Bell's palsy is the most common neurologic condition affecting the cranial nerves. Lagophthalmos, exposure keratopathy, and corneal ulceration are potential complications. In this review, we evaluate various causes of facial paralysis as well as the level 1 evidence supporting the use of a short course of oral steroids for idiopathic Bell's palsy to improve functional outcomes. Various surgical and nonsurgical techniques are also discussed for the management of residual facial dysfunction.

PURPOSE: To describe the study design and characteristics at first visit of participants in the longitudinal Scotopic Microperimetric Assessment of Rod Function in Stargardt Disease (SMART) study. METHODS: Scotopic microperimetry (sMP) was performed in one designated study eye in a subset of participants with molecularly proven ABCA4-associated Stargardt disease (STGD1) enrolled in a multicenter natural history study (ProgStar). Study visits were every 6 months over a period ranging from 6 to 24 months, and also included fundus autofluorescence (FAF). RESULTS: SMART enrolled 118 participants (118 eyes). At the first visit of SMART, the mean sensitivity in mesopic microperimetry was 11.48 (±5.05; range 0.00-19.88) dB and in sMP 11.25 (±5.26; 0-19.25) dB. For FAF, all eyes had a lesion of decreased autofluorescence (mean lesion size 3.62 [±3.48; 0.10-21.46] mm2), and a total of 76 eyes (65.5%) had a lesion of definitely decreased autofluorescence with a mean lesion size of 3.46 (±3.60; 0.21-21.46) mm2. CONCLUSIONS: Rod function is impaired in STGD1 and can be assessed by sMP. Testing rod function may serve as a potential outcome measure for future clinical treatment trials. This is evaluated in the SMART study.

Glaucoma is a complex neurodegenerative disease with many clinical subtypes. Some of its rare forms include pigmentary glaucoma, uveitic glaucoma and congenital glaucoma. While they all share common features of progressive retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss, optic nerve damage and corresponding visual field loss, the exact mechanisms underlying glaucomatous neuron loss are not clear. This has largely hindered the development of a real cure for this disease. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a known major risk factor of glaucoma; however, progressive degeneration of RGCs and axons can also be found in patients with a normal IOP, i.e., normal tension glaucoma (NTG). Interestingly, patients who carry the gain-of-function mutation of the pro-inflammatory gene TBK1 - tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor associated factor NF-κB activator (TANK) binding kinase 1 - are at increased risk to develop NTG. This finding suggests a causal link between neuroinflammatory processes and glaucoma. Various studies have reported the presence of neuroinflammatory responses by microglia, astrocytes and other blood-born immune cells in the optic nerve head (ONH) at early stages of experimental glaucoma. Inhibition of certain pro-inflammatory pathways, particularly those associated with microglial activation, appears to be neuroprotective. In this review, we will focus on the inflammatory responses, in particular the proposed roles of microglia, in the pathogenesis of glaucoma.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: An altered haemodynamic profile for various ocular posterior segment capillary beds has been documented in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). POAG may also involve abnormal non-ocular blood flow, and the nailfold capillaries, which are not affected by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), are readily assessable. METHODS: We measured resting nailfold capillary blood flow in 67 POAG and 63 control subjects using video capillaroscopy. Masked readers tracked blood column voids between consecutive, registered image sequence frames, measured vessel diameter and calculated blood flow. We used multiple logistic regression to investigate the relation between nailfold capillary blood flow and POAG. In secondary analyses, we stratified cases by maximum IOP and concurrent topical beta-blocker use. RESULTS: Mean (±SD) blood flow in picolitres per second was 26.8±17.6 for POAG cases and 50.1±24.2 for controls (p<0.0001). After adjustment for demographic and clinical factors including blood pressure and pulse, every picolitre per second increase in resting nailfold blood flow was associated with a 6% (95% CI 0.92 to 0.96) reduced odds of POAG (p<0.0001). Similar relations between nailfold capillary blood flow and POAG were found for cases stratified by maximum known IOP and for cases stratified by concurrent topical beta-blocker use. CONCLUSION: Reduced resting nailfold capillary blood flow is present in POAG independent of covariates such as blood pressure, pulse and IOP.

BACKGROUND: Infants born prematurely are at risk of a deficiency in ω-6 and ω-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) arachidonic acid (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). We investigated how fatty acids from breast milk and parenteral lipid emulsions shape serum LC-PUFA profiles in extremely preterm infants during early perinatal life. METHODS: Ninety infants born < 28 weeks gestational age were randomized to receive parenteral lipids with or without the ω-3 LC-PUFAs eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and DHA (SMOFlipid: Fresenius Kabi, Uppsala, Sweden, or Clinoleic: Baxter Medical AB, Kista, Sweden, respectively). The fatty acid composition of infant serum phospholipids was determined from birth to postmenstrual age 40 weeks, and in mother's milk total lipids on postnatal day 7. Enteral and parenteral intake of LC-PUFAs was correlated with levels in infant serum. RESULTS: Infants administered parenteral ω-3 LC-PUFAs received 4.4 and 19.3 times more DHA and EPA, respectively, over the first 2 weeks of life. Parenteral EPA but not DHA correlated with levels in infant serum. We found linear relationships between dietary EPA and DHA and infant serum levels in the Clinoleic (Baxter Medical AB) group. The volume of administered SMOFlipid (Fresenius Kabi) was inversely correlated with serum AA, whereas Clinoleic (Baxter Medical AB) inversely correlated with serum EPA and DHA. CONCLUSIONS: There appears to be no or low correlation between the amount of DHA administered parenterally and levels measured in serum. Whether this observation reflects serum phospholipid fraction only or truly represents the amount of accreted DHA needs to be investigated. None of the parenteral lipid emulsions satisfactorily maintained high levels of both ω-6 and ω-3 LC-PUFAs in infant serum.

AIMS: The aim of our study was to image choroidal lesions with swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) and to identify the morphological characteristics associated with optimal visualisation. METHODS: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study. Patients with choroidal melanocytic lesions <3 mm in thickness on B-scan ultrasonography were recruited. All participants underwent SS-OCT. On SS-OCT we evaluated qualitative (eg, lesion outline, detection of scleral-choroidal interface and quality of the image) and quantitative (measurement of maximum lesion thickness and the largest basal diameter) parameters. Probability of optimal image quality was examined using ordered logistic regression models. The main outcome measure was quality of the choroidal lesion images on SS-OCT, defined as: optimal, suboptimal or poor. RESULTS: We included 85 choroidal lesions of 82 patients. There were 24 choroidal lesions (29%) for which image quality was classified as optimal, 31 lesions (37%) as suboptimal and 30 lesions (36%) as poor. The factors associated with optimal image quality were distance closer to the fovea (OR 0.76, p<0.001), posterior pole location (OR 3.87, p=0.05), lower ultrasonography thickness (OR 0.44, p=0.04), lighter lesion pigmentation (OR 0.12, p=0.003) and smaller lesion diameter (OR 0.73, p<0.001). In the multivariable analysis, closer distance to the fovea (OR 0.81, p=0.005), lighter lesion pigmentation (OR 0.11, p=0.01) and smaller lesion diameter (OR 0.76, p=0.006) remained statistically significant. CONCLUSION: SS-OCT is useful in imaging most choroidal melanocytic lesions. Image quality is best when the choroidal lesion is closer to the fovea, has a smaller diameter and a lighter choroidal pigmentation.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the capacity of spectral domain optical coherence tomography macular findings to predict best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) outcomes after treatment for symptomatic vitreomacular traction. METHODS: This consecutive, retrospective study included 24 patients (29 eyes) who experienced vitreomacular traction release with pneumatic vitreolysis (n = 9), intravitreal ocriplasmin (n = 6), or pars plana vitrectomy (n = 14). Preoperative and postoperative spectral domain optical coherence tomography images were used to determine the cone outer segment tips (COST) line, inner segment/outer segment line, and other frequently used features. Correlations between optical coherence tomography findings and BCVA were determined using regression analyses. RESULTS: Postoperative BCVA was correlated with length of the COST line and inner segment/outer segment line defects at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively (P < 0.05) by simple linear regression analysis. However, multivariable regression analysis showed that only length of the COST line defect was significantly correlated with BCVA preoperatively and postoperatively (P < 0.05). Postoperative BCVA improvement at 12 months was significantly correlated with preoperative length of the COST line defect (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Recovery of the COST line and inner segment/outer segment line defects as observed by spectral domain optical coherence tomography is positively correlated with visual acuity improvement after successful vitreomacular traction treatment. Best-corrected visual acuity improvement may be predicted using the length of the preoperative COST line defect.

PURPOSE: To evaluate microstructural retinal abnormalities on spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) imaging of eyes with Coats disease. METHODS: This is a multicenter, retrospective study in which SD-OCT images of patients with treatment-naive Coats disease were correlated with clinical examination and visual acuity and, when available, followed longitudinally over time. RESULTS: Macular SD-OCT of 27 eyes with Coats disease revealed intraretinal edema (59%), intraretinal exudates (67%), subretinal fluid (37%), subretinal exudate (48%), ellipsoid zone disruption (52%), external limiting membrane disruption (41%), and subfoveal nodule (26%). All these microstructural abnormalities correlated with worse baseline and final visual acuities (P < 0.05) on univariate analysis, except for intraretinal edema which exhibited a nonstatistically significant trend toward worse baseline visual acuity (P = 0.16). Within stage 2b eyes, external limiting membrane disruption and subretinal nodule on SD-OCT were associated with worse baseline visual acuity (P = 0.02 for both), and there was a trend toward worse final visual acuity with external limiting membrane disruption and subretinal nodule (P = 0.17 for both) and worse baseline (P = 0.08) and final (P = 0.13) visual acuities with ellipsoid zone disruption. No microstructural abnormalities were noted on OCT of fellow eyes. CONCLUSION: Spectral domain OCT can identify microstructural abnormalities in Coats disease that are associated on univariate analysis with worse baseline visual acuity and visual prognosis. Further larger studies are necessary.