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Biomedical subjects

I R Schwab

Publications and source records attributed to I R Schwab.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Simultaneous onset of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome in monozygotic twins.

PURPOSE/METHODS: We examined monozygotic twins of Vietnamese ancestry in whom the Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome developed. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Both patients demonstrated typical clinical findings of the Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome, and HLA typing disclosed HLA-DR4, an antigen that is present in a disproportionate number of patients with the Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome. Although familial cases of the Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome are rare, associations with HLA antigens may indicate that genetic factors play a role in this disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Foreshortening of the inferior conjunctival fornix associated with chronic glaucoma medications.

The authors designed a device to measure the depth of the inferior conjunctival fornix at the slit lamp using topical anesthesia. The fornices of 179 glaucoma patients receiving topical medications for glaucoma and 420 control subjects who had no history of ocular disease were measured. These measurements were age-stratified by decade. A significant foreshortening of the inferior conjunctival fornix was found with aging (P less than 0.01). Patients in their sixth through ninth decades using miotics for 3 years or longer and patients using nonmiotic agents for 3 years or longer exhibited significant foreshortening of the inferior fornix when compared with age-stratified (by decade) control subjects (P less than 0.01). These observations suggest that increasing age and topical medications for glaucoma, or the preservatives, used for 3 years or longer, are independently associated with conjunctival shrinkage.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Corneal storage medium preservation with defensins.

We used a synthetic defensin (rabbit neutrophil peptide-1; NP-1) as a microbicide in a corneal storage medium, Optisol without antimicrobial compounds. We established growth curves in Optisol for Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Each organism was evaluated separately at 4 degrees C, 23 degrees C, and 37 degrees C in Optisol with NP-1 at each of four different concentrations including 1, 10, 100, and 200 micrograms/ml. When the three organisms were evaluated in Optisol containing NP-1, we found that a concentration of 200 micrograms/ml of NP-1 successfully killed 99.9% (the limits of our assay) of all three organisms at all temperatures tested. We conclude that NP-1 exhibits promise as a nonantibiotic preservative agent in corneal storage media, since it was effective in killing organisms at all temperatures, including 4 degrees C.

Antifungal Agents↗
PubMed1992

Ocular leprosy.

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, affects millions of people worldwide and is largely confined to the developing world. Although Hansen's disease is disfiguring, crippling, and even blinding in its later stages, it is not commonly lethal but gradually steals sensory input from the digits and the visual pathways. In this article, the epidemiology and pathogenesis of leprosy are reviewed, with an emphasis on ocular involvement, treatment, and prevention.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1991

Herpes simplex dendritic keratitis after keratoplasty.

We treated three patients with herpes simplex dendritic keratitis that occurred between three and 11 months after keratoplasty. The patients had no history of herpetic infection. The eyes of two of the patients were grafted for corneal scarring of undetermined origin. The eye of the third patient was grafted for pseudophakic bullous keratopathy. At the time of onset of dendritic keratitis, all three patients were receiving either maintenance or higher doses of topical corticosteroids. All infections responded to topical antiviral treatment. The findings in these patients illustrate the importance of considering herpes simplex keratitis in the differential diagnosis of all late-onset epithelial defects in the corneal graft, even in the absence of a history of herpes simplex keratitis.

Administration, Topical↗
PubMed1991

The epidemiologic association of Fuchs' heterochromic iridocyclitis and ocular toxoplasmosis.

Between January 1983 and July 1987, I examined 25 patients at the Department of Ophthalmology, West Virginia University, who had the anterior segment characteristics of Fuchs' heterochromic iridocyclitis. Of these patients, 16 had fundus lesions suggestive of ocular toxoplasmosis. Of these 16 patients, 13 had a positive serologic test for toxoplasmosis, two patients were not tested, and one patient had a negative test at 1:16. The remaining nine patients with Fuchs' heterochromic iridocyclitis had no fundus lesions suggestive of toxoplasmosis. A chart review of 792 consecutive patients at the Retinal Unit, West Virginia University, during a six-month period disclosed that 24 of 590 patients (4%) had chorioretinal scars suggestive of toxoplasmosis. I concluded from these data that in at least one subgroup of patients with Fuchs' heterochromic iridocyclitis there is a significant association with the chorioretinal scars of toxoplasmosis (P less than .01), and this is suggestive of a causal relationship.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Toxic ulcerative keratopathy. An unrecognized problem.

The authors describe 19 patients with toxic ulcerative keratopathy. These patients were referred with other diagnoses and were victims of overtreatment. Fourteen of these patients had iatrogenic toxic keratopathy, and the other five had self-induced keratoconjunctivitis. The corneal defects tended to be inferior or inferonasal and associated with an intense, coarse superficial keratitis in "comet's impact" fashion. Conjunctival hyperemia, chemosis, and conjunctival staining were considerably more prominent inferiorly and inferonasally. Diagnosis was the key element in management. Treatment consisted of discontinuation of the offending medication or preservative. Other important measures included preservative-free medications, patching, therapeutic contact lenses, goggles, and viscoelastic agents. Many of the patients with iatrogenically induced toxic keratopathy had significant ocular surface disease such as keratoconjunctivitis sicca (6 patients), previous intraocular surgery (6 patients), herpes simplex infection (1 patient), or herpes zoster infection (1 patient).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Cataract extraction. Risk factors in a health maintenance organization population under 60 years of age.

Risk factors for cataract extraction in a young (less than 60 years of age) urban health maintenance organization population were evaluated in a case-control study. The subjects (72 case-control pairs) subscribed to the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in the San Francisco Bay area and had cataract extraction between 1976 and 1980. All patients had visual acuity of at least 20/40 OU, documented before development of cataracts. Thirty-six (50%) of the 72 cataract extraction patients had at least one known risk factor for cataract formation, including trauma, intraocular inflammation, diabetes mellitus, syphilis, oral or topical steroid use, or previous eye surgery. Male patients were found to be a mean of 4.3 years younger than female patients, and diabetics were found to be a mean of 3.5 years older than nondiabetics. Variables found to be related to cataract extraction in univariate analysis included diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, a family history of cataracts, pulse rate, white blood cell count, and syphilis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Oral acyclovir in the management of herpes simplex ocular infections.

Acyclovir, an oral antiviral agent that inhibits viral DNA replication, was used to treat 27 patients (16 males, 11 females) (mean age, 50 years) with vision-threatening herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections. Twenty patients had active stromal keratitis or keratouveitis, four had controlled nonnecrotizing stromal keratitis but could not taper topical medications, and four eczema patients with previous HSV infections had intraocular surgery (1 of these patients also is included in the 20 with active stromal keratitis). All 20 patients with active stromal keratitis or keratouveitis improved on acyclovir, all four patients using acyclovir postoperatively were disease-free while on the drug, but only two of the four patients using acyclovir to assist tapering topical medications were successful. There has been only one recurrence during a cumulative 194 months while on acyclovir. Thirteen patients have remained on acyclovir, and three who stopped acyclovir had prompt recurrences. Acyclovir seems to be a promising adjunct antiviral agent for the treatment of recalcitrant epithelial, stromal, or uveal disease secondary to HSV.

Acyclovir↗
PubMed1987

Limbal vernal keratoconjunctivitis with a hypertrophic limbal mass lesion.

A case of limbal vernal keratoconjunctivitis associated with a hypertrophic mass lesion measuring 8 X 5 X 3 mm is reported. The histopathology of this mass, which consisted of hyperplastic epithelium with eosinophilic infiltration and thickened subepithelial stroma of irregular hyperplastic collagenous connective tissue interspersed with numerous eosinophils and inflammatory cells, is presented. A large limbal-mass lesion such as this has not been previously described in association with limbal vernal keratoconjunctivitis.

Child↗
PubMed1986

Informed consent in senile cataract extraction.

One day after surgery for senile cataract, we interviewed 50 patients to determine what percentage of the preoperative informed consent was retained. No patient felt less inclined to undergo surgery after hearing the informed consent and all patients believed the preoperative explanation had been adequate. This study found retention of relevant information was only 37% when assessed by ten standard questions. Only two (4%) of the patients remembered more than two of the five risks of surgery. Blindness, the most frequently recalled, was known by only 17 (34%). More than 80% failed to recall either hemorrhage (46/50), infection (47/50), failure of the procedure to improve visual acuity (42/50), or death (44/50) as other complications. Only 20% (10/50) would have remembered to protect the operated-on eye. Patients denied prior counseling for four of the ten questions (mean). Factors related to poor retention include advanced age and less than a high school education. Previous cataract surgery, level of anxiety prior to surgery, and the patient's sex did not appear to influence retention.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Indirect immunofluorescent antibody diagnosis of herpes simplex with upper tarsal and corneal scrapings.

Indirect immunofluorescent techniques were used to diagnose active herpes simplex virus ocular infections in 84 patient observations (41 with ocular lesions suspicious clinically for herpes simplex and 43 with lesions suspicious clinically for other ocular inflammatory conditions). We found indirect immunofluorescent antibody techniques to have a high sensitivity (97%) and specificity (73%) when compared to herpes simplex virus cultures. Similarly, we found the sensitivity (98%) and specificity (77%) of indirect immunofluorescent antibody techniques to be high when compared to the clinical diagnosis of herpes simplex viral infection. Significantly, there were no false negative tests by indirect immunofluorescent techniques. Both corneal and upper tarsal scrapings by indirect immunofluorescence were used and the upper tarsal scrapings were an excellent source of cells exhibiting herpes simplex virus antigens. All cases in which corneal scrapings were positive by indirect immunofluorescence for herpes simplex ere also positive by upper tarsal scrapings, although the converse was not true.

Cornea↗
PubMed1985

Epidemiologic aspects of senile cataract extraction stratified by visual acuity, age, and sex.

A review of records for 221 patients 50 years old and older undergoing first cataract extractions showed that women constituted 64% of this population (142 cases). The men had a mean age of 70.8 years and the women a mean age of 71.8 years. This difference was not significant. Men had a significantly (P less than .05) better mean best corrected visual acuity preoperatively than women (20/100 vs 20/400). In the two younger groups (those aged 50 to 59 years and those aged 60 to 69 years), men also had significantly (P less than .05) better preoperative visual acuities.

Age Factors↗