Many contact lens wearers fail to replace their lenses on time, don’t remember the name of their contact lens solutions and don’t replace their contact lens storage case when it gets old and dirty.
These are some of the findings of a new study conducted by researchers at the Centre for Contact Lens Research (CCLR) at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada). Read more…
Need another reason to quit smoking? How about because it might make your contact lenses feel better and decrease your risk of eye problems?
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) recently fit 205 patients with CIBA Vision’s Night & Day silicone hydrogel contact lenses for continuous wear and followed them for a period of one year. Read more…
New specially designed silicone hydrogel contact lenses may slow the progression of myopia in pre-teen and teenage children.
That’s the conclusion of researchers from Australia, China and the United States, who presented the findings of a new study at the recent annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Read more…
Specially designed contact lenses may soon help optometrists and ophthalmologists monitor high eye pressure that can lead to vision loss from glaucoma.
That’s the conclusion of researchers in Spain who reported the development of a prototype pressure-monitoring lens at the 2010 annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) held this week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The pressure-sensing gas permeable contact indirectly measures intraocular pressure (IOP) by detecting changes on the surface of the cornea caused by the internal eye pressure. It does so with an incorporated sensor consisting of a polycarbonate film nanostructured with an organic molecular conductor, according to the researchers.
The sensor is capable of detecting IOP changes of less than 1.0 mmHg, they say. (Normal IOP is generally considered to be in the range of 8 to 20 mmHg.)
Pressure readings can be obtained in real time and collected in a computerized record.
Currently, the prototype pressure-sensing contact lens only has been tested with non-living pig eyes, but the researchers say the device can effectively monitor IOP and has the potential to someday be used to assist eye doctors in glaucoma treatment.
Could contacts containing vitamin E increase the effectiveness of glaucoma drops in the eye?
The idea of using contact lenses that contain medicine to treat eye diseases such as glaucoma is not new. A major hurdle in the technology, however, has been finding a way to keep tears from washing away the medicine too quickly. Read more…
Can artificial tears be safely used to re-wet contact lenses?
In some cases, eye drops that are designed to treat dry eyes may have formulations that are incompatible with contact lens wear. For this reason, contact lens wearers are well-advised to use only the contact lens solutions specifically recommended by their optometrist or ophthalmologist.
But a new study conducted by Allergan (Irvine, Calif.) has found that one of the company’s artificial tear products appears to work well as a contact lens lubricant. In fact, when compared with Allergan’s own brand of contact lens rewetting drops, the artificial tear actually outperformed the rewetting drop at improving contact lens comfort. Read more…
UV-blocking silicone hydrogel contact lenses can reduce or eliminate harmful effects from the sun’s UV rays, according to a study published this month in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, an official journal of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
Overexposure to UV light can cause harmful changes in the cornea, conjunctiva and lens, including cataracts, according to the investigators and authors of the article, “Prevention of UV-Induced Damage to the Anterior Segment Using Class I UV-Absorbing Hydrogel Contact Lenses.”
In the study, 12 rabbits were assigned to one of three treatment groups:
For five days, the animals were exposed to UV radiation capable of producing corneal changes. Only the rabbits who wore the UV-absorbing contacts were not affected by the exposure.
The UV-absorbing contact lenses used in the study were made of a silicone hydrogel material called senofilcon A. The material is used to produce Acuvue Oasys disposable contacts.
Heather Chandler, PhD, from Ohio State University’s College of Optometry, was lead investigator in the study. “The data generated from this study could support the use of UV-absorbing contact lenses and greatly impact the health of a large number of people,” Dr. Chandler said in an ARVO press release this week.
The study was supported by Vistakon, a division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
Each year, the professional eye care journal Contact Lens Spectrum conducts and commissions market research about contact lenses and the contact lens industry.
In this month’s issue, the journal reports on the status of contact lenses in 2009. Here are some of the findings:
SOURCE: Contact Lenses 2009. Contact Lens Spectrum. January 2010.
Drug-eluting contact lenses may be the way of the future for the delivery of certain eye medications, according to two researchers involved in developing the lenses.
In this month’s issue of Expert Review of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School researchers Joseph B. Ciolino, MD, and Daniel S. Kohane, MD, PhD, discussed some of the advantages and challenges of developing these lenses.
It’s estimated that 90 percent of eye medicines are delivered to the eye in the form of eye drops. But many people have difficulty properly applying eye drops to their eyes, and less than 10 percent of the medicine in eye drops is absorbed by the eye, according to research cited by Drs. Ciolino and Kohane.
Other studies have shown that poor compliance with prescribed eye drop medications is a significant problem in the management of chronic eye diseases, such as glaucoma and ocular hypertension.
Drug-eluting contacts could improve patient compliance with their glaucoma treatment, and a sustained release of medications may prove more effective than the short bursts of the same drugs when they are administered via eye drops, the researchers say.
However, challenges to creating drug-eluting contacts include:
Other design challenges include determining how much of the drug the contact lens should contain and how long the release should last.
Also, drug-eluting contacts could complicate contact lens care. Ideally, the lenses should release their drug load only when they are on the eye, not during cleaning or storage. (It’s possible that developing drug-eluting daily disposable contacts may solve this potential problem.)
Finally, it will be important to determine the cost-effectiveness of drug-eluting contacts compared with conventional treatment of glaucoma and other problems with eye drop medications.
Despite these challenges, the researchers say drug-eluting contact lenses offer the possibility of better compliance with prolonged treatment of chronic eye diseases and relief of certain eye symptoms from a single application, giving eye doctors a new and more effective means to treat ocular diseases and conditions.
[Ed. note: To date, drug-eluting contact lenses are not FDA-approved for use in the United States.]
Diabetics may soon have a painless and more convenient way to monitor their blood glucose levels — glucose-monitoring contact lenses.
The contact lenses change color in response to elevated blood glucose levels, alerting diabetic contact lens wearers to the need for medication. It is hoped that the lenses will help diabetics more effectively manage their disease and possibly avoid sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy and other complications of diabetes.
The special soft contact lenses are being developed by Chemical and Biochemical Engineering professor Jin Zhang at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario, Canada).
The non-invasive technology uses microscopic “nanoparticles” that can be embedded into hydrogel contact lenses. The tiny particles react with glucose molecules present in tears, and this chemical reaction changes their color, which then causes the contact lens to change color.
Professor Zhang recently received a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to further develop this and other technologies using multifunctional nanocomposites (films embedded with reactive nanoparticles).
Other possible applications include nanocomposite films for the food packaging industry that can better prevent meat and other foods from spoiling and can make the packaging more biodegradable than regular plastic wrap, according to a press release issued today by the university.
Researchers are developing contact lenses that darken automatically in sunlight, similar to photochromic lenses available for prescription glasses. The contacts are treated with sun-sensitive dyes that darken when exposed to ultraviolet light, which is harmful to eyes.
Earlier attempts to make photochromic contacts were few and unsuccessful. Now, researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) in Singapore are making headway by using a contact lens material that contains a network of nano-sized tunnels that can be filled with photosensitive dyes. The structure of the flexible lens material allows the dye to react quickly and uniformly throughout the lens, according to the researchers.
Edwin Chow, IBN senior research scientist, says this technology has a faster response time than photochromic eyeglass lenses (such as Transitions lenses) currently on the market. While photochromic lenses can take minutes to fully react to light, the new photochromic contacts can respond in 10 to 20 seconds, he says.
Next the research team will test the contact lenses in animals. IBN Director Jackie Ying believes the contacts could be available commercially outside the United States within a year. Approval for use in the U.S. may take longer due to safety testing required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The study was reported this month in Technology Review, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
A new long-term study aims to determine whether orthokeratology with specially designed gas permeable (GP) contact lenses can safely and effectively control the progression of nearsightedness in children.
The clinical study, called the Stabilizing Myopia by Accelerating Reshaping Technique (SMART) study, will compare the progression of myopia among 267 children ages 8 to 14 that have been enrolled in the study. The research is taking place at 10 clinical research sites throughout the United States.
A total of 162 of children enrolled in the study have been successfully fit with the ortho-k contacts and will wear the GP lenses on an overnight basis throughout the five-year study period. The overnight ortho-k lenses enable the subjects to see clearly throughout the day without glasses or contact lenses.
A control group of 105 children in the study will wear silicone hydrogel contact lenses on a daily wear basis throughout the study, replacing the lenses monthly.
At yearly intervals, the children wearing the ortho-k lenses will return the gas permeable contacts to one of the study’s investigators and will be given soft contact lenses to wear temporarily. While wearing the soft lenses, the subjects’ eyes will be examined every three days until their myopia has stabilized.
The investigator will then compare this amount of myopia with how nearsighted the child was at the beginning of the study to determine the net effect of the ortho-k lenses on slowing the progression of nearsightedness. After this comparison is made, the participant will again wear the ortho-k lenses for another one-year period.
The researchers say the five-year SMART study will offer more information about the safety and effectiveness of overnight orthokeratology than previous ortho-k studies, which typically have evaluated subjects over a period of no more than two years and often for six months or less.
You can follow the progress of the research and get the latest updates by visiting the SMART Clinical Trial page on Facebook.
