News by Subject Medicine & Health

Experts at a prestigious medical conference hosted by the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) hope their work --reported today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society -- will have colleagues seeing eye-to-eye on an important but under-researched area of health care: The link between impaired vision, hearing, and cognition (the medical term for our memory and thinking capabilities, which are impacted as we age by health concerns like dementia and Alzheimer's disease).

A new outbreak of a rare but preventable eye infection that can cause blindness, has been identified in contact lens wearers in a new study led by UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital researchers. The research team found a threefold increase in Acanthamoeba keratitis since 2011 in South-East England.

Contrast sensitivity is a measure of how well someone sees an image against a background. Diminished contrast sensitivity can impact daily life because common low-contrast conditions include low light, fog or glare. Understanding what might contribute to a decrease in contrast sensitivity is important. An observational study of nearly 2,000 people taking part in an ongoing study of aging examined whether exposure to the heavy metals cadmium and lead was associated with increased risk of impaired contrast sensitivity.

Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have found that the anti-malaria drug amodiaquine inhibits the apelin receptor protein, which helps drive the vascularization behind diabetic retinopathy, wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other conditions. Because the drug has been approved to treat malaria for decades, it could move relatively quickly through the pipeline to help patients. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

While some rare forms of strabismus have been linked to specific genes, common forms have been hard to pin down genetically. A new genome-wide association study, based on 10 years of work enrolling and studying families with esotropia (cross-eye) is the first step.

Devices to assist individuals with low vision (uncorrectable vision impairment) are not covered by Medicare and many private insurers, although there is evidence that these devices, such as telescopic lenses, magnifiers, large print or talking materials, can improve functioning and quality of life. Little is known about whether sociodemographic disparities exist in the use of low-vision services by Medicare beneficiaries.