Active clinical trials for "Retinal Degeneration"

This multinational study will investigate the inheritance of genetic retinal degeneration in families of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds in order to identify the genes that, when altered, cause retinal degeneration. The retina is a light-sensitive membrane lining the back part of the eye. It relays vision signals to the brain, which the brain interprets into sight. When the retina degenerates, vision is altered and possibly lost. The findings of this study should help improve diagnosis and methods of treatment for these disorders. Participating institutions include: the National Institutes for Health in Bethesda, Maryland; the University of Miami in Florida; the Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon; the Byrd Health Sciences Center in Morgantown, West Virginia; the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas; the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis; the Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India; National Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology in Lahore, Pakistan; and the Jules Gonin Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. Patients with retinitis pigmentosa and closely related diseases such as Usher syndrome, snowflake vitreoretinal dystrophy and Bietti crystalline dystrophy may be eligible for this study. Participants undergo the following tests and procedures: Medical and surgical history, including family history of vision problems. Examination to clarify the type of retinal degeneration. Eye examination, including tests of color vision, field of vision and ability to see in the dark Electroretinogram to test the function of visual cells. For this test, the patient sits in a dark room for 30 minutes with his or her eyes patched. Then, a small electrode (silver disk) is taped to the forehead and the eye patches are removed. The surface the eyes is numbed with eye drops, and contact lenses are placed on the eyes. The patient looks inside a large dark globe that emits a series of light flashes. Then a light is turned on inside the globe and more lights flash. The contact lenses sense small electrical signals generated by the retina when the light flashes. Hearing tests for patients with a personal or family history of deafness. Tests include an audiogram, ear examination and test of middle ear function. For middle ear function testing, the patient feels a little air pressure change for a moment and hears some tones. Another test requires the patient to sit quietly with electrodes on the head, forehead and earlobes. Balance testing, including walking in a straight line, standing with eyes closed in the dark and other tests of coordination, and caloric testing. For the caloric testing, any ear wax in the ear canal is removed before the test begins. Then, electrodes are placed on the skin near the eyes and on the forehead. A small amount of cool (sometimes cold) or warm water is instilled into each ear canal, first one and then the other. Blood sample collection for genetic testing.

The purpose of this study is to test the safety and effectiveness of an autologous bone marrow-derived stem/progenitor cells administered intravitreously in the subjects with degenerative diseases of the retina.

Medical Marijuana is used widely, and its effects on the visual system and the function of the retina have not been investigated thoroughly. Some evidence suggests that cannabinoids may be beneficial in certain degenerative diseases of the retina. The purpose of the study is To determine whether cannabis derivatives affect the visual functions in healthy adults To examine the effect of cannabis derivatives on the retina of retinitis pigmentosa patients

The purpose of this study is to characterize the disease Ocular Ischemic Syndrome.

Fundus autofluorescence imaging has become an important diagnostic tool in ophthalmology, guiding diagnosis and assessment of progression of retinal diseases. This study investigates the performance of optimized long-wavelength autofluorescence imaging. To achieve this goal, the investigators will determine an optimal long wavelength excitation light and investigate the autofluorescence signal intensity in normals and patients with different retinal diseases. The diagnostic performance of the long-wavelength autofluorescence will be evaluated by assessing sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing a variety of degenerative retinal diseases and by comparing it to conventional autofluorescence.

The purpose of this research is the evaluation of a combined coaxial optical coherence tomography (OCT) system to image retina/choroid and to evaluate if post processing of the data can give us insights into property of the tissue imaged.

It is proposed that patients with skin disease due to presumed immunologic, genetic or viral-induced abnormalities, patients with neurological degenerations, and normal controls be evaluated with various in vitro studies of immunologic, genetic, and virologic function. This is to include studies of peripheral blood (cells and serum) as well as studies of skin obtained with a biopsy instrument. In addition, studies of gastrointestinal function will be performed where appropriate.

A prospective natural history study with systematic assessments and uniform follow-up to provide a high-quality dataset for assisting in the design of future clinical treatment trials involving patients with CEP290-related retinal degeneration caused by the common intron 26 mutation.

Purpose: To examine the genotypes associated with the peripheral retinal phenotypic features in patients with age-related macular degeneration documented with wide-field imaging. Design: Clinic-based case series study in Croatia. Participants: 160 patients >50 years of age known to have early or advanced AMD and 150 subjects >50 years of age without known AMD (controls) Methods: Both groups of patients were examined with ophthalmoscopy and OCT to confirm their classification. Posterior and peripheral fundus features were documented with Optos wide-field imaging (Optos P200MA, Optos Plc, Dunfermline, Scotland) and graded. DNA was extracted from blood samples and gene polymorphisms were evaluated for complement factor H (CFH) rs1061170 and rs1410996, age-related maculopathy susceptibility (ARMS2) rs10490924, high temperature requirement factor A1 (HtrA1) rs11200638, complement factor B (CFB) rs4151667 and rs641153, complement factor 2 (C2) rs9332739 and rs547154 and complement factor 3 (C3) rs2230199.

Knowledge of the pathogenesis of ocular conditions, a leading cause of blindness, has benefited greatly from recent advances in ophthalmic imaging. However, current clinical imaging systems are limited in resolution, speed, or access to certain structures of the eye. The use of a high-resolution imaging system improves the resolution of ophthalmoscopes by several orders of magnitude, allowing the visualization of many microstructures of the eye: photoreceptors, vessels, nerve bundles in the retina, cells and nerves in the cornea. The use of a high-speed acquisition imaging system makes it possible to detect functional measurements such as the speed of blood flow. The combination of data from multiple imaging systems to obtain multimodal information is of great importance for improving the understanding of structural changes in the eye during a disease. The purpose of this project is to observe structures that are not detectable with routinely used systems.