Cast your vote please !

Where should the next UK Birdshot Day be held?

We’d like to canvass your opinion on where the next Birdshot Day should be held?  The date we are aiming for is March 2015.

To keep it simple we have 3 suggestions to choose from with the opportunity for you to make your own suggestion if preferred.

It’s a bit of an experiment as we have never used this software before, but do please do cast your votes and let us know which of the following locations you would prefer.

Many thanks

The Birdshot Team

Helping educating future optometrists about Birdshot

Students learning about Birdshot Chorioretinopathy

Students learning about Birdshot Chorioretinopathy

BUS helped at the Fight for Sight Optometry Examinations by sending along Birdshotters to be examined by future optometrist.  Many of the students had never heard of Birdshot Uveitis, so it was a great opportunity to get them better acquainted with the eye condition.

Birdshot is difficult to diagnose even for experienced ophthalmologist because the tell tale lesions do not necessarily appear straight away.   But it is useful for optometrists to know a bit more about it, that floaters,  flashings and inability to see in the dark, a failed field test for example,might be a sign of something more serious going on in the eye that needs to be referred to a specialist for further tests.

Top 10 Priorities for Ocular Inflammatory Diseases

The Sight Loss and Vision Priority Setting Partnership Survey in 2012 asked patients, carers and eye health professionals to identify unanswered questions about the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sight loss and eye conditions that they wished to see answered. A number of Birdshot Uveitis Society members took part in this survey and raised many interesting questions.  Continue reading

Research News – May 2013

A recent paper (1) confirmed the previous finding  (2) of the involvement of the T helper 17 (th17) cells in birdshot. Th17 cells are associated with autoimmune diseases and are also involved in diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis and behcet disease (also associated with uveitis).

(1)Yang P, Foster CS. Interleukin 21, Interleukin 23, and Transforming Growth
Factor β1 in HLA-A29-Associated Birdshot Retinochoroidopathy. Am J Ophthalmol.
2013 Apr 23. doi:pii: S0002-9394(13)00168-2. 10.1016/j.ajo.2013.03.004.

(2)Kuiper JJ, Mutis T, de Jager W, de Groot-Mijnes JD, Rothova A. Intraocular
interleukin-17 and proinflammatory cytokines in HLA-A29-associated birdshot
chorioretinopathy. Am J Ophthalmol. 2011 Aug;152(2):177-182.e1. doi:
10.1016/j.ajo.2011.01.031.

The research  suggest the importance of systemic therapy and offer new insights into the potential of targeted treatments for Birdshot Uveitis.

 

Are you in your 20s suffering from Birdshot?

BUS has a facebook friend who is a young sufferer of Birdshot Uveitis who would like to be in touch with others in a similar age bracket. If you would like to be in touch by email or via facebook please do let us know and we will help you connect.  

Annie
.

RNIB Technology Support Services

Recently a volunteer from RNIB wrote to BUS telling us about a services that they provide for blind and partially-sighted people.  It is called their Technology Support Service and they are asking us to promote it to our members.

The Technology Support Service aims to help blind and partially-sighted people to remain or become independent.  So if your vision has been badly affected by your Birdshot at the moment, or you know someone else who could use this help, you might like to get in touch with RNIB to find out more.  Note you do not have to be registered as partially sighted, but you do need to be based in the UK!

RNIB specialist volunteers – known collectively as the Technology Support Squad – are available to help with all kinds of technology-related tasks such as installing DVD players, connecting PC’s/Laptops, helping individuals access audio libraries, using  DAISY talking book player and many other technical type problems which you might find difficult on your own.

They also have a network of volunteers who are available to help people by visiting them in their homes.

If you think you know of someone who could benefit from the use of this service, please ask them to get in touch with the Technology Support Squad on; 0303 123 9999, email; helpline@rnib.org.uk or find us online; rnib.org.uk/techsupport.

If you do decide to try it out, please do let us know how you get on.  It is always interesting to get feedback about services like this.

Annie