Etiology, pathogenesis, and diagnosis of neovascular glaucoma.

Neovascular glaucoma is defined as iris and/or anterior chamber angle neovascularization associated with increased intraocular pressure. It is a secondary glaucoma that is most frequently caused by severe retinal ischemia. The most common diseases responsible for the development of neovascular glaucoma are diabetic retinopathy, ischemic central retinal vein occlusion, and ocular ischemic syndrome. Uncommon causes include ocular radiation, ocular tumors, uveitis and other miscellaneous conditions. Vascular endothelial growth factor is an important and likely predominant agent involved in the pathogenesis of intraocular neovascularization and neovascular glaucoma. The evolution of clinical and histopathological changes from predisposing conditions to the occurrence of rubeosis iridis and neovascular glaucoma is divided into four stages: prerubeosis, preglaucoma, open angle glaucoma, and angle-closure glaucoma.

Intraocular pressure modifications in patients with acute central/hemicentral retinal vein occlusions.

Intraocular pressure (IOP) modifications in patients with acute central/hemicentral retinal vein occlusions (RVOs) consist in IOP reductions and increases. The IOP reduction is due to a transitional hyposecretory phase of the aqueous humor, that increases gradually until 3mo after the venous occlusion onset, and then finally disappears after month 4th. The IOP increases lead to the ocular hypertension and glaucoma. The possible pathogenetic correlations between ocular hypertension/glaucoma and acute central/hemicentral RVOs have been classified into three groups: 1) the venous occlusion precedes the ocular hypertension/glaucoma causing neovascular glaucoma and secondary angle-closure glaucoma without rubeosis; 2) the ocular hypertension and the glaucoma precede the venous occlusion and favor its appearance (ocular hypertension, primary angle-closure, primary angle-closure glaucoma, and open angle glaucomas); and 3) the venous occlusion and the ocular hypertension/glaucoma are mostly age dependent appearances due to common vascular and collagen alterations, lacking a causal connection between the 2 conditions.

Human health risk assessment of some bottled waters from Romania.

The paper presents the quality status of 14 brands of bottled water, with sources of groundwaters from different mountain areas alongside the Carpathian Mountains from Romania. A number of 12 physico-chemical parameters (ammonium, bicarbonate, electrical conductivity, carbonate, chemical oxygen demand, chloride, nitrate, nitrite, pH, sulphate, total hardness, turbidity), 9 metals and metalloids (Li, B, Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, Sr, Ba) and 17 heavy metals (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Mo, Ag, Cd, In, Tl, Pb, Bi) were determined and studied. The quality status, the potential contamination and the health risk assessment of bottled waters were assessed, by using the drinking water quality index, the heavy metal pollution index, the heavy metal evaluation index, the degree of contamination and the human health risk indices. Hierarchical cluster analysis was applied, indicating similarities among the studied bottled waters based on their metal content. The Piper diagram reveals that the majority of bottled water samples fall into the Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl-, SO42-, CO32-, HCO3- categories. The quality of bottled waters based on the indices results indicated marginal, poor and very-poor quality status of the studied water samples, while the health risk assessment indices presented potential risks at aluminium, chloride and nitrate for the inhabitants who used those water samples with the purpose of drinking. The pollution indices with respect to metals generally reflected a low pollution status. This study represents the first attempt in assessing the overall quality of some bottled water collected from the mountain area, Romania, likewise assessing the comprehensive human health risk due to several chemical elements determined in water in amounts around and exceeding the maximum allowable concentrations. This research can be useful for development of potential strategies for risk control and management in the field of drinking water.