Also in the News…

HASA certified B. Belgium’s HASA OPTIX has become the first ophthalmic company to be certified as a B Corporation, meaning it meets “high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.” Link

Studying the Whorl. A new TVST study has presented an automated method for quantifying the corneal nerve whorl pattern – a feature of the sub-basal nerve plexus (SBNP). Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, developed and validated metrics to analyze the whorl as a vector field, demonstrating that these metrics effectively characterize nerve patterns across synthetic, animal, and human corneal images. The authors suggest that the method could represent a new potential noninvasive marker for ocular diseases; however, they noted that there were no significant differences in whorl shapes observed between diabetic and non-diabetic patients, or between patients with or without neuropathy symptoms. Link

ViaLase partners with John A Moran. The John A. Moran Eye Center and ViaLase have joined forces to form a research partnership aimed at investigating ViaLase’s laser procedure. The partnership will use the Moran Eye Center’s iPerfusion technology to examine the aqueous outflow dynamics of ViaLase’s new femtosecond technique. Link

Bausch + Lomb acquires ELIOS. Bausch + Lomb has acquired the company behind the ELIOS™ procedure – the first clinically validated MIGS technique that uses an excimer laser to create small perforations in the trabecular meshwork. Link

IND clearance for Stargardt disease candidate. SpliceBio (Barcelona, Spain) recently announced investigational new drug (IND) clearance from the US FDA for SB-007, its clinical-stage protein-splicing therapy aimed at addressing the root genetic causes of Stargardt disease. Link

A-AION or NA-AION? A recent American Journal of Ophthalmology study has identified two optical coherence tomography (OCT) biomarkers – paracentral acute middle maculopathy (PAMM) and peripapillary fluid (IRF/SRF) – that can help differentiate arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (A-AION) from non-arteritic AION (NA-AION). PAMM was present in 50 percent of A-AION cases but absent in NA-AION, while extensive peripapillary fluid was observed in 83 percent of NA-AION cases and absent in A-AION. The findings suggest that OCT could serve as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to differentiate the two conditions. Link

Pulsed light for DED. An Acta Ophthalmologica review has highlighted the potential of intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy as a treatment for dry eye disease (DED) caused by meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). Analyzing 13 randomized controlled trials, the study found that IPL significantly reduces dry eye symptoms, with an average improvement of 16 points on the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) when compared with no treatment. Though the therapy showed promise as a standalone option, its benefits as an adjunct to standard treatments were less pronounced, prompting calls for further research to assess its long-term safety and clinical relevance. Link