Follow-Up Study of Over Three Years of Patients with Uveitis after Cataract Phacoemulsification: Outcomes and Complications

Purpose: To evaluate the rate and onset of intraoperative and postoperative complications post-phacoemulsification. Methods: One hundred sixty-two eyes of 145 patients with uveitis who underwent phacoemulsification between 2006 and 2009 were identified through surgical record review. Fifty-nine eyes of 46 patients met the inclusion criteria. Hazard ratio (HR) and Kaplan-Meier survival probability were calculated for each class of uveitis. Results: Macular edema (ME) resulted to be associated to chronic postoperative inflammation (r?=?0.6; p?=?0.00) and mostly related to patients who presented more than one postoperative relapse/year (r?=?0.2; p?=?0.02). Fuchs uveitis resulted to be a risk factor for posterior capsule opacification (PCO) (HR 3.36 IC95%1.0-10.5; p?=?0.03). Hypotony and elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) were detected in the anterior uveitis group (0.02 EY). Conclusion: The HR to develop ME was significantly related to chronic anterior uveitis. PCO and elevated IOP are most frequent in Fuchs uveitis. The postoperative visual acuity result was good among all the uveitis groups.     

Pseudoathetosis: report of three patients.

We report on 3 patients with pseudoathetosis, which are involuntary, slow, writhing movements due to loss of proprioception.     

Prostaglandins with antiproliferative activity induce the synthesis of a heat shock protein in human cells.

Prostaglandins (PGs) A1 and J2 were found to potently suppress the proliferation of human K562 erythroleukemia cells and to induce the synthesis of a 74-kDa protein (p74) that was identified as a heat shock protein related to the major 70-kDa heat shock protein group. p74 synthesis was stimulated at doses of PGA1 and PGJ2 that inhibited cell replication, and its accumulation ceased upon removal of the PG-induced proliferation block. PGs that did not affect K562 cell replication did not induce p74 synthesis. p74 was found to be localized mainly in the cytoplasm of PG-treated cells, but moderate amounts were found also in dense areas of the nucleus after PGJ2 treatment. p74 synthesis was not necessarily associated with cytotoxicity or with inhibition of cell protein synthesis. The results described support the hypothesis that synthesis of the 70-kDa heat shock proteins is associated with changes in cell proliferation. The observation that PGs can induce the synthesis of heat shock proteins expands our understanding of the mechanism of action of these compounds whose regulatory role is well known in many physiological phenomena, including the control of fever production.     

Motor and somatosensory evoked potentials in hereditary spastic paraplegia.

Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) from the arms and legs to transcranial stimulation of the motor cortex and somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) from stimulation of the nerves of the arms and legs, were recorded in 11 patients with hereditary spastic paraplegia. Electrophysiological abnormalities were found to be distributed differently among the systems examined; the longer the pathway, the higher the incidence and severity of impairment. MEPs from the leg were either absent or clearly reduced or prolonged in all patients. Eight patients showed abnormal cortical SSEPs on stimulation of the leg (absent or reduced responses in four, slowed central conduction velocity in seven), but only two of these patients had abnormal MEPs from the arm (absent responses). Cortical SSEPs on stimulation of the median nerve were reduced in two patients. Mean values of amplitude and central conduction velocity for MEPs and SSEPs from the leg were significantly different between patients and controls. Such differences were not found for either MEPs or SSEPs from the arm. This distribution of abnormalities, which suggests a differential involvement of the spinal pathways, parallels the reported pathological pattern in which degeneration of axons is more common and severe in the motor and sensory fibres supplying the leg.     

Some digenetic trematodes of the olive ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea (Testudines, Cheloniidae) in Costa Rica

Summary Three species of digeneans including 1 Gorgoderidae (Plesiochorus cymbiformis) from the urinary bladder, 1 Plagiorchiidae (Enodiotrema megachondrus) from the duodenum, and 1 Pachypsolidae (Pachypsolus irroratus) from the stomach were recovered from 2 of 3 olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) found stranded along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. All trematodes represent new locality records. Histopathological changes associated with eggs of cardiovascular flukes (Digenea, Spirorchiidae) were described from the lungs, spleen, and intestine of a single turtle.     

Immunomodulatory effects of two extracts of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer

The effect of Panax ginseng extracts on cell-mediated immune functions in man has been investigated. Three groups, each consisting of twenty healthy volunteers, were treated under conditions of double blindness with capsules containing lactose (Control Group B), with capsules containing 100 mg of aqueous extract of the drug (Group A), and with capsules containing 100 mg of standardized extract of the drug (Group C). All the patients took one capsule every 12 h for 8 weeks. Blood samples were withdrawn before beginning the treatment, at the fourth week and at the eighth week. The immune parameters examined were the following: chemotaxis of PMNs, phagocytosis index (PHI), phagocytosis fraction (PHF), intracellular killing, total lymphocytes (T3), T helper (T4) subset, suppressor cells (T8) subset, blastogenesis of circulating lymphocytes, natural killer-cell activity (NK). Chemotaxis proved to be enhanced (p less than 0.05) already at the fourth week in Group A as well as in Group C; the increase became even more marked (p less than 0.001) at the eight week in subjects belonging to Group C. PHI and PHF proved to be enhanced (p less than 0.05) at the eighth week in subjects of Group A; these increases were found to be higher in subjects of Group C (p less than 0.001) already starting at the fourth week. Intracellular killing was shown to be significantly increased (p less than 0.05) already at the fourth week in Groups A and C; the increase becomes highly significant in both groups (p less than 0.001) at the eighth week; however, a significant increase (p less than 0.05) at the eighth week was also noticed in the placebo group (Group B).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)