Trending Now: Hottest clinical diagnosis stories of 2014

1. Grand Rounds: Patient with recent hospitalization and decreased vision for 1 month

Female presents after thrombotic cerebrovascular accident . . . what’s the diagnosis?

Ophthalmology Times Editorial Advisory Board Member Sharon Fekrat, MD, FACS shared her thoughts as to why this story was so popular this past year.

“Hydroxychloroquine continues to be a commonly used oral agent for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and as such, medical professionals across all specialties should be aware of the potential of a dose-dependent ocular toxicity, albeit rare, so as to promote early detection and thus avoid irreversible visual loss,” she said.

Read the Grand Rounds story here

2. Grand Rounds: Patient has proptosis and vision loss

A 69-year-old African American man was transferred from an outside hospital, having been brought in from his nursing home for worsening left orbital proptosis of unknown duration . . . what is his diagnosis?

Ophthalmology Times Chief Medical Editor Peter J. McDonnell shared why he believes this story was a hot topic throughout 2014.

“This interesting case report has been one of the most viewed clinical diagnosis-related stories in Ophthalmology Times.  It exemplifies the importance of considering underlying systemic medical disease when the ophthalmologist is faced with a patient who presents with “an eye problem”, and raises important issues such as the care of individuals who have dementia.”

Read the story

3. A novel index for diagnosing keratoconus

In the spring, we published this story that examined a study that found Bowman's ectasia index good for diagnosing keratoconus.

“This new potential methodology for keratoconus diagnosis detects a possible pathognomonic feature of the keratoconic cornea,” said Ophthalmology Times Editorial Advisory Board Member Peter S. Hersh, MD, FACS.  “If developed into a clinical diagnostic device, it would have great promise in the detection of early keratoconus.”

Read about the new methodology for keratoconus