PURPOSE To investigate whether the G6721T polymorphism (rs.7003908) of the non-homologous end-joining DNA repair XRCC7 gene contributes to the development of exudative age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). METHODS The present case-control study consisted of 111 patients with exudative ARMD and 112 sex frequency-matched healthy controls that were randomly selected from unrelated volunteers ...

PURPOSE To evaluate macular function, before and after photodynamic therapy (PDT) using multifocal electroretinogram (MF-ERG), in eyes suffering from classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) resulting from age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). METHODS Twenty eyes of 20 patients (10 male, 10 female) with classic subfoveal CNV resulting from ARMD were studied. All received PDT wi...

AIMS/BACKGROUND Oxidative damage has been proposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether red blood cell antioxidant enzyme activity correlates with severity of aging maculopathy in affected individuals. METHODS Blood samples were obtained from 54 patients with varying severity of aging maculopathy and 1...

This paper introduces a framework and a service model improving the understanding of domain requirements acquisition for IT-service systems development. The service model fills the gap in domain specific requirements elicitation through its base in the classical rhetorical frame introduced by Hermagoras of Temnos and through the interpretation of the domain in terms of service offerings. The mo...

BACKGROUND Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is a leading cause of blindness in the United States, but the mechanisms that initiate and promote the disease remain ill defined. There are several risk factors that ARMD shares with atherosclerosis, and these diseases may have similar pathogenic mechanisms that involve inflammation. Chlamydia pneumoniae, a prokaryotic pathogen that causes chr...

Aim: To evaluate the benefits of macular translocation with 360 degree retinotomy in patients with exudative age related macular degeneration (ARMD). Methods: A consecutive interventional case series was performed on patients who underwent macular translocation between June 1997 and January 2000 at the department of ophthalmology, University of Aachen, Germany. A retrospective pilot study was s...

PURPOSE Increased immunoreactivity (IR) of beta-amyloid and the amyloid-associated proteins tau and amyloid precursor protein (APP) in the brain have been linked to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. However, the expression of these proteins has not been investigated in the normal or diseased human retina. METHODS Using immunohistochemical techniques,...