ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to analyze if anterior chamber parameters are risk factors for the development of pigment dispersion syndrome (PDS) and/or for the conversion to pigmentary glaucoma (PG). PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included a total of 63 eyes from 35 patients with PDS and PG and 65 eyes from 49 unaffected volunteers as the control group. The following parameters were measured by slit lamp optical coherence tomography (SL-OCT): anterior chamber volume (ACV) and depth (ACD), angle opening distance (AOD) and the trabecular iris space area (TISA) at 500 µm and 750 µm from the scleral spur. Comparisons between the following groups were performed: between the PDS/PG and the control group, between PDS and PG and between male and female patients. RESULTS: The results of ACV, ACD, AOD and TISA were significantly higher in PDS/PG patients when compared to the control group. There were no significant differences between PDS and PG. The gender-specific comparison also showed no significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: Significantly higher anterior chamber parameters are a possible risk factor for development of PDS; however, a higher risk of conversion to PG does not seem to correlate with increased anterior chamber parameters. The parameters of the anterior chamber are apparently not associated with the male predominance of PDS and PG.
Subject(s)
Anterior Eye Segment/pathology , Exfoliation Syndrome/complications , Exfoliation Syndrome/pathology , Glaucoma, Open-Angle/etiology , Glaucoma, Open-Angle/pathology , Slit Lamp , Tomography, Optical Coherence/methods , Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Reproducibility of Results , Risk Factors , Sensitivity and Specificity , Sex Factors , Tomography, Optical Coherence/instrumentationABSTRACT
In this paper we examine constraints on the use of seven sentence-types permitting the non-canonical appearance of the logical subject in post-verbal position: inversion in English and in Farsi, presentational and existential there-sentences in English, presentational ci-sentences and subject inversion in Italian, and es+subject postposing in Yiddish. We show that these sentence-types share a common discourse constraint: each requires the NP in non-canonical (i.e. postposed) position to represent information that is unfamiliar in some sense. The discourse function of postposing is contrasted with that of another sentence-type involving post-verbal subjects: right-dislocation in English. Unlike postposed NPs, the marked NP of English right-dislocation represents information that is familiar within the discourse: concomitantly, a pronoun coreferential with the marked constituent appears in this constituent's canonical position. We argue, then, that the function of postposing is to place subjects representing unfamiliar information in sentence-final position. On this analysis the functional difference between these sentence-types and English right-dislocation can be straightforwardly accounted for. Given that the marked NP of right-dislocation is coreferential with an intrasentential pronoun, we would expect this NP to represent a discourse-old entity, as do anaphoric pronouns in general. Thus, it is not accidental that right-dislocation does not serve to keep unfamiliar information out of subject position; the presence of the pronoun rules out such a function.
Subject(s)
Language , Linguistics , Humans , Iran , Israel , ItalyABSTRACT
The effect of an antacid drug (Maalox 70) on the pharmacokinetics of temafloxacin was studied in 12 healthy young volunteers. The study was designed as a randomised open 2-period crossover trial in which temafloxacin was administered alone and with Maalox 70. In both treatments, temafloxacin was administered as a single oral 400mg dose on the morning of day 2. In the antacid regimen, 8 doses of Maalox 70 were administered every 2h on day 1, starting at 8am and ending with the last dose at 10pm; 5 doses were given on day 2, at 2.5 and 1h before administration of temafloxacin and 1, 3 and 5h after the temafloxacin dose. With coadministration of Maalox 70, peak plasma temafloxacin concentrations (Cmax) were reduced to 44.6% (+/- 24.5), and AUC(0-infinity) was reduced to 39.8% (+/- 17.4) of the corresponding values obtained when temafloxacin was given alone. Urinary excretion of temafloxacin was reduced to 46.0% (+/- 13.7) of that observed when temafloxacin was administered alone. Time to peak plasma concentration (tmax = 1.8h) was not affected by antacid administration. Comparable or greater antacid-associated reductions in relative bioavailability have been reported for other quinolones. As with other quinolones, the concurrent administration of temafloxacin and antacids should be avoided.
