Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy: clinical characteristics of surgical and nonsurgical patients

PURPOSE: To review the patient and clinical characteristics of patients with Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD). METHODS: Review of records for every patient who presented to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute between 2003 and 2009 whose visit was coded for endothelial corneal dystrophy (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision [ICD9] 371.57), bullous keratopathy (ICD9 371.23), or who underwent a corneal surgery with or without cataract extraction. Demographic, clinical, and ancillary testing data were collected from the time of presentation, diagnosis, and follow-up, and the use, timing, and type of surgical interventions was documented, with 6-month and final visual acuities recorded. RESULTS: A total of 2,370 charts were included in this study, of which 966 patients had a diagnosis of FECD. Of these, 197 patients (21%) received a corneal transplantation procedure. The surgery most often performed was penetrating keratoplasty with or without cataract extraction (66%), followed by endothelial keratoplasty with or without cataract extraction (34%). The risk factors for surgery include worse visual acuity at presentation (20/60 Snellen visual acuity in surgical patients versus 20/40 Snellen visual acuity in nonsurgical patients, P<0.001), greater average central corneal thickness (635 μm versus 592 μm, P<0.001), loss of visual acuity over time (two lines lost versus zero lines lost, P<0.001), increasing age (P<0.001), and male sex (P=0.008). Over half of patients (52%) did not receive surgery despite poor vision. CONCLUSION: During this time period, FECD did not have a consistent pattern for management or treatment, and despite advances in surgical techniques, most patients were still managed without surgery

Size- and Shape-Dependent Antibacterial Studies of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized by Wet Chemical Routes

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) of different shapes and sizes were prepared by solution-based chemical reduction routes. Silver nitrate was used as a precursor, tri-sodium citrate (TSC) and sodium borohydride as reducing agents, while polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as a stabilizing agent. The morphology, size, and structural properties of obtained nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Spherical AgNPs, as depicted by SEM, were found to have diameters in the range of 15 to 90 nm while lengths of the edges of the triangular particles were about 150 nm. The characteristic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks of different spherical silver colloids occurring in the wavelength range of 397 to 504 nm, whereas triangular particles showed two peaks, first at 392 nm and second at 789 nm as measured by UV-VIS. The XRD spectra of the prepared samples indicated the face-centered cubic crystalline structure of metallic AgNPs. The in vitro antibacterial properties of all synthesized AgNPs against two types of Gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli were examined by Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility method. It was noticed that the smallest-sized spherical AgNPs demonstrated a better antibacterial activity against both bacterial strains as compared to the triangular and larger spherical shaped AgNPs

The Effect of Different Pretreatment of Chicken Manure for Electricity Generation in Membrane-Less Microbial Fuel Cell

The need for energy resources is growing all the time, which means that more fossil fuels are needed to provide them. People prefer to consume chicken as a source of protein, and this creates an abundance of waste. Thus, microbial fuel cells represent a new technological approach with the potential to generate electricity through the action of electrogenic bacteria toward chicken manure, while reducing the abundance of chicken manure. This study investigated the effect of different pretreatment (thermal, alkaline, and sonication pretreatment) of chicken manure to improve the performance of a membrane-less microbial fuel cell (ML-MFC). Statistical response surface methodology (RSM) through a central composite design (CCD) under a quadratic model was conducted for optimization of the ML-MFC performance focusing on the COD removal efficiency (R2 = 0.8917), biomass (R2 = 0.9101), and power density response (R2 = 0.8794). The study demonstrated that the highest COD removal (80.68%), biomass (7.8539 mg/L), and power density (220 mW/m2) were obtained when the pretreatment conditions were 140 &deg;C, 20 kHz, and pH 10. The polarization curve of the best condition of ML-MFC was plotted to classify the behavior of the ML-MFC. The kinetic growth of Bacillus subtillis (BS) showed that, in treated chicken manure, the specific growth rate &micro; = 0.20 h&minus;1 and doubling time Td = 3.43 h, whereas, in untreated chicken manure, &micro; = 0.11 h&minus;1 and Td = 6.08