Recent technological advances have had a major impact on military aviation. While modern methods of providing visual information via electro-optics/visionics systems have extended the aviator's operational envelope, these devices are becoming increasingly incompatible with spectacle wear. Since close to 22 percent of Army aviators are ametropic (spectacle wearing), alternative means of providin...

PURPOSE To examine tear film, contact lens, medical, and patient-related factors associated with self-reported contact lens-related dry eye. METHODS Four hundred fifteen contact lens wearers were recruited and enrolled in this phase of a larger cross-sectional study. A variety of tear film (e.g., interferometry, osmolality, phenol red thread, meibography, fluorescein, and lissamine green stai...

PURPOSE To evaluate the performance of two experimental contact lenses (CL) designed to induce relative peripheral myopic defocus in myopic eyes. METHODS Ten right eyes of 10 subjects were fitted with three different CL: a soft experimental lens (ExpSCL), a rigid gas permeable experimental lens (ExpRGP) and a standard RGP lens made of the same material (StdRGP). Central and peripheral refract...

The aim of this study was to compare antimicrobial efficacy of rigid contact lens disinfecting solutions. We tested five commercially available solutions: Unique pH (Alcon Laboratories), Boston Advance (Polymer Technology Corp.), Nitilens Conditioner GP (Avizor), Total Care (AMO), Boston Simplus (Bausch&Lomb). Their efficacy to disinfect saline solution experimentally contaminated with American...

PURPOSE To evaluate the levels of dinucleotides diadenosine tetraphosphate (Ap(4)A) and diadenosine pentaphosphate (Ap(5)A) in tears of patients wearing rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses on a daily wear basis and of patients wearing reverse-geometry RGP lenses overnight for orthokeratology treatment. METHODS Twenty-two young volunteers (10 females, 12 males; 23.47 ± 4.49 years) were fi...

PURPOSE To understand soft contact lens (SCL) and gas-permeable (GP) lens wearers' behaviors and knowledge regarding exposure of lenses to water. METHODS The Contact Lens Risk Survey (CLRS) and health behavior questions were completed online by a convenience sample of 1056 SCL and 85 GP lens wearers aged 20 to 76 years. Participants were asked about exposing their lenses to water and their un...

Since materials on nanoscale have different characteristics from materials on macro scale their biocompatibility should be precisely and specifically investigated. Fullerenes, the third carbon allotrope, are one of the most used nanomaterials. The least stable and the most common is fullerene C60. One of the main disadvantages of fullerene is its low solubility in water. In order to make it sol...

PURPOSE To determine the short-term effect of rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses on corneal aberrations in keratoconic patients. METHOD Sixteen keratoconic eyes with no history of RGP lens wear were included. They all had corneal aberrometry using Pentacam, and different aberration indices of the anterior and posterior surfaces of the cornea were measured before and 3 months after fitti...

Objectives To describe the past 20 years' correction modalities for keratoconus and their visual outcomes and possible complications. Methods A review of the published literature related to the visual outcomes and possible complications in the context of keratoconus management using nonsurgical procedures for the last 20 years (glasses and contact lenses) was performed. Original articles that...

The major intrinsic protein (MIP) of lens fiber cells is a member of the aquaporin (AQP) water channel family. The protein is expressed at very high levels in lens fiber cells, but its physiological function is unclear. By homology to known AQPs, we have cloned a full-length cDNA encoding an MIP from the lens of killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus). The predicted protein (263 amino acids; GenBank ...