Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, is a center for ophthalmic care, research, and education. Faculty and staff treat patients from around the world in facilities in Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, and Collier County. The Institute's full-time faculty and researchers encompass many ophthalmic sub-specialties and has been consistently ranked as the #1 eye hospital and vision research center in the country by US News & World Report.The Institute's clinical faculty treats more than 250,000 patients each year, provides 24-hour emergency care, and is the only community-based ophthalmic care for indigent and low-income patients of Miami-Dade County.
To describe the clinical indications for tube revision with a Tube Extender and to characterize the eyes in which they were used. Single-center retrospective cohort of eyes undergoing Tube Extender implantation (2015–2023). Clinical data were collected from medical records, and Fisher’s exact test assessed associations between glaucoma type and revision indication. Twenty-two eyes from 22 patients were included. The mean age at tube revision was 53 years, and 68
Purpose:To quantify nonperfusion areas (NPA) and intraretinal microvascular abnormalities (IRMAs) and evaluate their diagnostic performance in diabetic retinopathy (DR) using ultrawide-field (UWF) swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA). Methods:In this cross-sectional study, nonperfusion index (NPI) and IRMA counts were analyzed on single-capture 29 × 24 mm optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images. Regional analyses across the central zone (CZ), intermediate zone (IZ), and outer zone (OZ) were performed. Area under the receiver operating characteristic analysis evaluated the ability of regional and total metrics to discriminate DR severities. Results:A total of 165 eyes from 120 patients (73 male; mean age, 57.0 ± 11.1 years) across DR severities were included. Total NPI and IRMA counts increased with advancing DR severity (P < 0.001). NPI increased significantly from CZ to IZ across all DR stages (P < 0.001), with further extension into OZ in proliferative DR (PDR) (P < 0.001). IRMA counts were highest in the IZ in moderate nonproliferative DR (NPDR), severe NPDR, and PDR (P < 0.001). OZ NPI performed comparably with total NPI for distinguishing PDR from NPDR (area under the receiver operating characteristic, 0.88 vs. 0.86; P = 0.21), whereas IZ NPI and IRMA counts performed comparably with their respective total field measurements for distinguishing advanced DR from early DR (NPI, 0.95 vs. 0.95 [P = 0.83]; IRMA, 0.86 vs. 0.89 [P = 0.12]). Conclusions:Single-capture UWF SS-OCTA supports a regional biomarker framework for DR. More peripheral ischemia may add value for identifying neovascular transformation, whereas imaging extending into the intermediate retina may retain useful diagnostic value for distinguishing advanced from early DR when full UWF imaging is unavailable.
The ocular surface is one of the body's most environmentally exposed mucosal barriers, yet it is considered low biomass and harbors orders of magnitude fewer bacteria than microbe-rich sites like the gut. This has cast doubt on whether a functional core ocular microbiome exists at all. Having previously defined a protective gd T cell and IL-17 axis engaged by the murine commensal Corynebacterium mastitidis, we asked whether human-derived bacteria could do the same. Pairing sequencing and culturomics of healthy human conjunctiva from two geographically distinct cohorts, we define a stable core microbiome and identify Corynebacterium bovis as a consistent eye-resident commensal rather than a transient contaminant. In humans, C. bovis elicits a non-pathogenic response marked by IL-17 secretion by γδ T cells and circulating C. bovis-specific IgG, which suggests commensalism rather than pathology. Colonizing mice with human C. bovis strains from Pittsburgh or Miami reproduced this program and conferred protection against ocular infection with Staphylococcus aureus. Together, these findings identify C. bovis as a human-derived ocular commensal that can drive protective γδ T cell immunity, translating a mechanism previously defined only in mice into human relevance and a rational target against sight-threatening infection. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institutes of Health, https://ror.org/01cwqze88, R01EY032482, U24EY035102, P30 EY08098, R01CA293654, T32TR006004 Hillman Innovation Exploratory Award Eye and Ear Foundation, https://ror.org/00y022594 Research to Prevent Blindness, https://ror.org/04drjs621
PURPOSE:To evaluate the effectiveness of ChatGPT-4o (OpenAI) in enhancing the readability and quality of Spanish patient educational materials (PEMs) on childhood glaucoma, and to determine whether they are written above the recommended 6th-grade reading level (per American Medical Association recommendation). METHODS:This cross-sectional comparative study analyzed 10 original Spanish-language PEMs on "glaucoma infantil." Each was inputted into ChatGPT-4o using a Spanish-language prompt requesting improved readability to a score of 70 or greater on the INFLESZ scale (adaptation of the Flesch-Szigriszt Index for Spanish-language texts), which is equivalent to a 4th- to 6th-grade reading level. Original and revised PEMs were compared using the INFLESZ scale. Additionally, three native Spanish-speaking ophthalmologists assessed each PEM's quality using a published 15-point Likert scale evaluating helpfulness, truthfulness, and harmlessness. RESULTS:Original PEMs had a mean INFLESZ score of 56.6 ± 4.9 (8th-grade level). ChatGPT-4o significantly improved readability to 69.6 ± 2.3 (4th- to 6th-grade level, P < .001). Revised PEMs had fewer syllables, words, and complex words without a significant difference in sentence count. Quality remained high across both groups (median score = 15, P = .74), and no hallucinations were observed in artificial intelligence-generated text. CONCLUSIONS:ChatGPT-4o can be used as a supplemental tool by health care professionals to improve the readability of existing Spanish PEMs on childhood glaucoma, without sacrificing the quality, accuracy, or reliability of their content.
