Eyecare 3000 - Belfast

Eyecare 3000 in Glasgow has become well established on the optometry education circuit. This January saw the first Belfast-based event.

Organiser Dr Scott Mackie is sufficiently pleased with the outcome and delegate feedback to want to run the event in Belfast every year from now on.

The two days, as with the Glasgow event, was a busy mix of lectures, workshops and exhibition which kept the 198 delegates on their toes.

New Blood
The lectures began with a presentation by Professor Wallace Foulds (Glasgow University) who described the current state of knowledge on new vessel growth. Hypoxia stimulates the production of growth factors promoting new vessel formation (such as the now well-known vascular endothelial growth factor <2212> VEGF) while increased oxygen levels leads to an increase in inhibitory factors, such as retinal pigment epithelium derived growth factor (PEDF). Stability of the vasculature within a structure such as the eye depends upon a constant balance between these two types of factors. The clinical implications for this are important. For example, elderly eyes are more likely to experience atrophic changes to blood vessels. The resultant ischaemia leads to the promotion of new vessel growth. Similar age-related changes to the RPE result in a reduction in the amount of inhibitory factor available. This results in a proportion of elderly patients exhibiting age-related macular degeneration involving choroidal neovascularisation.