atefeh mahdianrad

Psychosocial improvements of successful strabismus surgery have been reported in previous studies. But the effect of strabismus surgery on the emotional intelligence of patients is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of strabismus surgery on emotional quotient in patients referring to Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ahvaz.

This prospective interventional study conducted on patients underwent strabismus surgery in Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ahvaz during May 2021 to March 2022. A total of 38 patients between 8-37 years were included. Patients with previous surgery were excluded. All subjects were evaluated before and three months after successful strabismus surgery. Three months post-surgery the improvement of emotional quotient, self-esteem, body image, social anxiety and social avoidance were evaluated and compared with previous surgery. All data were analyzed by SPSS (V25). P-Value less than 0.05 was considered as significant level.

38 subjects including 18 males (47.4%) and 20 females (52.6%) were included. The mean age of patients was 18.11±9.33 years old. Our results showed that compared with before surgery, significant improvements were noted after surgery, within the emotional quotient subscales including self-awareness (P=0.016), self-regulation (P<0.0001), self-motivation (P<0.0001), empathy (P<0.0001), social skills (P<0.0001) and emotional quotient total score (P<0.0001). Further analysis revealed statistically significant improvements in body image (P<0.0001), social anxiety (P=0.004) and social avoidance (P=0.002). The result showed that the improvement of emotional quotient after strabismus surgery was significantly higher in the age group of less than 12 years (P<0.0001). No significant difference was fund between two  genders for emotional quotient subscales (P>0.05).

The results of this study showed a significant improvement in the psychosocial factors including emotional quotient, body image, social anxiety and social avoidance after strabismus surgery. This result suggests that beyond functional and cosmetic improvements, successful strabismus surgery can result in improved emotional quotient and social anxiety, with the greatest effect noted in younger patients.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of propranolol, timolol and bevacizumab with betamethasone to prevent corneal neovascularization (CNV) in rabbits. This study was performed on 28 male rabbits. CNV was induced by three 7-0 silk sutures 2 mm long and 1 mm distal to the limbus. Animals were randomly divided into 4 groups of propranolol + betamethasone, timolol + betamethasone and bevacizumab + betamethasone and betamethasone alone. Eye drops were started from the first day of study. On 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th and 42nd days, vascular progression, time of neovascularization and vascular area were evaluated and compared with the control group (betamethasone alone). There was a significant reduction in the area of ​​neovascularization in the timolol and bevacizumab groups compared to the control group (P-value = 0.05, P=0.047, respectively). Also, regarding vascular progression, there was a significant decrease in the timolol and bevacizumab groups (P-value = 0.014, P=0.002, respectively). Regarding delayed onset of neovascularization, there was a significant difference in the timolol and bevacizumab group in rabbits (P-value = 0.04, P=0.00, respectively). In conclusion, the use of timolol and bevacizumab drops besides betamethasone can delay neovascularization and decrease the length of corneal vascularization in rabbits.

The aim of this study was to compare epithelial thickness map obtained by Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT) of eyes with myopic astigmatism but without keratoconus, subclinical and early keratoconus. Sixty-three eyes divided into three groups; myopic astigmatism without keratoconus, subclinical and early keratoconus. Corneal epithelial thickness map was obtained by SD-OCT for all patients and compared between the 3 groups. Mean epithelial thickness in the area of minimum corneal epithelial thickness, in the one eighth part of the inferior (I) and in the one eighth part of the temporal (T) were 56.64±2.82 µm, 59.00±3.24 µm and 60.40±4.93 µm respectively in subclinical group. Three parameters on epithelial maps obtained by SD-OCT was significantly different in the 2 groups: I and T corneal epithelial thickness map was thicker in subclinical keratoconus (P<0.02 and P<0.02 respectively). Epithelial map uniformity indices were different between the groups, as Superior-I, Superonasal-Inferotemporal were lower (P<0.00 and P< 0.01 respectively) but T-nasal was higher in the subclinical group (P<0.02). The area with minimum epithelial thickness had a significantly lower amount in early keratoconus group compared to the other two groups (P<0.00). In conclusion, corneal epithelial thickness map provided early detection of keratoconus in the subclinical stage with compensatory epithelial thickening of inferior and temporal one eighth compared to total corneal thickness and changes in epithelial map uniformity indices cause early detection of subclinical keratoconus from normal cornea.

Vanadium (V) is a candidate to decrease the serum level of glucose in diabetic animal model. However, it affects the lipid peroxidation and antioxidant activity so could make nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity. In this study, the protective role of vitamin C as an antioxidant on nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity induced by vanadyl sulfate was investigated. This study was designed in 2 protocols. There were 3 groups in protocol 1 that received saline (group 1), saline daily for 7 days plus single dose of vanadyl sulfate (50 mg/kg intraperitoneally) in day 2 (group 2), or vitamin C (250 mg/kg intraperitoneally) daily for 7 days and single dose of vanadyl sulfate (group 3). There were 2 groups in protocol 2 that received saline plus single dose of vanadyl sulfate (50 mg/kg intraperitoneally) in day 2 (group 4) or vitamin C (250 mg/kg intraperitoneally) daily for 2 days plus single dose of vanadyl sulfate (group 5). At the end of experiment, blood samples were collected to measure serum level of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and all animals were sacrificed for histopathology investigation and determination of kidney tissue damage score (KTDS). In protocol 1, BUN/Cr ratio, kidney weight (KW), and KTDS decreased significantly in vanadyl sulfate plus vitamin C group in comparison with vanadyl sulfate plus saline group (P < 0.05). In addition, serum level of AST and ALP significantly decreased in vanadyl sulfate plus vitamin C group. In protocol 2, not only similar results were not observed, but also vitamin C increased the side effects of vanadyl sulfate. Administration of vitamin C as a potent antioxidant could decrease the vanadium-induced toxicity. So, as vanadyl sulfate can be used for diabetic model in laboratory, vitamin C can be useful to decrease the vanadium-induced nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity, too.