Kartik Garg

The king of Ficus species, Ficus benghalensis L. (Moraceae), or the banyan are large evergreen trees distributed throughout India, and also found in Bangladesh, Hawaii, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The species was first described in 1753 (ref. 4) with its specific epithet benghalensis denoting 'Bengal', the abode of the great banyan tree of Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah, West Bengal, presently occupying 16,531 sq. m area and standing only on nearly 2900 prop roots after having lost its mother trunk, for which it is encrypted in the Guinness World Records.

Peripapillary sparing is a characteristic that is traditionally described as pathognomonic for Stargardt disease. We present a multimodal assessment of four Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) cases with congenital macular atrophy and severely attenuated electroretinogram findings caused by bilallelic mutations in RDH12. Fundus autofluorescence imaging revealed a general loss of retinal pigment epithelium across the macula except for the peripapillary region in both eyes of all patients. Spectral domain-optical coherence tomography confirmed relative preservation in this area along with retinal thinning and excavation throughout the rest of the macula. LCA was diagnosed based on clinical exam and retinal imaging, and subsequently confirmed with genetic testing. Peripapillary sparing is a novel phenotypic feature of RDH12-associated LCA.

Purpose: To investigate demographic characteristics, educational backgrounds, and academic achievements among program directors (PDs) of cornea and external disease and anterior segment fellowships in the United States in 2020. Setting: Database study of U.S. fellowship programs. Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: PDs of cornea and external disease and anterior segment fellowships were identified using the San Francisco Match website. Fellowship program features reviewed included academic or private practice type, number of cornea faculty, and sex of chairperson. PD demographic characteristics, educational and training background, and academic productivity were analyzed using publicly available profiles and databases. Results: 76 cornea and external disease and 10 anterior segment fellowships were reviewed. Of 86 reviewed programs, 55 (64.0%) were considered academic, 30 (34.9%) were private practice, and 1 (1.2%) was hybrid. 76 cornea and external disease PDs and 12 anterior s...