Posts tagged cataract
Articles and news from the latest research reports.
Link Between Smoking And Cataracts Discovered
Cigarettes have already been linked to a plethora of different diseases and adverse health conditions, and now a new study has found that the smoking could also increase the risk of developing cataracts in some individuals.
Dr. Juan Ye of the Zhejiang University Institute of Ophthalmology and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis, reviewing a dozen cohorts and eight case-control studies from five continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America) to determine smoking’s impact on the development of age-related cataracts, the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the world.
They looked at the occurrence of age-related cataract in individuals who had smoked cigarettes versus those who had never lit up. They also looked at the differences between former and current smokers, as well as each of the three different types of cataract that can develop in older individuals, the Association for Research and Vision in Ophthalmology (ARVO) explained in an October 12 press release.
“The results showed that every individual that ever smoked cigarettes was associated with an increased risk of age-related cataract, with a higher risk of incidence in current smokers,” they said, adding that “former and current smokers showed a positive association with two of the subtypes: nuclear cataract, when the clouding is in the central nucleus of the eye, and subscapular cataract, when the clouding is in the rear of the lens capsule.”
The study did not find a link between smoking and cortical cataract, a type of cataract in which the cortex of the lens is affected by cloudiness. Their findings have been published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS).
“Although cataracts can be removed surgically to restore sight, many people remain blind from cataracts due to inadequate surgical services and high surgery expenses,” Ye said. “Identifying modifiable risk factors for cataracts may help establish preventive measures and reduce the financial as well as clinical burden caused by the disease.”
“We think our analysis may inspire more high-quality epidemiological studies” the study author added. “Our analysis shows that association between smoking and the risk of age-related cataract differ by subtypes, suggesting that pathophysiologic processes may differ in the different cataract types.”
(Source: redorbit.com)
Duchess the elephant has UK’s first cataract op
Zookeepers are carefully monitoring an elephant who was the first in the UK to undergo an eye operation, to discover how much of her sight has returned.
Duchess was said to be recovering well after yesterday’s operation to remove a cataract from her left eye.
Paignton Zoo’s 42-year-old African elephant had her right eye removed in 2011 because of glaucoma, and has lately become practically blind.
Neil Bemment, curator of mammals and director of operations at the zoo, said staff had high hopes for the operation’s success. “It couldn’t have gone better,” he said. “She went down very smoothly under the anaesthetic and the operation went as well as we could hope.”
Mr Bemment said Duchess was still “disorientated” from the procedure and was being kept out of view with plenty of reassurance from staff.
"Her sight had deteriorated to the point where she could only tell the difference between light and shade," Mr Bemment said. "We’re hoping that his will restore her sight for most distances. She won’t be able to read about herself in the newspaper, but we’re hopeful that she will be more familiar in her surroundings."
(Source: thisisdevon.co.uk)
In a recent study, investigators at Boston University Schools of Medicine (BUSM) and Public Health (BUSPH) identified a gene linking age-related cataracts and Alzheimer’s disease. The findings, published online in PLoS ONE, contribute to the growing body of evidence showing that these two diseases, both associated with increasing age, may share common etiologic factors.