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Ashish Agrawal

Publications and source records attributed to Ashish Agrawal.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK): visual outcome and complications for a heterogeneous group of corneal pathologies.

PURPOSE: To review the visual outcome and complications of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK), using Melles technique. METHODS: All patients undergoing DALK between December 1999 and March 2005 were routinely entered into a longitudinal study. DALK was attempted in 80 eyes of 68 consecutive patients. Descemet membrane perforation occurred in 11 eyes, of which 7 required conversion to penetrating keratoplasty. The visual and refractive outcome of these eyes is presented separately. The mean follow-up was 21.2 months. Best-corrected visual acuities (BCVAs), refraction, graft clarity, and complications were recorded at each visit and analyzed. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 34.2 years. Keratoconus was the main indication for surgery (58 eyes), followed by herpes simplex keratitis (6 eyes), corneal stromal dystrophy (5 eyes), stem cell failure with scarring (2 eyes), corneal dermoid (1 eye), and corneal opacity (1 eye). The mean central corneal thickness changed from 0.42 +/- 0.07 mm preoperatively to 0.62 +/- 0.06 mm postoperatively. At latest follow-up, BCVA of 6/6 or better was present in 24.7%, 6/9 or better in 69.9%, and 6/12 or better in 84.9% of the eyes. The mean postoperative refractive cylinder was 3.31 +/- 2.59 D, and the mean spherical equivalent was -2.54 +/- 3.61 D; 52.2% of the eyes had a refractive cylinder less than +/-3 D and 49.3% of the eyes had a spherical equivalent less than +/-3 D. Rejection episodes occurred in 9.6% of the eyes but were successfully reversed in all eyes. Graft failure occurred in 1 eye with severe stem cell deficiency. CONCLUSION: This is the largest series of DALK cases using the Melles technique in a variety of corneal lesions. Our results confirm the usefulness and safety of this procedure in conditions with no endothelial involvement. Graft rejection remains a significant complication but is associated with good recovery because the endothelium is spared.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Hepatitis C databases, principles and utility to researchers.

Part of the effort to develop hepatitis C-specific drugs a nd vaccines is the study of genetic variability of allpublicly available HCV sequences. Three HCV databases are currently available to aid this effort and to provide additional insight into the basic biology, immunology, and evolution of the virus. The Japanese HCV database (http://s2as02.genes.nig.ac.jp) gives access to a genomic mapping of sequences as well as their phylogenetic relationships. The European HCV database (http://euhcvdb.ibcp.fr) offers access to a computer-annotated set of sequences and molecular models of HCV proteins and focuses on protein sequence, structure and function analysis. The HCV database at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States (http://hcv.lanl.gov) provides access to a manually annotated sequence database and a database of immunological epitopes which contains concise descriptions of experimental results. In this paper, we briefly describe each of these databases and their associated websites and tools, and give some examples of their use in furthering HCV research.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2005

A suppressive oligodeoxynucleotide enhances the efficacy of myelin cocktail/IL-4-tolerizing DNA vaccination and treats autoimmune disease.

Targeting pathogenic T cells with Ag-specific tolerizing DNA vaccines encoding autoantigens is a powerful and feasible therapeutic strategy for Th1-mediated autoimmune diseases. However, plasmid DNA contains abundant unmethylated CpG motifs, which induce a strong Th1 immune response. We describe here a novel approach to counteract this undesired side effect of plasmid DNA used for vaccination in Th1-mediated autoimmune diseases. In chronic relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), combining a myelin cocktail plus IL-4-tolerizing DNA vaccine with a suppressive GpG oligodeoxynucleotide (GpG-ODN) induced a shift of the autoreactive T cell response toward a protective Th2 cytokine pattern. Myelin microarrays demonstrate that tolerizing DNA vaccination plus GpG-ODN further decreased anti-myelin autoantibody epitope spreading and shifted the autoreactive B cell response to a protective IgG1 isotype. Moreover, the addition of GpG-ODN to tolerizing DNA vaccination therapy effectively reduced overall mean disease severity in both the chronic relapsing EAE and chronic progressive EAE mouse models. In conclusion, suppressive GpG-ODN effectively counteracted the undesired CpG-induced inflammatory effect of a tolerizing DNA vaccine in a Th1-mediated autoimmune disease by skewing both the autoaggressive T cell and B cell responses toward a protective Th2 phenotype. These results demonstrate that suppressive GpG-ODN is a simple and highly effective novel therapeutic adjuvant that will boost the efficacy of Ag-specific tolerizing DNA vaccines used for treating Th1-mediated autoimmune diseases.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2005

Los alamos hepatitis C immunology database.

The Los Alamos Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Sequence Database (http://hcv.lanl.gov or http://hcv-db.org) was officially launched in September 2003. The sister HCV Immunology Database was made public in September 2004. The HCV Immunology Database is based on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Immunology Database. The HCV Immunology Database contains a curated inventory of immunological epitopes in HCV and their interaction with the immune system, with associated retrieval and analysis tools. This article describes in detail the types of data and services that the new database offers, the tools provided and the database framework. The data and some of the HCV database tools are available for download for non-commercial use.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Purtscher's and Purtscher-like retinopathies: a review.

Purtscher's retinopathy is a rare condition, seen in patients with a history of trauma or other systemic disease. The clinical appearance would suggest embolic occlusion of the pre-capillary arterioles as the most likely pathogenesis, although other factors leading to blood-vessel damage may also contribute. The diagnosis is made on clinical grounds and supported by intravenous fluorescein angiography. Without treatment, the majority of patients recover some of their visual function. Treatment with systemic steroids may improve visual outcome in some patients but at present there is little evidence to support such treatment routinely.

Craniocerebral Trauma↗