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IMPORTANCE: Poor access to existing care for diabetic retinopathy (DR) limits effectiveness of proven treatments. OBJECTIVES: We examined whether outreach screening in rural China improves equity of access. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We compared prevalence of female sex, age > = 65 years, primary education or below, and requiring referral care for DR between three cohorts with diabetes examined for DR in neighboring areas of Guangdong, China: passive case detection at secondary-level hospitals (n = 193); persons screened during primary-level DR outreach (n = 182); and individuals with newly- or previously-diagnosed diabetes in a population survey (n = 579). The latter reflected the "ideal" reach of a screening program. RESULTS: Compared to the population cohort, passive case detection reached fewer women (50·8% vs. 62·3%, p = 0·006), older adults (37·8% vs. 51·3%, p < 0·001), and less-educated persons (39·9% vs. 89·6%, p < 0·001). Outreach screening, compared to passive case detection, improved representation of the elderly (49·5% vs. 37·8%, p = 0·03) and less-educated (70·3% vs. 39·9%, p<0·001). The proportion of women (59.8% vs 62.3%, P>0.300) and persons aged > = 65 years (49.5% vs 51.3%, p = 0.723) in the outreach screening and population cohorts did not differ significantly. Prevalence of requiring referral care for DR was significantly higher in the outreach screening cohort (28·0%) than the population (14·0%) and passive case detection cohorts (7·3%, p<0·001 for both). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Primary-level outreach screening improves access for the poorly-educated and elderly, and removes gender inequity in access to DR care in this setting, while also identifying more severely-affected patients than case finding in hospital.
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Diabetes Mellitus , Retinopatía Diabética , Anciano , China/epidemiología , Retinopatía Diabética/diagnóstico , Retinopatía Diabética/epidemiología , Retinopatía Diabética/terapia , Femenino , Humanos , Tamizaje Masivo , Prevalencia , Población RuralRESUMEN
PURPOSE: Endophthalmitis following intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections is frequently caused by Streptococcus viridans organisms and tends to be aggressive. Herein, we present a case of postinjection Streptococcus viridans endophthalmitis presenting in an atypically delayed fashion with good visual outcome. METHODS: Single clinical case report. RESULTS: A 91-year-old woman treated with aflibercept for exudative age-related macular degeneration of the left eye presented to the emergency department with mild pain and visual acuity decline to counting fingers, pigmented anterior chamber cells and vitreous haze 7 weeks after her most recent intravitreal injection. She had no symptoms of systemic infection. The presumptive diagnosis initially was vitreous hemorrhage. Over 10 days of observation, she developed worsening pain and vitritis suggestive of endophthalmitis, leading us to perform vitrectomy with intravitreal vancomycin and ceftazidime. Vitreous biopsy was culture positive for Streptococcus intermedius , a type of viridans streptococcus typically associated with head and neck abscesses. The infection resolved and the patient's visual acuity returned to her baseline of 20/100, with no recurrence of infection after 4 months of follow-up. CONCLUSSION: The virulence of viridans streptococci capable of producing postinjection endophthalmitis may vary widely. Infection ought to be suspected even in cases of delayed-onset intraocular inflammation.
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Endoftalmitis , Infecciones Bacterianas del Ojo , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Anciano de 80 o más Años , Inyecciones Intravítreas , Streptococcus intermedius , Factores de Crecimiento Endotelial/uso terapéutico , Vancomicina/uso terapéutico , Ranibizumab , Ceftazidima/uso terapéutico , Infecciones Bacterianas del Ojo/diagnóstico , Infecciones Bacterianas del Ojo/tratamiento farmacológico , Infecciones Bacterianas del Ojo/etiología , Inhibidores de la Angiogénesis , Factor A de Crecimiento Endotelial Vascular , Endoftalmitis/diagnóstico , Endoftalmitis/etiología , Endoftalmitis/tratamiento farmacológico , Dolor/complicaciones , Dolor/tratamiento farmacológico , Estudios Retrospectivos , Antibacterianos/uso terapéuticoRESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic promoted hitherto unseen uptake of telemedicine by ophthalmologists. We performed a mixed methods study to explore patters of utilization during the pandemic and perceived future utility. METHODS: Ophthalmologists practicing in Canada between March and July 2020 were invited to complete an online questionnaire assessing demographics, clinical practice characteristics and telemedicine utilization prior to and during the pandemic. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were used to analyze the data. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify groups who varied on the types of visits offered using telemedicine. Ten one-on-one interviews were conducted and analyzed using thematic content analysis to explain trends observed in the survey data. RESULTS: Seventy-three ophthalmologists completed the survey. Six percent reported using telemedicine prior to the pandemic compared to 80% during the pandemic. A significant majority (81%) primarily used the telephone for telemedicine visits. Overall, visit volumes during the pandemic declined to 40% of pre-pandemic levels, with a smaller decline for ophthalmologists who used telemedicine than those who did not. Those who used telemedicine for all visit types were more likely to use telemedicine software and to anticipate a modest-to-large role for telemedicine in their future practice. DISCUSSION: For many ophthalmologists, integrating telemedicine into clinical practice may have partially offset the disruption to normal clinical activities during the pandemic. While the majority saw telemedicine as a temporary solution, a sizeable minority appear to have made considerable use of the technology and see an ongoing role for it once regular clinical activities resume.
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COVID-19 , Oftalmólogos , Telemedicina , Humanos , COVID-19/epidemiología , Pandemias , SARS-CoV-2 , Telemedicina/métodosRESUMEN
PURPOSE: Women bear an inequitable burden of blinding conditions compared to men primarily because they have more limited access to eye care services. This systematic review sought evidence regarding interventions to increase gender equity in eye care. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, and EBSCO CINAHL, and contacted experts to identify studies in low- and middle-income countries of health services interventions for age-related cataract, childhood cataract, and trachoma. Eligible studies could be clinical trials or observational studies, but had to present sufficient data for intervention effects to be estimated separately for women and men. RESULTS: We included four cluster RCTs and nine observational studies. All were judged to have serious risk of bias. Six studies examined interventions involving training rural community volunteers to identify, educate and assist individuals with unmet eye care needs. Interventions were associated with reduced gender inequities in all-cause blindness, clinic attendance, cataract surgery coverage and trachoma treatment coverage (low-to-very low quality evidence). Studies in Nepal and Tanzania examining a multicomponent intervention to improve follow-up after pediatric cataract surgery found reduced gender inequities in follow-up rates at 10 weeks (low quality evidence). CONCLUSION: Limited evidence exists to inform health service planners regarding interventions to reduce gender inequity in visual impairment and blindness. Training community volunteers to identify and counsel affected individuals, and empower them to circumvent or challenge socioeconomic barriers to accessing care holds promise. Future interventions ought to explicitly consider gender in their design and implementation, and incorporate high-quality evaluation efforts.
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Países en Desarrollo , Equidad en Salud/normas , Accesibilidad a los Servicios de Salud/normas , Oftalmología/estadística & datos numéricos , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Factores SexualesRESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Guidelines in resource-poor settings have progressively included interventions to reduce postnatal HIV transmission through breast milk. In addition to HIV-free survival, infant growth and non-HIV infections should be considered. Determining the effect of these interventions on infant growth and non-HIV infections will inform healthcare decisions about feeding HIV-exposed infants. We synthesize findings from studies comparing breast to formula feeding, early weaning to standard-duration breastfeeding, breastfeeding with extended antiretroviral (ARV) to short-course ARV prophylaxis, and alternative preparations of infant formula to standard formula in HIV-exposed infants, focusing on infant growth and non-HIV infectious morbidity outcomes. The review objectives were to collate and appraise evidence of interventions to reduce postnatal vertical HIV transmission, and to estimate their effect on growth and non-HIV infections from birth to two years of age among HIV-exposed infants. METHODS: We searched PubMed, SCOPUS, and Cochrane CENTRAL Controlled Trials Register. We included randomized trials and prospective cohort studies. Two authors independently extracted data and evaluated risk of bias. Rate ratios and mean differences were used as effect measures for dichotomous and continuous outcomes, respectively. Where pooling was possible, we used fixed-effects meta-analysis to pool results across studies. Quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Prospective cohort studies comparing breast- versus formula-fed HIV-exposed infants found breastfeeding to be protective against diarrhoea in early life [risk ratio (RR)=0.31; 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.13 to 0.74]. The effect of breastfeeding against diarrhoea [hazard ratio (HR)=0.74; 95% CI=0.57 to 0.97] and respiratory infections (HR=0.65; 95% CI=0.41 to 1.00) was significant through two years of age. The only randomized controlled trial (RCT) available showed that breastfeeding tended to be protective against malnutrition (RR=0.63; 95% CI=0.36 to 1.12). We found no statistically significant differences in the rates of non-HIV infections or malnutrition between breast-fed infants in the extended and short-course ARV prophylaxis groups. CONCLUSIONS: Low to moderate quality evidence suggests breastfeeding may improve growth and non-HIV infection outcomes of HIV-exposed infants. Extended ARV prophylaxis does not appear to increase the risk for HIV-exposed infants for adverse growth or non-HIV infections compared to short-course ARV prophylaxis.
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Infecciones por VIH/prevención & control , Infecciones por VIH/transmisión , Transmisión Vertical de Enfermedad Infecciosa/prevención & control , Atención Posnatal/métodos , Fármacos Anti-VIH/uso terapéutico , Lactancia Materna , Estudios de Cohortes , Humanos , Lactante , Fórmulas Infantiles , Estudios Prospectivos , Ensayos Clínicos Controlados Aleatorios como AsuntoRESUMEN
Scientific literature describing arrayed primer extension and other array-based minisequencing technologies consistently cite the requirement for four fluorescent dideoxynucleotides (with concomitant absence/inactivation of deoxynucleotides) to ensure single-base extension and thus sequence-specific intensity data that can be interpreted as a base call or genotype. We present compelling evidence that fluorescent deoxynucleotides can reliably be used in microarray minisequencing experiments, generating fluorescent sequence extension intensity profiles that are homologous to the single-base extensions obtained with terminator dideoxynucleotides. Due to the almost 10-fold higher costs (and limited fluorophore choice) of many commercially available fluorescent dideoxynucleotides, compared to fluorescent deoxynucleotides, as well as other potentially constraining intellectual property and licensing issues, this hitherto dismissed microarray chemistry represents an important reevaluation in the field of array-based genotyping and related enzymology.