Incidence of retinopathy of prematurity in Varna region, Bulgaria, and evaluation of perinatal risk factors

Introduction: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a vasoproliferative disorder that is still a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness around the world.Aim: The aim of this article is to determine the incidence and evaluate the perinatal risk factors associated with the development of retinopathy of prematurity and its progression.Materials and Methods: Eighty-five children, in the period June 2019–January 2021, were prospectively analyzed. All children have fulfilled the screening ROP criteria in the Republic of Bulgaria: gestational age (GA) ≤ 32 gestational weeks (g.w.) and birth weight (BW) ≤ 1501 g. Children with higher GA and/or higher BW were included if additional risk factors were detected, or based on the neonatologist’s assessment.Results and Discussion: Of the screened children, 21 (24.7%) showed no signs of ROP, and 64 (75.3%) developed any stage of ROP. The mean BW for the cohort was 1064.8 g (± 227.2), and the mean GA was 28.1 ± 2.2 g.w. After univariate analysis, the following risk factors were found to be significant for ROP development: low birth weight, invasive mechanical ventilation, anemia of prematurity, ≥ 2 hemotransfusions, and hyaline membrane disease. The above-mentioned factors were also found to be statistically significant for ROP progression, including GA. After multivariate logistic regression analysis, BW was the only independent risk factor both for ROP development and progression (OR: 3.352 (95% CI 2.803–3.902), p < 0.001). Conclusion: Тhe incidence of ROP in the Varna region of Bulgaria is relatively high. Low BW, anemia of prematurity, and invasive mechanical ventilation are significant and independent risk factors for ROP development

LOWER-LIMB ASYMMETRY IN BALANCE ABILITY OF YOUNG BADMINTON PLAYERS

Based on the limited evidence available about balance performance among young badminton players, this study was aimed to establish the presence or absence of lower-limb balance asymmetry among 13-15 years old players. The research was done among 40 young players (22 girls, 18 boys) from 3 Bulgarian clubs. Uni-pedal stance test and Y balance test were used to determine balance abilities. Paired sample T test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to evaluate the data from the dominant and non-dominant leg. The results from the two tests show that there is no statistically significant difference between the legs. These results support the usefulness of performing bilateral balance exercises, so that the asymmetry that players are predisposed to develop could be reduced and the risk of lower extremity injuries would be decreased

Performance comparison of multi-domain routing schemes in GMPLS networks with BGP

We compare an enhancement of the BGP protocol for TE support in GMPLS networks with a simple TE extension of BGP in terms of signaling overhead and connection blocking ratio. Our results show increased performance of the enhanced BGP