Brien Holden Vision Institute.

Brien Holden Vision Institute.

No abstract

Dengue is associated with severe disease, and deaths do occur despite current supportive management. Fatal DHF/dengue shock syndrome (DSS) does occur in adults and in primary dengue infection. Better early predictors of disease severity and clinical interventions are needed.

Aims To compare methods to measure time outdoor and light levels, two possible predictors of myopia, in Singapore children. Methods Outdoor time from a diary and portable light meter over a 1-week period was compared in 117 Singapore children aged 6-12 years with and without myopia. All children wore a (HOBO Pendant temp/light Part # UA-002-64) light meter for 1 week and the parents filled the 7-day outdoor diary to track the outdoor activity. Results Mean outdoor time from diary and time with light levels was 5.44 hours per week and 7.91 hours per week, respectively, during school term and school holidays. Time spent with light levels of 41000 Lux from the light meter were 7.08 h per week and 9.81 h per week, respectively, during school term and school holidays. The intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.21 and 0.28 for outdoor time from the diary and light meter (1000 Lux cut-off) during the school term and holidays, respectively. The correlation coefficient was 0.34 (95% CI 0.05, 0.58) for a weekday during school holidays, 0.17 (À0.14, 0.45) for a weekday during school term, 0.07 (À0.16, 0.29) for a weekday during school term, and 0.25 (0.02, 0.46) for a weekend during school term. Conclusions The agreement between the light meter and 1-week diary was poor to fair. Both instruments measure different parameters, time outdoors and light intensity, and could therefore capture different aspects of risk in future myopia studies.

No abstract

Blood pressure has a significant effect on retinal arterioles. There are few data on whether this effect varies by race/ethnicity. We examined the relationship of blood pressure and retinal vascular caliber in a multi-ethnic Asian population. The study is population-based and cross sectional in design. A total of 3749 Chinese, Malay and Indian participants aged X24 years residing in Singapore were included in the study. Retinal vascular caliber was measured using a computer program from digital retinal photographs. The associations of retinal vascular caliber with blood pressure and hypertension in each racial/ethnic group were analyzed. The main outcome measures are retinal arteriolar caliber and venular caliber. The results show that retinal arterioles were narrower in persons with uncontrolled/untreated hypertension (140.0 lm) as compared with persons with controlled hypertension (142.1 lm, P¼0.0001) and those with no hypertension (146.0 lm, Po0.0001). On controlling for age, gender, body mass index, lipids and smoking, each 10 mm Hg increase in mean arterial blood pressure was associated with a 3.1 lm decrease in arteriolar caliber (Po0.0001), with a similar magnitude seen in all three racial/ethnic groups: 3.1 lm in Chinese, 2.8 lm in Malays and 3.2 lm in Indians (Po0.0001 for all). Each 10 mm Hg increase in mean arterial blood pressure was associated with a 1.8 lm increase in venular caliber (Po0.0001); furthermore, the magnitude of this effect was similar across the three racial/ethnic groups. The effect of blood pressure on the retinal vasculature was similar across three major racial/ethnic groups in Asia.

Lens opacities were common in this urban Malay population. Retrodots and vacuoles were found to be associated with age-related cataract.