ABSTRACT.Purpose: Herpes stromal keratitis is a serious condition and the most frequent cause of unilateral blindness. The real-time PCR is an accurate and fast diagnostic method for an analysis of infectious agents causing keratitis and keratouveitis. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between clinical symptoms, treatment efficacy monitoring and viral quantity in corneal swabs determined by quantitative real-time PCR method. The real-time PCR method was used as well for the detection of other viral eye pathogens. Methods: A total of 212 patients (136 men and 76 women) suspect of having herpes simplex virus (HSV) keratitis or keratouveitis were included in the study. The detection and quantitative analysis of the viral DNA were performed using the EliGene HSV1 RT kit, and the result was correlated with the clinical picture of the disease. The patients were routinely treated with acyclovir applied locally or, alternatively, in systemic administration. In a case of acyclovir treatment resistant keratitis, the patients were treated with local ganciclovir (Virgan gel ophth 0.15%). Results: A total of 636 analyses of the viral DNA were performed; 85 patients were positive for HSV1 (198 detected). There were 16 acyclovir resistant cases of keratitis (14%). Conclusions: The real-time PCR appears as a fast and accurate method for an exact identification of the viral DNA in patients with herpes stromal keratitis. The introduction of the quantification is important for the treatment evaluation and for the specification of a so-called acyclovir resistant keratitis. A longterm systemic administration in maintenance doses may lead to the resistance and repeated, frequent relapses of the disease.

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PurposeWe investigated associations between neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (AMD) and rs10490924 polymorphism of ARMS2 gene (age‐related maculopathy susceptibility 2), rs1061170 polymorphism of gene for complement factor H (CFH), rs2230199 polymorphism of gene for complement component C3 and rs11200638 polymorphism of gene for serine protease high‐temperature requirement A1 (HTRA1) in the Czech population.MethodsWe analysed samples of DNA from 307 patients diagnosed with neovascular form of late AMD (average age: 73.7 ± 7.7 years) and 191 control subjects, recruited from patients awaiting cataract surgery (average age, 73.6 ± 8.7 years).ResultsHTRA1, CFH and ARMS2 genes polymorphisms were found to be related to neovascular AMD in the Czech population. All analysed polymorphisms were statistically significantly associated with neovascular AMD, with stronger associations in females than in males. In whole group, CC genotype of CFH gene polymorphism, TT genotype of ARMS2 gene polymorphism and AA genotype of HTRA1 gene polymorphism showed the greatest risk for neovascular AMD with odds ratios equal to 8.43, 10.07, 9.83, respectively (p < 0.0001). Only CG polymorphism of C3 gene showed statistically significant risk for neovascular AMD. In addition, we observed an association between waist circumference and neovascular AMD in both sexes, which further suggests the significance of excessive abdominal fat as a risk factor of AMD. We found a statistically significant association between polymorphisms in HTRA1, CFH and ARMS2 genes and neovascular AMS in the Czech population. The association was stronger in females than in males.ConclusionWe demonstrated a relationship between neovascular AMD and genes for HTRA1, CFH, ARMS2 and C3 in Czech population. To our knowledge, the relationship between these polymorphisms and neovascular AMD in Czech population has never been investigated before.

PURPOSE: To analyze clinical outcomes of cataract surgery with implantation of a toric intraocular lens (IOL) and to evaluate the effect of capsular tension ring (CTR) presence or absence on the rotational stability of implanted IOLs and postoperative refraction. METHODS: This cohort study included 64 eyes of 41 patients who underwent uneventful cataract surgery with implantation of a toric IOL (enVista toric MX60T; Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, NY) to correct preoperative corneal astigmatism. In 30 eyes, a CTR (11 SR model; Videris s.r.o., Prague, Czech Republic) was co-implanted. Analyzed parameters were refraction, visual acuity, and misalignment of toric lenses. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 67 years (range: 42 to 89 years) and the mean follow-up period was 5 months. Mean manifest astigmatism improved from −1.53 ± 1.15 diopters (D) preoperatively to −0.40 ± 0.61 D postoperatively ( P < .001). Postoperative uncorrected distance visual acuity was 0.10 ± 0.13 logMAR (20/25 Snellen). Mean absolute IOL misalignment was 3.70° with CTR and 3.85° without CTR ( P = .683). In eyes with an axial length of 24 mm or greater, IOL axis matched the planned axis in 90.5% of eyes with CTR and 81.8% of eyes without CTR ( P = .964). Four eyes (6.25%) needed additional surgical IOL rotation. CONCLUSIONS: In eyes after cataract surgery with implantation of a toric IOL, there were no significant differences in the rotational stability of the lens with respect to the presence or absence of CTR. In eyes with an axial length of 24 mm or greater, better IOL alignment was observed in the group with CTR. [ J Refract Surg . 2020;36(3):186–192.]

Disadvantage of ultrasonography is its dependence on subjective assessment of displayed images. The way how to minimize both intraobserver and interobserver differences is creation of standard conditions for examination including a quantitative approach to evaluation of tissue reflectivity. The oldest mode of standardisation is standardised A- scan, used in ophthalmology. It enables differentiation of echoes, reflected from different ocular structures and is helpful in assessment of extraocular muscle thickness. Standardisation of B- scan depends on the type of diagnostic device and is based on quantification of image echogenicity. In our study reference values of grey-level histogram were established for some thyroid diseases using standard setting of imaging parameters. Results indicate that both standardised A- and B- scan should be helpful in differential diagnostics.