Peripapillary nerve fibre layer thickness and macular thickness in children with anisometropic amblyopia attending a referral centre in Eastern India.

To study the macular thickness and peripapillary nerve fibre layer thickness in children with anisometropic amblyopia, a prospective non-randomised case series study was undertaken among 39 children (25 boys and 14 girls) aged between 5 and 16 years. This study was carried out between January 2010 and April 2011. The peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness and macular layer thickness was measured using optical coherence tomography (OCT), the RNFL thickness and the macular layer thickness of the amblyopic eye was assessed and compared to the normal eye of the same subject. It was found that macular layer thickness in the amblyopic eye was greater than that of the macular thickness in the normal eye. The mean macular layer thickness in the amblyopic eyes was 229.589 microm with a standard deviation of -+/- 31.9149 microm. The mean macular layer thickness in the normal eyes of these children was 206.8717 microm with a standard deviation of +/- 28.490 microm, the p-value was 0.00141 which is much lesser than 0.005 and hence is strongly statistically significant. However the mean RNFL thickness in the amblyopic eye was 104.454 microm with a standard deviation of +/- 22.244 microm. The mean RNFL thickness of the normal eye was 108.2746 microm with a SD of +/- 19.370 microm. The p-value in this case being 0.4246 which is statistically insignificant. It is conducted that macular layer thickness is raised in the amblyopic eye of children with anisometropic amblyopia though the RNFL thickness is not.

Study of alkaline phosphatase activity and DNA content of pterygium tissue showing its degenerative character.

A prospective, non-randomised, interventional case series study was designed among 127 specimens obtained from 100 consecutive patients presenting with primary pterygium attending the outpatient department of a teaching hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal between September 2009 and August 2010. After harvesting the pterygium it was transported in 10% formol saline for staining, fixing and embedding prior to evaluation of tissue alkaline phosphatase level and estimation of DNA content in nucleus of cells in pterygium tissue. The main outcome was to measure alkaline phosphatase activity and DNA content in pterygium tissue and normal bulbar conjunctiva along with histopathological staining and to see if any correlation exists between alkaline phosphatase activity and DNA content of pterygium tissue in different stages of evolution as suggested by histological staining. The elastic proliferation and hyaline degeneration are prominent in well developed pterygium. The alkaline phosphatase activity in all cases of pterygium is maximum and the DNA content of the cells of the pterygium tissue is diminished as compared to normal bulbar conjunctiva. Histopathological changes as evident from epithelial cell changes from cylindrical to flat cells with cyst formation in basal layers, the disappearance of nuclei in the submucosa coupled with increase in hyaline content of the tissue all point towards degenerative changes. Biochemically too there is a decrease in DNA content in the nuclei of the cells in pterygium, histochemically there is an increase in the alkaline phosphatase activity, all these changes point to pterygium being a degenerative tissue.