Effect of Tropicamide on Laser Flare Meter Measurements in Patients with Pseudoexfoliation

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To investigate the effect of 1% tropicamide on anterior chamber aqueous flare (ACAF) measurements acquired with laser flare meter in patients with pseudoexfoliation.     

Relationship of the blood pressure's level and skinfold thickness]

OBJECTIVE: Hypertension is an important problem of the public health. Insufficient education of the people along with insufficient physical examination also plays a role in the poor success of the diagnosis and treatment of the hypertension. We investigated whether the skinfold thickness has an importance in the prediction of blood pressure or not. METHODS: In Aydin City area 110 women and 100 men selected by randomized sampling method were included into our study. Body mass index, blood pressure and skinfold thickness were measured according to the international guidelines. RESULTS: There was a moderate correlation between the skinfold and body mass index (r= 0.494, p=0.000) and there was a mild correlation between the body mass index and systolic and diastolic blood pressures (r=0.225, p=0.000 and r=0.300, p=0.000, respectively). There was no correlation between the skinfold thickness and systolic and diastolic blood pressures (r=0.058, p=0.400 and r=0.090, p=0.194, respectively). CONCLUSION: It is concluded that body mass index, not skinfold thickness, can be used for the prediction of the blood pressure. Some other factors independent from the body mass index might be the determinants of the skinfold thickness.     

New wound protection for rabbits

Rabbits are the experimental animals of choice in many studies including flaps, wounds, and topical trials for new pharmacological agents. Because the topical drugs and other materials used for dressing are irritating to the animal, they tend to remove dressings, bandages, drapes, insensate flaps, and also topical drugs by scratching, licking, and biting if they are within the reach of the animal. In this study, we report an easy to prepare, user-friendly, comfortable, and cheap dressing protector called a dressing shield to prevent these problems.     

Pattern electroretinography and visual evoked potentials in optic nerve diseases.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate transient pattern electroretinography (PERG) and pattern visual evoked potential (VEP) for the diagnosis, differential diagnosis and follow-up of optic nerve diseases. METHODS: Twenty-nine consecutive patients (14 female, 15 male) with the diagnosis of ischaemic optic neuropathy (n=14) and optic neuritis (n=15) were included in this study. Mean age of the patients with ischaemic optic neuropathy was 63.3+/-3.3 (60-78) years and the mean age of the patients with optic neuritis was 28.3+/-8.4 (19-43) years. In each patient ophthalmological examination and systemic evaluation were done and VEP and PERG were recorded. As a control group, VEP recordings of 35 healthy subjects were included. RESULTS: In the ischaemic optic neuropathy group (group 1), mean VEP amplitude (+/-SD) (1.96+/-0.95 microV) was found to be decreased significantly in the affected eyes in comparison to the control group and the unaffected eyes. The delay in latency (116.3+/-20.14 msec in the affected eyes compared with 101.31+/-6.19 msec in unaffected eyes) was statistically significant when compared with the healthy subjects. In the optic neuritis group (group 2), VEP amplitude was decreased (4.13+/-4.04 microV vs 6.97+/-3.35 microV and 6.97+/-4.43 microV) and latency was increased (122.59+/-20.09 msec vs 101.31+/-6.19 msec and 108.76+/-13.57 msec) in affected eyes significantly in comparison to the unaffected eyes and control group, respectively. Even though there were no significant differences for P50 latency and N95/P50 ratios between affected and unaffected eyes in both groups, N95 amplitude decreased significantly in the affected eyes of the ischaemic optic neuropathy patients and N95 latency was found to be decreased in optic neuritis patients. There was no correlation between VEP and PERG findings in both groups. CONCLUSION: VEP amplitude decreased significantly in ischaemic optic neuropathies while latency delay was more significant in patients with optic neuritis. PERG findings showed decreased N95 amplitude in ischemic optic neuropathy without associated latency changes.     

Treatment of Anogenital Warts by Pulsed Dye Laser

BACKGROUND: Treatment of anogenital warts is difficult in that the disease spectrum is wide. Moreover, varying degrees of improvement are obtained. OBJECTIVE: To study the treatment of persistent anogenital warts by pulsed dye laser. METHODS: Pulsed dye laser was used with the following settings: spot size 7 mm, pulse duration 1500 microsec, and fluence 7.5 J/cm2. Two different wavelengths were used: 585 and 595 nm. RESULTS: Lesions healed completely using both wavelengths after one treatment. CONCLUSION: Pulsed dye laser has been found to be safe, effective, satisfactory, and less traumatic compared to other options for treatment of perianal warts in children.     

Is there any relationship between human leucocyte antigen class II and chronic urticaria? (chronic urticaria and HLA class II)

The Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing of large groups of patients with various autoimmune diseases has demonstrated that some HLA alleles occur at higher frequencies in specific diseases than in the general population. Chronic urticaria has been shown to have an autoimmune basis by a previous study which found an association between chronic urticaria and specific HLA groups. We investigated the HLA subtypes of Turkish chronic urticaria patients. For this purpose 42 Turkish patients with chronic urticaria and 115 healthy controls were typed for HLA-DR and DQ by PCR-SSP (Polymerase Chain Reaction Sequence Specific Primers) low resolution DNA technique. We found an increased frequency of DR4 (42.9%, p=0.01) in chronic urticaria patients in comparison with that in healthy controls. This study supports the hypothesis that HLA alleles may be involved in the pathogenesis of chronic urticaria and that they appear to be directly involved in the initiation of the immune response.