This issue of Acta (2003)

This issue of the journal contains many contributions that should be of great interest to our readers. The guest editorial on drusen maculopathy, by Algvere and Seregard, was inspired by the original article by Frenneson, which reports positive results of a prophylatic laser treatment in early age-related maculopathy in a prospective, randomized study. The author states that the results should be interpreted with caution because of the small size of the study. Yet the results are most intriguing and the guest editorial places them in a broader context. Langagergaard and coworkers report that coloured filter lenses may help some patients with age-related macular degeneration. The Bjerrum Lecture is the honorary lecture of the Danish Ophthalmological Society. The most recent lecture ‘The Mystery of Myopia’, by Goldschmidt, is published in the current issue and gives a broad and highly interesting view of current thinking on the aetiology of myopia. The review article this month, by Åsman, deals with the ophthalmological evaluation of patients with thyroid ophthalmopathy. This is a highly practical and up-to-date paper that should be of value to all ophthalmologists involved in the care of thyroid patients. Vigabatrin is an antiepileptic drug with retinotoxic side-effects that result in visual field defects. Recently, much has been published about these adverse effects, in Acta Ophthalmologica and elsewhere. This issue has two articles on vigabatrin. Hardus et al. report results from longterm follow-up in patients treated with this drug. Visual field loss had progressed in some patients who had continued on the drug, but remained stable in those who stopped taking it. There were some – but very small – signs of reversibility of some electrophysiologicalabnormalities. Frisén and Malmgren present intriguing new findings, backed up by fundus photographs. They describe an entirely new entity: vigabatrin-associated optic atrophy. We ophthalmologists now have yet another good reason for sharpening our skills in judging the retinal nerve fibre layer. There are three glaucoma papers in the current issue. Arend and coworkers compare the effects of several modern glaucoma drugs on retinal dynamics and function. Thomas et al. report the 5-year progression rate to primary angle closure in an Indian, population-based cohort of patients with primary angle closure without glaucoma damage. Pablo and coworkers compare contact and peribulbar anaesthesia in trabeculectomy. They conclude that contact anaesthesia has clear advantages. Pollution is a world problem, but few health-related reports deal with eye problems. In an unusual and interesting paper, Saxena et al. report signficant effects of pollution on the ocular surface, including a reduction in break-up time. Tamoxifene and toremifene are important drugs that are widely used in the treatment of patients with advanced stage breast cancer. Earlier studies have suggested that low-dose treatment with tamoxifene may be associated with ocular adverse effects. Parkkari and coworkers investigated this problem in a prospective, randomized study, but observed no serious ocular side-effects over 3.5 years of follow-up. Genetic studies are generating tremendous amounts of new information. Schatz and coworkers describe the phenotype including OCT and ERG in two families with different mutations in RDS (the peripherin/RDS gene). Kessel et al. describe the influence of genetic and environmental factors on corneal fluorescence. Genetic factors were of little or no significance, while age and smoking were more important. In a study from Brazil on patients with cytomegalovirus retinitis, de Lourdes and coworkers present results supporting that the HLA system influences the susceptibility to developing AIDS. In an experimental study using cultured corneal endothelial cells, Motegi and coworkers studied the effects of transforming growth factor-β. A group of cornea specialists discuss the management of a case of unilateral acid burn in the Clinical Questions with Answers section of the journal. There are three case reports in this issue: Tuominen and Tervo describe the calamity of a loss of electrical power to a microkeratome during ongoing LASIK. Asaoka and coworkers describe a case of chronic angle closure glaucoma in conjunction with spherophakia, while Lee et al. describe a patient with the rare tumour trichilemmal carcinoma. And, as always, there are many interesting letters to the editor in the current issue.