Effect of Intravitreal Injection of Bevacizumab on Acute Central Serous Chorioretinopathy Patients who Visited Feiz Hospital during 2014–2015 Period

Background: Aim of this clinical trial is the evaluation of the effect of intravitreal injection of bevacizumab on acute central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). Materials and Methods: In a nonrandomized clinical trial, 36 CSC eyes (with <1-month disease history) were examined. Initially, all the patients underwent posterior and anterior segment examinations as well as complete eye examination to evaluate the best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA). Then, optical coherence tomography was performed to confirm the diagnosis. The patients were divided to the two groups each of 18 subjects, which 18 patients received intravitreal injection of bevacizumab (1.25 mg) and the rest of them did not receive any treatment (control group). The patients were health checked by the end of the 1st and 3rd months. Significance level was considered as P < 0.05. Results: In the BSCVA, no significant difference in visual improvement was observed in baseline vision compared to each other (P = 0.481). There was also no significant difference in the vision of intervention and control groups 1 and 3 months after injection (P = 0.379 and P = 0.557). A significant decrement existed in the intervention group compared with the control group in the maximum central macular thickness at 1 month after injection (P = 0.001); however, the difference was not significant when comparing the two groups at baseline and 3 months after injection (P = 0.925 and P = 0.338). Conclusion: In general, according to the results of this study, intravitreal injection of bevacizumab was not effective in improvement of patients with acute CSC, although it had no side effects

Turning knowledge into wisdom: Improving the reading comprehension ability of EFL students through thinking analytically and reading critically

Abstract. This study explores the ways in which Critical Reading (CR) practices can improve reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL students. In the present study, the following null hypothesis was proposed: The application of critical reading has no significant effect on improving the reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL students. The proposed design was a pretest-posttest groups design. Hence, a group of seventy homogeneous students were selected. They were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Then both groups enjoyed a series of similar instructions except that the students in experimental group were required to express their own opinions about and react critically to the reading passage they had just read. The students in order to express their own ideas about and react critically to the passage had to activate and use their background knowledge. Finally, in order to capture the probable significant relationship between critical reading and reading comprehension a t-test was used. The results rejected the null hypothesis, and indicated that critical reading practices positively affected students&apos; reading comprehension