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Background: To evaluate contrast sensitivity function (CSF) in convalescent Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease and investigate the relationship between CSF and chorioretinal thickness in VKH patients with and without sunset glow fundus (SGF). Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Seventy-six eyes of VKH patients and 56 eyes of normal controls were evaluated. Patients were divided into SGF and non-SGF groups. The best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of all the participants was ≤0.0 logMAR. Their CSF and macular chorioretinal thickness were measured with quantitative CSF (qCSF) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and compared using repeated measures analysis of variance at the group level. Relationships between CSF and macular chorioretinal thickness were evaluated using generalized estimating equations. Results: The CSF was significantly impaired in the SGF group compared to that in the control group (p= 0.001), especially at medium and high spatial frequencies. No significant CSF difference was found between the non-SGF group and control group, nor between the SGF and non-SGF groups. Compared to the controls, outer retinal thickness (ORT) in both VKH subgroups was significantly reduced (P< 0.001 or 0.005, respectively), although their outer nuclear layer thickness (ONLT) and choroidal thickness (CT) were not significantly different (both P= 1.000, P= 0.829 or 0.112, respectively). We found no significant correlation between CSF metrics and outer retinal thickness. Conclusions: Despite good recovery of visual acuity, reduced CSF and outer retina thickness were found in convalescent VKH patients. CSF may be an important and sensitive metric to evaluate functional vision in VKH disease.

AbstractObjectiveThe aim was to estimate the association of egg consumption with dyslipidemia and its subtypes in Chinese adults.MethodsThe cross-sectional health survey was conducted in Hanzhong city of Shaanxi province in 2010.Consumption of eggs (alone and mixed in foods) and nutrients were assessed using a semi-quantitative 81-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Serum lipids and other physical measurements were measured by trained medical staff. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated from multivariable logistic regressions. Restricted cubic spline was used to visualize the possible non-linear association.ResultsA total of 2241 participants (mean age, 48.0 years; 34.5% men) were included. The age- and gender- standardization dyslipidemia prevalence was 21.1% in men and 18.4% in women, respectively. Approximately 42.1% of individuals never or rarely consumed egg, while 9.4% consumed ≥2 times/week. The mean egg intake was 21.5 g/d in men and 17.4 in women. In women, after adjustment for demographics and lifestyle factors, the ORs (95%CI) for dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia were 0.57(0.32–1.05) and 0.38 (0.17–0.85) for individuals consuming egg ≥2 times/week, compared with never or rarely consumers. When further adjustment of BMI and dietary factors, the inverse relation persisted for hypertriglyceridemia but attenuated to margin of significance for dyslipidemia (P-trend = 0.050). Increment of 25 g/d was associated with 15% (OR: 0.85, (0.71–1.00)) lower risk of dyslipidemia. Results from restricted cubic splines showed a substantial reduction of the risk within lower range of consumption, which reached the minimum risk around 20–50 g/d (P-nonlinearity = 0.069). No associations were observed in men.ConclusionEgg consumption was associated with decreased risk of dyslipidemia among Chinese women but not men. Additionally, the beneficial effect tended to be stronger at 20–50 g egg per day. Further study is warranted to validate these findings and clarify the causality.

Purpose: To evaluate the microvasculature alterations in convalescent Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and to explore the association between microvasculature and the presence of sunset glow fundus (SGF). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 28 VKH patients at convalescent stage and 25 healthy individuals. Both eyes of each participant were enrolled. The VKH patients were classified into two subgroups based on the existence of SGF. OCTA images (3 × 3 mm) were assessed for the data of superficial capillaris plexus (SCP), deep capillaris plexus (DCP), choriocapillaris, and foveal avascular zone (FAZ). Results: Compared with healthy control eyes and eyes without SGF, the vessel densities of the SCP and DCP decreased significantly in most regions of eyes with SGF (p< 0.0167). No significant difference of vascular perfusion was found between eyes without SGF and control eyes (p> 0.05). VKH patients with SGF had slightly increased FAZ area (p= 0.067) and decreased choroid flow area (p= 0.427) than those in the control group. Conclusion: Convalescent VKH patients with SGF showed decreased macular capillary perfusion. OCTA could serve as a sensitive tool to assess the microvasculature alterations of VKH disease.

AbstractObjective:Egg is the vital source for many nutrients. The present study aimed to evaluate how egg consumption contributes to body fat mass and fat distribution in general Chinese adults.Methods:In a representative study of Chinese adults, 2241 rural adults aged 18–80 years completed physical measurements and semi quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Body fat percentage (BF%) was estimated through validated Chinese-specific equations including age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), gender and their interaction.Results:The prevalence of excessive body fat and central obesity in males were 44.2% and 31.3%, lower than that in females (60.7% and 36.1%, p < 0.05). 37.3% of lean or normal-weight individuals by BMI experienced excessive body fat given their BF% and 43.5% were central obesity according to WC. In females, egg consumption was associated with better body fat mass and its distribution. Compared with non-consumers, individuals consumed egg >50 g/d had a 34% lower risk of central obesity (OR:0.66, 0.39–0.99) and 38% lower risk of excessive body fat (OR:0.62, 0.37–1.00). There were significant dose-response relationships between egg consumption and overweight with excessive body fat/central obesity (pfor linear trend <0.05). However, these associations were not significant in males.Conclusion:Our findings underscore the necessity for future public health guidelines to assess body fat mass and distribution simultaneously in Chinese adults. Egg consumption might be beneficial for weight regulation, especially for overweight with excessive body fat/central obesity in females. Further research is warrant to establish the causal inference.

Backgrounds: Abdominal obesity has been linked to risk of mortality, but whether and how trajectory of waist circumstance (WC) underpins this association remains unclear. The study aimed to identify long-term WC change trajectories and examine their association and joint effect with body mass index (BMI) on mortality among Chinese older adults. Methods: This present study included participants 60 years of age or older from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1991 to 2015. The duration of follow-up was defined as period from the first to latest visit date attended with information on mortality, end of follow-up, or loss to follow-up (censoring). Latent class trajectory analysis (LCTA) was used to assess the changes of WC trajectories overtime. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence internal (CIs) for mortality. Results: A total of 2601 participants with 8700 visits were included, and 562 mortality (21.6%) occurred during a median follow-up of 8.7 years. Using a group-based modeling approach, four distinct trajectories of WC change among Chinese older adults were identified as loss (13.5%), stable (46.8%), moderate gain (31.2%) and substantial gain (8.5%). With WC stable group as reference, the multivariable adjusted HRs for mortality were 1.34(95%CI:1.01-1.78) in loss group, 1.13(0.91-1.41) in moderate gain and 1.54(1.12-2.12) in substantial gain group. Compared with participants with normal BMI at baseline and maintained WC stable, the risk of mortality generally increased for all WC change group in initial overweight/obesity individuals, and the highest risk were observed for WC loss and stable pattern (HR:2.43, 95%CI: 1.41–4.19; HR:1.67 (1.07–2.60)). Conclusions: In older Chinese, both long-term WC loss and substantial gain conferred excess risk for mortality. The baseline BMI might modify the effect as overweight individuals had a greater risk imposed by WC loss than those in normal weight. Maintaining stable WC and normal weight might be necessary to reduce the risk of mortality.

Lycium barbarum,commonly known as goji, is a known source of potentially bioactive compounds; However, the phytochemical properties of L. barbarumvary by geographical origin, cultivar, and industrial processing method. Fermented L. barbarumjuice (FLBJ) has become a focus of research with the aim to extract highly potent phytochemical components. Here, we evaluated the phytochemical contents of six varieties of L. barbarum(Jinghe, Qinghai, Ningxia, Jingyuan, Qinhuangdao, Neimeng) subjected to different processing methods, before analyzing the antioxidant properties of the samples in vitro. The results showed that the phytochemical composition of FLBJ significantly differed from that of ethanolic extracts (EE) and aqueous extracts (AE). FLBJ had greater antioxidant activity than AEs according to the results of DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, and ORAC assays (343.67 ± 5.27 μmol Trolox equivalents/g dry weight [TE/g DW], 229.89 ± 0.82 μmol TE/g DW, 209.81 ± 6.58 μmol TE/g DW, and 726.08 ± 10.81 μmol TE/g DW, respectively) and contained 60.16 ± 1.97 CAA units, which was 1.12–4.73 times the levels obtained by the other two processing methods. Finally, the active phytochemicals in FLBJ were optimally used, and L. barbarumfrom the Ningxia province of China represents an attractive source of antioxidant compounds for nutraceutical applications.