Disease relevance of Amblyopia

• Cell shrinkage in monkey lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) layers supplied by the amblyopic eye have been described in experimental amblyopia caused by visual deprivation, anisometropia, and strabismus [1].
• Among the 76 million population of Andhra Pradesh, 714,400 are estimated to have cataract-related blindness (615,600 cataract, 53,200 cataract surgery-related complications, 45,600 aphakia), and 228,000 refractive error-related blindness (159,600 myopia, 22,800 hyperopia, 45,600 refractive error-related amblyopia) [2].
• Visual acuities and scotomas after one week levodopa administration in human amblyopia [3].
• PURPOSE: Folic acid is essential for DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis, and deficiencies in folate can lead to nutritional amblyopia and optic neuropathy [4].
• PURPOSE: This study estimates the prevalence of common visual disorders (amblyopia, strabismus, refractive errors) in a group of inner-city school children [5].

Psychiatry related information on Amblyopia

• Dissociations found between the presence and severity of strabismus, stereopsis, amblyopia and optokinetic abnormalities point to these features being relatively independent although associated in typical clusterings [6].
• Strabismus, amblyopia, and dyslexia [7].
• A 12-year-old girl presents with optic atrophy, pale papilla, amblyopia and microcephaly (-3 s.d.) with mild mental retardation and facial dysmorphism [8].
• CONCLUSION: Though levodopa and carbidopa therapy may not be able to ameliorate amblyopia on its own on a long-term basis, it may be considered nonetheless to be an important adjunct to conventional therapy because it may improve patient compliance for occlusion by improving visual acuity in the amblyopic eye [9].

High impact information on Amblyopia

• Whereas strabismus or amblyopia disrupted the normal excitatory interactions between the two eyes, cortical inhibitory binocular connections seem not to have been disrupted [10].
• Atropine vs patching for treatment of amblyopia in children [11].
• Studies of local cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism as indicators of brain function in amblyopia are reviewed [12].
• METHOD: Contour-detection thresholds and optotype acuity were measured in 17 newly diagnosed anisometropic amblyopes, in 6 patients with strabismic amblyopia, and in 4 patients with combined anisometropic and strabismic amblyopia [13].
• Levodopa/carbidopa for childhood amblyopia [14].

Chemical compound and disease context of Amblyopia

• This paper reviews reports of a strikingly similar epidemic known as the "Amblyopia of the Blockade," which occurred in Cuba almost a century ago when the island was undergoing a US naval blockade during the Cuban-Spanish-American war [15].
• Use of the PVEP with chloral hydrate sedation may prove clinically useful for detecting amblyopia in uncooperative infants and children [16].
• The overall incidence of adverse events was similar for both treatment groups, except for a significantly greater incidence of amblyopia in patients receiving buspirone 15 mg BID [17].
• There appears to be no direct relationship between the expression of NMDA-R1 receptors and the level of excitability, binocularity or neuronal acuity known to exist in either of these two cat models of amblyopia, thus raising further questions as to the precise nature of the role of NMDA receptors in the processes of visual cortical plasticity [18].
• OBJECTIVE: To compare patching and atropine sulfate as treatments for moderate amblyopia in children 18 months after completion of a 6-month randomized trial [19].

Biological context of Amblyopia

• Small-amplitude, low-velocity, predictable triangular tracking was tested in patients having amblyopia without strabismus, intermittent strabismus, or constant strabismus amblyopia by means of a photoelectric eye-movement recording technique [20].
• The current study determines the negative predictive value of the screening program: For a subject having passed the vision screening test, what is the probability of not having amblyopia, strabismus, or high refractive errors [21]?
• Monocular optokinetic nystagmus (MOKN) was measured (EOG) in response to horizontally moving square wave gratings (0.2 c/deg, 27 and 35 deg/s) in 58 children with amblyopia and/or strabismus (experimental group); the data were compared with that collected from 24 children (aged 3-8 years) with no visual problems (control group) [22].
• An approach for fitting the system to patients with abnormal binocular vision (strabismus and amblyopia, with or without diplopia) is discussed as well [23].
• Although the monocular deprivation paradigm originated by Hubel and Wiesel remains a key experimental manipulation in studies of cortical plasticity, somewhat ironically, the neurology underlying the human conditions of strabismus and amblyopia that motivated this early work remains elusive [24].

Anatomical context of Amblyopia

• Identification of the neural basis of the visual deficits experienced by humans with amblyopia, particularly when associated with strabismus (strabismic amblyopia), has proved to be difficult in part because of the inability to observe directly the neural changes at various levels of the human visual pathway [25].
• Unilateral peripapillary myelinated nerve fibers with myopia and/or amblyopia [26].
• Notably, four of our patients with strabismus and amblyopia, but without apparent retinal or optic nerve disease, have also demonstrated this paradoxic pupil response [27].
• Unilateral peripapillary myelinated retinal nerve fibers associated with strabismus, amblyopia, and myopia [28].
• CONCLUSION: These results suggest that PET imaging of glucose metabolism can provide a functional mapping of the visual cortex in human amblyopia [29].

Gene context of Amblyopia

• RESULTS: Two (17%) of 12 patients previously diagnosed as having tobacco-alcohol amblyopia tested positive for known LHON genetic mutations, one for the 11778 mutation and one for the 3460 mutation [30].
• The following disorders might be affected by health surveillance at child health centres: amblyopia, ADHD/DAMP, failure to thrive, cerebral palsy, congenital heart failure, congenital luxation of hip, hearing impairment (severe or moderate), mental retardation, retentio testis and hydrocephalus [31].
• CONCLUSIONS: Strabismus and amblyopia are much more common with bilateral DRS than with unilateral DRS [32].
• CONCLUSIONS: A minimum of three intervals of FTO is necessary to determine whether an amblyopia patient will be unresponsive to occlusion therapy [33].
• The Teller Acuity Card Test does not reliably detect strabismic amblyopia, and therefore should not be recommended as a screening test [34].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Amblyopia

• Functional MRI of amblyopia before and after levodopa [35].
• CONCLUSION: In this study, LASIK for uniocular high myopia in pediatric eyes provided encouraging results in the management of select cases of anisometropic amblyopia when other measures failed [36].
• CONCLUSION: Photorefractive keratectomy in children represents another method of providing long-term resolution of bilateral high myopia and myopic anisometropic amblyopia [37].
• METHODS: Nine patients between 3 years and 9 years of age were treated with PRK under general anesthesia for anisometropia with unilateral high myopia or high hyperopia and amblyopia of the affected eye [38].
• Patients were divided into 3 groups: those with myopic anisometropic amblyopia (13 patients/13 eyes), those with bilateral high myopia (11 patients/22 eyes), and those with high myopia post-penetrating keratoplasty (1 patient/1 eye) [39].

References