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  2. Ozawa Yoko

Ozawa Yoko

  (小澤 洋子)

Profile Information

Affiliation
Professor, Fujita Health University
Assistant Professor/Senior Assistant Professor, School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology, Keio University
Degree
医学博士(Jun, 2004, 慶應義塾大学)
Other name(s) (e.g. nickname)
Yoko Ozawa
Researcher number
90265885
J-GLOBAL ID
200901062629077077
researchmap Member ID
5000088381
External link
Yoko Ozawa M.D., Ph.D. works as a Chief of the Medical Retina Division (Age-related macular disease; AMD division) and a Vitreoretinal Surgeon, as well as a Lab Chief of the Laboratory of Retinal Cell Biology (RCB lab). Her recent research interest is the aging and neuroprotection of the retina, and its association with oxidative stress and inflammation. One of her missions is to find a neuroprotective treatment for the retinal diseases, such as AMD, diabetic retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa. During her training of the vitreoretinal surgery, she has become aware that simple surgical therapies do not always rescue the patients’ retina, and the additional approaches may be required for further improvement of the retinal conditions. Therefore, she joined a basic research lab, the Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine, Prof. Hideyuki Okano’s Lab, for mastering neurobiology of the retina, including development and regeneration. After taking the Ph.D., she returned to Department of Ophthalmology, and started her research for learning the pathophysiology of the retinal diseases and exploring new therapeutic approaches.

Research Interests

 1

Research Areas

 1

Education

 1

Awards

 2

Papers

 212
  • Yoko Ozawa, Keisuke Yoshihara, Marwa Mezghani, Paulina Pierzchała, Mateusz Nikodem, Sylvaine Barbier, Mariko Nomoto, Yasuko Aitoku
    Scientific reports, 14(1) 14181-14181, Jun 20, 2024  
    Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is a prevalent cause of permanent vision loss and blindness in the elderly worldwide, with a significant impact on patients' daily lives. However, burdens related to nAMD from the patients' perspective have not been well documented. Here we developed a new questionnaire after eliciting nAMD patients' daily challenges followed by a pilot survey. Seven daily life burden domains were identified, and a quantitative survey was conducted using the questionnaire in the real-world clinic. Of the total 153 participants (mean age, 76.3 ± 8.3 years), 67 (43.8%) had bilateral nAMD, and 79 (52.7%) were classified into severe nAMD according to the best-corrected visual acuity with cut-off value of 0.52 in logMAR. Patients with bilateral and severe nAMD had significantly higher burden scores across all domains. Network models for the bilateral and severe disease subgroups identified the interactions between "activity of daily living" and "hand-eye coordination" and between "use of electronic devices" and "face recognition" domains, which were considered to be important burdens for the patients. These results can advance ophthalmologists' understanding of the impact of nAMD on patients' daily lives and the importance of active and continuing treatment for patients with nAMD.
  • Norihiro Nagai, Yasuaki Mushiga, Yoko Ozawa
    Scientific reports, 13(1) 22570-22570, Dec 19, 2023  
    Patient systemic and ocular data based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography images were analyzed (n = 45; control and diabetic eyes with or without diabetic retinopathy [DR]; mean age, 49.6 ± 8.1 years). All participants had best-corrected visual acuity < 0.05 in logMAR. The choriocapillaris flow area (CCFA) ratio was lower and the coefficient of variation (CV) of CCFA ratio was higher in diabetic eyes with or without DR than in control eyes. CCFA ratio of DR eyes was lower than that of diabetic eyes without DR. Superficial retinal vessel length density (VLD) was reduced only in DR eyes. CCFA ratio correlated with retinal VLD, photoreceptor outer segment (PROS) length, and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) volume in the study population; mean PROS decreased in diabetic eyes with or without DR, and RPE volume increased in DR eyes. CCFA ratio < 65.9% and CV of CCFA ratio ≥ 0.140 were more frequently found in diabetic eyes (odds ratio [OR], 13.333; P = 0.001), and related to HbA1c ≥ 7.0% (OR, 4.992; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.164-21.412; P = 0.030) or systolic blood pressure ≥ 135 mmHg (OR, 5.572; 95% CI 1.156-26.863; P = 0.032). These findings could help understand diabetic pathogenesis in the choriocapillaris and outer retina, and remind clinicians to manage both diabetes and hypertension.
  • Toshiki Tezuka, Mamoru Shibata, Hironari Hanaoka, Yoshikane Izawa, Taku Kikuchi, Kunihiko Akino, Yoko Ozawa, Masataka Saito, Yuko Kaneko, Jin Nakahara, Tsubasa Takizawa
    Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache, 43(12) 3331024231219477-3331024231219477, Dec, 2023  
    BACKGROUND: Retinal migraine is a diagnosis of exclusion and is characterized by repeated episodes of transient monocular blindness associated with migraine. We report a case of systemic lupus erythematosus with acute episodes mimicking retinal migraines. CASE REPORT: A 46-year-old woman with a history of migraine with aura since her 20s and Evans syndrome presented with episodic transient monocular blindness. Retinal migraine was considered as the cause, and migraine prophylaxis initially reduced its frequency. After 5 months, the frequency increased, with chilblain-like lupus lesions on her extremities. Laboratory testing revealed lymphopenia and hypocomplementemia, fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus, which may have caused Evans syndrome and transient monocular blindness, mimicking retinal migraines. After intravenous methylprednisolone and rituximab therapy, the transient monocular blindness episodes did not recur. CONCLUSION: Given the clinical presentation, systemic lupus erythematosus should be considered as a cause of transient monocular blindness and should be distinguished from retinal migraine.
  • Norihiro Nagai, Yasuaki Mushiga, Yoko Ozawa
    Scientific reports, 13(1) 13686-13686, Aug 22, 2023  
    The visual function of diabetic eyes was assessed to evaluate spatial-sweep steady-state pattern electroretinography (swpPERG) as a potential high-sensitivity analysis method. Data from 24 control eyes, 28 diabetic eyes without diabetic retinopathy (DR), and 30 diabetic eyes with DR (all with best-corrected visual acuity [BCVA] better than logMAR 0.05; median age, 51) in response to spatial-patterned and contrast-reversed stimuli of sizes 1 (thickest) to 6 were converted into the frequency domain using a Fourier transform and expressed as signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). SNRs of diabetic eyes, both with and without DR, were lower than those of controls (P < 0.05), and those of DR eyes were lower than those of diabetic eyes without DR (P < 0.05). The SNRs were correlated with ganglion cell layer volume measured using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and foveal vascular length density at the superficial retinal layer measured using OCT angiography (P < 0.05 or < 0.01, according to stimulus size). Therefore, swpPERG SNRs could detect fine reductions in visual function in diabetic eyes and were particularly low in DR eyes. Moreover, SNRs were correlated with inner retinal morphological changes in diabetic eyes, both with and without DR. swpPERG may therefore be useful for detecting fine fluctuations in visual function in diabetic eyes.
  • Mariko Sasaki, Kenya Yuki, Akiko Hanyuda, Kazumasa Yamagishi, Kaoru Motomura, Toshihide Kurihara, Yohei Tomita, Kiwako Mori, Nobuhiro Ozawa, Yoko Ozawa, Norie Sawada, Kazuno Negishi, Kazuo Tsubota, Shoichiro Tsugane, Hiroyasu Iso
    Scientific Reports, 13(1), Aug 9, 2023  
    Abstract Residents of Chikusei City, aged 40–74 years, underwent systemic and ophthalmological screening, and participants with diabetes were included in this analysis. Dietary intake was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire and calculated as a percentage of the total energy. The presence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) was defined as Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study levels ≥ 20 in either eye. The association between dietary fatty acid intake and DR has been examined in a cross-sectional study. Among the 647 diabetic participants, 100 had DR. The mean total fat and saturated fatty acid (SFA) intakes were 22.0% and 7.3% of the total energy intake, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, the highest quartiles of total fat and SFA intake were positively associated with the presence of DR compared with the lowest quartiles (odds ratios (95% confidence intervals), 2.61 (1.07–6.39), p for trend = 0.025, and 2.40 (1.12–5.17), p for trend = 0.013, respectively). No significant associations were found between DR prevalence and monounsaturated or unsaturated fatty acid intake. These results suggest that a high intake of fat and SFA may affect the development of DR, even in individuals whose total fat intake is generally much lower than that of Westerners.
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