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Diabetes and diabetic retinopathy: Changes in understanding of the disease over the last 25 years and how the UK is helping low-income countries tackle the challenges

Diabetes – a historical perspective Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease caused by inherited and / or acquired deficiency in production of insulin by the pancreas, or by the ineffectiveness of the insulin produced. Such a deficiency results in...

Optimising the ocular surface by managing meibomian gland dysfunction

Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is ubiquitous. Ocular surface inflammation and irritation are prevalent in most ophthalmology clinics: corneal, cataract, glaucoma, oculoplastic, paediatric, vitreo-retinal, medical retina and refractive surgery. These patients also represent roughly one third of those attending for emergency...

Educational concerns and anxiety levels amongst ophthalmology trainees during the COVID-19 pandemic

How concerned are ophthalmology trainees about the present impact and the future consequences of suspended ophthalmic training programmes? Researchers in the West of Scotland investigate. Anxiety, stress and the longer-term stress reaction of burnout often go unrecognised, yet are known...

Advances in the understanding, diagnostic and treatment of keratoconus

*Joint first authors Keratoconus is a bilateral and asymmetric eye condition in which the cornea’s structure is affected and thinned, causing a cone-shaped bulge to develop. This results in progressive loss of vision and impairs the ability of the eye...

An update on inherited retinal disorders (part 2): Approaches to therapy for IRDs

Part 1 of this topic can be found here There are currently no proven cures for inherited retinal disease (IRD). However, multiple avenues of research are being investigated to better understand disease mechanisms and trial potential therapies that may slow...

The bionic eye – behind the headlines

Multiple visual prosthetic projects and other vision regeneration initiatives being tested in preclinical and clinical development worldwide illustrate continuing progress and opportunities in addressing profound blindness from hereditary retinal diseases and other causes (Table 1). Three implantable bionic vision systems...

Broadening of treatment options for potentially blinding retinal conditions

Rod McNeil provides an update on a promising bispecific antibody recently approved for treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and diabetic macular oedema (DMO) and considers emerging developments in biosimilars to established anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapies, including...

Sustainable prevention of blindness from diabetic retinopathy through prevention and control of diabetes mellitus – LINK partnership experience in Dominica

The Caribbean Diabetic Retinopathy Project (DR Caribbean) is a five-year project that aims to reduce blindness due to diabetic retinopathy (DR) across four Commonwealth countries: Belize, Dominica, Jamaica and St Lucia. The VISION 2020 LINKS Programme at the London School...

The Diabetic Eye Screening Programme in Tanzania - The VISION 2020 LINK between Dodoma and Belfast

Rahila Bashir, Senior Remote Ophthalmic Research Image Grader, talks to Frank Sandi, Ophthalmologist at the Benjamin Mkapa Hospital (BMH), University of Dodoma in Tanzania and to Tunde Peto at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust...