Circadian and Visual Neuroscience, Volume 273 in the Methods in Enzymology series, highlights new advances in the field with this new volume presenting interesting chapters on topics including Optical set-ups, Psychophysics of Luminance and Color Vision, Psychophysics of non-visual photoreception PRC/IRC/DRC/Spectral Sensitivity, Circadian and visual photometry, Modelling (retina), Modelling (circadian), Techniques for examining vision at the cellular level, Advanced techniques for characterizing the world hyperspectrally, Circadian physiology in mice: Melanopsin, Circadian physiology in mice: Color and cones, Translational aspects of animal studies, Retinal clocks, Primate non-visual physiology, Light and mood in animal models, and much more. - Provides the authority and expertise of leading contributors from an international board of authors - Presents the latest release in Progress in Brain Research series - Updated release includes the latest information on Circadian and Visual Neuroscience
The editor of this volume, having research interests in the field of ROS production and the damage to cellular systems, has identified a number of enzymes showing ·OH scavenging activities details of which are anticipated to be published in the near future as confirmatory experiments are awaited. It is hoped that the information presented in this book on NDs will stimulate both expert and novice researchers in the field with excellent overviews of the current status of research and pointers to future research goals. Clinicians, nurses as well as families and caregivers should also benefit from the material presented in handling and treating their specialised cases. Also the insights gained should be valuable for further understanding of the diseases at molecular levels and should lead to development of new biomarkers, novel diagnostic tools and more effective therapeutic drugs to treat the clinical problems raised by these devastating diseases.
Showcases exudative and nonexudative AMD treatment techniques using argon and diode lasers, submacular and macular translocation surgery, photodynamic therapy, radiation, feeder vessel treatment, thermotherapy, and antiangiogenesis drugs. Includes 160 color illustrations. Showcases exudative and nonexudative AMD treatment techniques using ar
This well-structured and lavishly illustrated book is a comprehensive reference on intraocular inflammation that encompasses all anatomic forms, settings and etiologies. Individual sections are devoted to uveitis associated with systemic disorders, uveitis syndromes restricted to the eye, bacterial uveitis, viral uveitis, fungal uveitis, parasitic uveitis, uveitis caused by other microbes, traumatic uveitis, and masquerade syndromes. Chapters on the different forms of uveitis are in a homogeneous reader-friendly format, with identification of core messages, explanation of etiology and pathogenesis, up-to-date information on diagnostics and differential diagnosis and guidance on the most appropriate forms of treatment and prognosis. Helpful flow charts are included to assist in identification of potential underlying disorders and the reader will also have online access to one hundred informative case reports demonstrating the different courses of intraocular inflammation. The authors are world experts keen to share their vast experience with the reader. Intraocular Inflammation will be a valuable resource for all physicians who deal with patients with inflammatory eye disease.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) commissioned the RTI International–University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (RTI-UNC) Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) to explore how systematic review groups have dealt with clinical heterogeneity and to seek out best practices for addressing clinical heterogeneity in systematic reviews (SRs) and comparative effectiveness reviews (CERs). Such best practices, to the extent they exist, may enable AHRQ's EPCs to address critiques from patients, clinicians, policymakers, and other proponents of health care about the extent to which “average” estimates of the benefits and harms of health care interventions apply to individual patients or to small groups of patients sharing similar characteristics. Such users of reviews often assert that EPC reviews typically focus on broad populations and, as a result, often lack information relevant to patient subgroups that are of particular concern to them. More important, even when EPCs evaluate literature on homogeneous groups, there may be varying individual treatment for no apparent reason, indicating that average treatment effect does not point to the best treatment for any given individual. Thus, the health care community is looking for better ways to develop information that may foster better medical care at a “personal” or “individual” level. To address our charge for this methods project, the EPC set out to answer six key questions (KQ). Key questions for methods report on clinical heterogeneity include: 1. What is clinical heterogeneity? a. How has it been defined by various groups? b. How is it distinct from statistical heterogeneity? c. How does it fit with other issues that have been addressed by the AHRQ Methods Manual for CERs? 2. How have systematic reviews dealt with clinical heterogeneity in the key questions? a. What questions have been asked? b. How have they pre-identified population subgroups with common clinical characteristics that modify their intervention-outcome association? c. What are best practices in key questions and how these subgroups have been identified? 3. How have systematic reviews dealt with clinical heterogeneity in the review process? a. What do guidance documents of various systematic review groups recommend? b. How have EPCs handled clinical heterogeneity in their reviews? c. What are best practices in searching for and interpreting results for particular subgroups with common clinical characteristics that may modify their intervention-outcome association? 4. What are critiques in how systematic reviews handle clinical heterogeneity? a. What are critiques from specific reviews (peer and public) on how EPCs handled clinical heterogeneity? b. What general critiques (in the literature) have been made against how systematic reviews handle clinical heterogeneity? 5. What evidence is there to support how to best address clinical heterogeneity in a systematic review? 6. What questions should an EPC work group on clinical heterogeneity address? Heterogeneity (of any type) in EPC reviews is important because its appearance suggests that included studies differed on one or more dimensions such as patient demographics, study designs, coexisting conditions, or other factors. EPCs then need to clarify for clinical and other audiences, collectively referred to as stakeholders, what are the potential causes of the heterogeneity in their results. This will allow the stakeholders to understand whether and to what degree they can apply this information to their own patients or constituents. Of greatest importance for this project was clinical heterogeneity, which we define as the variation in study population characteristics, coexisting conditions, cointerventions, and outcomes evaluated across studies included in an SR or CER that may influence or modify the magnitude of the intervention measure of effect (e.g., odds ratio, risk ratio, risk difference).
Rapid or even dramatic progress has been made in the field of AMD over recent years, leading to a constant revision of basic concepts. A wide range of fundus imaging modalities are now available, and this book explains the respective value of each technique. The information provided by OCT is presented logically by comparison with plain films, autofluorescence, fluorescein angiography, or indocyanine green angiography. Meticulous biomicroscopic examination of macular changes and the essential value of fluorescein angiography for the detection of anatomical alterations of the macula and for precise evaluation of lesions and their course by indocyanine green angiography have naturally led the author Gabriel Coscas to analyze the new data provided by OCT.
This is a concise how-to of successfully treating previously deemed "untreatable" retinal and optic nerve conditions with stem cell therapies. Based on the results of 11 years of experience treating approximately 600 patients, this text will serve as a template for others to develop similar stem cell based treatments in their specialty. Author, Jeffrey N. Weiss, MD is specifically poised to offer dependable insight on stem cell surgery for both the retina and the optic nerve, having performed the first retinal stem cell surgery in 2010, with Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved studies that are registered with the National Institute of Health (NIH), and listed on ClinicalTrials.gov. Featuring all original work from Dr. Jeffrey Weiss's specialization in stem cell ophthalmology, this book is primarily written for ophthalmologists, but structured so that specialists across disciplines can take the model presented and create their own studies and clinical trials using stem cell therapies.
Measuring Functioning and Well-Being is a comprehensive account a broad range of self-reported functioning and well-being measures developed for the Medical Outcomes Study, a large-sale study of how patients fare with health care in the United States. This book provides a set of ready-to-use generic measures that are applicable to all adults, including those well and chronically ill, as well as a methodological guide to collecting health data and constructing health measures. As demand increases for more practical methods to monitor the outcomes of health care, this volume offers a timely and valuable contribution to the field. The contributors address conceptual and methodological issues involved in measuring such important health status concepts as: physical, social, and role functioning; psychological distress and well-being; general health perceptions; energy and fatigue; sleep; and pain. The authors present psychometric results and explain how to administer, score, and interpret the measures. Comprising the work of a number of highly respected scholars in the field of health assessment, Measuring Functioning and Well-Being will be of great interest and value to the growing number of researchers, policymakers, and clinicians concerned with the management and evaluation of health care.
