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Purposes To investigate patterns of progression of localized retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) defect on red-free fundus photographs and to quantify extents of progression in normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) patients. Methods Sixty-five eyes of consecutive 65 NTG patients who had shown progression of localized RNFL defect on serial red-free fundus photographs were selected for this study. Patterns of progression of localized RNFL defect on red-free fundus photographs were categorized and extents of progression were quantified. Serial assessments of disc stereophotographs and visual fields were also performed to detect progression. Results The most common pattern of progression was widening of the defect towards the macula (n ¼ 37; 56.9%) followed by deepening of the defect (n ¼ 25; 38.5%), appearance of a new defect (n ¼ 6; 9.2%), and widening of the defect away from the macula (n ¼ 5; 7.7%). Eight eyes simultaneously showed two patterns of progression. Mean angular widening of the defect towards the macula and away from the macula was 6.4±4.11 (range: 1.1-17.11, n ¼ 37) and 3.4±2.11 (range: 1.1-5.21, n ¼ 5), respectively. No progression was observed on the disc stereophotographs (n ¼ 65) or in the visual fields (n ¼ 55) in 64 eyes (98.5%) and 46 eyes (83.6%), respectively. Conclusions There were four patterns of progression of localized RNFL defect. In most cases, RNFL loss proceeded temporally.

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An analog hadron calorimeter (AHCAL) prototype of 5.3 nuclear interaction lengths thickness has been constructed by members of the CALICE Collaboration. The AHCAL prototype consists of a 38-layer sandwich structure of steel plates and highly-segmented scintillator tiles that are read out by wavelength-shifting fibers coupled to SiPMs. The signal is amplified and shaped with a custom-designed ASIC. A calibration/monitoring system based on LED light was developed to monitor the SiPM gain and to measure the full SiPM response curve in order to correct for non-linearity. Ultimately, the physics goals are the study of hadron shower shapes and testing the concept of particle flow. The technical goal consists of measuring the performance and reliability of 7608 SiPMs. The AHCAL was commissioned in test beams at DESY and CERN. The entire prototype was completed in 2007 and recorded hadron showers, electron showers and muons at different energies and incident angles in test beams at CERN and Fermilab.

Purpose To evaluate the risk factors associated with optic disc haemorrhage in patients with normal tension glaucoma (NTG). Patients and methods Two hundred and eighty-one eyes of 281 patients with NTG (113 eyes with optic disc haemorrhage and 168 eyes without haemorrhage) were included in this study. Associations between optic disc haemorrhage and various patient-related variables (diabetes; hypertension; hypotension; cardiac disease; stroke; cold hand; migraine; constipation; use of steroids, aspirin, anticoagulant, or gingko extract; smoking history; and glaucoma family history) and eye-related variables (baseline intraocular pressure (IOP); maximum, minimum, and range of IOP; vertical and horizontal cup/disc ratio; mean deviation and pattern standard deviation of the visual field; corneal thickness; and average retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness measured by optical coherence tomography) were investigated by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Differences in risk factors between patients with single optic disc haemorrhages and recurrent haemorrhages were also analysed. Results Optic disc haemorrhage was associated with systemic hypertension (odds ratio, 1.998; 95% confidence interval, 1.094-3.651; P ¼ 0.001). IOP range (P ¼ 0.080), diabetes (P ¼ 0.056), and use of aspirin (P ¼ 0.079) also tended to be associated with optic disc haemorrhage. No risk factor was significantly different between the single haemorrhage group and the recurrent haemorrhage group. ConclusionOptic disc haemorrhage was associated with systemic hypertension in patients with NTG.

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Elevated SeP concentrations are independently associated with a reduced risk of MetS in children. The associations between FGF21, FGF23 and metabolic parameters are not of comparable significance.

Bowenoid papulosis (BP) of the genitalia, characterized by the histological findings of a squamous cell carcinoma, follows a largely benign clinical course. The detection of oncogenic human papilloma viruses (HPV) from BP points to an aetiological role of these viral infections. A 47-year-old man with multiple genital skin lesions was seen over a 10-year period with the diagnosis of BP. Recently, he attended again with a recurrent genital tumour that was diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma. His genital lesions progressed and became polymorphic in appearance, from a wart-like tumour to a reddish invasive plaque. To screen for the presence of different HPV sequences from different skin lesions and to correlate each HPV type with distinct clinical manifestations, polymerase chain reaction and single-strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) were performed. PCR-SSCP revealed the presence of several types of HPV from different genital lesions. Sequencing results disclosed that he had a mixed infection of HPV6b, HPV16, HPV18 and HPV33, respectively. Interestingly, the clinical findings were fairly well correlated with the oncogenic potential of HPV found from each lesion.