Does the month of birth influence the prevalence of refractive errors?

PURPOSE

The aim of our study was to examine whether the month of birth influences the prevalence of refractive errors.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A total of 5,601 schoolchildren were examined (2,688 boys and 2,913 girls, aged 6-18 years, mean age 11.9, SD 3.2 years). The children examined, students of elementary and secondary schools, were Polish and resided in and around Szczecin, Poland. Every examined subject underwent retinoscopy under cycloplegia using 1% tropicamide. Data analysis was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test followed by the Siegel and Castellan post-hoc test or the Mann-Whitney U-test. P values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Students born in June had significantly higher spherical equivalents than schoolchildren born in May (0.66 ± 1.17 and 0.39 ± 1.17 respectively, p = 0.0058). The Mann-Whitney U-test showed that students born in June had significantly higher spherical equivalents than schoolchildren born in any other month (0.66 ± 1.17 and 0.50 ± 1.17 respectively, p = 0.0033). Besides that, we did not observe any other association between refractive errors and the month of birth.

CONCLUSION

Children born in Poland in June may have a higher spherical equivalent.

[Investigations on the prevalence of axial and refractive anisometropia]

PURPOSE

The aim of this paper was to describe the prevalence of axial and refractive anisometropia among students 18 years old.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study was carried out among high school students 18 years old in Szczecin, Poland. A total of 1040 students including 381 boys and 659 girls were examined. Every student underwent retinoscopy after cycloplegia using 1% Tropicamide. The differences in spherical equivalents in the right and left eye, were calculated. Students who had anisometropia >1.00 Dsph, were qualified to the next part of the studies, in which examinations using an autorefractometer, keratometer, biometric ultrasounds as well as the IOL Master were carried out. In the group of 70 students (which makes up 7% of the examined population), qualified to the next part of the examinations, a total of 20 participants (2%) declined. The remaining 50 students (5%) were divided into two groups. One group consisted of students with axial anisometropia, while the other consisted of students with refractive anisometropia. All of the collected data were stored in an electronic database using the Microsoft EXCEL computer program and analyzed with Statistica 6.1 software. In the analysis of nominal variables the Fisher exact test was used. P values of less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

In the conducted studies a higher prevalence of axial anisometropia (60%) compared to refractive anisometropia (40%) was observed, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.20). No association between the type of anisometropia and gender was found in the studies. Axial anisometropia was found in 60% of boys and girls in the study group qualified to the second part of the examinations, while refractive anisometropia was found in 40% of boys and girls qualified to the next part of the examinations.

CONCLUSIONS

Anisometropia in students 18 years old is caused more often by different axial length rather than by different refraction of the eye.

Nuclear thymidylate synthase expression in sporadic colorectal cancer depends on the site of the tumor

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease with specific epidemiological, pathological, molecular, and clinical characteristics that depend on the location of the tumor relative to the splenic flexure. Thymidylate synthase (TS) is a major target of 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy for CRC and high expression of this enzyme in tumor cells can influence the effect of therapy. We examined differences in TS protein expression in nuclei of tumor cells between CRCs located proximal and distal to the splenic flexure. Nuclear TS was detected by immunohistochemistry with a TS 106 monoclonal antibody on tissue microarrays constructed from 269 CRCs. The median histological score of nuclear TS expression of all proximal tumors was two times higher (p = 0.0003) and in men three times higher (p = 0.00023) than that found in distal tumors. In multivariate analysis which included age, sex, Astler-Coller stage, histological grade, and site, only proximal location of the tumor was identified as an independent factor associated with higher TS expression (odds ratio 2.46, 95% confidence interval = 1.29-4.70, p = 0.0062). These results demonstrate significant differences in nuclear TS expression between proximal and distal cancers and suggest the potential importance of the site of the tumor for proper stratification of patients for chemotherapy.