Risk factors associated with pre-senile cataract

To determine frequency of various risk factors associated with presenile cataract among patients schedule for cataract surgery. Study was conducted at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and Karachi Medical Dental College between October 2007 and September 2009. Patients of cataract of age 30-55 years were selected. Presence of risk factors like diabetes mellitus, high myopia, occupational exposure to metal work, atopic dermatitis and smoking were noted. Visual acuity, anterior and posterior segments were examined and axial length was measured. Two hundred fifty four patients satisfying inclusion criteria were selected. These included 181 male [mean age 44.7 years] and 73 females [mean age 43.8 years]. Unilateral eye involvement was present in 108 patients while bilateral involvement was present in 146 patients. Risk factors frequency was diabetes [26%], high myopia [16.1%], smoking [15%], metallic exposure [3.1%], atopic dermatitis [2%] while 37.8% were idiopathic. Significant difference were found in frequency of risk factors [p=0.004] and mean age according to presence of risk factors [p=0.001]. While no significant association was found of age with risk factors [p=0.7] and gender [p=0.24]. Our study shows that idiopathy contributed to most of the cases of presenile cataract followed by diabetes mellitus, high myopia and smoking

Asthma and Myths: an online survey

To determine the information about myths regarding asthma among internet users. An open access internet based close ended survey was hosted on a website which included questions related to common myths regarding asthma. Data was entered automatically into a database at the hosting servers. The survey invitations were sent by email by the authors with request to forward to the contact lists of recipients. After closure of survey, data from responses were recoded into new variables as correct and incorrect using the key made by the authors. Frequencies of correct responses were reported and analyzed on the basis of gender, educational status and profession. A total of 782 complete responses were submitted out of which 498 [63.7%] were submitted by males and 284 [36.3%] by females. Majority of the participants were graduate [36.1%] and postgraduates [44.8%], while the most common profession of the participants was doctor [49.9%] followed by non-medical students [17.1%]. Frequency of correct responses was better in males. Lowest correct responses were given by unemployed and best responses were given by doctors. Self-employed persons fared better than bankers and people associated with education.Surprisingly non-medical students fared better than medical students. There is a need to increase public awareness regarding asthma, as the status of relatively educated internet users is also inadequate