News by Subject Medicine & Health

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia have applied artificial intelligence (AI) deep learning techniques to develop a more accurate and detailed method for analysing images of the back of the eye to help clinicians better detect and track eye diseases, such as glaucoma and aged-related macular degeneration.

Ranibizumab and aflibercept are medications used to treat several retinal diseases. They contain an agent called anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF), which blocks the eye's production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) - a protein associated with retinal diseases in high quantities. VEGF is also present in breast milk and plays an important role in infant development. A first-of-its-kind study finds that anti-VEGF medications are excreted into human breast milk, posing risks for infant development.

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have overturned the long held view that congenital nystagmus, a condition where eyes make repetitive involuntary movements, is a brain disorder by showing that its cause is actually retinal. Deficits in just a few proteins involved in one of the retina's earliest light-signal processing steps result in the eye sending an erroneous movement signal to the brain rhythmically.

UC San Diego researchers say that measuring how quickly a person's pupil dilates while they are taking cognitive tests may be a low-cost, low-invasive method to aid in screening individuals at increased genetic risk for AD before cognitive decline begins.

New research suggests that we tend to compose 'selfies' that horizontally center on one of our eyes, particularly the left. The study authors speculate that this alignment is because our eyes provide a wealth of information about our gaze direction and what we are paying attention to, which may in turn be used to share important information with the viewer about our mood and what we are thinking about.