Sustained operations frequently require personnel to work around the clock, which combined with sleep deficit, and multiple days working unusual schedules, in stressful environments, culminates with ...high fatigue and poor performance. Both loss of sleep and circadian misalignment are well-documented factors involved in fatigue-related accidents and human error. To counteract the effects of fatigue and build behavioural resilience strategic countermeasures such as those used to improve physical and mental endurance, reduce fatigue, and better manage health in personnel working around the clock can be applied.
There is a higher incidence of diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children with visual impairment and blindness (VIB) than in typically sighted children. However, we currently lack ...appropriate assessment measures to fully understand the neurodevelopment of children with VIB. Numerous factors, such as common characteristics between children with VIB and ASD and the reliance of visual behaviours in assessments of ASD, complicate the clinical and diagnostic understanding of these children. This scoping review aims to describe the published knowledge on ASD assessment in children with VIB. The literature search was performed through MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus. Reference lists of pertinent articles were scrutinized for snowball searching. Articles retained were based on original empirical studies, were relevant to or conducted with children or adolescents with VIB and described assessments for ASD. Pertinent information was extracted, and a thematic analysis was performed. Only 13 articles retrieved pertained to and described the assessment of ASD in children with VIB. The following themes emerged: appropriateness of commonly used ASD assessment tools for children with VIB, modification of pre-existing ASD assessment tools for a better assessment, creation of new assessment tools for this population, time points of assessment, and professional training and practice guidelines. The reviewed literature highlights that there is still much work to be done to better understand the complex relationship between VIB and ASD, and consensus is needed on how best to go about assessing neurodevelopmental disorders in children with VIB.
Purpose
Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of childhood visual impairment in the developed world. Despite this, there are no agreed clinical guidelines for the investigation and ...diagnosis of the condition. Before development of such guidelines can commence, it is important to recognise which approaches are currently employed. This systematic review evaluated the literature to identify which methods of assessment are currently used to investigate and diagnose childhood CVI.
Methods
Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus and the Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched in January 2020 using defined search terms. Articles were included if they: (i) were research papers, conference s or research protocols published in peer‐reviewed scientific journals, or relevant textbooks; (ii) included a clinical investigation of CVI in children; (iii) provided an explanation or criteria to diagnose CVI and (iv) were specifically investigating cerebral/cortical visual impairment. Methods used to a) assess and b) diagnose CVI were extracted from included articles. ‘Assessment scores’ were assigned for each method employed by researchers to investigate and diagnose CVI to quantify and compare approaches between articles. A quality grading was also applied to each article.
Results
Of 6454 identified articles, 45 met the inclusion criteria. From these, 10 categories of assessment utilised within included articles were identified: (1) Medical history, (2) Vision assessment/ophthalmologic examination, (3) Neuroimaging, (4) Visual behaviour and direct observation, (5) Structured history‐taking, (6) Visual perception tests, (7) Ocular movement and posture assessment, (8) Intelligence/IQ assessment, (9) Clinical electrophysiology and (10) Neurodevelopmental tests. In terms of diagnostic criteria, the most commonly reported approach was one of exclusion, i.e., CVI was diagnosed when visual dysfunction could not be attributed to abnormalities detected in the anterior visual pathway.
Conclusion
There is a lack of common practice in the approaches used by clinicians to investigate and diagnose CVI in children. At present, a ‘diagnosis of exclusion’ remains the most common means to diagnose CVI. Development of clinical guidelines for assessment and diagnosis are necessary to ensure consistency in the diagnosis of CVI and the timely implementation of support to alleviate the impact of CVI on the child’s daily living.
Cortical/cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is the most frequent cause of pediatric visual impairment in developed countries and is increasing in prevalence in developing nations. The most common ...underlying etiology is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, particularly in premature children. Other causes include seizures, hydrocephalus, trauma, and infections. Because of neurologic comorbidities, children with CVI often present challenges in diagnosis and characterization of visual deficits. Caregiver questionnaires may aid in assessment of visual functioning, while newer types of neuroimaging, including functional neuroimaging and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging, may provide further insights on structure-function relationships. Genetic testing may assist in identification of underlying genetic or metabolic syndromes. Although no standard therapy for pediatric CVI exists, advances in care of preterm children and those with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy may in future reduce the incidence of this disorder. In addition, various methods of visual stimulation and stem cells have been advocated as treatment for pediatric CVI. Future controlled trials using standardized methods of visual assessment are necessary to establish whether these interventions are superior to observation. Practitioners should work with families and teachers of children with CVI to optimize their environment for visual functioning. Comorbid ocular and systemic disorders, which are common, should be managed appropriately.
PurposeTo report the incidence and severity of reported visual impairment (VI) due to glaucoma and the changes in them during the past 40 years in Finland.MethodsA register‐based study, in which the ...data were collected from the Finnish Register of Visual Impairment between 1980 and 2019. These data included 5819 visually impaired glaucoma patients, of which 61% were female. Visual impairment (VI) was classified according to the Finnish national definitions. The number of treated glaucoma patients in Finland was calculated using glaucoma medication reimbursement data available between 1986 and 2019 from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland registers.ResultsThe incidence of reported VI due to glaucoma per 100 000 persons had increased from 2.3 in the 1980s to 3.4 in the 2010s. During the same time period, the incidence of reported VI per 10 000 treated glaucoma patients had decreased from 32 in the 1980s to 21 in the 2010s. Primary open‐angle glaucoma (45%) was the main subtype for reported VI due to glaucoma. During the 40 years, the proportion of mild VI and the age at the onset of reported VI had increased.ConclusionThe incidence of reported VI due to glaucoma has increased during the 40 years, but the risk of treated glaucoma patients becoming visually impaired has decreased. Visual impairment (VI) also occurs at an older age. This is likely due to the earlier diagnoses and improved therapy. To prevent the unfavourable development of VI due to glaucoma among the ageing population in the future, all attempts need to be made to improve glaucoma care.
Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is a common sequala of early brain injury, damage, or malformation and is one of the leading individual causes of visual dysfunction in pediatric populations ...worldwide. Although patients with CVI are heterogeneous both in terms of underlying etiology and visual behavioural manifestations, there may be underlying similarities in terms of which white matter pathways are potentially altered. This exploratory study used diffusion tractography to examine potential differences in volume, quantitative anisotropy (QA), as well as mean, axial, and radial diffusivities (mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD), respectively) focusing on the dorsal and ventral visual stream pathways in a cohort of young adults with CVI compared to typically sighted and developing controls.
High angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data were acquired in a sample of 10 individuals with a diagnosis of CVI (mean age = 17.3 years, 2.97 standard deviation (SD), range 14-22 years) and 17 controls (mean age = 19.82 years, 3.34 SD, range 15-25 years). The inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF), and the three divisions of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF I, II, and III) were virtually reconstructed and average tract volume (adjusted for intracranial volume), MD, AD, and RD were compared between CVI and control groups. As a secondary analysis, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to investigate potential differences based on etiology (i.e., CVI due to periventricular leukomalacia (CVI-PVL) and CVI due to other causes (CVI-nonPVL)).
We observed a large degree of variation within the CVI group, which minimized the overall group differences in tractography outcomes when examining the CVI sample as a unitary group. In our secondary analysis, we observed significant reductions in tract volume in the CVI-PVL group compared to both controls and individuals with CVI due to other causes. We also observed widespread significant increases in QA, MD, and AD in CVI-PVL compared to the control group, with mixed effects in the CVI-nonPVL group.
These data provide preliminary evidence for aberrant development of key white matter fasciculi implicated in visual perceptual processing skills, which are often impaired to varying degrees in individuals with CVI. The results also indicate that the severity and extent of the white matter changes may be due in part to the underlying cause of the cerebral visual impairments. Additional analyses will need to be done in a larger sample alongside behavioural testing to fully appreciate the relationships between white matter integrity, visual dysfunction, and associated causes in individuals with CVI.
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