Friday, February 10, 2012 at 1:26PM Are you unable to take time off from work during the week for your eye exam? If so, please call our office for our Saturday schedule. Dr. Pennington and Dr. Garcia are scheduled to work certain weekends each month. Our optical shop will be open by appointment only on those Saturdays. Please call 547-9751 (Chesapeake) or 461-7974 (Norfolk) for more information.
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:12AM Men with erectile dysfunction (ED) have a nearly 3-fold greater risk for also having open-angle glaucoma (OAG) than men with normal erectile function, according to an article published in the January issue of Ophthalmology.
Pathologic mechanisms common to ED and OAG may include the components of the metabolic syndrome (hypertension, decreased insulin sensitivity, dyslipidemia, and obesity) and their effects on inflammatory, vascular, and endocrine abnormalities, the authors suggest.
These findings implicate OAG as a potential sentinel symptom for vascular disease in men with ED. The study suggests that OAG and ED appear to have a common mechanism of endothelial dysfunction related to nitric oxide.
For their study, the investigators drew on longitudinal data from a health insurance database to identify 4605 men older than 40 years who had newly diagnosed ED (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, code 607.84), as well as 23,025 control patients (5 for each case patient).
If these findings are confirmed, ED will become a risk factor for glaucoma, with recommendations for ocular evaluation in patients with ED.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:22AM Spanish speaking patients and physicians now have a public education website in their own language, sponsored by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, with this week's launch of OjosSanos.org. The new site provides a MD reviewed information about more than 50 diseases and conditions, plus vision-correction information, tips on maintaining healthy vision and more than 80 short videos.
The new website is www.ojossanos.org
The same information and more, in English, is also available as always in EyeSmart at www.geteyesmart.org
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 2:56PM Glaucoma damages your optic nerve. When enough nerve fibers have been lost, you may experience loss of your peripheral or side vision. However, initially glaucoma is a silent disease, there may be no symptoms to warn you. If untreated, glaucoma can lead to blindness.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 2:57PM Do you have questions regarding your contact lenses? If so, the following website may be beneficial to you. It is divided into five sections.
Section one addresses questions about replacement schedules and what could happen if they are not followed. It also discusses what organisms are most dangerious to the eye and how to avoid complicaitons from them.