EaseVision.com – News and gossips of vision care and optical industry

On Jan 13, 2011, FTC (Specifically Office of Policy Planning, Bureau of Economics, Bureau of Competition) wrote a 17-page reply-letter to Ms. Sue M. Kornegay of NC State Board of Opticians who wrote earlier to FTC officials proposing to redefine the meaning of “Prescription” for eyeglasses, contact lenses, so that the “measurements taken by opticians are not considered part of the patients’ prescription, and are not required to be released as part of a RX. In Ms. Sue’s letter, she proposed to impose certain requirements solely on electronic optical business, including internet sites, but not “B&M” vendors, and impose certain new requirements on out-of-state vendors, including Internet sites.

FTC’s reply said that the existing federal and state regulations already provide extensive protections for the health and safety of contact lens and eyeglass wearers. Rather, the NC’s provision will likely impose higher costs on vendors of prescription eyewear, which may raise prices to NC consumers of optical goods.

FTC thinks the NC proposal will hamper affordable access to optical goods which is more strictly than patient protection requires. The federal laws of the Eyeglass Rule and Contact Lenses Rule may preempt any state and local laws restricting patients’ ability to obtain their contact lens and eyeglasses prescription, so that they can comparison shop for the deals that best suit their preferences.

FTC further emphasizes that competition is the core of America’s economy, and vigorous competition among sellers in an open marketplace gives consumers the benefits of lower prices, higher quality, more choices and greater innovation. Because of the importance of health care competition to the economy and consumer welfare, anticompetitive conduct in health care markets has long been a key target of FTC law enforcement, research and adovacy.

FTC pointed out that particularly about the Eyeglass Rule. Before 1978, many prescribers( ECPs) either refused to release RX to their customers or charge an additional fee to do so. Prices for glasses varied widely as much as 300%. To address the problem, the Eyeglass Rule requires optometrists and ophthalmologists to provide their patients immediately after completion of eye exam, a free copy of RX.

Now in the minds of some conservative ECPs, PD is the number that is NOT required to be released to patients. Here is the FTC’s definition of “Prescription” by Eyeglass Rule, which defines “PRESCRIPTION” to mean the “Written specifications for lenses for eyeglasses which are derived from an eye examination, including ALL THE INFORMATION specified by state law, in any, NECESSARY TO OBTAIN LENSES FOR EYEGLASSES”. Before Internet optical sites arise, NO PD in RX is not a problem, and opticians can capture this number easily in the store. In the Internet era, the ALL THE NECESSARY info then automatically should INCLUDE the PD which is hotly discussed among ECPs recently. Eyeglass Rule as the only law in the industry of retail RX eyewear, it applies to all likely situations.

To address the safety concerns as pointed our in Ms. Sue’s letter to FTC, that online optical goods may cause harm to public’s eyecare health, FTC for this point  replied that they are following up the cases of online purchase of eyewear and contacts, and so far there is no documentation showing that contacts and eyeglasses bought online are imposing harms to the consumers.

Bausch & Lomb is recalling a number of lots of its ReNu Multi-Purpose Solution and ReNu MultiPlus MPS in Europe and other countries.

B+L explained that the recall does not necessarily mean safety and efficacy problems. After routine test by the company, it is found the recalled batches are safe and effective if used as instucted, but it does not meet the expectations of quality control process of B+L. This shows B+L is a responsible company.

Though there were no reports about the adverse effects from above recalled solutions, the stability monitor programme aims to eliminate any possible problems that may occur months later.

B+L also stated that they are going to withdraw a single batch of (AA120) of 120ml ReNu MultiPlus MPS in Croatia, Dubai, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. This only represents 0.1% of the batch. B+L has informed the eyeglasses retailers and eye care providers the specific steps to return these batches.

In the history,  B+L recalled ReNu MoistureLoc in May 2006. The reason for the recall was its formulation. It was found that its formation, if combined with certain use patterns, will likely to cause an increased risk of eye disease of fusarium keratitis.

Improving eyesight is possible at any age. Many people think that once your vision decreased you are unable to reverse it. This could not be further from the truth. You would not be able to see the beauty of a sunset in the evening, a rose with the dew drops on it in the morning or the faces and expressions of those you love the most. In spite of their tremendous worth, most people take their eyes for granted.

Dr. Bates theorized that most impairments to good vision are caused by strain on the eyes. His treatment model helps patients relax that strain, lessening distortions of the eye and lens. This leads to improved vision and prevent further deterioration. If one treatment does not work then try to move quickly on to something else. This will increase your chances of success. Do not give up until you find a treatment that works for you.

If you smoke, stop. That is one of the simplest things you can do. Smokers have a higher risk of glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and dry eye disease. The risk of smokers going blind is four times greater than for people who don’t smoke. Another major technique among Bates exercises is called palming. With palming, the patient closes their eyes and relaxes their eyelids. They gently cover their eyes with their hands to block out all light. No pressure is applied with the hands to the eyes, as this would be directly counterproductive.

Some doctors recommend patching for children. This involves wearing a patch over one eye to help build strength in the opposite eye. This is a successful treatment that has helped millions of children improve their vision. Improve Your Eyesight with eat a bowl of blueberries with yogurt for breakfast and drink goji berry juice throughout the day. The blueberries and the juice are high in antioxidants which prevent free radicals from damaging the cells and causing disease.

Modern medical science has developed a number of drug therapies and surgeries designed to improve vision. Many people take advantage of these options. However, just as many people would prefer to avoid the risks, side effects, and complications of invasive drug therapy and surgery. The Bates method offers an all natural alternative that works with simple exercises and little to no risk of side effects.

According to research presented at the American Academy of Optometry, contact lenses prescribed for longer replacement intervals can lead to more extreme over-wear, causing undesirable clinical effects. An article from opticianonline revealed some of the concerning figures about this situation. According to results of the research, more than half of wearers of frequent replacement contact lenses did not comply with their prescribed replacement schedule.

Participants in the survey contained two groups: one of them wore two-week contact lenses and the other group wore monthly lenses. Their responses were both disappointing. The research conducted an online sponsor-masked survey which took a random sample of 645 frequent replacement contact lens wearers. The results were quite bad and similar.

In the group containing two-week lens wearers, only 43% of them replaced their lenses as prescribed. There were 65% of them replaced lenses every three weeks, 85% at eight weeks or more and 2% at ten weeks or more. When researchers came to assess the group who wore monthly lenses, only 36% of them maintained lens replacement as required. About 55% only replaced their lenses at five weeks, 23% at eight weeks or more and 14% at 10 weeks or more.

Among all of these unexpected numbers, the most surprising one was the percentage of patients who extended lens replacement to eight weeks or more. Such an interval was significantly longer than a normal requirement. This result considerably surprised the study author Sheila Hickson-Curran who was also director of medical affairs at Vistakon.

The survey of the research is just an example of the popular practice among contact lens wearers. Most wearers will ask their doctors to extend the Rx “this one time” but will not schedule an appointment when they run out of their lenses. Encountering such kind of patients, eye doctors would wish them go to a retail chain for Rx and materials instead.

The condition in Safilo is still deteriorating. According to reports by Reuters, the Italian eyewear maker Safilo is making further loss. In October and the beginning of November, Safilo has seen an extremely cautious order intake. Its high-end products were suffering the most. What’s more serious, Safilo suffered a net loss of 50.1 million euros in the third quarter, compared to 6.7 million euros during the same quarter of 2008. In particular, ordinary activities made 22.1 million euros of loss. 

At the end of September, the net debt of Safilo reached 586.3 million euros. Due to the disappointing performance, Safilo warned on this Wednesday that it could default on its debts by the year-end. This is quite a bad news for share holders and creditors of Safilo. In October, Safilo was excited to receive cash tender from several companies. Hal Holding is the first launcher, followed by sunglass makers including Gucci and Dior. However, Chief Executive Robert Vedovotto warned that the recapitalization plan might fail. He insisted that the conditions for cash tender offer would not change. Only tender offer would be acceptable. 

The fact is that until now, Hal Holding does not own any of the Safilo Notes itself. According to the earlier plan, Netherlands-based Hal will buy high-yield notes of 195 million euros at the price that is only 60% of their nominal value. In addition, Hal has also planned to restructure Safilo’s senior debt facilities. If this plan is going to be finished, the share of Hal will reach 49.99 percent, significantly higher than the current share of only 2%.

 Due to the widening net loss in the third quarter, only 1.03% has been tendered. And tender offer committed by Gucci and Dior is conditional, based on the successful completion of a cash tender offer made by Hal Holding. Under the current situation, the recapitalization plan might not take place in all likelihood.

Temporary burry vision has been reported on patients taking Viagra and similar drugs for erectile dysfunction (ED). In addition, some people also suggest other visual complications if these drugs are taken for a long term. On the other hand, a new study argues that these medications will never cause permanent eyesight impairment. 

In general, there are two types of medicines that are commonly used to inhibit selective phodiesterase type 5 (PDE5). Chemical sildenafil citrate is sold as Viagra and tadalafil as Cialis. By interfering with the action of PDE5 on the blood vessel in the penis, these medicines can effectively treat ED. Unfortunately, these drugs at the same time are suspected to affect the similar compounds in the retina of the eye. 

This suspicion leads to the randomized placebo-controlled study conducted by William H. Cordell of the Lilly Research Lab and his colleagues. Recruiting totally 224 healthy male participants, the study was carried out in order to assess the change in retina among men taking Viagra or Cialis. 85 of the subjects were randomly assigned to take 5mg of tadalafil every day for six months, and another group of 77 men was asked to take 50mg of sildenafil on a daily basis for a same period. In similar, 82 individuals took a placebo. In order to figure out potential changes in their retinas, researchers performed comprehensive ophthalmic tests on these subjects, before, during and after treatment. 

Nine men discontinued the study due to an adverse event, including two in the placebo group, one in the tadalafil group and six in the sildenafil group. In final, 194 participants finished the study. Researchers conducted eletroretinography, visual function tests and measurements of intraocular pressure on these individuals who completed the study. The result showed that there were no significant differences between treatment and placebo groups. In addition, researchers found no abnormalities suggesting drug toxicity.

The eyes are one of the most precious organs of the body. Eyesight as the most crucial sensation of the human body wholly relies on health eyes. In addition to this significant contribution, the eyes can also be an indicator of healthy problems. Or you can say there are some ocular manifestations of systemic diseases. Researchers have shown that some signs of other diseases of the body are usually first visible in, on or around the eyes. According to Andrew Iwach, MD who is the executive director of the Glaucoma Center of San Francisco, “the eyes truly are unique real estate.” 

Cataracts and glaucoma as eye disorders have early signs for sure. What’s worth mentioning, ocular manifestations are possibly associated with various systemic diseases, including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, aneurysms, HIV, cancer, and rare hereditary and so forth. Actually, the eyes are the only place that shows a bare nerve, a bare artery and a bare vein without doing any cutting. 

There are some common ocular manifestations of signs that may be indicating certain health problems of the body. The first one is bloody eye, which results from the damage in the conjunctiva. Possible reasons of a subconjunctival hemorrhage include high blood pressure and a platelet. 

Bulging eyes can be a family trait, but this condition may also signify thyroid disease. This disease causes abnormal levels of thyroid hormone, which in turn force eye tissues to swell. With a formal name of ptosis, droopy eyelid is mostly a sign of natural aging. However, potential causes in rare cases can be a brain tumor or a neuromuscular disease called myasthenia gravis. 

Pupil abnormalities may indicate an underlying medical problem. In normal cases, the pupils are symmetrical and they show the same reaction upon exposure to light. Pupils with different sizes or unequal degrees of shrinkage are possibly caused by stoke, brain or optic nerve tumor, brain aneurysm, syphilis and multiple sclerosis. 

Other forms of ocular manifestation include rings on the cornea, thickened eyelid and yellow eyes. Some of the ocular “signs” need the help from an eye doctor. They include arterial plaques, optic nerve abnormalities and retinal defects.

Reported on October 25, an online article in The Lancet revealed some important findings about gene therapy. Researchers from the School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, and the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have successfully improved vision in 12 subjects using gene therapy. Including 5 children and 7 adults, all of the twelve subjects were bothered by Leber’s congenital amaurosis (LCA), which is a group of inherited blinding diseases that damage light receptors in the retina. 

LCA is incurable by any treatments until now. The result was quite significant for the entire filed of gene therapy, according to co-first author of the study. Participants of the study were legally blind and may be forced to be totally sightless. One of the children could not see the blackboard normally. He had to rely on the large print on an electronic screen and get assistance from the teacher. Researchers injected genes that produce light-sensitive pigments into the back of his eyes. The boy restored his ability to do normal tasks in the classroom and play certain games with his classmates. 

With the help from gene injection, half of the 12 subjects improved their vision enough and they are not legally blind now. Aging from 8 to 11, the five children can now navigate a low-light obstacle course, which is spectacular to the researchers. After the treatment, these children can navigate the course more quickly with fewer errors than before. However, adults performed generally more modestly on the mobility course than children. 

Researchers such as Maguire and Bennett have long been researching on inherited retinal degeneration. This time, those researchers focused on Leber’s congenital amaurosis, which can cause total blindness in one’s twenties or thirties. They used a genetically engineered adeno-associated virus to carry a normal version of the gene named PRE65. This gene is mutated in one form of LCA. And Jeannette cloned the gene in Bennett’s lab.

A long-term visual study conducted by researchers at the Institute of Child Health, University College London has reveals some significant results. Recruiting 9,330 participants, the study has taken use of their health data gathered in clinical exams from birth to middle age. This is one of the largest studies that evaluate potential relationship between visual disability and social and occupational success. 

All participants of the study were 44 or 45 years old. Everyone was born in Britain within a single week in 1958. This cohort was intentionally chosen by researchers. During the study, these participants wear asked to receive eye tests of near, distance and stereo visual acuity. Results showed that 1.3% of them had socially significant visual impairment. Bothered by visual defects, this group of individuals could not pass a driving test. And 0.9% of participants were suffering severe visual impairment or blindness. 

The study has kept all healthy data of the large number of participants, from their birth to middle age. It is possible to analyze other factors in their lives associated with vision problems. In general, the study points out that many factors can contribute to impaired vision, including unemployment, low socioeconomic status and general and mental health problems. In addition, there are other potential causes of poor vision, such as low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, maternal smoking during pregnancy and socioeconomic deprivation in early childhood. 

It is well-known that certain health conditions such as hypertension in adults are often associated with key prenatal and childhood factors. But another important finding of this study is that these early factors can also affect visual function in adults. According to the lead researcher on the study Jugnoo S. Rahi, PhD, further life-span researches are needed in order figure out the causes of some complex eye diseases. In some cases, eye diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration are closely related to other health problems of the body.

Exposure to combat explosions is quite harmful to eyesight, which has been testified by a study by Veterans Administration. At the joint meeting of the AAO and PAAO, the study revealed that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ quality of life are much poorer than comparable civilian patients because of traumatic brain injury. Another part of the study involved with the ways to care for patients suffering from vivid visual hallucinations caused by Charles Bonnet syndrome. 

In general, traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be caused by exposure to combat explosions, so that soldiers are quite susceptible to TBI. Some researchers at the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Department of Ophthalmology under Stanford University assessed visual function and occult eye injuries in 42 veterans. Two standard quality of life tests are used to evaluate these veterans with blast-related TBI, including the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25) and Neuro-Ophthalmic supplement (NOS). 

According to results of the tests, VFQ-25 scores gained by veterans were much lower than reference patients with other diseases, such as glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. Scores of veterans on the NOS were similar to that of VFQ-25. According to the researchers, VFQ-25 and NOS tests were sensitive to vision loss in patients with blast-related TBI. The eyes and related tissues are quite vulnerable to blast forces without proper protection during explosions. 

In addition, the study also pointed out that vivid visual hallucination can happen to about 20% patients with neuro-ophthalmic vision loss. As a main symptom of Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS), visual hallucination is often neglected by the patients deliberately. These patients are afraid of being considered as mentally incompetent once physicians or family members know their neuro-ophthalmic vision loss. 

There are many special experiences in CBS patients. They may see wild animals in their closets, familiar or unfamiliar people sitting on their couches, or incongruous but realistic images and so on. CBS patients often lose the ability to differentiate hallucination from reality. Age related macular degeneration is the most common cause of vision loss in the old and CBS always accompanies AMD. But CBS is not confined to AMD patients.