The effect of laser pan-retinal photocoagulation with or without intravitreal bevacizumab injections on the OCT-measured macular choroidal thickness of eyes with proliferative diabetic retinopathy

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of laser pan-retinal photocoagulation with or without intravitreal bevacizumab injections on macular choroidal thickness parameters in eyes with high-risk proliferative diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: High-risk proliferative diabetic retinopathy patients undergoing laser treatment were prospectively enrolled in this study. One eye was randomly selected for laser treatment combined with bevacizumab injections, study group, whereas the corresponding eye was subjected to laser treatment alone, control group. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with enhanced depth imaging was used to measure the macular choroidal thickness prior to and 1 month after treatment. Measurements in both groups were compared. Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01389505. RESULTS: Nineteen patients (38 eyes) with a mean±standard deviation age of 53.4±9.3 years were evaluated, and choroidal thickness measurements for 15 patients were used for comparison. The greatest measurement before treatment was the subfoveal choroidal thickness (341.68±67.66 μm and 345.79±83.66 μm for the study and control groups, respectively). No significant difference between groups was found in terms of macular choroidal thickness measurements at baseline or after treatment. However, within-group comparisons revealed a significant increase in choroidal thickness parameters in 10 measurements in the study group and in only 5 temporal measurements in the control group when 1-month follow-up measurements were compared to baseline values. CONCLUSIONS: The macular choroidal thickness does not appear to be significantly influenced by laser treatment alone but increases significantly when associated with bevacizumab injections in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and macular edema. Because bevacizumab injections reduce short-term laser pan-retinal photocoagulation-induced macular edema, our findings suggest that the choroid participates in its pathogenesis.

Frequência de fatores de risco cardiovascular em voluntários participantes de evento de educação em saúde / Cardiovascular risk factors in a population attending a community event on health education

INTRODUÇÃO: As doenças cardiovasculares (DCV) constituem a principal causa de óbito no Brasil. OBJETIVO: Avaliar a frequência dos fatores de risco para DCV em indivíduos participantes de evento de educação em saúde na comunidade. MÉTODOS: Foram analisados retrospectivamente 428 formulários contendo informações clínicas e demográficas de voluntários participantes de evento em saúde, realizado em maio de 2006. Comparações entre proporções foram realizadas pelo teste do Qui quadrado e entre grupos pelo teste t de Student. As associações entre hipertensão arterial (HAS) e diabetes mellitus (DM) e variáveis clínicas foram avaliadas pelo modelo de regressão logística multivariado. O nível de significância adotado foi p<0,05. RESULTADOS: A idade média foi 57±14 anos, sendo 58 por cento mulheres. Os principais fatores de risco cardiovascular observados foram HAS (39,5 por cento), DM (15,4 por cento) e dislipidemia (25,8 por cento), sendo que 8,4 por cento, 17,5 por cento e 33,1 por cento, respectivamente, não sabiam informar sobre esses antecedentes. Antecedentes familiares de DCV ocorreram em 41 por cento dos indivíduos e somente 67 por cento referiram ter algum acesso a informações sobre DM ou dislipidemia. Entre os obesos (IMC>30 Kg/m², 27,3 por cento da casuística), a pressão arterial sistólica (133±16mmHg) e diastólica (84±11,5mmHg) e a glicemia casual (124±52,5mg/dl) foram maiores que nos não obesos (p<0,05). Houve associação entre obesidade e dislipidemia (p=0,04). Idade e IMC foram associados de forma independente com a presença de HAS e DM. CONCLUSÃO: A alta prevalência de fatores de risco modificáveis na população avaliada sugere a necessidade de medidas de saúde pública que promovam educação e prevenção primária dirigida, principalmente, para indivíduos idosos e com sobrepeso.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the main cause of death in Brazil. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the frequency of CVD risk factors in a population attending a health education community event. METHODS. Retrospective study that included 428 completed forms with clinical and demographic information of volunteers attending a public event, in May, 2006. Data were expressed by means and standard deviation or proportions and compared by Student´s t test or Chi-square test. Associations between Arterial Hypertension (AH), Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and clinical variables were analyzed by multinomial logistic regression. Significance level was p <0.05. RESULTS: Mean age was 57±14 years, and women represented 58 percent of the total population. The main cardiovascular risk factors were AH (39.5 percent), DM (15.4 percent) and dyslipidemia (25.8 percent). The frequency of unawareness about these risk factors was respectively 8.4 percent, 17.5 percent and 33.1 percent.. Family history of CVD was reported by 41 percent while only 67 percent reported having any information about DM or dyslipidemia. Among obese individuals (IMC>30 Kg/m2, 27.3 percent of the population), systolic blood pressure (133±16mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (84±11.5mmHg) and casual glycemia (124±52.5mg/dl) were higher when compared to non-obese (p<0.05). There was a significant association between obesity and dyslipidemia (p=0.04). Age and IMC were independently associated with AH and DM. CONCLUSION: The high frequency of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in this population suggests the need for educational programs to promote primary prevention, mainly for the elderly and overweight.

Quality of life and its association with cardiovascular risk factors in a community health care program population

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate quality of life in a population that attended a specific community event on health care education, and to investigate the association of their quality of life with the presence of cardiovascular risk factors INTRODUCTION: Interest in health-related quality of life is growing worldwide as a consequence of increasing rates of chronic disease. However, little is known about the association between quality of life and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: This study included 332 individuals. Demographics, blood pressure, body mass index, and casual glycemia were evaluated. The brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire on quality of life was given to them. The medians of the scores obtained for the physical, psychological, emotional, and environmental domains were used as cutoffs to define "higher" and "lower" scores. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to define the parameters associated with lower scores. RESULTS: Diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and obesity were associated with lower scores in the physical domain. Dyslipidemia was also associeted with lower scores in the psychological domain. Male gender and regular physical activity had protective effects on quality of life. Aging was inversely associated with decreased quality of life in the environmental domain. CONCLUSION: The presence of cardiovascular risk factors is related to a decreased quality of life. Conversely, male gender and regular physical activity had protective effects on quality of life. These findings suggest that exercising should be further promoted by health-related public programs, with a special focus on women.