PURPOSE To perform a descriptive analysis of the effects on ocular blood flow of transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) for occult subfoveal choroidal neovascular membranes (CNVMs) in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS Eleven subjects with occult subfoveal CNVM due to AMD were assessed in a masked fashion by color Doppler imaging (CDI) within 24 hours before, 24 hours after, and 1 mo...

PURPOSE To study the risk of adverse events in transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) for age-related macular degeneration by measuring how laser-induced retinal temperature increase is affected experimentally by subretinal blood, choroidal blood flow, and chorioretinal pigmentation. METHODS An ultrafine thermocouple technique was developed to measure retinal temperature increase during TTT in al...

The therapeutic effect of most retinal laser treatments is initiated by a transient temperature increase. Although crucial to the effectiveness of the treatment, the temperature course is not exactly known due to individually different tissue properties. We develop an optoacoustic method to determine the retinal temperature increase in real time during continuous-wave (cw) laser irradiation, an...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness in individuals 50 years and older in the developed world. Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in exudative AMD is responsible for the majority of severe vision loss. Until recently, laser photocoagulation was the only well-established and widely accepted treatment for CNV. However, it is beneficial only for a small su...

OBJECTIVE To determine the long-term safety of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in eyes with plaque-irradiated posterior uveal melanoma. METHODS In this retrospective case series, patients with plaque-irradiated posterior uveal melanoma subsequently underwent PPV for vitreous hemorrhage. The main outcome measures are the rates of intraocular melanoma dissemination, extrascleral extension of melano...

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to pathologic myopia has a very high incidence in global, especially in Asian, populations. It is a common cause of irreversible central vision loss, and severely affects the quality of life in the patients with pathologic myopia. The traditional therapeutic modalities for CNV secondary to pathologic myopia include thermal laser photocoagulation, sur...

It has been well established that laser treatment for type 1 prethreshold retinopathy of prematurity is effective in approximately 90 percent of treated eyes, avoiding retinal detachment.1 Transpupillary laser therapy is certainly the standard; however, there are circumstances in which transpupillary treatment may be difficult or impossible to perform thus allowing progression of retinopathy of...

In all fundus laser treatments of the eye, the temperature increase is not exactly known. In order to optimize treatments, an online temperature determination is preferable. We investigated a noninvasive optoacoustic method to monitor the fundus temperature during pulsed laser irradiation. When laser pulses are applied to the fundus, thermoelastic pressure waves are emitted, due to thermal expa...

PURPOSE To assess the follow-up and response to treatment in patients with RAP. METHODS A retrospective follow-up study of patients with RAP diagnosed between March 2002 and August 2005. Baseline and subsequent angiograms and optical coherence tomography results were reviewed and RAP classified according to the 3 stages described by Yannuzzi. The changes observed and the best visual acuity we...