The 8th annual Pacific Retina Club, organized by David Sarraf, MD; SriniVas R. Sadda, MD; and H. Richard McDonald, MD, provided attendees with a wonderful blend of case presentations, cutting-edge educational sessions, and lively discussion (Figure). Here, we outline some of the noteworthy happenings from the event.
Figure. The conference organizers were honored to be joined by many colleagues to help them provide exceptional education. Pictured here are (left to right): Jean-Pierre Hubschman, MD; Carl D. Regillo, MD; David R. Chow, MD; Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD, PhD; Steven D. Schwartz, MD; and Tarek S. Hassan, MD.
CASES GALORE
Held at the University of California Los Angeles on April 1-2, the event was no joke, kicking off with more than 50 clinical case presentations that kept the audience on its toes with discussions of genetic, infectious, inflammatory, and toxic cases.
Medical students, residents, and fellows presented first with mystery cases, but it proved difficult to trick the panelists. Phototoxicity and toxicity from anastrozole, didanosine (Videx, Bristol-Myers Squibb), pentosan polysulfate sodium (Elmiron, Janssen Pharmaceuticals), deferoxamine (Desferal, Novartis), and latanoprost were discussed. The audience was captivated by the range of infectious cases, such as a case of tuberculosis that took an unusual turn with an ovarian mass. The trainee session was capped by a debate about whether a patient’s choroidal thickness changes were due to uveitis from a herpetic infection or steroid administration.
In the afternoon, David S. Boyer, MD, discussed a case of sterile endophthalmitis that cropped up after switching from prefilled syringes to vials; he noted the decreasing frequency of endophthalmitis with prefilled syringes compared with vial injections.
The audience and panelists were stumped by a case, presented by Paul Bernstein, MD, PhD, of diffuse retinal pigment epithelial atrophy. He finally revealed that it was caused by ingestion of potassium iodide pills—used to protect the thyroid from radioactive iodine in the event of a nuclear emergency. The session concluded with a presentation on the importance of using automatically segmented maps to highlight ganglion cell layer loss.
The highlight of the day was the Alexander R. Irvine Lecture given by Jay S. Duker, MD, who discussed the past, present, and future of OCT. The award was presented by Dr. McDonald.
PANELS, EDUCATION, AND ANTICS
The second day of the conference started with no less energy than the first. K. Bailey Freund, MD, and Dr. Sadda led things off by moderating a host of basic science lectures. Nadia Waheed, MD, MPH, discussed progression modeling of geographic atrophy, while Christine A. Curcio, PhD, touched on progression modeling of hyperreflective foci in AMD. This was followed by Dr. McDonald leading an action-packed surgical panel, which included J. Michael Jumper, MD; Colin McCannel, MD; Gaurav K. Shah, MD; and Homayoun Tabandeh, MD. The cases were presented in a rapid-fire style, with some panelists only having time to answer with a quick sentence or two before Dr. McDonald cried out, “Correct!” and proceeded to the next image.
The tumor panel that followed, moderated by William F. Mieler, MD, was similarly engaging, and Amani A. Fawzi, MD, kicked off a star-studded panel on retinal imaging with her presentation, “Predicting progression of diabetic retinopathy in OCTA.” This was followed by a fascinating talk by David Brown, MD, who discussed increased choroidal thickness seen in NASA astronauts during spaceflight.
Richard Spaide, MD, bookended the imaging session with amazing new OCT and 3D images of the vitreous. Another imaging panel moderated by Dr. Duker led into an illuminating debate regarding a series of cases with subtle OCT findings.
The pediatric surgery panel, moderated by Dr. Jumper, provided attendees with the latest on difficult pediatric retina cases and choices regarding prophylactic barrier laser in Stickler syndrome. Conference organizers Drs. Sadda and Sarraf presented their work regarding OCT biomarkers for progression of intermediate AMD and non-neovascular fluid in AMD, respectively.
The uveitis session was moderated by Sunil Srivastava, MD, and included Emmett Cunningham, MD, PhD, MPH; Quan Nguyen, MD, MSc; and University of California Los Angeles’ very own Dr. Edmund Tsui, MD. Carl D. Regillo, MD, presented 2-year data from the phase 3 faricimab trials for treating diabetic macular edema in the diabetes session.
A highlight of the retinal vascular session, moderated by Michael Ip, MD, and Dr. Tabandeh, was a talk by Mathieu Bakhoum, MD, PhD, in which he discussed retinal ischemic perivascular lesions, an imaging biomarker of cardiovascular disease. Dr. Bakhoum presented data linking subtle deflections and characteristic deformations in the outer nuclear layer to cardiovascular pathology. The day closed out with a surgical panel moderated by Steven D. Schwartz, MD, and a discussion of the latest in wet AMD trials moderated by Dr. Boyer and Susan Bressler, MD.
Camaraderie among the faculty and trainees was evident throughout the event. The two days were filled with spirited debate, abrupt exclamations, and plenty of good humor. Dr. Sarraf was not shy to challenge his fellow faculty on naming the 80s songs that played during CME questions, and he channeled Will Smith when he proclaimed to a presenter on stage, “Keep Dr. Sadda’s name out of your mouth!” (met with a chorus of applause and cheers).
There were many introductions and reunions among the fellows and attendings, some of whom had only communicated via email during the pandemic. By the time the organizers brought the 8th annual Pacific Retina Club to a close, the only thought on our minds was: We can’t wait for next year!
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