While there are already 25.7 million people in the U.S. with cataracts, that's nothing compared to the 38.5 million who are expected to have cataracts by 2032, and even that pales to the 45.6 million expected to have cataracts by 2050, according to Prevent Blindness (Chicago).

Distinct geographic patterns of severe vision loss prevalence were found at the county level in the U.S., according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC, Washington, D.C.). The findings indicate "a significant correlation between severe vision loss and poverty for U.S. counties," the CDC said in its weekly newsletter.

Karen A. Kirtland, PhD, and colleagues said the CDC analyzed data from the American Community Survey to estimate county-level prevalence of severe vision loss (SVL) (being blind or having serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses) in the United States and to describe its geographic pattern and its association with poverty level. Among the findings: 77.3% of counties in the top SVL prevalence quartile (≥4.2%) were located in the South. SVL was significantly correlated with poverty (r=0.5); 437 counties were in the top quartiles for both SVL and poverty, and 83.1% of those counties were located in southern states.

The latest Rx Price Watch report by the AARP finds that retail prices for widely used generic prescription drugs declined, on average, between 2006 and 2013.

Overall, generic ophthalmic drugs prices decreased by 7.3%. While dorzolamide HCl-timolol maleate saw a price reduction in 1 year of 30.1%, prednisolone acetate ophthalmic suspension 1% increased prices by 37.9% in 1 year.

The microbial environments of contact lens (CL) wearers' ocular surfaces, and the skin directly underneath the eye, are noticeably different from people who do not wear CLs, researchers from the NYU Langone Medical Center have found.

Specifically, the NYU Langone team found that the conjunctiva has "surprisingly higher bacterial diversity than the skin directly beneath the eye and three times the usual proportion of Methylobacterium, Lactobacillus, Acinetobacter, and Pseudomonas bacteria in the eyes of the study's nine CL wearers than is typically found on the surface of the eyeballs of 11 other men and women in the study who did not wear CLs," the university said in a news release.

While the bacterial composition of CL wearers more closely resembled that of the skin, some 5,245 distinct bacterial strains and subtypes were identified in the conjunctiva of CL wearers, and 5,592 strains were identified in the eyes of non-CL wearers. A similar but different composition of 2,133 strains and subtypes were identified in the skin directly beneath the eye of those with CLs, while 3,849 distinct bacteria were identified in non-lens wearers.

A first-of-its-kind stem cell-based treatment for retinitis pigmentosa has received consent from the Food and Drug Administration for use in a clinical trial, researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) said, adding they have created jCyte to administer the trial.

RESEARCH BRIEFS

• Adjunctive bevacizumab not only enhances the beneficial effect of mitomycin-C (MMC) on surgical outcomes after glaucoma filtering surgery, but also allows for reducing the administration time of MMC 0.02%, thereby eliminating its toxic effects on the cornea, according to new research in a mouse model. T. Van Bergen and colleagues analyzed the plasma levels of bevacizumab after intracameral (IC), subconjunctival (SC) and intravitreal (IV) injections in mice after filtration surgery. Application of MMC was compared to bevacizumab (SC, 25 μg) and to the combined use of both adjuvants. The 3 administration routes of bevacizumab equally improved surgical outcome. The VEGF antibody was detected at relatively high levels in plasma shortly after IV injection, whereas it was minimally absorbed after IC and SC injections. Both bevacizumab (SC) and MMC 0.02% (2 min) similarly increased bleb area. The study is published in Acta Ophthalmologica.
• Using 2 different ophthalmic viscosurgical devices (OVDs) and placing the high viscosity OVD centrally led to safe indentation of the anterior lens capsule and reduced the risk for continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis (CCC) enlargement and capsule tear during surgery, according to research from Fritz H. Hengerer, MD, and colleagues. In this case series, patients were assigned to Group 1 (n=21 eyes) where a central indentation of the anterior lens capsule was created in the eyes using a medium viscosity OVD (Healon 1.0%, Abbott Medical Optics, Abbott Park, Ill.), or Group 2 (n=20 eyes), which used both medium viscosity (1.0%) and high viscosity (2.3%) OVDs. In Group 1 (21 eyes), deviation from the target CCC diameter occurred in 12 eyes (10 oversized, 2 undersized), and in Group 2 (20 eyes) deviation occurred in 6 eyes (4 oversized, 2 undersized). In Group 1, capsule tears appeared in 2 eyes and in 1 eye, the procedure had to be converted to extracapsular cataract extraction with anterior vitrectomy. In Group 2, there were no capsule tears. The study is published in the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
• The introduction of low-add multifocal IOLs follows a trend to increase intermediate visual acuity (VA), according to a European multicenter study. F.T. Kretz and colleagues implanted 143 eyes of 85 patients (between 40 and 83 years old) with the Tecnis ZKB00 (Abbott Medical Optics). Postoperative spherical equivalent was within ±0.50 D and ±1.00 D of emmetropia in 78.1% and 98.4% of eyes, respectively. Postoperative mean monocular uncorrected distance visual acuity, uncorrected near visual acuity and uncorrected intermediate visual acuity was 0.20 logMAR or better in 73.7%, 81.1%, and 83.9% of eyes, respectively. All eyes achieved monocular corrected distance visual acuity of 0.30 logMAR or better. A total of 100% of patients referred to being at least moderately happy with the outcomes of the surgery. Only 15.3% of patients required the use of spectacles for some daily activities postoperatively. The study is published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

NEW PRODUCT BRIEFS

• D-EYE (Padova, Italy) is now shipping its portable retinal imaging system, a phone case-sized add-on that turns an iPhone or Android smartphone into a fundus camera capable of taking high-definition images and video of the eye for health screening and evaluation. The device is available in the U.S. through Wilson Ophthalmic.
• Nidek (Gamagori, Japan) introduced the GYC-500 Vixi Green Scan Laser Photocoagulator/GYC-500 Green Laser Photocoagulator, a solid state green laser that achieves stable treatment outcomes for multiple applications including retinal photocoagulation, trabeculoplasty, and iridotomy.