The Relationship Between Visceral Adiposity Index and Epicardial Adipose Tissue in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Cardiovascular diseases remain the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes. Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), visceral fat depot of the heart, was found to be associated with coronary artery disease in cardiac and non-cardiac patients. Increased visceral adiposity is associated with proinflammatory activity, impaired insulin sensitivity, increased risk of atherosclerosis and high mortality. In the present study we aimed to investigate the relationship between EAT and visceral adiposity index (VAI) in patients with diabetes. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study involving 128 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (73 females, 55 males; mean age, 54.09+±+9.17 years) and 32 control subjects (23 females, 9 males; mean age, 50.09+±+7.81 years). EAT was measured by using a trans-thoracic echocardiograph. Parameters such as waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI), triglyceride and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were used to calculate VAI. RESULT: EAT and VAI measurements were significantly higher in patients with diabetes when compared to control subjects. In the bivariate correlation analysis, VAI was positively correlated with uric acid level (r=0.214, p=0.015), white blood cell count (r= 0.262, p=0.003), platelet count (r=0.223, p=0.011) and total cholesterol levels (r= 0.363, p<0.001). Also, VAI was found to be the independent predictor of EAT. CONCLUSION: Simple calculation of VAI was found to be associated with increased EAT in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Clearance of intravitreal daptomycin in uveitis-induced rabbit model.

PURPOSE: To investigate the elimination rate of daptomycin after intravitreal injection in uveitis-induced rabbits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Intravitreal injection of the single dose of 200 µg/0.05 mL daptomycin was administered to rabbits starting 24 h after induction of uveitis by an intravitreal endotoxin injection. Aqueous humor and vitreous humor samples of eight eyes per time point were collected at selected time intervals (1, 3, 6, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h), and the in vitreous half-life was calculated. Daptomycin concentrations in vitreous and aqueous humor were assayed with high-performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS: The vitreous concentration was noted to decline slowly with time. The mean vitreous concentration was 23.25 ± 10.99 µg/mL and 11.10 ± 3.33 µg/mL at 96 h in inflamed and normal eyes, respectively. The vitreous daptomycin concentration showed an exponential decay with a half-life of 25.67 h in normal eyes and 34.6 h in inflamed eyes. The aqueous levels of daptomycin in normal eyes were low but remained significantly higher than those of inflamed eyes. CONCLUSIONS: Given that the injected dose corresponds to several times the minimum inhibitory concentrations of organisms most involved in endophthalmitis, and that therapeutic levels are present up to 96 h after injection, intravitreal daptomycin should be considered for the treatment of endophthalmitis caused by Gram-positive bacteria.