With the development of ophthalmic optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA), including the improving of light source, resolution, scanning depth and upgrade of analysis softwares, they can more accurately display the structure of retinal layers and give accurate quantitative measurement. In neuro-ophthalmic diseases, the OCT indicators (the thickness of retinal nerve fiber layer around optic disc and plexus layer in macular gangle cells) and OCTA indicators (the blood flow density of capillaries around optic disc, superficial and deep capillaries in macular area, and the area of foveal avascualr zone) had special changes. It has important value in the differential diagnosis of central nervous system diseases and retinal diseases with visual dysfunction as the first symptom, the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of neuro-ophthalmic disease, the evaluation of progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Neuro-ophthamologists should pay more attention to the exploration and application of OCT and OCTA in the field of neuro-ophthalmology.
Infectious and infection-related optic neuritis is an important type of optic neuritis. Infectious optic neuritis is caused by direct spread of pathogenic organism to optic nerve from local infection or blood transmission. Infection-related optic neuritis is caused by pathogens-induced immune allergic reaction. They present with atypical clinical features of optic neuritis, including progressive vision loss, persistent eye pain or headache, ineffectiveness or even worse of glucocorticoid therapy. Fundus manifestations include optic disc swelling with peripapillary hemorrhage or neuro-retinitis, and the feature of concurrent uveitis. When these patients first visit ophthalmic clinics, they often lack signs of systemic infection, thus it is easy to misdiagnose them as other types of optic neuropathy and mistakenly treat them. In particular, high-dose glucocorticoid therapy can lead to very serious consequences. Therefore, how to correctly diagnose infectious and infection-related optic neuritis in the early stages are very important for ophthalmologists and need to be seriously kept in our mind.
The treatment of ocular fundus diseases is of significant issue in the clinic, but there exists large controversy on how to standardize the clinical treatment and how to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment on ocular fundus diseases. Emerging application of evidencebased medicine (EBM) provides us a rigorous and feasible pathway for the clinical treatment of ocular fundus diseases. We can improve the quality of clinical treatment research by exploring high quality randomized control trial (RCT) on the basis of patients with ocular fundus diseases in China; and by making full use of the best clinical evidences at home and abroad according to the EBM methods, which may further improve diagnosis and treatment of common ocular fundus diseases in China.
For the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has developed rapidly and has become frontier and hot topics in medical research. While the deep learning algorithm based on artificial neural networks is one of the most representative tool in this field. The advancement of ophthalmology is inseparable from a variety of imaging methods, and the pronounced convenience and high efficiency endow AI technology with promising applications in screening, diagnosis and follow-up of ophthalmic diseases. At present, related research on ophthalmologic AI technology has been carried out in terms of multiple diseases and multimodality. Many valuable results have been reported aiming at several common diseases of ophthalmology. It should be emphasized that ophthalmic AI products are still faced with some problems towards practical application. The regulatory mechanism and evaluation criteria have not yet integrated as a standardized system. There are still a number of aspects to be optimized before large-scale distribution in clinical utility. Briefly, the innovation of ophthalmologic AI technology is attributed to multidisciplinary cooperation, which is of great significance to China's public health undertakings, and will be bound to benefit patients in future clinical practice.
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.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR), which is a common complication of diabetic and the main cause of blindness, brings not only a heavy economic burden to society, but also seriously threatens to the patients’ quality of life. Clinical researches on the therapies of DR are active at present, but how to perform a good clinical research with scientific design should be considered with high priority. The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is considered to be the gold standard for evidence-based medicine, but RCT is not always perfect. Limitations still exist in certain circumstance and the conclusions from RCTs also need to be interpreted by an objective point of view before clinical practice. Real world study (RWS) bridges the gap between RCT and clinical practice, in which the data can be easily collected without much cost, and results might be obtained within a short period. However, RWS is also faced with the challenge of not having standardized data and being susceptible to confounding bias. The standardized single disease database for DR and propensity score matching method can provide a wide range of data sources and avoid of bias for RWS in DR.
The prevalence of diabetes mellitus in adults of China has reached 12.8%. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) accounts for approximately 1/4-1/3 of the diabetic population. Several millions of people are estimated suffering the advanced stage of DR, including severe non-proliferative DR (NPDR), proliferative DR (PDR) and diabetic macular edema (DME), which seriously threat to the patients’ vision. On the basis of systematic prevention and control of diabetes and its complications, prevention of the moderate and high-risk NPDR from progressing to the advanced stage is the final efforts to avoid diabetic blindness. The implementation of the DR severity scale is helpful to assess the severity, risk factors for its progression, treatment efficacy and prognosis. In the eyes with vision-threatening DR, early application of biotherapy of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor can improve DR with regression of retinal neovascularization, but whether it is possible to induce capillary re-canalization in the non-perfusion area needs more investigation. Laser photocoagulation remains the mainstay treatment for non-center-involved DME and PDR.
Neuromyelitis optica-related optic neuritis (NMO-ON) is a kind of severe optic nerve disease, which always leads to replase, poor prognosis, and even blindness. Aquaporin 4 antibody (AQP4-IgG) is the main diagnostic biomarker for neuromyelitis optica with high specificity. Serum myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody (MOG-IgG) is helpful for the diagnosis of AQP4-IgG negative patients. The study of biomarkers is helpful to deeply understand the pathogenesis of NMO-ON, help the diagnosis of the disease, and finally make precise treatment. Orbital MRI can help to differentiate MOG-IgG positive from AQP4-IgG positive neuromyelitis optica and optic neuritis, which is very important for the diagnosis of NMO-ON. At present, the standardized treatment of NMO-ON can be divided into two clinical stages: acute stage and remission stage. Corticosteroids and plasma exchange are the main treatments in acute stage, aiming at alleviating acute inflammatory reaction and improving prognosis. Immunosuppressive agents and biological agents are the main treatments in remission stage, aiming at preventing or reducing recurrence. With the development of the diagnosis and treatment of NMO-ON, we find that it is more and more important to strengthen the construction of neuro-ophthalmology team in China, establish clinical epidemiological database of NMO-ON, and carry out multi-centre, large-sample, prospective clinical control studies in China to provide evidence-based medicine for Chinese people. In addition, we need to strengthen efforts to establish and improve the diagnostic criteria for NMO-ON and the promotion of diagnostic and therapeutic criteria, and strive to improve the clinical diagnosis and treatment level of NMO-ON in China.
The characteristics of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) include sudden decline of visual acuity, sectorshaped visual field defect connected with the physiological blind spot or hemivisual field defect, and optic disc edema.Early angiographic abnormalities of optic disc and peripapillary choroidal circulation are important cues for the diagnosis. Angiography combined with visual field test can make the diagnosis more accurate. The pathological mechanism and process of NAION and ischemic cardiovascular/cerebrovascular disease are essentially the same. There are several critical issues in this field we need focus on,including strengthening the cooperation with relevant professional disciplines; improving the ocular ischemia through drugs, intervention and other means; preventing more serious cardiovascular events and intervening in a number of highrisk populations to reduce the incidence of AION.
Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) is a refractory glaucoma secondary to retinal ischemic disease. The ischemic retina produces vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and other cytokines, leading to the formation of neovascularization in the iris and the angle. The neovascularization membrane blocks the angle or pulls and closes the angle, resulting in a sharp increase in intraocular pressure. The combination of anti VEGF drugs, panretinal photocoagulation and surgery to lower intraocular pressure can control the intraocular pressure of some patients and even retain some visual function. However, the treatment of NVG is still challenging and requires long-term follow-up. At present, there is no high-level evidence to guide NVG treatment. To carry out randomized controlled clinical trials comparing different treatment options may provide evidence for guiding the treatment of NVG.