The therapeutic effect of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) was determined by a number of factors. Comprehensive thorough analysis of clinical features, imaging results and treatment response can predict the potential efficacy and possible vision recovery for the patient, and also can optimize the treatment regime to make a personalized therapy plan. Precise medicine with data from genomics, proteomics and metabolomics study will provide more objective and accurate biology basis for individual precise treatment. The future research should focus on comprehensive assessment of factors affecting the efficacy of anti-VEGF therapy, to achieve individualized precise diagnosis and treatment, to improve the therapeutic outcome of nAMD.
Uveitis is a group of inflammatory diseases affecting the uveal tract, retina, retinal blood vessels and vitreous. Due to its complex etiology, various entities, diverse and lack of constancy in treatment, some patients can experience visual impairment and even loss. In view of the fact that blindness caused by uveitis is mostly incurable and occurs usually in young and middle-aged people, it accounts for an important part of blinding eye diseases and has attracted worldwide attention. With the continuous development of precision medicine, clinicians will face new problems and challenges in disease diagnosis, and further in-depth research is needed to explore more optimized and efficient diagnostic processes and examinations to improve the diagnosis of uveitis in China.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading causes of blindness in workingaged people, of which diabetic macular edema (DME) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) are the two main causes of visionthreatening. Through the regular screening of patients with diabetes, the risk factors of DR can be identified and proper interventions can prevent the incidence of DR. Timely retinal laser photocoagulation and application of the reninangiotensin system inhibitors (candesartan or fibrates), lipidlowering drug fenofibrate can inhibit DR progress. Macula local and (or) grid pattern photocoagulation or in combination with bevacizumab intravitreal injection can effectively relief DME. In regard to late PDR, vitrectomy could restore or retain useful vision, importantly, minimally invasive 23G vitrectomy and preoperative bevacizumab intravitreal injection greatly improved the surgical outcomes. However DR pathogenesis is not entirely clear. Also there is a lack of effective and feasible DR screening strategy in China. Furthermore existing evidencebased data of medical and surgical treatment of DR is insufficient. Therefore, the DR prevention and treatment is still a long way to go in China.
Emergency treatment of ocular trauma is a systematic and complicated work. Rapid and correct diagnosis and treatment are needed to maximize the recovery of ocular structure and function. In recent years, China has made remarkable progress in the emergency treatment of ocular trauma, including the development of Expert consensus on the norms of emergency treatment of ocular trauma in China (2019), the establishment of a national ocular trauma database, and the development of VisionGo Artificial Intelligence prediction system for ocular trauma. These measures improve the treatment level of ocular trauma and provide support for the prediction of postoperative visual acuity in severe traumatic eyes. However, with the development of economy and society, the characteristics of ocular trauma in our country have changed. For example, the majority of hospitalized patients were open ocular injuries, farmers and workers were the main occupational groups, and the proportion of eye injuries caused by traffic injuries increased year by year, and the proportion of women and minors increased. Although the annual loss of life of ocular trauma disability in China has decreased faster than the world average, the emergency treatment of ocular trauma still faces many challenges, such as regional differences, insufficient primary medical resources, lack of standardized training, and insufficient promotion of emergency treatment standards. In order to cope with these challenges, it is necessary to further strengthen the popularization of science and technology for the prevention and treatment of ocular trauma, standardize the emergency treatment process, strengthen the training of grass-roots medical personnel, strengthen the safety of emergency surgery, and pay special attention to the particularity of children's ocular trauma. In addition, relevant research has been actively carried out to establish a complete database of emergency patients with ocular trauma to promote the accurate prevention and treatment of ocular trauma.
Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) relies primarily on the presence of accumulated lipofuscin in the retinal pigment epithelium (PRE) cells. It has emerged as a valuable tool to detect and evaluate the viability and structural changes of the RPE in live. As a noninvasive, repeatable, simple and efficient means of detection, FAF imaging can provide information of RPE structure and function to assistant the diagnosis of many retinal diseases with other conventional fundus imaging technologies. With quantitative analysis and complementary analysis with other fundus imaging technologies, the FAF features of different retinal diseases will be further understood. This knowledge will not only extend the reasonable and unique clinical applications of FAF, but also will contribute to the understanding the pathogenesis and improving the treatment of many retinal diseases.
Ciliary body tumor is a rare intraocular tumor. Due to its unique anatomical location, its correct diagnosis and reasonable treatment are very difficult problems. In terms of diagnosis and differential diagnosis, ophthalmologists need to fully utilize the role of slit lamp microscope and transillumination experiment to capture secondary changes in the anterior segment caused by hidden ciliary body tumors, such as monocular localized cataract, lens indentation, and pigment dissemination, etc. Ophthalmological imaging methods, especially ultrasound biomicroscopy, can achieve the purpose of early detection and early diagnosis. According to the size, location and morphological characteristics of the tumor, a reasonable treatment plan is formulated. Since ciliary body tumors are mostly benign, the recurrence rate of local resection is low, which can satisfy the pathological diagnosis and preserve part of the patient's vision. Therefore, eye-preserving treatment should be advocated. However, enucleation remains the treatment of choice for tumors that are too large to be treated with local excision or radiation, eyes with refractory glaucoma, and tumors that do not respond to radiation therapy.
Photodynamic therapy is the first treatment confirmed to be effective in the treatment of exudative age-related macular degeneration in 2000, which had been introduced to China in the same year. The pathological new vessels were destructed by the singlet oxygen and oxygen free radical released by activated photosensitizer. In the next 12 years, it has been widely applied for the treatment of subfoveal and parafoveal choroidal neovascularization caused by all kinds of chorioretinal diseases. More than a treatment, it also help us to explore the pathogenesis of fundus disease, the capability to embolize the capillaries within the treating area let us not only understand the mechanism of central serous chorioretinopathy and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy, but also make it a effective cure for them. However, there are still a lot of unsolved questions such as the mechanism of photodynamic therapy, the relationship with human genomic difference, and even the development of angiogenesis. Besides with the more novel medications and strategies available, we also face the appropriate application for indications, selection of combined therapy and optimization of treatment regimens. Further investigations about the photodynamic therapy and disease and their relations from both basic and clinical study will guide us the treatment in clinic and also reveal the truth of related fundus diseases deep under the surface.
With high morbidity, branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) is a common retinal vascular disease in the clinic. Although the classic characteristics of BRVO have been recognized for a long time, the traditional understanding of BRVO has been challenged along with development and application of new imaging technologies, including the reasonable classification and staging of the disease, and the vascular characteristics at the occlusive site via multimodal imaging, etc. Thus, re-summarizing and refining these features as well as further improving and optimizing traditional imaging evaluation, can not only deepen the correct acknowledge of the entity, but also find biomarkers of prognosis of visual function, which is helpful to establish better diagnosis and treatment strategy. In the meanwhile, it is necessary that clinical characteristics of BRVO on imaging and the reliability of these imaging techniques are worth correct understanding and objective assessment.
Diabetic macular edema (DME) is one of the common causes of visual impairment. Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has become the preferred therapy for DME because of significant visual improvement. Early and intensive anti-VEGF therapy combined with other individualized treatments are currently the main strategy for DME treatment. Considering the complexity of DME and limitations of anti-VEGF therapy, there are still many problems and difficulties in the treatment of DME. Optimizing treatment strategies, strengthening management of the clinical course and developing new drugs, could improve the efficacy and maintain the improvement of visual acuity and visual performance.
Most fundus diseases leading to irreversible blindness are associated with genetic variations. Some sequence changes directly cause retinal diseases while others lead to a higher susceptibility to environmental insults common in daily life. Studies of genes related to fundus diseases will lead to a revolutionary change in the prevention and treatment of irreversible blindness. Application of high throughput nextgeneration sequencing and exome capture techniques will greatly enhance our ability to elucidate genes responsible for fundus diseases. With such technical and analytical advances, we are likely to see continuing and accelerating progress in the genetic study of fundus diseases, particularly in those fields requiring collaborative study of common fundus diseases using large cohorts of samples. The translational clinical application of understanding about these newly identified genes responsible for fundus diseases is also increasing in promise. Thus, strengthening current genetic studies of fundus diseases in both of these areas will make a valuable contribution to the prevention and treatment of blindness in both the near and especially the distant future.