Long-term Visual and Refractive Outcomes of Argon Laser-treated Retinopathy of Prematurity.

Purpose: In this case-control study, we measured visual acuity, objective refraction, ocular biometric parameters, and strabismus in premature cases classified according to the following categories: argon laser-treated retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), untreated spontaneously regressed ROP, no ROP, and full-term controls. Methods: Cases with a history of prematurity at six years of age were categorized into the following groups: patients with a history of treated type 1 ROP using argon laser (group I), untreated spontaneously regressed ROP (group II), and no history of ROP (group III). Group IV included age-matched healthy full-term controls. Funduscopy was performed for all the cases and the control group. Results: In total, 24 eyes of 12 laser-treated ROP cases, 186 eyes of 93 spontaneously regressed ROP patients, 74 eyes of 37 premature cases with no history of ROP, and 286 eyes of 143 controls were included in the study. The mean spherical equivalent in the treated cases was not significantly different from that in the untreated cases and patients in group III. However, the average cylindrical power was significantly different among the groups (P < 0.004). Furthermore, anisometropia ( ≥ 1.5 diopters) was diagnosed with a higher rate in the treated cases (P = 0.03). The corneal curvature of the laser-treated eyes was significantly steeper and the axial length was significantly shorter than those in the other groups (P < 0.002 and P < 0.001, respectively, for multivariate analysis). Strabismus was found in three treated patients (25%). Additionally, there were three treated eyes (12.5%) diagnosed with macular dragging. Conclusion: Premature cases including those who had a history of argon laser-treated ROP and those with untreated spontaneously regressed ROP showed acceptable long-term visual and refractive outcomes along with a fairly low rate of ocular disorders.

Erratum: Long-term Visual and Refractive Outcomes of Argon Laser-treated Retinopathy of Prematurity.

[This corrects the article on p. 384 in vol. 17 PMCPMC9493422.].

Glutathione S-Transferase Omega-2 and Transforming Growth Factor-ß1 Polymorphisms in Iranian Glaucoma Patients.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the association of glutathione s-transferase omega 2 (GSTO2) (142N > D) and transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) (869T > C) gene polymorphisms on the pathogenesis of two common types of glaucoma (including primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and chronic angle-closure glaucoma (CACG)) in the Iranian population. METHODS: A total of 100 glaucoma patients (60% males and 40% females with an age mean ± SD of 34.66 ± 14.25 years; 56 cases of POAG and 44 cases of CACG) were enrolled in this study. GSTO2 (142N > D) and TGF-ß1 (869T > C) polymorphisms were evaluated by PCR-based methods in patients and controls. RESULTS: At locus GSTO2 (142N > D), the odds of ND genotype with respect to DD and NN genotypes were 1.55 and 2.08 times higher in POAG and CACG patients compared to those of patients in the control group (95% CI1: 0.80-2.98; 95% CI2: 1.00-4.33) which was statistically significant in CACG patients. However, the odds of DD and NN genotypes against the reference genotype in two patients group were not statistically significant as compared to those of patients in the control group. There was a significant association between the ND genotype and male patients (OR = 2.28, 95% CI: 1.06-4.92). The analysis of TGF-ß1 (869T > C) polymorphisms showed no significant difference between the genotypes of TGF-ß1 (869T > C) polymorphisms in patients and control groups; however, the CT genotype of TGF-ß1 significantly differed between female controls and patients (OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.18-0.96). CONCLUSION: The presented results revealed that there was a significant association between the ND genotype of GSTO2 and the pathogenesis of glaucoma. Furthermore, this genotype can be considered as a sex-dependent genetic risk factor for the development of glaucoma. In contrast, the CT genotype of TGF-ß1 is suggested to be a protective genetic factor against the pathogenesis of glaucoma.

Assessing whether child and parent reports of the KINDL questionnaire measure the same constructs of quality of life in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND: Discrepancy between child self-report and parent proxy-report has long been documented in the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measurement of children with chronic health conditions. This study aims to assess whether child and parent reports of the Kinder Lebensqualität fragebogen (KINDL) questionnaire measure the same construct of HRQoL in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). METHODS: Participants were 122 Iranian children with ADHD and 127 of their parents, who completed the child and parent reports of the KINDL, respectively. Internal consistency of the child and parent reports were assessed by Cronbach's alpha. The intra-class correlation (ICC) coefficient and factor analysis were applied to assess whether the child self-report and the parent proxy-report measured the same construct of HRQoL. Additionally, convergent and discriminant validity were assessed using the Spearman correlation. RESULTS: The results of factor analysis revealed that the child self-report and parent proxy-report measure two different aspects of HRQoL. Moreover, both versions of the KINDL instrument showed excellent convergent and discriminant validity. The internal consistency was close to or greater than 0.7 for all domains of both child and parent reports. CONCLUSIONS: Although the child self-report and the parent proxy-report of the Persian version of the KINDL have good psychometric properties, they are not interchangeable. This finding indicates that Iranian children with ADHD and their parents evaluate children's HRQoL from their own viewpoints.

A multivariate multilevel analysis of the risk factors associated with anthropometric indices in Iranian mid-adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The present study was conducted to jointly assess some specific factors related to body fat measures using a multivariate multilevel analysis in a representative sample of Iranian mid-adolescents. METHODS: This study was conducted among 2538 students (1286 boys) aged 14-20 years old, who were randomly selected among 16 public high schools by multi-stage random sampling procedure from all education districts of Shiraz, Iran. Data on demographic characteristics, family history of obesity, physical activity, socio-economic (SES) variables and screen time were collected. Height, weight, triceps (TST), abdominal (AST), and subscapular (SST) skinfold thickness were measured and their body mass index (BMI) was calculated. A multivariate multilevel approach was used to analyze the factors associated with obesity measures of the TST, AST, SST at the child and district levels. RESULTS: In this study, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was estimated to be 10.2 and 5.1%, respectively. Overall, the major portion of the total variance in TST (97.1%), AST (97.7%), and SST (97.5%) was found at the child level. The results of multivariate multilevel method revealed that being girls, having a family history of obesity, and SES were significantly associated with increasing of three body fat measures (all the p-values were less than 0.05). There were significant positive associations between moderate to vigorous physical activities with AST and SST (for AST: ß =2.54, SE = 1.40, p = 0.05; for SST: ß =2.24, SE = 1.20, p = 0.05). Compared to children in 14-16 age group, children in age group 16-18 years had less TST (ß = - 0.67, SE = 0.34, p = 0.04). Furthermore, other age groups and screen time did not play an important role in three outcome variables. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed some factors that contribute to three body fat measures. Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective interventions to prevent the effects of individual and environmental undesirable factors on childhood obesity in both family and community levels.

Visual Impairment Prevalence, Causes, and Role of Healthcare Access: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Iran.

PURPOSE: Healthcare access is one of the determinants of visual impairment (VI), as a public health problem. The objective of this study was to estimate VI prevalence, related causes, and its correlation with access to physicians in Iran. METHODS: : This systematic review and meta-analysis include observational studies published in Iran. PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and local databases were systematically searched by using the MeSH headings. Data on the provincial distribution of physicians, as an index of access to healthcare, was retrieved. A random-effect meta-analysis was performed to assess. RESULTS: Eight articles were included. The pooled prevalence of blindness, low vision, and VI was 0.80% (95% CI: 0.61-0.99%), 2.92% (95% CI: 2.40-3.44%), and 5.57% (95% CI: 4.71-6.43%). Refractive errors were the most common causes of VI based on PVA with the pooled prevalence of 54.6% (95% CI: 43.4-65.8%). Based on BCVA, we found that the pooled prevalence of cataracts was 37.4% (95% CI: 29.5-45.3%) as the most common cause of VI. The results of metaregression showed that the greater number of general practitioners (GPs) (P value = 0.01) and pharmacists (P value = 0.024) per population were associated with a lower prevalence of blindness. CONCLUSION: Some of the main causes of visual impairment in Iran are preventable. Access to healthcare services may lead to early diagnosis of preventable causes of VI. Further well-designed studies and national surveys should be conducted to provide accurate data from different regions of Iran.

Heterogeneity analysis of diffusion-weighted MRI for prediction and assessment of microstructural changes early after one cycle of induction chemotherapy in nasopharyngeal cancer patients.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether the pretreatment apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) heterogeneity parameters and their alterations, after one cycle of induction chemotherapy, can be used as reliable markers of treatment response to induction chemotherapy in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten patients were recruited and received induction chemotherapy (IC). Diffusion-weighted imaging was performed prior to, during, and after IC. The first-order ADC histogram parameters at the intra-treatment time-point were compared to the baseline time-point in the metastatic lymph nodes (LNs). Some ADC pretreatment parameters were combined with each other, employing discriminant analysis to achieve a feasible model to separate the complete response (CR) from the partial response (PR) groups. RESULTS: For ten patients, significant rise in Mean and Txt1Mean (p = 0.048 and 0.015, respectively) was observed in the metastatic nodes following one cycle of IC. Txt5Energy significantly decreased (p = 0.002). Discriminant analysis on pretreatment parameters illustrated that Txt5Energypre was the best parameter to use to correctly classify CR and PR patients. This was followed by Txt9Percentile75pre, Txt1Meanpre, and Txt2Standard Deviationpre. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that heterogeneity metrics extracted from ADC-maps in metastatic lymph nodes, before and after IC, can be used as supplementary IC response indicators.

A comparative study of the impacts of unbalanced sample sizes on the four synthesized methods of meta-analytic structural equation modeling.

BACKGROUND: In the first stage of meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM), researchers synthesized studies using univariate meta-analysis (UM) and multivariate meta-analysis (MM) approaches. The MM approaches are known to be of better performance than the UM approaches in the meta-analysis with equal sized studies. However in real situations, where the studies might be of different sizes, the empirical performance of these approaches is yet to be studied in the first and second stages of MASEM. The present study aimed to evaluate the performance of the UM and MM methods, having unequal sample sizes in different primary studies. Testing the homogeneity of correlation matrices and the empirical power, estimating the pooled correlation matrix and also, estimating parameters of a path model were investigated using these approaches by simulation. RESULTS: The results of the first stage showed that Type I error rate was well under control at 0.05 level when the average sample sizes were 200 or more, irrespective of the types of the methods or the sample sizes used. Moreover, the relative percentage biases of the pooled correlation matrices were also lower than 2.5% for all methods. There was a dramatic decrease in the empirical power for all synthesis methods when the inequality of the sample sizes was increased. In fitting the path model at the second stage, MM methods provided better estimation of the parameters. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the different performance of the four methods in the statistical power, especially when the sample sizes of primary studies were highly unequal. Moreover, in fitting the path model, the MM approaches provided better estimation of the parameters.