California Scope of Practice
A new bill, which recently passed in California’s Senate with a nearly unanimous vote, could allow California optometrists to perform post-cataract surgery laser procedures for glaucoma patients, eyelid lesion removal, and some vaccinations for adults. SB 622, authored by Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), who is also a practicing optometrist, is now headed to the Assembly for a vote.
Strabismus and Schizophrenia Share Biomarkers
Researchers from the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno have discovered that nearly half of the genes dysregulated in the strabismic medial rectus muscle are also schizophrenia biomarkers. The study, presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in Denver, suggests that imbalances in key signaling molecules are related in the development of both diseases. Researchers hope their findings will help with the development of a tool to assess the risk of a strabismic child developing schizophrenia.
A new study published online by JAMA Ophthalmology found that taking metformin was associated with reduced risk of developing open-angle glaucoma in diabetics. Researchers from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, studied data from 150,016 patients with diabetes and found that patients prescribed greater than 1,110g of metformin in two years had a 25% reduced risk of open-angle glaucoma compared with those who took no metformin. For diabetics, taking 2g of metformin per day for two years would result in a 20.8% reduction in risk of open-angle glaucoma, they concluded.
