Comparison of the clinical profile of patients with glaucoma between private and government clinics in the Philippines

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>OBJECTIVE</strong>: To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with glaucoma managed at private and government institutions in the Philippines between 2009 and 2014.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>METHODS</strong>: A research team from two private and two government institutions in the Philippines reviewed the case records of 1246 patients seen who met the following criteria: intraocular pressure of >21 mmHg, optic nerve and nerve fiber layer abnormalities, and visual field defects. For bilateral cases, we selected the eye with worse glaucoma parameters.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>RESULTS</strong>: There were 600 and 646 patients in the private and government groups (mean age at presentation, 60.51 and 55.88 years), respectively, with the majority being Filipino (91%). Patients with visual acuity (VA) of 20/20 to 20/40 were more frequently observed in private centers (58.7% vs. 41.3%), while a VA worse than counting fingers was more frequently observed in government centers (66.1% vs. 33.9%). Within-group analysis showed that primary angle-closure glaucoma was the most frequent glaucoma subtype in both private (27.3%) and government institutions (37.8%). In between-group analysis showed the following to be more common in private than government centers: primary open-angle glaucoma (61.3% vs. 38.7%), normal-tension glaucoma (63.9% vs. 36.1%), ocular hypertension (92.3% vs. 7.7%), and glaucoma suspects (80.4% vs. 19.6%) while government institutions registered a larger number of primary angle-closure glaucoma (59.8% vs. 40.2%) and secondary glaucoma (70.3% vs. 29.7%) cases. Medical treatment using a single drug and multiple drugs was employed for 245 (23%) and 825 (77%) patients, respectively. Within-group analysis showed that laser iridotomy and trabeculectomy were the most commonly performed laser and surgical procedures in both institution types.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>CONCLUSION</strong>: There is a contrasting profile of glaucoma between clinical institutions in the Philippines with openangle glaucoma being more predominant in private centers while closed-angle glaucoma and secondary glaucoma being more frequent in government centers. Our findings may provide important preliminary information that can aid future health studies or training programs.</p>

Comparison of the in-vitro effects of bevacizumab, mitomycin-C, 5-fluorouracil,and triamcinolone acetonide on the viability of cultured human tenon's fibroblasts

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective:</strong> To evaluate and compare the effects of bevacizumab, mitoinycin-C (MMC), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and triamcinolone acetonide (TA) on the viability of cultured human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts (cHTF) in vitro.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods:</strong> Human Tenon's fibroblasts (HTF) were harvested and cultured in a Roswell-Park-Memorial 1-Institute (RPMI) media. MMC, 5-FU, bevaciz. umab, and TA were administered to the cHTF at 3-fold decreasing concentrations starting from 20 ug, 5 mg, 25 mg, and 4 mg respectively. A negative control/untreated group containing RPMI media only was included in the study. Fibroblast cell viability was assessed using resazurin fluorim etric assay. Half¬maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was computed for agents which showed significant decrease in cHTF viability compared to the untreated group.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results:</strong> There was no significant difference in cH IF viability between the untreated control group compared to 5-FU (p=0.97), bevacizumab (p=0.10), and TA (p=0.06) groups. Mitomycin-C showed a significant decrease in cHTF viability (p<0.001) which was dose dependent. The IC50 of MMC was computed at 12.16 ug using the prism software.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Mitomycin-C demonstrated dose-dependent decrease in viability of cultured human Tenon's fibroblasts. 5-FU, bevacizumab, and triamcinolone did not show this effect.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Key Words:</strong> Mitomycin-C, 5-fluorouracil, Bevaciz. umab, Tria. mcinolone acetonide, Fibroblast, Trabeculectomy</p>