Association of retinopathy with risk of all-cause and specific-cause mortality in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005 to 2008.

Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between retinopathy status or severity and the all-cause and specific-cause mortality risk based on the updated National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database and 2019 Public Access Link mortality file. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, a total of 6,797 participants aged over 40 years based on NHANES 2005-2008 were analyzed. The severity of retinopathy was classified into 4 grades-no retinopathy, mild non-proliferative retinopathy (NPR), moderate to severe NPR, and proliferative retinopathy (PR). Multiple covariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models and Fine and Gray competing risk regression models were used to assess the all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks, respectively. The propensity score matching (PSM) approach was also applied additionally to adequately balance between-group covariates to validate our findings. Results: A final total of 4,808 participants representing 18,282,772 United States (US) non-hospitalized participants were included for analysis, 50.27% were male (n = 2,417), 55.32% were non-hispanic white (n = 2,660), and mean [SE] age, 56.10 [0.40] years. After a median follow-up of 12.24 years (interquartile range, 11.16-13.49 years), 1,164 participants died of all-cause mortality, of which 941 (80.84%) died without retinopathy and 223 (19.16%) died with retinopathy at baseline. The presence of retinopathy was associated with increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and diabetes mellitus (DM)-specific mortality, and the results remain consistent after PSM. Severity analysis showed that only mild NPR was associated with an increased all-cause mortality risk (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.01; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.00-4.03), while increased CVD and DM-specific mortality risk were associated with all grades of retinopathy and were exponentially greater with increasing retinopathy severity, and the trend test was also significant (P for trend 0.004 and 0.04, respectively). Discussion: Our findings suggest that the diagnosis of retinopathy is an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality in people over 40 years old. Retinopathy grading is significantly associated with the survival risk of patients with CVD or DM, it can be a valuable predictor in the stratified management and risk warning of CVD or DM patients, as well as in the monitoring of systemic vasculopathy status.

Emerging roles of air pollution and meteorological factors in autoimmune eye diseases.

Autoimmune eye diseases (AEDs), a collection of autoimmune inflammatory ocular conditions resulting from the dysregulation of immune system at the ocular level, can target both intraocular and periorbital structures leading to severe visual deficit and blindness globally. The roles of air pollution and meteorological factors in the initiation and progression of AEDs have been increasingly attractive, among which the systemic and local mechanisms are both involved in. Exposure to excessive air pollution and extreme meteorological conditions including PM2.5/PM0.1, environmental tobacco smoke, insufficient sunshine, and high temperature, etc., can disturb Th17/Treg balance, regulate macrophage polarization, activate neutrophils, induce systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, decrease retinal blood flow, promote tissue fibrosis, activate sympathetic nervous system, adversely affect nutrients synthetization, as well as induce heat stress, therefore may together deteriorate AEDs. The crosstalk among inflammation, oxidative stress and dysregulated immune system appeared to be prominent. In the present review, we will concern and summarize the potential mechanisms underlying linkages of air pollution and meteorological factors to ocular autoimmune and inflammatory responses. Moreover, we concentrate on the specific roles of air pollutants and meteorological factors in several major AEDs including uveitis, Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO), ocular allergic disease (OAD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy (DR), etc.

Preparation of Magnetic Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4/ZnO Nanocomposites and Their Photocatalytic Performances for Methylene Blue in Aqueous Solution.

Magnetic Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4/ZnO-R (NZFO/ZnO-R) nanocomposites are prepared via the rapid combustion-coprecipitation process, and they are characterized by the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), the X-ray Diffraction (XRD), the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), the Energy Dispersive X-ray Detector (EDX), the Specific Surface Area (BET), the UV-vis Diffuse Reflection Spectroscopy (DRS), and the Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM). The photocatalytic activity of NZFO/ZnO-R nanocomposites is assessed in ultraviolet light (365 nm) by decoloration of methylene blue (MB). The results show that the magnetic NZFO/ZnO-0.2 nanocomposites consist of particles and rods. The size of particles is 18 nm. The width and length of rods are 66 nm and 198 nm, respectively. NZFO/ZnO-0.5 nanocomposites have better photocatalytic performance than that of NZFO, ZnO and NZFO/ZnO-R (R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.6, or 0.7) from the results. Through careful investigation of influencing parameters (the amount of catalysts, pH and concentration of MB solution), the degradation efficiency of MB is closely connected with the transparency of solution and surface charge of catalysts. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of NZFO/ZnO-0.5 nanocomposites can be ascribed to the matching band positions between ZnO and NZFO, which results in a low recombination between the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The possible mechanism is proposed for the improved ultraviolet photocatalytic activity of NZFO/ZnO-0.5 nanocomposites.