Experts convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified five elements of a brain-based condition that has emerged as a leading cause of vision impairment starting in childhood in the United States and other industrialized nations. Known as cerebral (or cortical) visual impairment (CVI), some estimates suggest that at least 3% of primary school children exhibit CVI-related visual problems, which vary, but may include difficulty visually searching for an object or person or understanding a scene involving complex motion. Their report, based on evidence and expert opinion, was published today in Ophthalmology.

Like a fire alarm sending signals to evacuate a smoky building, the immune system has internal guards to help the body sense and respond to danger. However, for people with risks for heart disease, these warning signals can have a negative consequence: they can increase the size of plaque in arteries, making them narrow, and trigger inflammatory events that can cause plaque to rupture. This can set the stage for a heart attack or stroke.