Inflammation

In the quest to reduce atherosclerotic CVD, statin therapy has emerged as the gold standard pharmacotherapy.

By watching my three children playing together, I’ve learned that the importance of pain depends on whether you’re the one giving it or the one receiving it. Similarly, the size of the burden of using eye drops depends on whether you’re the one prescribing them or taking them. We physicians have grown accustomed to prescribing three eye drop medications to be taken for a month or longer after surgery, assuming that the average cataract patient — age 69 — will take them flawlessly. How wrong we are! Studies by Angela An and others have shown that more than 90% of patients taking eye drops fail. If we listen, our own patients tell us about their problems with compliance; in a 2018 study by MDbackline asking patients what was their biggest complaint about cataract surgery, 10% brought up the subject of eye drops as a consistently formidable task.

The Bascom Palmer Angiogenesis meeting took place on Feb. 8, covering disease pathogenesis and emerging treatment options for various retinal conditions. The presentations highlighted how some of the newest imaging modalities are helping us understand the natural course of disease and new mechanisms of action being evaluated as alternatives to our current treatments. Below is just a mere highlight of many excellent presentations at the meeting.

SAN FRANCISCO — An intracameral travoprost implant reduced IOP for up to 9 months in preliminary results from a phase 1 study, according to a speaker here.

KOLOA, Hawaii — At Hawaiian Eye 2020, Ashley Brissette, MD, MSc, FRCSC, discusses the importance of testing for inflammation and dry eye before performing cataract surgery.

Sustained blood sugar elevations were linked to an increased risk for cognitive decline in older adults, according to results of a population-based study published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Researchers also found that the hormone adiponectin was likely a risk factor for cognitive decline in older adults without abdominal obesity.

Future cardiovascular risk among adult patients with depression may be identifiable early using combined data on metabolic syndrome and inflammation, according to results of a population-based cohort study published in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers used this data to determine that one-third of the association of depression with elevated arterial stiffness index levels during midlife may be accounted for by combined inflammatory and metabolic syndrome processes.

This was an odd decade — uneven and erratic for the biggest killer and contributor to poor quality of life in the United States, CVD; yet, celebratory and euphoric in other areas of medicine.

KOLOA, Hawaii — Surgeons can ease the burden of managing inflammation in their postoperative cataract patients by using FDA-approved sustained release steroids, Cynthia A. Matossian, MD, FACS, said at Hawaiian Eye 2020.

Lipid oxidation rate — an indicator of “metabolic flexibility” — may be greater among women with normal weight vs. women with overweight or obesity during pregnancy, according to findings published in Metabolism. In addition, insulin resistance and inflammation may be influenced by this flexibility.