Did you know the Connection Between Arthritis and Ocular Disease?
Connection Between Arthritis and Ocular Disease C. Stephen Foster, M.D. The eye is made up primarily of collagen, as are ligaments, tendons, and tissue within joint spaces. It is, perhaps, primarily because of this similarity in composition that the eye is often affected by many of the same diseases which affect joints. Some of these […]
Glaucoma
Glaucoma C. Stephen Foster, M.D. What is it? Some misconceptions exist regarding glaucoma. One thing that most of the public does understand, however, is that glaucoma is serious and is potentially blinding. Many people, however, harbor the misconception that glaucoma produces pain. Indeed, there is one form of glaucoma that can produce an acute onset […]
Treatment Algorithm for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis-Associated Iridocyclitis- Stephen Foster, M.D.
Great progress has been made during the latter half of this century in the care of patients with iridocyclitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), formerly juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). The most major advance was the development of corticosteroids for systemic and ophthalmic use just after the mid-way point of this century, and the second […]
April is Sarcoidosis Awareness Month
Of the many causes of ocular inflammation, one of the more frequently seen causes, and frankly one many patients have never before heard of, is ocular sarcoidosis, or simply “sarcoid”. Sarcoid is a systemic autoinflammatory disease that can affect multiple parts of the body and cause varying levels of inflammation. A good many people with […]
Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Epidemiology Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the number 1 cause of blindness in the Western world. It affects 8 million Americans, including more than 30% of American older than 75 years of age. Even though it is a disease that mostly affects the older population, as many as 6-7% of population of age 40 and […]
Uveitic Glaucoma
Uveitis is the third leading cause of preventable blindness in this country, but many people who suffer from this group of diseases lose their vision via other another mechanism – glaucoma. Glaucoma is the ‘sneak thief’ of vision, a blinding disease of the optic nerve, or the structure that connects your eye and brain and […]
Diabetic Retinopathy
Diabetes affects 415 million adults worldwide, and it is becoming more prevalent in children and adolescent thanks to the unhealthy diets and physical inactivity that have become the hallmarks of our modern society. Excessive hunger and thirst, frequent urination, weight loss, fatigue, and blurry vision are the classic early symptoms. However, it is estimated that […]
An Introduction to Ocular Autoimmune Disease
The immune system, ordinarily in the “business” of protecting us from harm, generally protecting us from germs and cancer cells, can become deranged, with the result being an immune attack on part of our own body. This state of affairs is termed autoimmunity, or immune attack against self. A number of autoimmune diseases exist. In […]
Pediatric Uveitis
Uveitis is the third leading cause of blindness in America, and 5% to 10% of the cases occur in children under the age of 16. But uveitis in children blinds a larger percentage of those affected than in adults, since 40% of the cases occurring in children are posterior uveitis, compared to the 20% of […]