Outcomes of early versus delayed trabeculotomy for primary congenital glaucoma.

PURPOSE: In patients with primary congenital glaucoma (PCG), elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) causes abnormal eye growth. This study compared the outcomes of children with PCG who underwent ab externo trabeculotomy (TROC) at age ≤ 6 months (early TROC) and of those who underwent TROC at age > 6 months (delayed TROC). METHODS: Intraocular pressure, horizontal corneal diameter (HCD), central corneal thickness (CCT) and axial length (AL) were compared before TROC and at 1-, 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up visits between the groups of children who underwent TROC until or after 6 months of age. The ALs of these groups were also compared with the ALs of healthy age-matched eyes examined under the same conditions. RESULTS: Trabeculotomy was performed in 43 children: 18 (33 eyes) aged 6 months (group 1) and 25 (37 eyes) aged >6 months (group 2); the mean ages were 86.56 ± 53.64 and 504.48 ± 448.14 days, respectively. The mean pre- and 12-month postoperative IOP values were 15.97 ± 4.78/16.62 ± 4.85 and 9.77 ± 2.88/10.93 ± 4.83 mmHg, respectively. Delayed TROC was associated with abnormal AL in 31 (88.6%) out of 37 eyes, while after early TROC, only 13 (41.9%) out of 33 eyes had abnormal AL (chi-square, 8.00; p = 0.03). In multivariable analysis, each 1-mmHg increase in preoperative IOP was associated with a 0.25-mmHg increase at 12 months (p = 0.04). On average, the mean IOP of the delayed TROC group was higher than that of the early TROC group by 3.72 mmHg at postoperative month 12 (95% CI = 0.44-6.99; p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Compared with delayed TROC, early TROC is associated with reduced IOP and substantially reduced incidence of abnormal AL at postoperative month 12.

Modular MA-XRF Scanner Development in the Multi-Analytical Characterisation of a 17th Century Azulejo from Portugal.

A modular X-ray scanning system was developed, to fill in the gap between portable instruments (with a limited analytical area) and mobile instruments (with large analytical areas, and sometimes bulky and difficult to transport). The scanner has been compared to a commercial tabletop instrument, by analysing a Portuguese tile (azulejo) from the 17th century. Complementary techniques were used to achieve a throughout characterisation of the sample in a complete non-destructive approach. The complexity of the acquired X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectra, due to inherent sample stratigraphy, has been resolved using Monte Carlo simulations, and Raman spectroscopy, as the most suitable technique to complement the analysis of azulejos colours, yielding satisfactory results. The colouring agents were identified as cobalt blue and a Zn-modified Naples-yellow. The stratigraphy of the area under study was partially modelled with Monte Carlo simulations. The scanners performance has been compared by evaluating the images outputs and the global spectrum.

Absence of correlation between IL-28B gene polymorphisms and the clinical presentation of chronic hepatitis B in an Amazon Brazilian population.

OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated the prevalence of the IL-28B polymorphisms rs12979860 and rs8099917 in chronic hepatitis B patients from a case study in Eastern Amazonia. METHODS: In total, 65 chronically infected HBV patients and 97 healthy subjects who were anti-HBc and anti-HBs positive (control group) were evaluated between May 2011 and December 2012. The groups of patients were designated as inactive carriers, chronic hepatitis without cirrhosis, and chronic hepatitis with cirrhosis based on clinical, pathological, biochemical, hematological, and virological variables. The patients were genotyped using quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: The frequencies of the rs12979860 polymorphism were similar between the infected group (32.3% CC, 41.5% CT, and 26.2 TT) and the control population (35% CC, 47.4% CT, and 17.6% TT), and the frequencies of the rs8099917 polymorphism (7.7% GG, 35.4% GT, and 56.9% TT versus 7.2% GG, 35.1% GT, and 57.7% TT) were also similar in both groups. The associations between the rs12979860 and rs8099917 polymorphisms and the clinical manifestations were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, these polymorphisms had a similar distribution between infected and control groups, indicating that they were not associated with susceptibility and the clinical evolution of hepatitis B in the examined population.

SNP rs8099917 in gene IL28B might be associated with risk of chronic infection by HCV but not with response to treatment.

AIM: The aim of this study was to characterize the genetic profile of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection relative to polymorphisms rs12979860 and rs8099917 in gene IL28B and the association of those polymorphisms with the response to treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, performed at a reference center in Brazilian Amazonia. METHODS: A total of 75 individuals with chronic hepatitis C and 98 healthy individuals from both genders over 18 years old were assessed. DNA samples were collected from leukocytes and subjected to real-time polymerase chain reaction to genotype polymorphisms rs12979860 and rs8099917. RESULTS: Analysis of the allelic and genotypic frequencies of the investigated polymorphisms showed that both groups were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium; polymorphism rs12979860 exhibited no significant difference between the groups. For polymorphism rs8099917, allele T was significantly less frequent (P = 0.0195) among the patients (63.3%) than the controls (75.5%), and the patients were 1.7 times as likely to exhibit allele G. No difference in response to treatment was associated with SNP patterns. CONCLUSION: The results suggest a possible association of SNP rs8099917 with higher odds of chronic HCV infection but do not indicate a putative influence of the investigated SNPs on the sustained virologic response.