Four-year follow-up of corneal aberrations and visual functionsof myopic patients after laser in situ keratomileusis

Objective: To report on 4-year follow-up of corneal higher-order aberrations and daily visual functions of myopic patients after laser in situ keratomileusis [LASIK]

Methods: One hundred thirty four eyes of 67 patients who underwent LASIK guided by aspherical ablation were included in this study. The vision, corneal spherical aberration [SphA] and Coma were recorded before LASIK and at 6 month and 4 year after LASIK. The evaluation of the questionnaire about daily visual functions was performed by the same physician after LASIK

Results: No eye decreased the BCVA during 4 year follow-up. The effect index and safety index were 1.08 +/- 0.16, 1.11 +/- 0.17 and 1.12 +/- 0.16, 1.13 +/- 0.14 respectively at 6 month and 4 year post-LASIK. After LASIK the corneal SphA and Coma were significantly increased, however the difference between 6 month and 4 year post-LASIK was no statistical significance. Most patients [94.3%-92.4%] felt satisfaction or high satisfaction about the ability to perform each daily visual function after LASIK. Meanwhile there was still about 7.4%-9.2% patients who complained that they could not drive at night. Further analysis showed that the score of driving at night was negative correlation with corneal SphA [r=-0.645, p=0.040; r=-0.688, p=0.040 at 6 month and 4 year post-LASIK respectively]

Conclusions: Our four-year follow-up outcomes indicated that the myopic patients after LASIK had the long-term stable corneal aberration and satisfaction of daily visual functions

Clinical efficacy of Corydalis composite combined with methotrexate in treating rheumatoid arthritis / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the clinical efficacy and safety of Corydalis composite (CDC) combined with methotrexate (MTX) in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Seventy-six RA patients were randomly assigned to 2 groups, 37 in the treated group received the combined therapy, and the 39 received MTX treatment alone, all were treated for 12 weeks. Efficacy of treatment was evaluated adopting the standard of American College of Rheumatology (ACR), taking ACR20 as the chief criterion; ACR50, ACR70 as well as the clinical indexes and items in Health Account Questionnaire (HAQ) as the auxiliary criteria, including joint swelling index, joint tenderness index, holding power, morning stiffness time, resting pain, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein. And the adverse reaction was recorded at the same time.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After being treated for 4, 8 and 12 weeks, the ACR20 response rate reached 35.14%, 59.46% and 70.27% respectively in patients of the treated group, while that in the control group was 17.95%, 35.90% and 46.15% respectively, significant difference between groups was shown in the outcome of week 8 and 12 (P < 0.05). ACR50 and ACR70 improving rate at all the time points of observation were increased in the treated group, with the ACR50 improving rate at week 12 higher than that in the control group (43.24% vs. 20.51%, P < 0.05). As compared with the control group, the improvements in all the auxiliary criteria were more significant in the treated group (P < 0.05). The incidence of adverse reaction was less in the treated group than in the control group (32.43% vs. 56.41%, P < 0.05), particularly in term of the damage on liver (0 vs. 10.26%, P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>CDC combined with MTX is more effective than MTX alone in treating active RA with less adverse reaction.</p>