Papillitis as the prominent ocular sign in Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

A 29-year old homosexual presented with clinical symptoms and an immunological picture of AIDS syndrome. Ocular involvement started in August 1986 with reduction of visual acuity in the right eye rapidly progressing to amaurosis. The most prominent ophthalmoscopical sign was of papillitis which had, in the beginning, the characteristics of an ischaemic optic neuropathy. Besides this, cotton-wool spots, retinal haemorrhages and limited areas of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis were found. Choroid was also involved with secondary CMV retinitis. On the other hand, sheathing of retinal vessels and Roth’s spots were absent. Although papilloedema, haemorrhages, cotton-wool exudates and CMV retinitis completely disappeared by October 1986, the general condition aggravated and the patient finally succumbed.peer-reviewe

Ocular manifestations in lepromatous and tuberculoid leprosy

Ocular manifestations of leprosy in 100 patients examined were reported on; -80% were suffering from the lepromatous type of the disease. The most frequent change was loss of eyebrows (40%) which was seen mainly in lepromatous patients. The sclera and cornea were rarely affected separately, but sclerokerato-iridocyclitis was found in 3%. On the other hand, the iris was involved rather more often -16% (atrophy of the iris -4, atrophy of the pupillary margin -3, miosis -1, posterior synechiae -6, keratic precipitates -1, and iris "pearls" -1). The iritis always had an insidious chronic evolution. The origin of the iritis is probably multifactorial: a) neuroparalytic due to involvement of the autonomic nerves supplying the iris muscles, primarily dilator; b) direct effect of Mycobacterium leprae on the iris tissue; and c) immune or auto-immune mechanisms. The posterior uvea was rarely affected (2%). No case of primary glaucoma was detected, but secondary glaucoma due to sclerokerato-iridocyclitis was found in 2 cases. Cataract seems to occur more frequently in leprosy patients (20%) than in the general population. The anterior segment was mostly affected (21%), and all these cases belonged to the lepromatous (16) or borderline lepromatous (5) type.peer-reviewe

What does a primary care annual review for RA include? A national GP survey

Letter to the edito

Primordial Fluctuations within Teleparallelism

We study the cosmological perturbations for the possible inflation scenario in the teleparallel equivalence of general relativity specified with parallelizable topological conditions. By acquiring the identical physical observables to general relativity under the teleparallel formalism, we perform a 3+1 decomposition of the vierbein field, which can be interpreted as the time gauge fixing between coordinate and tangent frames. We also extend our discussion to the higher-order action, $f(T)$ gravity.Comment: 17 pages, no figure, revised version accepted by PR

Dirac field in topologically massive gravity

We consider a Dirac field coupled minimally to the Mielke-Baekler model of gravity and investigate cosmological solutions in three dimensions. We arrive at a family of solutions which exists even in the limit of vanishing cosmological constant.Comment: 12 pages. Title changed. Conclusion extended. Appendix added. To appear in Gen. Rel. Gra

Abelian Magnetic Monopoles and Topologically Massive Vector Bosons in Scalar-Tensor Gravity with Torsion Potential

A Lagrangian formulation describing the electromagnetic interaction - mediated by topologically massive vector bosons - between charged, spin-(1/2) fermions with an abelian magnetic monopole in a curved spacetime with non-minimal coupling and torsion potential is presented. The covariant field equations are obtained. The issue of coexistence of massive photons and magnetic monopoles is addressed in the present framework. It is found that despite the topological nature of photon mass generation in curved spacetime with isotropic dilaton field, the classical field theory describing the nonrelativistic electromagnetic interaction between a point-like electric charge and magnetic monopole is inconsistent.Comment: 18 pages, no figure

How higher-spin gravity surpasses the spin two barrier: no-go theorems versus yes-go examples

Aiming at non-experts, we explain the key mechanisms of higher-spin extensions of ordinary gravity. We first overview various no-go theorems for low-energy scattering of massless particles in flat spacetime. In doing so we dress a dictionary between the S-matrix and the Lagrangian approaches, exhibiting their relative advantages and weaknesses, after which we high-light potential loop-holes for non-trivial massless dynamics. We then review positive yes-go results for non-abelian cubic higher-derivative vertices in constantly curved backgrounds. Finally we outline how higher-spin symmetry can be reconciled with the equivalence principle in the presence of a cosmological constant leading to the Fradkin--Vasiliev vertices and Vasiliev's higher-spin gravity with its double perturbative expansion (in terms of numbers of fields and derivatives).Comment: LaTeX, 50 pages, minor changes, many refs added; version accepted for publication in Reviews of Modern Physic

Widespread pain and depression are key modifiable risk factors associated with reduced social participation in older adults: A prospective cohort study in primary care.

In older adults, reduced social participation increases the risk of poor health-related quality of life, increased levels of inflammatory markers and cardiovascular disease, and increased mortality. Older adults frequently present to primary care, which offers the potential to deliver interventions at the point of care to increase social participation. The aim of this prospective study was to identify the key modifiable exposures that were associated with reduced social participation in a primary care population of older adults.The study was a population-based prospective cohort study. Participants (n = 1991) were those aged ≥65 years who had completed questionnaires at baseline, and 3 and 6-year follow-ups. Generalized linear mixed modeling framework was used to test for associations between exposures and decreasing social participation over 6 years.At baseline, 44% of participants reported reduced social participation, increasing to 49% and 55% at 3 and 6-year follow-up. Widespread pain and depression had the strongest independent association with reduced social participation over the 6-year follow-up period. The prevalence of reduced social participation for those with widespread pain was 106% (adjusted incidence rate ratio 2.06, 95% confidence interval 1.72, 2.46), higher than for those with no pain. Those with depression had an increased prevalence of 82% (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.82, 95% confidence interval 1.62, 2.06). These associations persisted in multivariate analysis.Population ageing will be accompanied by increasing numbers of older adults with pain and depression. Future trials should assess whether screening for widespread pain and depression, and targeting appropriate treatment in primary care, increase social participation in older people

Classical central extension for asymptotic symmetries at null infinity in three spacetime dimensions

The symmetry algebra of asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity in three dimensions is the semi-direct sum of the infinitesimal diffeomorphisms on the circle with an abelian ideal of supertranslations. The associated charge algebra is shown to admit a non trivial classical central extension of Virasoro type closely related to that of the anti-de Sitter case.Comment: 4 sign mistakes due to a change of conventions are corrected in section 2, none of the conclusions are affected, takes precedence over published version, including corrigendu