Corneal-thickness spatial profile, corneal-volume distribution, percentage increase in thickness, and percentage increase in volume were different between keratoconic corneas and normal corneas and could serve as indices to diagnose keratoconus and screen refractive candidates. Further studies are necessary to evaluate whether these tomographic indices are more sensitive and specific than the classic Placido-based topography.

Doppler velocimetry is a reproducible technique for evaluation of the RI, PI, and PR in the ophthalmic artery. Unilateral analysis of these indices can be used. Linear regression analysis indicated that other factors were associated with a decrease in the RI and PI values with advancing GA. No significant change was observed in the PR values throughout normal pregnancy.

Objectives To compare the ophthalmic artery Doppler indices observed in women with singleton pregnancies complicated by hypertension and to correlate the indices observed in hypertensive pregnant women with those observed in healthy pregnant women. Methods Ophthalmic artery Doppler indices were compared between 30 women with mild preeclampsia, 30 women with severe preeclampsia, and 30 women with chronic hypertension at 20 to 40 weeks' gestation. The control group consisted of 289 normotensive pregnant women. The resistive index, pulsatility index, and peak ratio were measured in the right eye. The mean and standard deviation were calculated for each group. Analysis of variance and the Tukey method were used to compare the means of the Doppler indices between groups. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to determine the predictive power of the Doppler indices for identification of women with severe preeclampsia. P < .05 was considered statistically significant. Results Significant differences were found between the resistive index, pulsatility index, and peak ratio in women with severe preeclampsia compared to the other groups. The means ± SDs for the resistive index, pulsatility index, and pulse ratio in women with severe preeclampsia were 0.63 ± 0.09, 1.13 ± 0.31, and 0.89 ± 0.12, respectively. The optimal cutoff values for the resistive index, pulsatility index and the peak ratio for identification of women with severe preeclampsia were determined by the receiver operating characteristic curves to be 0.657, 1.318, and 0.784. Conclusions Doppler imaging of the ophthalmic artery showed central overperfusion among pregnant women with severe preeclampsia. The peak ratio was the best index for discriminating between severe and mild preeclampsia or chronic hypertension.

BackgroundMetabolic syndrome (MS) is an aggregation of risk factors that increase the incidence of cardiovascular events and diabetes mellitus (DM). Population aging is accompanied by higher prevalence of MS, which varies depending on the population studied and the diagnostic criteria used. ObjectiveTo determine prevalence of MS in the elderly using four diagnostic criteria and agreement between them. MethodsCross-sectional study on 243 patients older than 60 years (180 women) in Niterói, RJ. They were evaluated by clinical examination, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, lipid profile and anthropometric measurements - weight, height, waist circumference and waist/hip ratio. Prevalence of MS was estimated by World Health Organization (WHO) modified, National Cholesterol Education Program - Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III), International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Joint Interim Statement (JIS) criteria. ResultsPrevalence was high with the four criteria WHO (51.9%), NCEP-ATPIII (45.2%), IDF (64.1%) and JIS (69.1%), and agreement between criteria by kappa was moderate in almost all comparisons WHO vs. IDF (k = 0.47;95% confidence interval (CI), 0.35 to 0.58); WHO vs. NCEP-ATPIII (k = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.40 to 0.61); WHO vs. JIS (k = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.33 to 0.56); IDF vs. NCEP-ATPIII (k = 0.55; 95% CI, 0.45 to 0.65) and NCEP-ATPIII vs. JIS (k = 0.53; 95% CI, 0.43-0.64), except between IDF vs. JIS (K = 0.89;95% CI, 0.83 to 0.95), which was considered good. ConclusionPrevalence of MS was high with the four diagnostic criteria, mainly by JIS. There was good agreement between JIS and IDF criteria and moderate among the others.

Excellent correlations were found for both observers in the use of rotation angles of 15 degrees and 30 degrees . Since a significantly faster evaluation was obtained by using a 30 degrees rotation step it must be preferred to assess the FB volume. Our results show that the VOCAL technique, with a plane rotation of 30 degrees , can be used in a simple way to estimate fetal urine production.

A low body mass index (BMI) and serum albumin are associated with increased risk of mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate BMI and serum albumin as predictors of all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality in hemodialysed (HD) patients. We describe the results of a five-year retrospective observational study with 187 HD patients (54.9 +/- 15.6 years old, 54% men, and 46% suffering from diabetes) from RenalCor Clinic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The influence of serum albumin levels and BMI (determined every three months) over all-cause mortality was examined using a Cox model, while the influence of the same factors over CV mortality among all-cause mortality was modeled through a logistic regression. During the five years, 26.7% of the patients died, 62% of which due to CV disease (CVD). Analysis by the Cox model showed that low serum albumin and low BMI were significant predictors of mortality. Patients with higher BMI had a lower hazard of death for all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.92; P ( )= 0.035) and a 1 g/l increase in serum albumin was associated with significantly lower hazard of death (hazard ratio = 0.9679; P < 0.001). The highest BMI value (>30 kg/m(2)) was significantly associated with an increase of odds of CV mortality (odds ratio = 1.22, P = 0.03). We confirm here in a Brazilian cohort of hemodialysis patients that both low BMI (<19 kg/m(2)) and hypoalbuminemia are strong predictors of death.

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These results show a good agreement between both forms of examination, allowing clinical examination to be used in the diagnosis of rectus muscle diastasis, when ultrasonography is not available.