Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma-A Retrospective study.

INTRODUCTION: Mesenchymal chondrosarcoma is a rare high grade malignant neoplasm that accounts for 3-10% of all chondrosarcomas. Histopathologically, it shows biphasic population composed of small round to ovoid with occasional spindle cells and islands of well differentiated cartilage. The study aimed at retrospectively analysing the clinical, pathological, radiological features of these cases in our institution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective descriptional study. All the cases of mesenchymal chondrosarcomas were retrieved from our archives of pathology over a period of 10 years .The demographic details including the age, clinical presentation including skeletal/extraskeletal along with radiology were noted for all these cases. The treatment details along with the follow up of the patients were archived from the medical records. RESULTS: A total of 13 cases of mesenchymal chondrosarcoma were retrieved for our study. The mean age of presentation was 33 years with a slight male predilection. Extra skeletal soft tissue origin was noted in 3 of our cases (3/13), one case in forearm, another in pelvis. The third case was intracranial origin which presented as a dural based parieto-occipital mass and rest all had bony origin .The radiological and clinical correlation was done for all these cases. CONCLUSION: Mesenchymal chondrosarcoma presents multiple diagnostic challenges, most common include inadequate biopsy samples which may result in errors in diagnosis, namely with small blue round cell tumours .A better understanding of this entity may help the pathologists in conferring an accurate diagnosis to the clinicians.

Zinc oxide nanocatalyst mediates cadmium and lead toxicity tolerance mechanism by differential regulation of photosynthetic machinery and antioxidant enzymes level in cotton seedlings.

Cadmium (Cd) and Lead (Pb) heavy metal pollution induced toxicity severely affects the plant growth and yield of various agriculutral crops worldwide. The present study discuss the prime role of phycomolecules coated zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) application on development of heavy metal tolerance mechanism in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) seedlings better than exposed to Cd and Pb treatments alone. Co-exposure of ZnONPs along with heavy metal treatments significantly promoted the shoot, and root growth as well as biomass compared to control, while it was down-regulated in Cd and Pb exposed seedlings. The intervention of ZnONPs had up-regulated the level of chlorophyll a, b and carotenoid contents in leaves grown under Cd and Pb treatments than the untreated control. Similarly, the level of total soluble protein and malondialdehyde (MDA-lipid peroxidation) contents was significantly increased in the co-presence of ZnONPs along with Cd and Pb treatments over their respective control. Accumulation of antioxidant defense enzymes viz., superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) was up-regulated significantly in seedlings upon co-exposure of ZnONPs with Cd and Pb treatments. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprinting analysis exhibited no genomic changes/alterations in seedlings by co-existence of ZnONPs with heavy metals. Overall, the present results indicate that the addition of ZnONPs with Cd and Pb ion exposure protects cotton seedlings by alleviating heavy metal induced phytotoxicity and promoted physiochemical characteristics via differential regulation of photosynthetic machinery as well as antioxidative defense mechanisms in cotton seedlings. Results strongly suggest that phycomolecule coated ZnO nanoparticles could be effectively used as nanofertilizer to cultivate agronomically important crops in heavy metal polluted soil in the future.

Outcomes of corneal transplantation using donor corneas retrieved from patients with chronic kidney disease.

Purpose: To report the outcomes of corneal transplantation utilizing corneas retrieved from donors with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: Outcomes of corneal transplantation (optical PK and EK) performed from Jan 2018 to Dec 2018 utilizing donor corneas retrieved from CKD patients was performed retrospectively. Results: Of the total of 233 donor corneas retrieved from CKD, 135 (57.9%) were utilized for transplantation after the routine screening protocol of the eye bank. Mean age of the donors was 56.2 ± 13.5 years. The mean endothelial cell density on specular microscopy of the donor corneas used for optical PK was 2685.7 ± 377.6 cells/mm2 (range, 2028-3448 cells/mm2) and for EK was 2731.7 ± 189.1 cells/mm2 (range, 2380-3194 cells/mm2). The overall primary graft failure rate was 5.1%. All grafts except 1, cleared in the PK group. In the EK group (6 DMEK and 16 DSAEK), 1 patient had a complete graft detachment and another 1 had a primary graft failure after DMEK. Conclusion: The donor corneas retrieved from chronic kidney disease patients are safe and suitable for optical keratoplasty provided they meet the criteria for transplantation.

Age-Related Changes to the Three-Dimensional Full Shape of the Isolated Human Crystalline Lens.

Purpose: Studying the full shape crystalline lens geometry is important to understand the changes undergone by the crystalline lens leading to presbyopia, cataract, or failure of emmetropization, and to aid in the design and selection of intraocular lenses and new strategies for correction. We used custom-developed three-dimensional (3-D) quantitative optical coherence tomography (OCT) to study age-related changes in the full shape of the isolated human crystalline lens. Methods: A total of 103 ex vivo human isolated lenses from 87 subjects (age range, 0-56 years) were imaged using a 3-D spectral-domain OCT system. Lens models, constructed after segmentation of the surfaces and distortion correction, were used to automatically quantify central geometric parameters (lens thickness, radii of curvatures, and asphericities of anterior and posterior surfaces) and full shape parameters (lens volume, surface area, diameter, and equatorial plane position). Age-dependencies of these parameters were studied. Results: Most of the measured parameters showed a biphasic behavior, statistically significantly increasing (radii of curvature, lens volume, surface area, diameter) or decreasing (asphericities, lens thickness) very fast in the first two decades of life, followed by a slow but significant increase after age 20 years (for all the parameters except for the posterior surface asphericity and the equatorial plane position, that remained constant). Conclusions: Three-dimensional quantitative OCT allowed us to study the age-dependency of geometric parameters of the full isolated human crystalline lens. We found that most of the lens geometric parameters showed a biphasic behavior, changing rapidly before age 20 years and with a slower linear growth thereafter.

Corneal endothelium in unilateral Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis.

Purpose: To assess the corneal endothelium in patients with Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis (FHI) and compare it with the normal fellow eye. Methods: Retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study of 31 patients seen between Jan 2016 to Dec 2018, with clinical diagnosis of Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis, was performed. Specular microscopic examination was documented in both eyes. The affected eyes formed the study group and the fellow healthy eyes served as controls. Results: The mean age of the patients was 29.9 ± 8.2 years. The endothelial cell density (P = 0.0001) was significantly lower, whereas average cell size (P = 0.0001), coefficient of variation (P = 0.004), and maximum cell area (P = 0.01) were significantly higher in the affected eye compared to the control eye. In three patients, the affected eye showed guttae, while the healthy fellow eye revealed a normal specular mosaic. Conclusion: Specular microscopic analysis shows endothelial alterations in the affected eyes in FHI.

System for on- and off-axis volumetric OCT imaging and ray tracing aberrometry of the crystalline lens.

We present a new in vitro instrument for measuring shape and wavefront aberrations of the primate crystalline lens, both on- and off-axis, while simulating accommodation with a motorized lens stretching system. The instrument merges spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) imaging and ray tracing aberrometry using an approach that senses wavefront aberrations of the lens with the OCT probing beam. Accuracy and repeatability of aberration measurements were quantified. Preliminary experiments on two human and four cynomolgus monkey lenses demonstrate the ability of the system to measure the lens shape, spherical aberration and peripheral defocus, and their changes during simulated accommodation.

Ocular Focusing Behavior of the One-Eyed Child.

PURPOSE: To compare the accommodative gain and pupil miosis of children with only one functional eye with the binocular and monocular accommodative and pupil responses of typically developing age-matched controls. METHODS: Forty-one uniocular cases and 43 controls (3-14 years for both cohorts) watched a cartoon movie on an LCD screen that ramped between 90 and 30 cm, with a stable period of 4 seconds at both viewing distances. Cases performed the task with their only functional eye whereas controls performed the task binocularly and monocularly. A subset of subjects also repeated the task while reading 20/40-sized letters on the LCD screen. Accommodative and pupil responses were recorded using the Plusoptix PowerRef3 photorefractor. RESULTS: Accommodative gain of cases [median (25th-75th IQR): 0.73 (0.60-0.85)] was larger than the monocular gain of controls [0.56 (0.47-0.79)] (P = .03). Both responses were lower than the binocular gain of controls [0.95 (0.81-1.11)] (P < .001). Uniocular pupil miosis of cases [0.14 mm (0.06-0.24 mm)] were similar to monocular [0.12 mm (0.05-0.29 mm)] (P = .69) and smaller than binocular [0.23 mm (0.14-0.34 mm)] (P < .001) responses of controls. The increase in accommodative gain from movie watching to reading was significant only for controls (P = .02) but not for cases (P = .15). Age and time of visual deficit were poorly correlated with accommodative gain and pupil miosis of cases (r ≤ 0.25; P ≥ .1 for all). Age was also poorly correlated with the binocular and monocular accommodative and pupil performance of controls (r ≤ -0.3; P = .33). CONCLUSIONS: The accommodative gain of children with permanent loss of binocularity is in between the binocular and monocular gains of typically developing children. Their accommodative gains do not show any significant increase with a cognitively demanding task even while such a behavior is observed in controls. Pupil responses of uniocular children are similar to the monocular responses of age-matched controls.

Durable keratin-based bilayered electrospun mats for wound closure.

A bilayered nanofibrous scaffold with rapid wound healing properties is found to be suitable for tissue regeneration applications. The objective of this study is to reveal the fabrication of a poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid) (P)-gelatin (G) nanofibrous mat through electrospinning, with a horn keratin-chitosan-based biosheet (KC) as a bilayered nanofibrous scaffold. The mupirocin (D)-loaded horn KC biosheet (KCD) acts as the primary layer over which PG nanofibers were electrospun to act as the secondary layer. It is shown that this engineered bilayered nanofibrous scaffold material (KC-PG) should fulfill the functions of the extracellular matrix (ECM) by elucidating its function in vitro and in vivo. The bilayered nanofibrous scaffold was designed to exhibit improved physiochemical, biological and mechanical properties, with better swelling and porosity for enhanced oxygen permeability, and it also exhibits an acceptable antibacterial property to prevent infection at the wound site. The bilayered nanofibrous scaffold assists in better biocompatibility towards fibroblast and keratinocyte cell lines. The morphology of the nanofibrous scaffold aids increased cell adhesion and proliferation with cell material interactions. This was elucidated with the help of in vitro fluorescence staining against both cell lines. The bilayered KCD-PG nanofibrous scaffold material gives accelerated wound healing efficiency during in vivo wound healing. The results showed the regulation of growth factors with enhanced collagen synthesis, thereby helping in faster wound healing.

Photorefraction estimates of refractive power varies with the ethnic origin of human eyes.

Eccentric infrared photorefraction is an attractive tool for measuring refractive errors of young children and uncooperative subjects, for it allows quick and non-invasive acquisition of data from both eyes simultaneously over a reasonably large dioptric range. Accuracy of refraction in this technique depends on calibration of luminance slope formed across the pupil into diopters (defocus calibration factor). Commercial photorefractors, like the PowerRef 3™ used in this study, employ an universal defocus calibration factor from one population (Caucasian) to convert raw data of all populations. This study reports significantly larger defocus calibration factors of PowerRef 3™ in 132 East Asian, African and Indian eyes, relative to the machine's default calibration (p < 0.001). The calibration slope of 50 Indian eyes was over-estimated by 64 ± 11% (mean ± 95%CI), vis-à-vis, retinoscopy (p < 0.001). The error reduced to ~6-7% upon rescaling the data using a calibration factor specific for Indian eyes or to that individual (p > 0.9, relative to no over-estimation). Our results therefore strongly suggest the use of an ethnicity- or individual-specific defocus calibration factor for accurate estimation of refraction using photorefraction. Inaccurate refraction estimates due to calibration errors will otherwise severely undermine the advantages of this technique.

Empirical variability in the calibration of slope-based eccentric photorefraction.

Refraction estimates from eccentric infrared (IR) photorefraction depend critically on the calibration of luminance slopes in the pupil. While the intersubject variability of this calibration has been estimated, there is no systematic evaluation of its intrasubject variability. This study determined the within subject inter- and intra-session repeatability of this calibration factor and the optimum range of lenses needed to derive this value. Relative calibrations for the MCS PowerRefractor and a customized photorefractor were estimated twice within one session or across two sessions by placing trial lenses before one eye covered with an IR transmitting filter. The data were subsequently resampled with various lens combinations to determine the impact of lens power range on the calibration estimates. Mean (±1.96 SD) calibration slopes were 0.99±0.39 for North Americans with the MCS PowerRefractor (relative to its built-in value) and 0.65±0.25 Ls/D and 0.40±0.09 Ls/D for Indians and North Americans with the custom photorefractor, respectively. The ±95% limits of agreement of intrasubject variability ranged from ±0.39 to ±0.56 for the MCS PowerRefractor and ±0.03 Ls/D to ±0.04 Ls/D for the custom photorefractor. The mean differences within and across sessions were not significantly different from zero (p>0.38 for all). The combined intersubject and intrasubject variability of calibration is therefore about ±40% of the mean value, implying that significant errors in individual refraction/accommodation estimates may arise if a group-average calibration is used. Protocols containing both plus and minus lenses had calibration slopes closest to the gold-standard protocol, suggesting that they may provide the best estimate of the calibration factor compared to those containing either plus or minus lenses.