Does the Conjunctivochalasis Accompanied by Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome Affect the Ocular Surface and Anterior Segment Structures?

Purpose: Probability of coexistence of conjunctivochalasis and pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PES) in same individual may increase with aging. We investigated effects of conjunctivochalasis accompanied by PES on ocular surface (OS) and anterior segment (AS) structures.Methods: Cases with only conjunctivochalasis were determined as group-1 (n=62), cases with conjunctivochalasis accompanied by PES as group-2 (n=45), and healthy cases as group-3 (n=56). OS and AS parameters of groups were compared.Results: Compared to group-1, group-2 had higher grade-3 conjunctivochalasis (17.7% vs 46.7%, p=0.039), greater mean grade of conjunctivochalasis (MGC) (1.72±0.24 vs 2.29±0.32, p=0.036), higher total conjunctivochalasis score (TCS) (4.27±1.13 vs 6.12±1.35, p=0.025), shorter tear-film break-up time (TBUT) (9.17±2.53 vs 5.41±1.32, p=0.010), greater OS disease index (OSDI)-score (16.28±3.15 vs 27.36±4.12, p=0.037). Compared to group-3, both group-1 and group-2 had shorter TBUT (group 3-1: p=0.004; group 3-2: p<0.001) and greater OSDI score (group 3-1: p=0.042; group 3-2: p=0.019). Schirmer tests, central corneal thicknesses, keratometries, axial lengths, anterior chamber depths and lens thicknesses of groups were similar (p>0.05). In group-1 and group-2, as age increased, both MGC (r=0.349, p=0.043; r=0.403, p=0.022, respectively) and TCS (r=0.322, p=0.046; r=0.372, p=0.031) increased. In group-2, as both MGC and TCS increased, TBUT (r=-0.370, p=0.034; r=-0.401, p=0.025) decreased and OSDI score (r=0.338, p=0.045; r=0.362, p=0.040) increased.Conclusions: To our knowledge, this was the first study comprehensively investigating effects of conjunctivochalasis accompanied by PES on OS and AS structures together. We found that conjunctivochalasis might cause OS disease, while presence of PES in conjunctivochalasis cases might worsen OS disease and conjunctivochalasis findings.

HUBUNGAN PEMAKAIAN KONTRASEPSI HORMONAL TERHADAP KUANTITAS TEAR FILM

Mata kering adalah penyakit multifaktorial yang ditandai dengan hilangnya homeostasis tear film yang diikuti gejala okular akibat penurunan kuantitas tear film. Pada jaringan mata, hormon seksual berperan dalam mengatur struktur dan fungsi dari kelenjar lakrimal. Penggunaan kontrasepsi hormonal merupakan salah satu terapi sistemik yang dapat dihubungkan dengan penurunan kuantitas tear film. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian analitik dengan pendekatan observasional pada 40 orang wanita dengan rentang usia 21-44 tahun. Kelompok sampel adalah wanita yang menggunakan kontrasepsi hormonal minimal dalam 1 tahun dan kelompok kontrol adalah kelompok yang tidak menggunakan kontrasepsi hormonal. Hasil penelitian dan analisis data mendapatkan rerata uji Schirmer kelompok sampel dan kontrol adalah (21,3±12,7) dan (23,9±10). Rerata terkecil uji Schirmer adalah pada kontrasepsi jenis injeksi 3 bulan, yaitu (18,2 ± 11,6). Pada tear meniscus terjadi penurunan pada kelompok sampel (40%) dan kontrol (30%). Hasil kuesioner ocular surface disease index (OSDI) kelompok sampel didapatkan dry eye ringan (20%), sedang (20%), dan berat (5%). Sementara itu kelompok kontrol hanya mengalami dry eye ringan (45%). Dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan tidak terdapat perbedaan hasil yang bermakna (p > 0,05) antara kelompok tersebut. Kesimpulan yang didapatkan adalah tidak terdapat hubungan yang bermakna pemakaian kontrasepsi hormonal dengan kuantitas tear film.

OCULAR SURFACE DISEASE AMONG PATIENTS WITH OPEN ANGLE GLAUCOMA USING TOPICAL ANTI-GLAUCOMA MEDICATIONS

Objective: To determine the frequency of ocular surface disease among patients with open angle glaucoma using topical antiglaucoma medications presenting at a tertiary care eye hospital. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Ophthalmology, Rawalpindi, from May 2019 to Jan 2020. Methodology: One hundred and eighty patients aged 18 or more, with open angle glaucoma using any of the topical antiglaucoma medications including preparations of dorzolamide, brimonidine, timolol, levobunolol, betaxolol, latanoprost, travoprost, bimatoprost or a combination of these for more than six months took part in the study. Ocular surface disease index was used to assess the presence and severity of ocular surface disease. Results: Out of 180 patients of glaucoma managed with topical anti-glaucoma medications, 83 (46.1%) did not show presence of ocular surface disease when ocular surface disease index was administered. Twenty-nine (16.1%) patients had mild symptoms, 17 (9.4%) had moderate symptoms while 51 (28.3%) patients reported severe symptoms of ocular surface disease. Advancing age and longer duration of treatment with topical anti-glaucoma medications had statistically significant association with the presence of ocular surface disease (p-value <0.05). Conclusion: Presence of ocular surface disease was a common finding among patients using topical agents for the management of glaucoma. Advancing age and prolonged use of anti-glaucoma medication emerged as risk factors statistically related to the presence of ocular surface disease.

Assessment of Tear Film Anomalies in Childhood Obesity

Purpose To determine if childhood obesity has an effect on the ocular surface and tear film of children who are afflicted. Methods Patients who had childhood obesity, 85 eyes, and patients who were healthy, 75 eyes, were enrolled in this prospective and comparative study. The tear film breakup time (TF-BUT), tear meniscus area and height (TMA and TMH) values, Schirmer test scores, and ocular surface disease index (OSDI) scores were obtained for all participants. Results The TMH, TMA, TF-BUT, and Schirmer test results were statistically significantly lower in the obesity group (p < 0.001 for all). The children with obesity and insulin resistance had lower TMH, TMA, TF-BUT, and Schirmer test results when compared to the children without insulin resistance (p < 0.05 for all). The body mass index was found to be correlated with the TMH, TMA, TF-BUT, and Schirmer test results (p < 0.001 for all). Conclusion Children with obesity had lower TMA, TMH, TF-BUT, and Schirmer test results than healthy subjects. When insulin resistance was added to obesity, these values were even lower.

Comparative Transcriptomics and Gene Knockout Reveal Virulence Factors of Arthrinium phaeospermum in Bambusa pervariabilis × Dendrocalamopsis grandis

Arthrinium phaeospermum can cause branch wilting of Bambusa pervariabilis × Dendrocalamopsis grandis, causing great economic losses and ecological damage. A. phaeospermum was sequenced in sterile deionized water (CK), rice tissue (T1) and B. pervariabilis × D. grandis (T2) fluid by RNA-Seq, and the function of Ctf1β 1 and Ctf1β 2 was verified by gene knockout. There were 424, 471 and 396 differentially expressed genes between the T2 and CK, T2 and T1, and CK and T1 groups, respectively. Thirty DEGs had verified the change in expression by fluorescent quantitative PCR. Twenty-nine DEGs were the same as the expression level in RNA-Seq. In addition, ΔApCtf1β 1 and ΔApCtf1β 2 showed weaker virulence by gene knockout, and the complementary strains Ctf1β 1 and Ctf1β 2 showed the same virulence as the wild-type strains. Relative growth inhibition of ΔApCtf1β 1 and ΔApCtf1β was significantly decreased by 21.4% and 19.2%, respectively, by adding H2O2 compared to the estimates from the wild-type strain and decreased by 25% and 19.4%, respectively, by adding Congo red. The disease index of B. pervariabilis × D. grandis infected by two mutants was significantly lower than that of wild type. This suggested that Ctf1β genes are required for the stress response and virulence of A. phaeospermum.

Prognosis of patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia in a tertiary hospital in Turkey

BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 emerged in China and caused a global pandemic in 2020. The mortality rate has been reported to be between 0% and 14.6% in all patients. In this study, we determined the clinical and laboratory parameters of COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality in our hospital. OBJECTIVES: Investigate the relationship between demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters on COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTINGS: Tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia from March until the end of December were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The relationship between demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters and the morbidity and mortality rates of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. SAMPLE SIZE: 124 patients RESULTS: The mortality rate was 9.6% (12/124). Coronary artery disease ( P <.0001) diabetes mellitus ( P =.04) fever (>38.3°C) at presentation ( P =.04) hypertension ( P <.0001), and positive smoking history ( P <.0001) were significantly associated with mortality. Patients who died were older, had a higher comorbid disease index, pneumonia severity index, fasting blood glucose, baseline serum creatinine, D-dimer, and had lower baseline haemoglobin, SaO 2 , percentage of lymphocyte counts and diastolic blood pressure. Patients admitted to the ICU were older, had a higher comorbidity disease index, pneumonia severity index, C-reactive protein, WBC, D-dimer, creatinine, number of antibiotics used, longer O 2 support duration, lower hemoglobin, lymphocyte (%), and baseline SaO 2 (%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results were consistent with much of the reported data. We suggest that the frequency, dosage, and duration of steroid treatment should be limited. LIMITATIONS: Low patient number, uncertain reason of mortality, no standard treatment regimen, limited treatment options, like ECMO. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.

CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated SlMYBS2 Mutagenesis Reduces Tomato Resistance to Phytophthora infestans

Phytophthora infestans (P. infestans) recently caused epidemics of tomato late blight. Our study aimed to identify the function of the SlMYBS2 gene in response to tomato late blight. To further investigate the function of SlMYBS2 in tomato resistance to P. infestans, we studied the effects of SlMYBS2 gene knock out. The SlMYBS2 gene was knocked out by CRISPR-Cas9, and the resulting plants (SlMYBS2 gene knockout, slmybs2-c) showed reduced resistance to P. infestans, accompanied by increases in the number of necrotic cells, lesion sizes, and disease index. Furthermore, after P. infestans infection, the expression levels of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes in slmybs2-c plants were significantly lower than those in wild-type (AC) plants, while the number of necrotic cells and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were higher than those in wild-type plants. Taken together, these results indicate that SlMYBS2 acts as a positive regulator of tomato resistance to P. infestans infection by regulating the ROS level and the expression level of PR genes.

Validation of the Arabic version of the Ocular Surface Disease Index Questionnaire

AIM: To develop an Arabic version of the ocular surface disease index (OSDI) and to assess its reliability and validity. METHODS: A cross sectional study was carried out to validate the Arabic version of the OSDI questionnaire. Initially, forward-backward translation was used to translate the English version of OSDI into Arabic. The translated questionnaire was tested for equivalence and cultural adaptability. Totally 200 subjects were then recruited from a non-clinical population and asked to complete the Arabic version of the OSDI (ARB-OSDI). The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach’s-α. A subgroup of 30 participants was asked to complete the questionnaire on two occasions to test the test-retest reliability. RESULTS: A total of 200 participants were enrolled in the study. The average age of the study participants was 31.21±13.2y and 57% were male. An acceptable internal consistency level for the ARB-OSDI questionnaire measured by Cronbach’s-α was revealed. All questions showed good internal consistency. Test-retest reliability analysis revealed good stability (interclass correlation coefficient, r=0.832, P<0.001). The construct validity for the questionnaire was also high. CONCLUSION: The ARB-OSDI questionnaire shows very good psychometric properties (acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability). That makes the questionnaire a valid potential tool to use in Arabic-speaking countries to monitor symptoms of dry eye disease in a larger population.

Phyllospheric Microbial Composition and Diversity of the Tobacco Leaves Infected by Didymella segeticola

A Myriad of biotic and abiotic factors inevitably affects the growth and production of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), which is a model crop and sought-after worldwide for its foliage. Among the various impacts the level of disease severity poses on plants, the influence on the dynamics of phyllospheric microbial diversity is of utmost importance. In China, recurring reports of a phyto-pathogen, Didymella segeticola, a causal agent of tobacco leaf spot, accentuate the need for its in-depth investigation. Here, a high-throughput sequencing technique, IonS5TMXL was employed to analyze tobacco leaves infected by D. segeticola at different disease severity levels, ranging from T1G (least disease index) to T4G (highest disease index), in an attempt to explore the composition and diversity of phyllospheric microbiota. In all healthy and diseased tobacco leaves, the most dominant fungal phylum was Ascomycota with a high prevalence of genus Didymella, followed by Boeremia, Meyerozyma and Alternaria, whereas in the case of bacterial phyla, Proteobacteria was prominent with Pseudomonas being a predominant genus, followed by Pantoea. The relative abundance of fungi, i.e., Didymella and Boeremia (Ascomycota) and bacteria, i.e., Pseudomonas and Pantoea (Proteobacteria) were higher in diseased groups compared to healthy groups. Healthy tissues exhibited relatively rich and diverse fungal communities in contrast with diseased groups. The infection of D. segeticola had a complex and significant effect on fungal as well as bacterial alpha diversity. FUNGuild analysis indicated that the relative abundance of pathotrophs and saprotrophs in diseased tissues proportionally increased with disease severity. PICRUSt analysis of diseased tissues indicated that the relative abundance of bacterial cell motility and membrane transport-related gene sequences elevated with an increase in disease severity from T1G to T3G and then tended to decrease at T4G. Conclusively, the current study shows the typical characteristics of the tobacco leaf microbiome and provides insights into the distinct microbiome shifts on tobacco leaves infected by D. segeticola.

Winter Wheat Take-All Disease Index Estimation Model Based on Hyperspectral Data

Wheat take-all, caused by two variants of the fungus Gaeumannomyces gramnis (Sacc.) Arx & D. Olivier, was common in spring wheat areas in northwest and north China and occurred in winter wheat areas in north China. The yield of common disease areas was reduced by more than 20% and the yield of severe cases was reduced by more than 50%. Large-scale rapid and accurate estimation of the incidence of wheat take-all plays an important role in guiding field control and agricultural yield estimation. In this study, a portable ground spectrometer was used to collect the spectral reflectance in the 350–1050 nm band range of wheat canopy after take-all infection in the wheat grain filling stage and combined with the ground disease survey data.Then a winter wheat take-all disease index estimation model was proposed based on the spectral band division interval and selected band combination. According to the normalized difference spectral index (NDSI) and the determinative coefficient of the disease index formed by any two band combinations, the spectral index band combinations corresponding to the spectral index with high correlation in each region were screened by dividing spectral intervals. Partial least-squares regression was used to establish a binary and ternary disease index calibration model. The results showed that the model based on spectral indices of ternary variables had the highest coefficient of determination. Finally, the optimal regression model of wheat take-all disease condition index composed of NDSI(R590,R598), NDSI(R534,R742) and NDSI(R810,R834) was established: Y = 134.577 − 70.301 NDSI(R590,R598) − 223.533 NDSI(R534,R742) + 51.584 NDSI(R810,R834) (R2 = 0.743, RMSEP = 0.094, df = 15), which was the most suitable model for winter wheat take-all estimation. The construction of this model can provide new method and technical support for future evaluation and monitoring of wheat take-all disease on the field.