Category Archives: Retinitis Pigmentosa

Malek Chamoun's dreams of a Commonwealth Games weightlifting medal have ended in disaster with the legally-blind lifter failing to finish the 85kg competition on Monday. Chamoun, from Sydney, was rated as an outside chance of a medal in Glasgow, but his decision to open his snatch campaign at 140kg backfired spectacularly when he record three no lifts. The 25-year-old, who was diagnosed with the degenerative condition retinitis pigmentosa at seven, is led on stage by his father George and was listed to go in at 135kg for his first lift. But in an attempt to strike an early advantage over his rivals he increased the weight by 5kg. He never looked comfortable and despite being roared on by a sympathetic crowd he dropped his final lift and fell straight into the arms of his father on the side of the stage. Lifters who fail to make any of their snatch attempts are immediately eliminated from the competition and cannot compete in the clean and jerk event. The rest is here: Chamoun fails to finish 85kg competition … Continue reading →

Retinitis pigmentosa low vision management with video magnifier (In Bengali) Ritayan gupta Ranaghat. I am at Artificial Eye Co Liluah,Howrah. I had difficulty in reading. I am a primary school teacher. I got madams reference from Medi... By: Aggarwal Sumitra … Continue reading →

Retinitis Pigmentosa Treatment Now - Part Two - When You Limit Your Mind, You Limit Possibility. In this three part series Dr. Miller explores Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, and the treatment presented through the Better Eye Health Program. Despite the ser... By: Organic MD … Continue reading →

Retinitis Pigmentosa Treatment Now - Part Three - There is Hope for Sight In this three part series Dr. Miller explores Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, and the treatment presented through the Better Eye Health Program. Despite the ser... By: Organic MD … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 21-Jul-2014 Contact: Mary Leach Mary_Leach@meei.harvard.edu Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Boston Cystoid macular edema (CME) is a common complication of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a family of retinal diseases in which patients typically lose night and side vision first and then develop impaired central vision. CME can also decrease central vision. Current treatments for CME in RP are not always effective and can lead to adverse results. Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, and Boston University School of Medicine tested whether the extent of retinal swelling due to CME was inversely related to dietary iodine intake in patients with RP and found that it was. This finding raises the possibility that an iodine supplement could help limit or reduce central foveal swelling in RP patients with CME. Their results are presented online in the July issue of JAMA Ophthalmology. Past research performed on a previous population showed an inverse association between the presence of CME and reported iodine supplementation in RP patients. This finding and physiology research by others pointed to iodine as being worth investigating further. In the present experiment, the researchers performed a cross-sectional observational study of 212 nonsmoking patients 18 to … Continue reading →

Retinitis Pigmentosa Treatment Now - Your Genes Are Not Your Destiny. In this three part series Dr. Miller explores Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, and the treatment presented through the Better Eye Health Program. Despite the ser... By: Organic MD … Continue reading →

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have created a way to develop personalized gene therapies for patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a leading cause of vision loss. The approach, the first of its kind, takes advantage of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology to transform skin cells into retinal cells, which are then used as a patient-specific model for disease study and preclinical testing. Using this approach, researchers led by Stephen H. Tsang, MD, PhD, showed that a form of RP caused by mutations to the gene MFRP (membrane frizzled-related protein) disrupts the protein that gives retinal cells their structural integrity. They also showed that the effects of these mutations can be reversed with gene therapy. The approach could potentially be used to create personalized therapies for other forms of RP, as well as other genetic diseases. The paper was published recently in the online edition of Molecular Therapy, the official journal of the American Society for Gene & Cell Therapy. "The use of patient-specific cell lines for testing the efficacy of gene therapy to precisely correct a patient's genetic deficiency provides yet another tool for advancing the field of personalized medicine," said Dr. Tsang, the Laszlo Z. Bito Associate … Continue reading →

Advances in plan for individual gene therapies for leading cause of blindness Scientists use stem cells to investigate causes of degenerative eye disease Two patients with retinitis pigmentosa had mutations in a certain gene New gene therapy was used to rescue vision of mice with the same condition By Julian Robinson Published: 06:49 EST, 11 July 2014 | Updated: 07:16 EST, 11 July 2014 Scientists have moved closer to a breakthrough in 'personalised' treatments for a leading cause of blindness. Researchers have stepped up their bid to create individual gene therapies for one of the factors that triggers inherited vision loss. They used 'induced' stem cells - taken from ordinary skin cells - to investigate patient-specific causes of the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which leads to blindness or severe visual impairment. Scientists have moved closer to a breakthrough in 'personalised' treatments for a leading cause of blindness By testing retinal cells created from the stem cells in the laboratory, they linked RP in two patients to mutations in a gene called MFRP. The scientists then used a virus to deliver normal copies of the gene into the retinal cells and restore their function. The rest is here: Breakthrough … Continue reading →

Writer Nicole C. Kear (image: Justine Cooper) The top image shows normal vision. The bottom image shows tunnel vision caused by retinitis pigmentosa. (Wen-Hsuan Wu and Yi-Ting Tsai,Barbara and Donald Jonas Laboratory of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Columbia University) Kear and her children. After her diagnosis, the first thing she thought about was being able to see her children when they were born. (image courtesy of Kear) (book cover image courtesy of St. Martin's Press) Nicole C. Kear always thought it was normal when shed bump into things but when she turned 19, she soon realized it wasnt just clumsiness. She was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that would eventually leave her blind. In her newly published memoir, Now I See You, Kear details the story of how the diagnosis taught her to embrace life. Just after her sophomore year of college, Kear went to her ophthalmologist for a routine check-up. She offhandedly mentioned an incident at the beach a few months prior, when she realized she couldnt see any of the stars. [My boyfriend at the time] was really shocked, because they were very bright, Kear told FoxNews.com. I never suspected it was an actual problem; we … Continue reading →

Retinitis Pigmentosa: Better vision after 10 months herbal acupuncture For more information, or to book an appointment, please contact us: tel:1-877-737-7876 toll free (Canada and US only) 1-604-737-7876 (International) e-mail: ... By: Weidong Yu … Continue reading →