Recent data suggest that corneal somatosensory dysfunction may be the underlying cause of
severe dry eye symptoms in the absence of ocular surface pathology seen in a subset of
patients diagnosed with “dry eye syndrome.” This subset of patients tends to demonstrate a
unique constellation of symptoms that are persistent, more severe, and generally respond
poorly to current dry eye therapies targeting inadequate or dysfunctional tears. A growing
body of literature suggests that symptoms in these patients may be better characterized as
neuropathic ocular pain rather than dry eye. In these patients, dry eye symptoms are often
associated with numerous comorbid pain conditions and evidence of central pain processing
abnormalities, where eye pain is just one of multiple overlapping peripheral
manifestations. In this review, we discuss the concept and potential mechanisms of chronic
overlapping pain conditions as well as evidence for considering neuropathic ocular pain as
one of these overlapping pain conditions.
Background: Lower education has been reported to be associated with dementia. However, many studies have been done in settings where 12 years of formal education is the standard. Formal schooling in the Old Order Amish communities (OOA) ends at 8th grade, which along with their genetic homogeneity, makes it an interesting population to study the effect of education on cognitive impairment (CI). Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the association of education with cognitive function in individuals from the OOA. We hypothesized that small differences in educational attainment at lower levels of formal education were associated with risk for CI. Methods: Data of 2,426 individuals from the OOA aged 54–99 were analyzed. The Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS-R) was used to classify participants as CI or normal. Individuals were classified in three education categories: <8, 8, and >8 years of education. To measure the association of education with cognitive status, a logistic regression model was performed adding age and sex as covariates. Results: Our results showed that individuals who attained lowest levels of education (<8 and 8) had a higher probability of becoming CI compared with people attending >8 years (OR = 2.96 and 1.85). Conclusion: Even within a setting of low levels of formal education, small differences in educational attainment can still be associated with the risk of cognitive impairment. Given the homogeneity of the OOA, these results are less likely to be biased by differences in socioeconomic backgrounds.
Background and Aims Cirrhotic patients presenting with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) have elevated risk of shortterm mortality. While high Model for End-Stage Liver Disease-Sodium score (MELD-Na) and ascites culture yielding multidrug resistance (MDR) bacteria are well established risk factors for further aggravating mortality, the impact of individual, causative microorganisms and their respective pathogenesis have not been previously investigated. Methods This is a retrospective study of 267 cirrhotic patients at two tertiary care hospitals undergoing paracentesis from January 2015 to January 2021 who presented with ascitic PMN count > 250 cells / mm 3 . The primary outcome was SBP progression defined as death or liver transplantation within 1-month of paracentesis stratified by microorganism type. Results Of 267 patients with SBP, the ascitic culture yielded causative microorganism in 88 cases [median age 57 years (IQR 52-64)]; 68% male; median MELD-Na 29 . The microbes isolated were E. coli (33%), Streptococcus (15%), Klebsiella (13%), Enterococcus (13%), Staphylococcus (9%) and others (18%); 41% were MDR. Cumulative incidence of SBP progression within 1-month was 91% (95% CI 67-100) for Klebsiella, 59% (95% CI 42-76) for E. coli, and 16% (95% CI 4-51) for Streptococcus. After adjusting for MELD-Na and MDR, risk of SBP progression remained elevated for Klebsiella (HR 2.07; 95% CI 0.98-4.24; p-value = 0.06) and decreased for Streptococcus (HR 0.28; 95% CI 0.06-1.21; p-value = 0.09) compared to all other bacteria. Conclusion Our study found Klebsiella-associated SBP had worse clinical outcomes while Streptococcus-associated SBP had the most favorable outcomes after accounting for MDR and MELD-Na. Thus, identification of the causative microorganism is crucial not only for optimizing the treatment but for prognostication.
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