SOM Student Presents Ophthalmology Research at National Conferences
Ophthalmology Research Conducted at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai Could Save Vision and Help Diagnose Occult Cardiovascular Disease
As part of a research study at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEE) of Mount Sinai, Emanuel Mordechaev, SOM Class of 2024, and fellow researchers identified an association between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis that could prompt increased screening to save vision and help diagnose underlying vascular disease. Mordechaev has since co-authored an article in Retina Today and presented his findings at two national ophthalmology conferences – the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in New Orleans and the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) in Seattle.
"While rotating in ophthalmology as a third-year medical student, I became fascinated by the immediate positive impact that procedures such as cataract surgery and LASIK had on people’s lives,” said Mordechaev. “I sought out further experience to gauge if ophthalmology was the right fit for me and was fortunate to be selected as a retina research fellow at NYEE, where I had the honor of working with Dr. R. Theodore Smith during my scholarly year.”
NYEE’s cross-sectional study of 28 patients with ischemic stroke, which is currently undergoing peer-review in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science journal, found that moderate or more ICA stenosis is associated with subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDDs), retinal lesions found in AMD. This places ischemic stroke patients with ICA stenosis at greater risk of developing AMD and warrants further research to determine if SDDs can serve as predictors of vascular disease.
“I recruited inpatient subjects with ischemic stroke and evaluated them for SDDs by performing optical coherence tomography (OCT), a non-invasive imaging modality that uses light waves to take cross-sectional pictures of the retina. My team and I discovered that ICA stenosis is significantly associated with ipsilateral SDDs, thereby establishing SDDs as potential biomarkers of systemic vascular disease. In short, a simple and non-invasive eye test can diagnose AMD in stroke patients and may help identify occult life-threatening vasculopathy.”
