The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anatomical outcomes of vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane removal in highly myopic eyes with retinal detachment caused by a macular hole. Nineteen, consecutive, highly myopic eyes with full thickness macular hole with retinal detachment were treated by vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane removal, endolaser photocoagulation on the center of the hole and fluid gas exchange. In five eyes with other peripheral breaks, scleral buckling (3 cases), encircling (1 case) and barrier laser (1 case) were combined. In 15 eyes (79.0%) the macular hole was closed after the initial surgery. In 4 eyes (21%) the macular hole was reopened, but these were successfully treated with fluid gas exchange (1 case) or macular buckling (3 cases). The visual acuity was improved in 15 eyes (79.0%). In conclusion, these results suggest that the removal of the perifoveal internal limiting membrane may be an important adjuvant in the treatment of the myopic macular hole with retinal detachment.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Basement Membrane/surgery ; Comparative Study ; Female ; Fundus Oculi ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myopia, Degenerative/*complications ; Retinal Detachment/etiology/*surgery ; Retinal Perforations/*complications ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, Optical Coherence ; Treatment Outcome ; Visual Acuity ; Vitrectomy/*methods

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Units (MIRUs) that are located mainly in intergenic regions dispersed throughout the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome. The selected MIRU loci, which were composed of a 12-locus set, demonstrated a high power for discrimination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates collected from Kangwon province of Korea. To evaluate its ability to discriminate the M. tuberculosis strains, 45 clinical isolates were genotyped using the methods IS6110 RFLP and MIRU. METHODS: All the samples were collected during the period from January 2007 to December 2007 from TB patients, who were residents and registered to a public health center of Kangwon Province in Korea. A total of 45 DNAs were extracted from clinical isolated mycobacterial strains and genotyped using IS6110 RFLP, the MIRU method. RESULTS: We compared the 12-MIRU with IS6110 RFLP in the 45 samples, the 12-locus version offered less discriminatory power (Hunter-Gaston discriminatory index [HGDI]: 0.959 vs 0.998; 57.78% of clustered cases vs 8.89%). CONCLUSION: This 12-locus MIRU can be useful when additional combinations of other loci for genotyping M. tuberculosis in Korea where the Beijing family strains are dominant.
Discrimination (Psychology) ; DNA ; DNA, Intergenic ; Genome ; Genotype ; Humans ; Interspersed Repetitive Sequences ; Korea ; Mycobacterium ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Public Health ; Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: Variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) typing is a promising method to discriminate the Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in molecular epidemiology. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal VNTR combinations for discriminating isolated M. tuberculosis strains in Korea. METHODS: A total of 317 clinical isolates collected throughout Korea were genotyped by using the IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), and then analysed for the number of VNTR copies from 32 VNTR loci. RESULTS: The results of discriminatory power according to diverse combinations were as follows: 25 clusters in 83 strains were yielded from the internationally standardized 15 VNTR loci (Hunter-Gaston discriminatory index [HGDI], 0.9958), 25 clusters in 65 strains by using IS6110 RFLP (HGDI, 0.9977), 14 clusters in 32 strains in 12 hyper-variable VNTR loci (HGDI, 0.9995), 6 clusters in 13 strains in 32 VNTR loci (HDGI, 0.9998), and 7 clusters in 14 strains of both the 12 hyper-variable VNTR and IS6110 RFLP (HDGI, 0.9999). CONCLUSION: The combination of 12 hyper-variable VNTR typing can be an effective tool for genotyping Korean M. tuberculosis isolates where the Beijing strains are predominant.
Discrimination (Psychology)* ; Korea* ; Methods ; Minisatellite Repeats ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ; Mycobacterium* ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Tandem Repeat Sequences ; Tuberculosis

PURPOSE: To compare the level of accuracy of intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements of a rebound tonometer (RT) Icare(R), and non-contact tonometer (NCT), using Goldmann Applanation tonometer (GAT) as a reference to evaluate the influence of central corneal thickness (CCT) on IOP readings in the Korean population. METHODS: In a prospective study of 273 eyes, IOP was measured with RT, GAT, and NCT and compared to CCT measurements. Patients were assigned to one of 3 groups based on IOP measurements of GAT and 1 of 2 groups based on CCT. The comparison of the IOP values of RT, GAT, and NCT was performed between the IOP and CCT groups, and the differences among tonometers were evaluated. RESULTS: The RT showed statistically significant correlation with the GAT compared to the NCT. The CCT was related to RT measurements. The RT values compared to the GAT was underestimated in thin corneas and overestimated in thick corneas. CONCLUSIONS: There was a significant correlation between the RT and the GAT measurements compared with the NCT. However, RT is influenced by CCT and correlates less with GAT in low IOP ranges, suggesting that corneal thickness should be taken into consideration during such measurements.
Cornea ; Eye ; Humans ; Intraocular Pressure ; Peptides ; Prospective Studies ; Reading

Purpose: We assessed the extent of silicone oil (SO) emulsification using ultra-wide-field fundus photography (wFP) and the reflective ratios of swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT). Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 51 eyes of 51 patients who underwent intravitreal SO tamponade with vitrectomy. Two weeks after SO tamponade and immediately before SO removal, ultra-wide-field fundus photography and SS-OCT were performed. Based on the numbers of emulsified droplets in the ultra-wide-field fundus photographs, SO emulsification was qualitatively graded from 0 to 4. Reflective ratios were calculated by dividing the OCT reflectivity of the optic cup by the OCT reflectivity of SO near the retinal surface. We analyzed the changes in the SO emulsification grade and the reflective ratio over time (RR2/RR1). Results: The SO emulsification grade revealed by ultra-wide-field fundus photography was 2.12 ± 1.29, and the mean SS-OCT RR2/RR1 value was 1.14 ± 0.22. A longer duration of SO tamponade was associated with a higher emulsification grade on ultra-wide-field fundus photography and an increase in the RR2/RR1 value (both p < 0.01). We found a significant correlation between the SO emulsification grade on ultra-wide-field fundus photography and the SS-OCT RR2/RR1 (p = 0.028). Conclusions Ultra-wide-field fundus photography and SS-OCT can be used to determine objectively the extent of SO emulsification; this may indicate the appropriate SO removal time any complication.