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Michael John Allingham

Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology, Vitreoretinal Diseases & Surgery
Box 3802 Med Ctr, Durham, NC 27710
2351 Erwin Road, Box 3802, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications


Association of Hyperautofluorescence Signals with Geographic Atrophy Progression in the METformin for the MINimization of Geographic Atrophy Progression Trial.

Journal Article Ophthalmol Sci · 2025 PURPOSE: To investigate the association between rim area focal hyperautofluorescence (RAFH) signals and geographic atrophy (GA) growth rates, as well as the impact of oral metformin on the longitudinal change of RAFH. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of a random ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Deep-Learning Algorithm to Predict Short-Term Progression to Geographic Atrophy on Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography.

Journal Article JAMA Ophthalmol · November 1, 2023 IMPORTANCE: The identification of patients at risk of progressing from intermediate age-related macular degeneration (iAMD) to geographic atrophy (GA) is essential for clinical trials aimed at preventing disease progression. DeepGAze is a fully automated a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fluorescein CorneoGraphy (FCG): Use of a repurposed fluorescein imaging technique to objectively standardize corneal staining.

Journal Article Ocul Surf · January 2023 Punctate epithelial erosion (PEE) is a corneal sign of dry eye disease (DED), which is observable via staining with fluorescein on slit lamp as a standard of clinical practice and clinical research. There are currently many limitations for detecting PEE, s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Elamipretide in Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Noncentral Geographic Atrophy: ReCLAIM NCGA Study.

Journal Article Ophthalmol Sci · March 2022 PURPOSE: Assess the safety, tolerability, and feasibility of subcutaneous administration of the mitochondrial-targeted drug elamipretide in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and noncentral geographic atrophy (NCGA) and to perform exp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Elamipretide in Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration and High-Risk Drusen: ReCLAIM High-Risk Drusen Study.

Journal Article Ophthalmol Sci · March 2022 PURPOSE: To assess safety, tolerability, and feasibility of subcutaneous administration of the mitochondrial-targeted drug elamipretide in patients with intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and high-risk drusen (HRD) and to perform explorato ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incomplete response to Anti-VEGF therapy in neovascular AMD: Exploring disease mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities.

Journal Article Prog Retin Eye Res · May 2021 Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs have revolutionized the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NVAMD). However, many patients suffer from incomplete response to anti-VEGF therapy (IRT), which is defined ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunological Aspects of Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Journal Article Adv Exp Med Biol · 2021 Increasing evidence over the past two decades points to a pivotal role for immune mechanisms in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) pathobiology. In this chapter, we will explore immunological aspects of AMD, with a specific focus on how immune mechanis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Deep learning-based single-shot prediction of differential effects of anti-VEGF treatment in patients with diabetic macular edema.

Journal Article Biomed Opt Express · February 1, 2020 Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents are widely regarded as the first line of therapy for diabetic macular edema (DME) but are not universally effective. An automatic method that can predict whether a patient is likely to respond to anti-V ... Full text Link to item Cite

Aldosterone as a mediator of severity in retinal vascular disease: Evidence and potential mechanisms.

Journal Article Exp Eye Res · November 2019 Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and retinal vein occlusion (RVO) are the two most common retinal vascular diseases and are major causes of vision loss and blindness worldwide. Recent and ongoing development of medical therapies including anti-vascular endothelia ... Full text Link to item Cite

Angiotensin II and aldosterone in retinal vasculopathy and inflammation.

Journal Article Exp Eye Res · October 2019 Angiotensin II and aldosterone are the main effectors of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) and have a central role in hypertension as well as cardiovascular and renal disease. The localization of RAAS components within the retina has led to s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Aldosterone Exposure Causes Increased Retinal Edema and Severe Retinopathy Following Laser-Induced Retinal Vein Occlusion in Mice.

Journal Article Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci · July 2, 2018 Featured Publication PURPOSE: To determine the effects of aldosterone exposure on retinal edema and retinopathy in a mouse model of retinal vein occlusion (RVO). METHODS: RVO was induced immediately following intravenous injection of Rose bengal (66 mg/kg) using a 532-nm wavel ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Quantitative Approach to Predict Differential Effects of Anti-VEGF Treatment on Diffuse and Focal Leakage in Patients with Diabetic Macular Edema: A Pilot Study.

Journal Article Transl Vis Sci Technol · March 2017 Featured Publication PURPOSE: We use semiautomated segmentation of fluorescein angiography (FA) to determine whether anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME) differentially affects microaneurysm (MA)-associated leakage, termed f ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy Using a Portable, Noncontact, Nonmydriatic Handheld Retinal Camera.

Journal Article J Diabetes Sci Technol · January 2017 BACKGROUND: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of low vision and blindness. We evaluated the feasibility of using a handheld, noncontact digital retinal camera, Pictor, to obtain retinal images in dilated and undilated eyes for DR screening. We a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Enhanced visualization of peripheral retinal vasculature with wavefront sensorless adaptive optics optical coherence tomography angiography in diabetic patients.

Journal Article Opt Lett · January 1, 2017 Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a promising technique for non-invasive visualization of vessel networks in the human eye. We debut a system capable of acquiring wide field-of-view (>70°) OCT angiograms without mosaicking. Additionally, w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Understanding RPE Lipofuscin.

Journal Article Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci · December 1, 2016 Full text Link to item Cite

Semiautomatic Segmentation of Rim Area Focal Hyperautofluorescence Predicts Progression of Geographic Atrophy Due to Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Journal Article Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci · April 1, 2016 Featured Publication PURPOSE: To develop image analysis software usable by nonexpert graders to segment geographic atrophy (GA) from dry AMD and to quantify rim area focal hyperautofluorescence (RAFH) surrounding GA on fundus autofluorescence (FAF) images. To compare the GA pr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Bilateral Proliferative Retinopathy Associated With Hoyeraal-Hreidarsson Syndrome, a Severe Form of Dyskeratosis Congenita.

Journal Article Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina · April 1, 2016 Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is the prototypical member of a family of diseases caused by defective telomere maintenance. These "telomeropathies" also include Hoyeraal-Hreidarsson syndrome (HH) and Revesz syndrome, which are severe forms of dyskeratosis con ... Full text Link to item Cite

Retinal Artery-Vein Classification via Topology Estimation.

Journal Article IEEE Trans Med Imaging · December 2015 We propose a novel, graph-theoretic framework for distinguishing arteries from veins in a fundus image. We make use of the underlying vessel topology to better classify small and midsized vessels. We extend our previously proposed tree topology estimation ... Full text Link to item Cite

Kernel regression based segmentation of optical coherence tomography images with diabetic macular edema.

Journal Article Biomed Opt Express · April 1, 2015 We present a fully automatic algorithm to identify fluid-filled regions and seven retinal layers on spectral domain optical coherence tomography images of eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME). To achieve this, we developed a kernel regression (KR)-based ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fully automatic segmentation of fluorescein leakage in subjects with diabetic macular edema.

Journal Article Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci · January 29, 2015 PURPOSE: To create and validate software to automatically segment leakage area in real-world clinical fluorescein angiography (FA) images of subjects with diabetic macular edema (DME). METHODS: Fluorescein angiography images obtained from 24 eyes of 24 sub ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial variation in optic nerve head parameters quantified in healthy newborns by handheld spectral domain optical coherence tomography.

Journal Article J AAPOS · October 2013 PURPOSE: To characterize optic nerve head (ONH) morphology and parameters, including vertical disk diameter, vertical cup diameter, and vertical cup/disk ratio in healthy, full-term newborns using a handheld spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD ... Full text Link to item Cite

Macular findings in healthy full-term Hispanic newborns observed by hand-held spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Journal Article Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina · 2013 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To enhance understanding of ethnically diverse normal newborn retinal morphology, the authors report spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) macular findings in healthy Hispanic newborns. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In thi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Endothelial cell junctions and the regulation of vascular permeability and leukocyte transmigration.

Journal Article J Thromb Haemost · September 2008 The endothelial lining of the vasculature forms the physical barrier between the blood and underlying tissues. Junctions between adjacent endothelial cells are dynamically modulated to sustain vascular homeostasis and to support the transendothelial migrat ... Full text Link to item Cite

RhoG regulates endothelial apical cup assembly downstream from ICAM1 engagement and is involved in leukocyte trans-endothelial migration.

Journal Article J Cell Biol · September 24, 2007 During trans-endothelial migration (TEM), leukocytes use adhesion receptors such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM1) to adhere to the endothelium. In response to this interaction, the endothelium throws up dynamic membrane protrusions, forming a c ... Full text Link to item Cite

ICAM-1-mediated, Src- and Pyk2-dependent vascular endothelial cadherin tyrosine phosphorylation is required for leukocyte transendothelial migration.

Journal Article J Immunol · September 15, 2007 Leukocyte transendothelial migration (TEM) has been modeled as a multistep process beginning with rolling adhesion, followed by firm adhesion, and ending with either transcellular or paracellular passage of the leukocyte across the endothelial monolayer. I ... Full text Link to item Cite

Guanidine-induced equilibrium unfolding of a homo-hexameric enzyme 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT).

Journal Article Biochemistry · April 10, 2001 4-Oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT) is a bacterial enzyme that is comprised of 6 identical 62 amino acid subunits. The 4-OT enzyme is an attractive model system in which to study the interrelationship between protein folding, subunit assembly, and catalyti ... Full text Link to item Cite