At first, the assignment seemed simple enough: Look through the abstracts of posters, papers and presentations from this years Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting and choose about 15 glaucoma-related abstracts to discuss. As this is Reviews seventh annual Report from ARVO, I had done this enough times that I could easily accomplish this in a short time.

Not quite. Before long, I had printed out 150 to 200 of themall worthy of inclusion. It was easy enough to sort them into piles by category, but now came the hard part: choosing which ones to report on and still keep within the space allotted. Were the other doctors who contributed to this report having the same problem?

Perhaps they were, but we each managed to find those studies that may affect your everyday patient carenow or in the future.

Heres what youll find in the entries that follow:

Cornea. Both Acanthamoeba and fungal isolates have increased in the past two years. Associate Clinical Editor Joseph P. Shovlin, O.D., who edits Reviews Cornea + Contact Lens Q+A column and who serves as clinical editor of Review of Cornea & Contact Lenses, reviews the latest research about microbial keratitis, including infection rates, treatment strength and contact lens care techniques to prevent infection. Dr. Shovlin also reports on new research about herpetic eye disease, dry eye treatment, corneal grafts, lid health and ocular allergy.

Retina. Many of this years presentations dealt with the debate about using Avastin (bevacizumab) vs. Lucentis (ranibizumab), both by Genentech, for the treatment of neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Contributing Editor Mark Dunbar, O.D., author of the Retina Quiz column, reports on these as well as new research on using Avastin for treating diabetic retinopathy and central and branch retinal vein occlusions. Last, he reviews research about genetic predisposition to AMD and new uses for optical coherence tomography.

Cataract and Refractive Surgery. Paul M. Karpecki, O.D., Reviews clinical and education conference advisor and author of the Research Review column, reports on ways to identify predictors of clinically significant macular edema after cataract surgery, use of an intraocular lens (IOL) to prevent endophthalmitis, and use of phakic IOLs in patients with high amounts of myopia. Additional topics include use of riboflavin and ultraviolet light followed by an excimer laser to treat keratoconus patients, and outcomes for the treatment of high myopia with LASIK and an implantable contact lens.

Glaucoma. Research presented at this years meeting changed some assumptions weve had about central corneal thickness (CCT) and showed just how significant a problem noncompliance is. This research highlights the importance of measuring CCT (both before and after the patient turns 40) and finding ways to improve patient compliance with medications and follow-up visits.

I report on these studies and others that suggest new ways to predict which patients are at risk for developing glaucoma and issues surrounding treatment decisions. Rounding out this report is the latest research on using selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) for treating open-angle glaucomaa topic of personal interest to me as a glaucoma patient who has undergone the procedure.

Note that the studies are cited by their corresponding ARVO abstract numbers. To learn more about these or read other abstracts, visit www.arvo.org.