34th meeting of the German Retinal Society (RG) in Lübeck 2022 and outlook to the 35th meeting in Würzburg, June 30th and July 1st Przegląd Okulistyczny nr 2/2023

Dr. Udo Hennighausen

Specjalista z zakresu okulistyki

Hamburg

Redakcja Przeglądu Okulistycznego dziękuje Dr med. Udo Henninghausen za merytoryczne sprawozdanie z konferencji German Retina Society w Lubece.

34th meeting of the German Retinal Society (RG) in Lübeck 2022 and outlook to the 35th meeting in Würzburg, June 30th and July 1st

Last year the 34th annual meeting of the German Retina Society (RG) was held at Lübeck/ Germany, July 1st and 2nd, President was Prof. Salvatore Grisanti, director ot the  University Eye Clinc Lübeck. Sympathy was dedicated to Ukraine, seized by  the war of Russia aginst Ukraine. The meeting offered a new concept: On the first day presentations concerning basic science were given in a special session, parallel to the main session, especially with the aim to give time for young investigators. The foto-competition „Art meets Retina“  photos of the retina were presented as art. In  „Retina meets Cinema“ movies of retinal surgery or showing the „life“  in the operating theater were presented. Two awards for scientific research work were given.

A video message   of Dr. Dr. Andrii Ruban, president oft he Ukrainian Vitreoretinal Society (UVRS), was presented in the main session. After this video message Ruban reported onlie-life about the actual challenge caused by the cruelity of the war and pointed out the humanitarian importance of ophthalmology for the society (Abb. 1). At the beginning of the war the University Eye Clinic Gießen had started to support the UVRS with medical devices, especially concerning retinal surgery (see below).

Awards

The Dr. Gaide-Award for excellent research in the field of age-related macular degeneration was given twice:

Dr. rer. nat. Philipp Dörschmann (Kiel) got the  Dr. Gaide-Preis for the  project: Fucoidan  as a new drug against AMD? – Research regarding the protective function of Fucoidan against lipid-induced damage in retinal pigmented epithelium.

Dr. rer. nat. Martina Kropp (Geneve) got the  Dr. Gaide-Preis for the project: Co-culture of iPS-derived  RPE-cells and the human retina in animal-free conditions as a model system for studies of toxicity and efficiancy in development  of light induced damage in retinal pigment epithelium.

The Dr. Werner Jackstädt-Award of the RG for young scientists was given to Dr. rer. nat. Martin Busch (Greifswald) for his project-proposal: Anti-drug-antbodies against Brolucizumab and Ranibizumab in blood-serum und vitreous body in patients of an ophthalmological cross section cohort.                                                                              

Mentioned should be the lecture of Prof. Helbig (Regensburg) Why does the number of retinal detachments  increase? The speaker estimated the following causes:  The „babyboomer“ reach the age of retinal detachment, the increasing number of cataract surgery, mainly in young age, and the increasing number of myopia.

Outlook: The next annual meeting of the Retinal Society (Rg) will be hold at Würzburg on June, 30th and July1st, invited by Prof Jost Hillenklamp, director oft he University Eye Clinic Würzburg (https://www.retinologie.org).                              

Pict. 1: Dr. Dr. Andrii Ruban online-live © RG                                      

Art meets Retina

Out of 70 primarily sent pictures 12 pictures  were chosen, and out of these three were selcted for an award  (Tab. 1).  All pictures were sold by auction and the proceeds of 6000,- € were added to the medical-ophthalmolgical help of the  University Eye Clinic Gießen for the Ukrainian Vitreoretinal Society (responsible: Prof. Markus Rehak and Priv-Doz. Dr. Lubomvyr Lytvynchuk, E-Mail: augenklinik.Gi@uk-gm.de).                                                                                                                         

Table 1: The first three aweards and the winners in the photo competition  „Art meets Retina“

Abb. 2: First award: „The different sunflower to van Gogh“ © M. Schargus

This is a macular hemorrhage that has spread into the nerve fibre layer of Henle. This nerve fibre layer is difficult to identify and is located between the outer plexiform and nuclear layers of the retina and consists of long unmyelinated axons that spread radially from the fovea. In case of small haemorrhage into this area, the characteristic star figure of "sunflower figure" may arise. The image was altered with a special image processing programme so that it looks like an oil painting when enlarged accordingly. Due to the context of the "sunflower" with thick strong brush strokes, Prof. Schargus made the association with the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

Pict. 3: The first prize-winner, Prof. Schargus (Hamburg), holds in his left hand the model of a retinal cone  in bronze, right in the picture Prof. Feltgen (Göttingen), first chairman of the  RG © RG

Pict. 4: Second award: “Amicable Meeting at the Microscope“ © S. Seidemann

“ Crosssection of a mouse retina. AAVs carrying a GFP reporter gene were injected intravitreally into the eye. Sections of 20 µm thickness were obtained using a Cryostat. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that mainly Müller glia cells were transduced. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue), transduced cells are GFP-positive (green), Müller glia cells were stained for CRALBP (orange) and glutamine synthetase (red). Rosette formation and cutting artefacts altered the regular structure of the layered retina leading to the impression of a friendly face during fluorescence microscopy.

Pict. 5: Third Award:  Ischemic wall © G. Anastassiou

The original 9x9 OCTA-photo of the retina of a young lady, suffering from diabetes type 1,  showing ischemic areals, was modified  to pop art.