of intraocular pressure, eye anatomy assessments and electroretinography (used to detect disease of the retina) before, during and after treatment. No significant differences were found between the groups.

The findings go against previous suggestions that the phodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors that treat erectile dysfunction also may act on PDE5 compounds in the retina, causing visual side effects such as blue-tinged vision and light sensitivity.

Researchers stated that the frequency of erectile dysfunction increases with age, as do some ocular disorders including diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and ocular vascular disease. Their findings indicated that no cumulative effects or damages occur after six months of taking erectile dysfunction medications daily.

Note: This study was supported by Eli Lilly and Company, which manufactures Cialis, and most of the researchers were either employees of or consultants to the company.

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Are Video Games Bad for the Eyes? To the Contrary, Says Study

ROCHESTER, N.Y., and TEL AVIV, Israel, April 2009 — Most people would assume that they'd need glasses, contact lenses or surgery to improve their eyes' contrast sensitivity. But maybe all they need to do is play video games?

Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York and the Goldschlager Eye Institute at Tel Aviv University have found that well practiced players of high-action video games become 58 percent better at noticing fine differences in contrast.

Twenty-two study participants were divided into groups. One played "Unreal Tournament 2004" and "Call of Duty 2," both action video games, while the other played "The Sims 2," which doesn't require as much hand-eye coordination as the other games.

The subjects played the games for 50 hours over nine weeks. The action game player group improved by 43 percent on average their ability to tell apart slightly different shades of gray, but the other group didn't improve at all.

These games actually train the brain to process visual information better, according to Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. The researchers noted that the changes lasted for months after the participants stopped playing the games.

"We think that the games are taking the brain's visual cortex to the limits, forcing it to adapt to the added stimuli of the action games," said Dr. Uri Polat of Tel Aviv University in a release.

The National Eye Institute and the Office of Naval Research funded the study, which Dr. Bavelier said he would like to use as a basis for research on treatment for amblyopia (lazy eye).

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Stroke Victims' Favorite Music May Help Them Regain Lost Vision

LONDON, April 2009 — Up to 60 percent of stroke victims experience "visual neglect," or an impaired visual awareness of the outside world, because of damage in areas of the brain responsible for vision, attention and action.

If the damage occurs in one side of the brain, the victim may have trouble seeing objects at the opposite side.

But a study of three stroke patients who had lost awareness of half of their field of vision suggests that listening to their favorite music helped them to regain their eyesight.

During the study, the three patients performed tasks while:

• Listening to their favorite music.
• Listening to music they didn't like.
• In silence.

Tasks included identification of colored shapes and red lights. For example, one patient could indicate a red light in 65 percent of instances while he listened to music he liked, but could do so only in 15 percent of instances when either music he didn't like or no music was played.

These tests, as well as functional MRI scans, led the researchers to suggest that positive emotions caused by the music resulted in more efficient signaling in the brain. Finding additional ways to make stroke patients happy also may help them to recover visual awareness and other functions.

Dr. David Soto was the lead author of the study from the Division of Neurosciences and Mental Health at Imperial College London; the study report appeared in the March 31 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Weight Gain Data for Premature Infants May Indicate
Risk of Retinopathy of Prematurity

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, April 2009 — Premature infants have a higher risk than others of damage to important organs such as the eyes. Around a third will develop retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a sight-threatening eye disease.

Researchers in Sweden have found that the protein IGF-1 is linked to both ROP and infant weight gain. They have created an assessment model called WINROP (Weight IGF-1 Neonatal ROP), based on weekly measurements of infant weight and analyses of IGF-1 levels in the blood.

The model showed that following weekly weight gain alone can determine a preemie's risk of developing ROP, and it can make this determination before an ophthalmologist would see signs of it during an eye exam.

The implications are that ROP eye disease may be identified earlier and without the expense of multiple eye examinations.

More studies will evaluate the WINROP model this year, with further analysis due this summer. The Swedish study was conducted by the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

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Eye Care Use Among Severely Visually Impaired Without
Health Insurance Is Only 36 Percent

MIAMI, March 2009 — Most people without health care coverage are not seeking regular eye care even if they are severely visually impaired, says a study by David Lee, PhD, and his colleagues at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

By analyzing responses from almost 290,000 adults who answered the National Health Interview Survey from 1997 through 2005, researchers found that eye care use rates for people without health insurance were:

• 35.9 percent among severely visually impaired.
• 23.8 percent among those with some visual impairment.
• 14.3 percent for those without visual impairment.

People without health insurance for a year or longer had the lowest rates of eye care utilization. Low education and male gender also were important factors.

"Interventions designed to increase eye care utilization rates in select sociodemographic subgroups are needed," wrote the study authors. "Overall utilization rates may also be enhanced if progress is made toward dramatically increasing the number of Americans with health insurance."

The study was reported in the March issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

[How can you help? Learn about some non-profit organizations that help low-income people get the eye care and eyewear they need.]

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Researchers Predict Eye Color By Examining DNA

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, March 2009 — A new study analyzed DNA of more than 6,000 Dutch people to predict with more than 90 percent accuracy whether people had blue or brown eyes.

Human eye color is considered a "complex trait," meaning several genes determine what the color will be in an adult. Researchers from the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam analyzed DNA from six different positions of the genome and found that if someone's eyes are blue or brown, prediction accuracy is higher than 90 percent.

However, if someone's eyes have an intermediate color (found in 10 percent of study subjects), the accuracy is only around 75 percent.

According to the researchers, the study proves that we can predict complex traits from the genome sequence alone, so examining DNA may let us predict disease risks ahead of time.

The findings are important for criminal investigations as well, since eye color and possibly other traits, such as hair color, may be detected from DNA found at crime scenes.

The researchers cautioned that the study involved only Dutch European subjects, and it is unknown whether predictions would be accurate for other kinds of people.

The research report appeared in the March 10 issue of Current Biology.

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Do Your Eyes Reveal Your Age?

MEMPHIS, February 2009 — Your eyes are the most important physical feature you have when it comes to how others assess your age and vitality, according to a recent study at University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Using eye-tracking methods, researchers analyzed where 47 young adults most often fixed their gaze when they were asked to evaluate photographs of older individuals and assess factors such as aging and fatigue.

Researchers found that:

• Although the eye area represents only 21 percent of the total face, study participants spent 46 percent of the time looking at this region while assessing age.
• The nose attracted about 19.2 percent of total scrutiny time during age assessment, followed by the forehead (13.3 percent) and area between eyebrows (10.6 percent).
• In fatigue assessments, participants spent 44.7 percent of the time looking at eyes, followed by the nose (18 percent), forehead (13.7 percent) and area between eyebrows (12.3 percent).

Researchers did note that, because images were static, the mouth area might attract more attention if videos were used and subjects were talking.

Study results partially aimed at helping plastic surgeons assess needs for cosmetic surgery procedures were published in the February issue of Ophthalmology.

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Unique Fish Use Mirror-Like Eyes To See

BRISTOL, England, January 2009 — Spookfish have eyes with unique, mirror-like properties that can reflect images onto the retina to achieve sight, according to recent discoveries by University of Bristol researchers.

"In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes — how to make an image using a mirror," said university professor Julian Partridge.

Spookfish have adapted to live in a deep, dark ocean environment where very little light is available. While the fish appears to have four eyes, it actually has only two that are "split" into different functions. One half of the eye is aimed upward to view the ocean and potential food, whereas the other half points downward to scan for possible threats from below.

The downward-pointing portions of spookfish eyes can catch flashes of bioluminescence from creatures living in the otherwise dark environment below. But unlike normal eyes, this portion of the spookfish eye actually acts as a mirror that reflects light onto the retina.

Researchers said the mirror-like function of the spookfish eye enables survival in a dark environment because of enhanced ability to see even dimly lit images in bright, high contrast.

Study results were published in the January issue of Current Biology.

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Paintball Injuries Can Be "Visually Devastating"

MIAMI, January 2009 — New evidence shows that paintball injuries can be severe and "visually devastating," according to researchers at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami.

Particularly when paintball is played outside supervised settings and without eye shields or safety goggles, eye injuries can include ruptured eyeballs and detached retinas.

A study of eye injuries reported in the February issue of American Journal of Ophthalmology found that:

• Of 36 people treated for eye injuries related to paintball between 1998 and 2005, most were young men with an average age of 21.
• Ruptured eyeballs were found in 28 percent of patients and detached retinas in 19 percent.
• Eye surgery was needed in 81 percent of patients, and complete removal of the eye was needed 22 percent of the time.
• Even when the eye was preserved, most people had permanent visual loss. Only 36 percent of eyes regained near normal vision (20/40 or better).

"High-velocity paintballs can cause tremendous damage to vital ocular structures, often requiring extensive surgical intervention," said Miami researcher Kyle J. Alliman, MD. "Unfortunately, visual loss is often permanent."

Alliman said proper eye protection can prevent more than 97 percent of eye injuries related to paintball.

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[Page updated November 2011]