Incidence of dyschromatopsy in glaucoma.

PURPOSE: As proven in studies dating back to the eighteenth century, color vision changes may occur early in the course of glaucoma. Our aim was to reevaluate the incidence of acquired color vision deficiency in glaucoma patients of the University hospital Zürich by using the Panel D-15 test. METHODS: Inclusion criteria of the study involved a diagnosis of glaucoma, age equal or greater than 18 years with no upper limit and a best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) smaller than ≤ 0.7 logMAR. All volunteers were tested twice monocularly for color vision with (1) the Ishihara color plate test and (2) the Farnsworth and Lanthony Panel D-15 test by one examiner (L.B.). Using the Moment of Inertia Method of Vingrys and King-Smith (Investig Ophthalmol Vis Sci 29(1):50-63, 1988), we measured the color defect type (blue-yellow, red-green or non-selective). RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-one eyes of 87 glaucoma patients were included in this study. Nine eyes showed a deficient result in the Ishihara test, which proves a congenital red-green weakness. Fifty-one (33.8%) eyes showed color vision anomalies in the desaturated test and 24 (15.9%) eyes in the saturated Panel D-15 test. A total of 25.2% and 8.6% of eyes in the desaturated and saturated test were diffuse dyschromatopsia, respectively. The second most prevalent deficiencies were blue-yellow defects with 4.0% and 4.6% of saturated and desaturated results. Just the covariate visual acuity had a significant influence on the Panel D-15 result, whereas other variables like age, sex or intraocular pressure did not show any impact. CONCLUSION: This study ascertains that the long-known theory of color vision defects in patients with glaucoma is also relevant in our sample of 151 eyes, providing continuity to claims firstly reported many years ago. Despite our results highlighting more diffuse dyschromatopsia than other similar experiments, we have also proven that the tritanomalous defects occur more frequently than other color defects.

[The expert panel for Script Concordance Tests: A truly adequate reference?] / Le panel d'experts pour les tests de concordance de script : une référence réellement adéquate ?

The Script Concordance Tests (SCTs) are an examination modality introduced by decree in the French National Ranking Exam for medical students in 2024. Their objective is to evaluate clinical reasoning in situations of uncertainty. In practice, SCTs assess the impact of new information on the probability of a hypothesis formulated a priori based on an authentic clinical scenario. This approach resembles probabilistic (or Bayesian) reasoning. Due to the uncertainty associated with the explored clinical situation, SCTs do not compare the student's response to an expected one in a theoretical knowledge reference. Instead, the distribution of responses from a panel of experienced physicians is used to establish the question's scoring scale. Literature data suggest that physicians, even experienced ones, like most humans, often exhibit biased intuitive probabilistic reasoning. These biases raise questions about the relevance of using expert panel responses as scoring scales for SCTs.

An empirical nexus between economic growth, energy utilization, trade policy, and ecological footprint: a continent-wise comparison in upper-middle-income countries.

This study investigates the causal connection between economic growth, foreign direct investment, primary and renewable energy utilization, trade openness, and ecological footprint for 33 upper-middle-income countries (UMICs) from Africa, Asia, Europe, and America during the period from 1994 to 2017. Initially, first- as well as second-generation panel unit root tests are applied to check the integration order after confirming the cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity. Four different tests (FMOLS, DOLS, FGLS, and AMG) are applied to estimate the long-run elasticity, whereas Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) non-causality test is used to test growth, conservation, and feedback hypothesis. Results show negative relationship of economic growth on ecological footprint in Africa and Europe; renewable energy utilization in Asia, Europe, and America; and trade openness in Asia. Moreover, the results revealed an adverse impact of trade openness on ecological footprint in case of Africa and America. Furthermore, the results of D-H panel non-causality test confirm the growth hypothesis for economic growth to ecological footprint in Africa, Asia, and Europe; foreign direct investment to ecological footprint in Africa and Asia; primary energy utilization to ecological footprint in Asia; renewable energy utilization to ecological footprint in America; and trade openness to ecological footprint in Africa, Asia, and America. Furthermore, the feedback hypothesis was confirmed between economic growth and ecological footprint in Asia and Europe; foreign direct investment and ecological footprint in Africa and Asia; renewable energy utilization and ecological footprint for America; and trade openness and ecological footprint for Asia and America. Finally, in context to efficient policy implications, it is suggested to associate the economic growth with clean energy and environment-friendly technologies by expanding the share of renewable energy in America and economic growth in Africa and Europe. Furthermore, Asian policy makers need to focus on foreign direct investment and trade openness by using green energy to overcome the environmental degradation. Impulsion with these findings, the central authorities of UMICs need to focus on more investments in environmental quality not only through foreign direct investment but also exchanging their clean energy technologies through trade policies such as tax exemption, feed-in tariffs, and subsidies. Government of these countries ought to upgrade the conventional capital which will ultimately improve the human lives by providing clean environment.

Ethambutol ocular toxicity in a patient with pulmonary tuberculosis - a case report.

Purpose. To highlight the importance of using the Farnsworth Panel D-15 Hue test in colour vision testing in patients on ethambutol treatment. Case Report. A 70 year-old lady received ethambutol as part of her anti-tuberculous regime. She developed blue-yellow colour defect detectable with the Farnsworth Panel D-15 Hue test, but not with the Isihara Pseudoisochromatic Plates. Ethambutol was immediately discontinued from her anti-tuberculous regime. Two months later, her colour vision returned to normal. Conclusion. This case report illustrates the importance of regular monitoring of patients receiving ethambutol for blue-yellow colour defect using the Farnsworth Panel D-15 Hue Test.