Neurosciences News

IRVINE, Calif. — Allergan posted net sales of $556.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2004, with pharmaceutical sales increasing 16.2% over the fourth quarter of 2003, the company announced in a press release.

Clear communication between the radiologist and neuro-ophthalmologist can help avoid the most common errors in neuroimaging, according to Andrew G. Lee, MD.

Signs of early-onset pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration may include retinitis pigmentosa and optic atrophy, according to a case study.

Prospective studies are warranted to determine if open-angle glaucoma patients with diabetes have a more aggressive course than patients with glaucoma but without diabetes, a group of Japanese researchers said.

An intracortical visual prosthesis designed to transmit images directly to the brain of a blind person, bypassing the eye’s optical system, is being evaluated in animal studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.

CONEGLIANO, Italy – Patient history and a systemized approach based on the tenets of logic are the best diagnostic tools in neuro-ophthalmology, according to Alfredo Sadun, MD, PhD, the Thornton Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Southern California.

A novel treatment that employs patterns of visual stimuli is helping some patients restore visual field lost to damage to certain areas of the brain, researchers say.

Use of a popular class of anti-inflammatory drugs can be associated with severe, although temporary, visual disturbances, usually within the first week of drug therapy initiation, according to a recent publication. Adverse reaction to the selective cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors, or COX-2 inhibitors, may be under-reported and under-recognized, the authors of the report said.

Patients with acute optic neuritis who have one or more brain lesions on baseline MRI have a more than 50% chance of progressing to multiple sclerosis over a period of 10 years, according to long-term results of a major study.

It is interesting to look back at the last two decades and see how issues affecting ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmology have changed.