Most of the recalled 2.9 million units were shipped to Japan and other parts of Asia, the company said. It said there were no reports of physical harm from the recalled U.S. lots.

"Non-sterility of a contact lens solution may have serious health consequences, including eye infection and microbial keratitis," the company said, but added it considered the likelihood of harm to be "low."

The company has temporarily stopped all manufacturing at the China factory to clean and sanitize it, a process it expects to take 10 to 12 weeks.

The announcement comes just six months after the highly publicized global recall by rival U.S. eye care company Bausch & Lomb Inc. of its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution after it was linked to keratitis - or inflammation of the cornea - caused by a fungus.

ReNu with MoistureLoc had annual sales of $100 million. Analysts have estimated Bausch & Lomb faces up to $1 billion in potential liability from the fungal infections. Bausch & Lomb, which has been beset with accounting irregularities, earlier this month expects to report lower third-quarter earnings largely because of the product recall.

Advanced Medical Optical said it posted eye-care sales of about $209 million in the first nine months of 2006 and that the business accounts for about 28 percent of total company sales.

In view of its own recall, Advanced Medical now expects 2006 earnings per share, excluding special items, of $1.30 to $1.40, compared with a prior forecast of $1.85 to $1.90. Analysts expect earnings of $1.88 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

For 2007, the company sees EPS of $1.85 to $2.00, down from the $2.25 to $2.35 forecast earlier. Analysts were expecting $2.28, according to Reuters Estimates.

For the remainder of 2006 and 2007, Advanced Medical projected recall-related costs and charges of about $35 million to $40 million.

It now expects 2006 revenue of $985 million to $1 billion, somewhat lower than a previous forecast of up to $1.02 billion. For 2007, the company projects revenue of $1.06 billion to $1.08 billion, compared with its previous forecast of up to $1.1 billion.

Advanced Medical Optics was down $3.31, or 8.4 percent, at $35.94 - a 52-week low - in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares of rival eye-care company Alcon Inc. rose 6.2 percent to $107.94, also on the NYSE.

Bank of America analyst David Maris said sales of Alcon's contact lens solutions should benefit from the damage of the recalls by both Bausch & Lomb and Advanced Medical Optics.

"From the Bausch & Lomb example, we have seen that it is difficult to recover from market share losses" following a recall, Maris said in a research note. (Additional reporting by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Himani Sarkar in Bangalore)

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Combination of negative traits hard on the heart

Last Updated: 2006-11-21 16:48:58 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Anger, hostility, depression and anxiety have each been associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease. A new study suggests that a combination of these "negative" personality traits may be especially hard on the heart.

The psychological attributes of anger, hostility, anxiety and depression are related to each other and often co-occur, Dr. Stephen H. Boyle of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, explained. "Thus, depressed people are often angry, hostile and anxious and hostile people often have elevated levels of anxiety and depression and experience frequent bouts of anger and so on."

However, most previous studies have only examined the impact of individual psychological attributes on heart health, Boyle said. "This raises questions: Are those people at risk because they are hostile? angry? depressed? or anxious? Or because they possess all of these attributes?"

Boyle and colleagues attempted to address this issue by analyzing data for 2,105 Air Force Veterans of the Vietnam War who were followed for 17 years for evidence of heart disease. The veterans, who were free of heart disease at study entry, took a personality test at the start of the study and had their health checked at regular intervals.

"We found, independently of traditional risk factors of heart disease, that each psychological attribute was a significant predictor of incident heart disease, a finding that is consistent with previous studies," Boyle said.

More importantly, he said, the co-occurrence of negative personality traits -- hostility, anger, depression, and anxiety -- was the best psychological predictor of heart disease.

"We feel that those psychological attributes reflect aspects of a broader disposition to experience psychological distress and frequent negative affect, and this disposition is associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease," Boyle said.

Rather than trying to search for a specific psychological factor, like anger or hostility, that is "toxic for heart disease," Boyle said, it may be more important to identify broader underlying dispositions that place people at risk for poor cardiovascular health.

SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine November/December, 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.