Prevalence of second-eye cataract surgery and time interval after first-eye surgery in Iran: a clinic-based study

To determine the prevalence of second-eye senile cataract surgery [SECS] as a proportion of all senile cataract surgeries and the trend in the interval between first and second cataract operations in a main referral and academic eye hospital. In this cross-sectional study, a list of patients who underwent senile cataract surgery over four consecutive years [2006-2009] was retrieved from hospital computer-based records as the sampling frame. With a systematic random method, 15% of records were selected [1, 585 out of 10, 517 records]. First- and second-eye operations were performed in 1, 139 [71.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 69.5-74.1] and 446 eyes [28.1%; 95% CI, 25.9-30.35], respectively. The proportion of SECS procedures increased from 24.3% in 2006 to 33.4% in 2009 [P- 0.017]. The median [interquartile range] interval between the two operations was 9 [4-24] months, which remained stable during the study period. The SECS rate was 10.4% higher [P - 0.0l] and the time interval was 13 months shorter [P- 0.007] in patients who underwent phacoemulsification than extracapsular cataract extraction. The number of cataract operations in this tertiary eye care setting increased 1.5 fold over the study period. The proportion of second-eye operations also rose from 1/4 to 1/3 during the same time

sensitivity of ultrasonography in detecting renal cortical defects in pyelonephritic patients with or without vesicoureteral reflux

The presence of renal scarring has been documented in 5% to 15% of febrile urinary tract infections. The main aim of this study was to compare the value of renal ultrasonography and cortical scintigraphy with technetium-99m dimercaptosuccinic acid [DMSA] in detecting renal cortical defects in acute pyelonephritis. Between June 2003 and February 2012 a prospective cohort study of patients aged 1 month to 14 years of age was conducted. Pediatric patients with documented urinary tract infections were evaluated with renal ultrasonography, voiding cystoureterography [VCUG] and DMSA scintigraphy. Statistical test was two-tailed and was considered significant when P< 0.05. The results of DMSA scans showed 70.2% of cases as being abnormal. Renal ultrasonographies were reported to be normal in 72.45 and showed mild hydronephrosis in 37.7% of cases, moderate to severe hydronephrosis in 40.62%, stone formation in 13.66% and scar formation or decreased cortical thickness in 8.2%. There was a significant difference in ultrasonography reports between patients with normal and abnormal DMSA scans [P< 0.012] but there was no significant difference in detection of scar formation between DMSA scan results and those of ultrasonography in our patients. Among patients with severe abnormalities on DMSA scintigraphy the percent of cases with vesicoureteral reflux was significantly higher than those with normal scans or mild to moderate changes on DMSA scintigraphy. [46.3% vs 26.9%]. We concluded that ultrasonography is a sensitive method for detection of renal cortical defects and ultrasonography can also predict the presence of vesicoureteral reflux in pyelonephritic patients