Convergence excess consecutive esotropia associated with 0.01% atropine eye drops usage in patients operated for intermittent exotropia

To report convergence excess esotropia (CEET) following 0.01% atropine eye drops (Low dose atropine [LDA]). Children who developed CEET that resolved promptly after discontinuation of LDA are described. Three myopes aged 5.3 � 1.2 years and mean sphere -4.5D were included. All were operated for intermittent exotropia earlier. Mean esotropia was +28.3PD for near and 10.6PD for distance. LDA induced high AC/A ratio and fusion normalized in 3 weeks after discontinuation of LDA. LDA should be used with caution in patients with esophoria or previously operated for intermittent exotropia. Any evidence of the emergence of a CEET should warrant discontinuation of LDA.

Estimation Dynamic Distance Direct Ophthalmoscopy (eDDDO): A novel, objective method for the quantitative assessment of accommodation in young children

Purpose: To describe estimation dynamic distance direct ophthalmoscopy (eDDDO) and compare it with the monocular estimation method of dynamic retinoscopy (eDR) for the assessment of accommodation in children. Methods: In this prospective observational cohort study, an ophthalmologist performed eDDDO followed by eDR in children with normal eyes, and then under the partial effects of cyclopentolate and tropicamide to assess performance of eDDDO with eDR under the condition of pharmacologically induced accommodation failure. Only one eye of each child was recruited in the study. To study the inter-observer variation, two masked pediatric ophthalmology fellows performed eDDDO in the similar manner. Results: For the comparison of eDDDO with eDR, 60 eyes of 60 patients were recruited. The mean age of the patients was 10.4 years. The mean accommodation on eDDDO was 3.0D, 5.1D, 9.8D, and 11.3D at 40 cm, 25 cm, 10 cm, and 8 cm, respectively and 3.0D, 5.0D, 9.5D, and 11.0D on eDR. The eDDDO overestimated accommodation by a mean 0.17D (95% CL 0-0.48D, P = 0.5). The correlation of eDDDO with eDR was excellent (Pearson r 0.98, T value 76.0). The inter-observer difference with eDDDO was not significant (mean 1D, 95% CL 0-2.6D, P = 0.9) and the correlation between two observers was excellent (Pearson r 0.9, T value 12.7). The eDDDO and eDR were also performed on 12 eyes of 6 children with a mean age of 8.5 years (range 8-12 years) under the partial effect of cyclopentolate and tropicamide, where eDDDO overestimated the accommodation by a mean 0.3D (95% CL 0- 1.2D, P = 0.7) and the correlation was excellent (Pearson r 1.0, T value 45). Conclusion: eDDDO is a simple, reliable, quantitative, and objective technique of accommodation assessment for children. Further studies with larger sample are required to assess its performance in disorders of accommodation affecting younger children and in children with ocular comorbidities.

Allergic reactions to atropine eye drops for retardation of progressive myopia in children

Purpose: To report clinical manifestations of ocular allergy to atropine eye drops used for retardation of progressive myopia in children. Methods: Myopic children, who developed bothersome itching that subsided promptly after cessation of atropine eye drops, were included. History of systemic or ocular allergy, preexisting ocular conditions, and clinical features of allergy were noted. Results: Six children, age 5–15 years, were included. Four developed allergy to 1% atropine sulfate eye drops and two to 0.01% concentration of atropine sulfate. The onset of allergy was within a month to as late as 4 years after using atropine eye drops. The severity of allergy was higher with 1% concentration. The most common symptoms of atropine allergy were itching and burning. The most common signs were lid swelling and hyperemia. The allergic manifestations promptly reversed with the stoppage of eye drops. Reintroduction was possible in three patients, either by reducing the concentration of atropine or using benzalkonium free formulation. Conclusion: Allergy to atropine eye drops in children may develop within a few weeks or after many years of usage. Prompt cessation followed by a reintroduction and continuation of therapy may be possible in few patients.

Spine revisited: principles and parlance redefined.

A revised appreciation of the evolution and the nature of bone in general and of vertebrae in particular, allows revisiting the human spine to usher in some new principles and more rational parlance, that embody spine's phylogeny, ontogeny, anatomy and physiology. Such an approach accords primacy to spine's soft-tissues, and relegates to its bones a secondary place.

Allelopathic effects of Lantana camara Linn. on spore germination of Asterella angusta Steph.--a liverwort.

Extract from root, stem and leaf of L. camara proved inhibitory for germination of the spores of A. angusta. Leaf extract was found to exhibit maximum allelopathic potentiality followed by stem and root extract and may be interpreted to be the result of phytotoxic substances which are possibly synthesized in the leaf and translocated to other organs.

Non-pathology: the bedrock of pathology.

Pathology, also called morbid anatomy, is macroscopically, microscopically, and molecularly so manifest an array of phenomena that it has compelled medical men to closely link it up with disease, dis-ease, and death. But there is more than meets the eye of the morbid anatomists, microscopists, and the molecular biologists. The obvious science of pathology is governed by numerous abstract, subtle, non-pathological factors. A pathological phenomenon is subservient to cosmic noumenon. Such a sea-change allows a newer perspective that cures modern medicine of many of its dogmas and provides epistemologically valid directions to research methodologies on the one hand and clinical practices on the other.

Cause of death--so-called designed event acclimaxing timed happenings.

Cause-of-death as an established global medical institution faces its greatest challenge in the commonplace observation that the healthy do not necessarily survive and the diseased do not necessarily die. A logical analysis of the assumed relationships between disease and death provides some insights that allow questioning the taken-for-granted relationship between defined disease/s and the final common parameter of death. Causalism as a paradigm has taken leave of all advanced sciences. In medicine, it is lingering on for anthropocentric reasons. Natural death does not come to pass because of some (replaceable) missing element, but because the evolution of the individual from womb to tomb has arrived at its final destination. To accept death as a physiologic event is to advance thanatology and to disburden medical colleges and hospitals of a lot of avoidable thinking and doing.

Qualtum cosmics-and-chaotics--the ultimate tortoise in physics and modern medicine.

Qualtum cosmics is the qualitative opposite of quantum mechanics. The flip-side of qualtum cosmics is qualtum chaotics, the two governing much of what is seen as inscrutable in medicine. The Ultimate (Last) Tortoise is close to Einsteinean idea of a Unified Theory, a single concept that can explain whatsoever there is in physics, (and in medicine, or what have you).

An epitaph for the gene. An obituary for genetics. An adieu for heredity.

Modern medicine has been researching on cancer cell, cancer, hypertension, heart attack and so on without once defining any of these clearly. It swears by these terms much like mankind swears by sunset and sunrise, which are just not there. It is possible that the pet hobbyhorses of modern times, namely, gene, genetics, and heredity may belong to the above mythical group-entities that are logically absent, but whose illogic is strong enough to sustain research and publication world over. Gene, genetics and heredity have outlived their utility and must be replaced in near future by new concepts and terms.

TRAS principles blight arterial bypass and plasty.

A new concept--Tissue Requisitions (Principle I)/Relinquishes (Principle II) Arterial Supply--of TRAS principles is introduced to help appreciate the failures/successes of modern medicine's attempts at restoring arterial flow in luminally compromised coronary/carotid fields, an invasive branch rightly called vascular ReRheology, which comprises diagnosing/treating arterial blocks. The technical wizardry of arterial reconstruction (bypass) or lumen--restoration (plasty) has to reckon with the TRAS principles all the time.

Spondylo-epiphyseal dysplacea tarda (a case report).

A rare case of disproportionate short stature suggestive of spondylo-epiphyseal dysplasia tarda is reported and relevant literature reviewed. It is emphasized that its radiological features show a marked similarity to ochronotic spine, with which it is therefore commonly mistaken. An indeterminate pigment was observed in the liver biopsy in this case with connective tissue disorder.