Neurosciences News

Visionary. A word often used to describe prescient leaders, which fits Gavin Herbert Jr., founder of Allergan, perfectly. A friend of presidents, influential political operatives and leaders in the ophthalmic industry, he is still seeing the future at the sage age of 86, and he shows no signs of slowing down.

The risk for autoimmune disease among teenage girls does not increase after they receive the quadrivalent HPV vaccine, according to findings published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

A 26-year-old man was referred to the neuro-ophthalmology clinic at the New England Eye Center for evaluation of diplopia and ptosis of the left upper eyelid. For 1 month, he had persistent binocular vertical diplopia. The diplopia resolved when either eye was closed or when he looked down. As such, he found himself tilting his chin upward to see clearly. Upgaze seemed to worsen the diplopia. In addition, he had persistent left upper lid ptosis. Neither the eyelid position nor the double vision had changed over the month. Furthermore, these symptoms did not seem to worsen over the course of the day. Otherwise, he felt well with no recent illnesses, headaches, weakness, numbness, fevers, chills, sweating, palpitations, nausea or vomiting.

A 52-year-old woman presented to the New England Eye Center with a 2-week history of progressive, painless vision loss in the left eye. Her complete ocular and systemic review of systems was negative, including eye pain, floaters and neurologic symptoms. The patient’s medical history was notable for hypertension, hyperlipidemia, gout and nephrolithiasis treated with laser lithotripsy in 2016. Her ocular history and family history were noncontributory. Her prescribed medications included metoprolol, colchicine, allopurinol, amlodipine and simvastatin. She had no known drug allergies. She denied the use of alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs.

AstraZeneca has announced that MedImmune, its biologics research and development arm, will spin out a new, independent biotech company named Viela Bio, which will focus on developing medicines for severe autoimmune diseases, according to a press release.

Author, educator and internationally esteemed ophthalmologist Benjamin F. Boyd, MD, FACS, of Panama died Feb. 5.

A 56-year-old woman presented to Tufts Medical Center with a 2-day history of rapid-onset binocular horizontal diplopia and an inability to open her eyes. Her double vision was initially present in left gaze only but soon involved all directions of gaze. She noted the inability to open her left upper eyelid 2 days before presentation, which was soon followed by involvement of the right upper eyelid 1 day later. Her vision was otherwise stable. She denied any eye pain or other ophthalmic complaints.

While the Super Bowl draws the NFL season to a close, several health issues raised around this year’s game remain important for clinicians to consider.

Children born with microcephaly who test positive for Zika virus infection face challenges beyond infancy that range from motor impairment to eating and sleeping difficulties, according to researchers.

The combination of OCT and OCT angiography showed that multiple sclerosis is associated with retinal structural loss and decreased optic nerve head perfusion in eyes with and without a history of optic neuritis.