Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the main socioeconomical health issues worldwide. AMD has a multifactorial etiology with a variety of risk factors. Smoking is the most important modifiable risk factor for AMD development and progression. The present review summarizes the epidemiological studies evaluating the association between smoking and AMD, the mechanisms through which smoking induces damage to the chorioretinal tissues, and the relevance of advising patients to quit smoking for their visual health.

Angiography by Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT-A) is a non-invasive retinal imaging modality of recent appearance that allows the visualization of the vascular structure at predefined depths based on the detection of the blood movement through the retinal vasculature. In this way, OCT-A images constitute a suitable scenario to analyze the retinal vascular properties of regions of interest as is the case of the macular area, measuring the characteristics of the foveal vascular and avascular zones. Extracted parameters of this region can be used as prognostic factors that determine if the patient suffers from certain pathologies (such as diabetic retinopathy or retinal vein occlusion, among others), indicating the associated pathological degree. The manual extraction of these biomedical parameters is a long, tedious and subjective process, introducing a significant intra and inter-expert variability, which penalizes the utility of the measurements. In addition, the absence of tools that automatically facilitate these calculations encourages the creation of computer-aided diagnosis frameworks that ease the doctor’s work, increasing their productivity and making viable the use of this type of vascular biomarkers. In this work we propose a fully automatic system that identifies and precisely segments the region of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) using a novel ophthalmological image modality as is OCT-A. The system combines different image processing techniques to firstly identify the region where the FAZ is contained and, secondly, proceed with the extraction of its precise contour. The system was validated using a representative set of 213 healthy and diabetic OCT-A images, providing accurate results with the best correlation with the manual measurements of two experts clinician of 0.93 as well as a Jaccard’s index of 0.82 of the best experimental case in the experiments with healthy OCT-A images. The method also provided satisfactory results in diabetic OCT-A images, with a best correlation coefficient with the manual labeling of an expert clinician of 0.93 and a Jaccard’s index of 0.83. This tool provides an accurate FAZ measurement with the desired objectivity and reproducibility, being very useful for the analysis of relevant vascular diseases through the study of the retinal micro-circulation.

The results of this case series suggest that intravitreal bevacizumab seems to be an effective therapeutic procedure to treat subfoveal and juxtafoveal CNV in highly myopic eyes at 1-year follow-up. Further studies are required to verify the efficacy and usefulness of this therapy compared with established treatments for this condition.

6OBJECTIVE -Detecting and grading of diabetic retinopathy (DR) by means of digital retinal images sent via the Internet.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -Four nonstereoscopic digital retinal images (45°field each) of 126 eye fundus images from 70 diabetic patients were obtained with a nonmydriatic camera at two peripheral units. The images were sent via the Internet using a web-based system to a reference center, where they were diagnosed and graded by one ophthalmologist. These results were compared with those obtained by two other ophthalmologists, one at each peripheral unit, after direct examination of the patients. A modified severity scale of Airlie House was used for grading DR in all cases. Agreement between observers was assessed using unweighted for categorical data and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for continuous data. RESULTS -Presence of DR was detected in 69 eyes (55%). All eyes with DR (69 of 69, 100%)were correctly identified ( ϭ 1) by inspecting the digital images. In 118 eyes (118 of 126, 94%), 57 with no DR and 61 with DR, there was an agreement between the gradation made after the direct examination and the gradation made after the inspection of the images (ICC ϭ 0.92). In eight eyes with DR (8 of 126, 6%), there was disagreement in the grading made with both techniques.CONCLUSIONS -Inspection of digital retinal images sent via the Internet allowed diagnosis and grading of DR. The presence or absence of DR was correctly assessed by inspection of the images in all instances. We also found agreement, in most cases, between retinopathy gradation made from the images and the gradation made by direct examination of the eyes. These findings suggest that this technique is suitable for screening procedures.