Title: Vitrectomy guided by staining of the internal limiting membrane with indocyanine green Aim: To study the value of staining of ILM with ICG in macular hole surgery and to study the possible complications related to both peeling of ILM and to ICG Subject and Methods: The study was performed on 10 patients with idiopathic macular hole (group A) and 10 patients with traumatic macular hole (group B). All patients were subjected to pars plana vitrectomy followed by ICG-assisted peeling of the ILM. Anatomical success was assessed based on clinical examination and OCT. Visual improvement was measured in both groups. Possible complications related to ICG were studied by fluorescein angiography, visual field analysis and ERG. The removed ILM was examined by transmission electron microscopy Results: Closure of the macular hole was achieved in 80% of patients of group A and in 90% of patients of group B. Statistically significant improvement in visual acuity was obtained in patients of group A. Visual improvement in group B was nil. Fluorescein angiography showed perimacular hyperfluorescence in only 2 patients. Visual field showed improvement in macular sensitivity which correlated with both the anatomical success rate and the visual improvement. ERG showed improvement in 30-Hz flicker amplitude. The removed ILM showed proliferation of glial cells on the inner surface with no histopathological evidence of other retinal elements. Conclusion: ICG-assisted peeling of the ILM has given encouraging results in macular hole surgery, particularly in idiopathic macular hole.

The mechanical vibration is applied to a spacecraft via the interface to a launch vehicle at lift-off. The spacecraft is also exposed to acoustic pressure with wide frequency range. Lightweight and large area structures, such as solar paddles, antennas, and components with relatively high natural frequencies, are sensitive to acoustic load. Although the acoustic tests are usually conducted for components and system of the spacecraft, acoustic tests and analysis of the spacecraft mounted in a fairing have not been sufficiently done. It is expected that numerical analysis can be applied to the prediction of acoustic environment inside of fairings. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been developing a vibroacoustic prediction tool by the wave based method (WBM), which is one of the deterministic approaches and is proposed for numerical prediction up to the mid-frequency range. The existing deterministic approaches can not accurately solve vibroacoustic problems in this range. In this paper, numerical prediction results of sound transmission by the 3D WBM and FEM are compared with those by an experiment, and verification of the 3D WBM is examined.

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