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To investigate whether various novel inflammatory and angiogenic biomarkers in maternal plasma, alone or in combination with baseline antenatal factors, could predict retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in preterm infants.A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 140 premature singleton neonates born to women with preterm birth (≤32 weeks) and screened for ROP. Maternal blood obtained at the time of admission was assayed for CRP, endoglin, endostatin, IGFBP-2, IGFBP-3, IL-6, LBP, MMP-8, PlGF, S100A8/A9, TGFBI, and VEGFR-1. The primary outcome measures included severe ROP (stage 3 or higher) and type 1 ROP requiring treatment.ROP was present in 25.7% (36/140) of the study population, including 20 (14.3%) cases of severe ROP and 14 (10%) with type 1 ROP. Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed significant associations between high concentrations of maternal plasma LBP and severe ROP, and between elevated plasma IL-6 and LBP levels and type 1 ROP (all P 0.05), while adjusting for confounders (i.e., gestational age [GA] at sampling). Prenatal prediction models for severe ROP and type 1 ROP were developed by combining plasma IL-6 or LBP levels with GA at sampling, which showed good discriminatory power (area under the curve = 0.747 and 0.854, respectively).IL-6 and LBP in maternal plasma were found to be independently associated with severe ROP and type 1 ROP. Prediction models based on these biomarkers along with GA at sampling may serve as good prenatal indicators for the neonatal risk of ROP progression in women at risk of preterm birth.

Purpose To evaluate the agreement in ocular biometry outcomes measured by three different devices, the IOL Master 500, IOL Master 700, and Lenstar LS900, and compare the refractive outcomes after cataract surgery obtained using those three devices. Methods Medical records of 178 eyes of 89 patients who underwent ocular biometry with the three devices were retrospectively reviewed, and 124 eyes met the inclusion criteria. Paired comparisons were performed for axial length (AL), mean keratometry (Km), and anterior chamber depth and quantified their agreement using Bland-Altman plots. Subgroup analyses were done according to the AL and the Km. Refractive outcomes were compared with respect to absolute prediction errors after cataract surgery in 54 eyes. Results Among 124 eyes, 12, 3, and 5 eyes failed to be measured of AL by IOL Master 500, IOL Master 700 and Lenstar LS900, respectively. The AL measured by Lenstar LS900 was longer than that measured by IOL Master 500 and IOL Master 700 (p < 0.001, p = 0.002, respectively). Subgroup analysis revealed that these results were statistically significant only in long eyes (AL >25.5 mm). Km measured using the IOL Master 500 was steeper than that measured with the IOL Master 700 or Lenstar LS900 (p = 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). anterior chamber depth measured by IOL Master 500 was shallower than that measured by IOL Master 700 or Lenstar LS900 (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). Ocular biometry measurements by the three devices showed high agreement with narrow 95% limits of agreement. Absolute prediction errors from the 3 devices showed no statistically significant differences after cataract surgery. Conclusions The IOL Master 700 and Lenstar LS900 demonstrated superior acquisition rates of biometric measurements compared with the IOL Master 500. Ocular biometry using the 3 different devices showed high agreement, although statistically significant differences were observed; however, since there was no difference in predicting the refractive outcomes, those differences are clinically negligible.

AimTo determine the relationship between corneal refractive surgery and the prevalence of glaucoma in the Korean population.MethodsData were obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), a population-based cross-sectional study using a complex, stratified, multistage, probability-cluster survey. This study included 604 eyes that had undergone myopic corneal refractive surgery, and 3389 control eyes without a history of any ocular surgery and having a spherical equivalent (SE) ResultsGlaucoma prevalence did not differ between eyes that had and had not undergone corneal refractive surgery (p=0.675). After adjusting for age, sex, SE, and intraocular pressure, multivariate logistic regression analysis found that corneal refractive surgery was significantly associated with an increased risk of glaucoma (OR 9.14, p=0.002; 95% CI 2.22 to 37.69). Subgroup analysis that only included control eyes with a refraction cut-off ConclusionsHistory of corneal refractive surgery was associated with a higher prevalence of glaucoma in the Korean population. However, this association was not observed in eyes with a higher degree of myopia.

In this paper, we propose a method of analysis to show the heavy-tailed statistical distribution of file sizes in web servers, using TTT plot technique. TTT plot technique, a well-known method in the area of reliability engineering, determines that a distribution of samples fellows a heavy tailed one when their TTT statistical plots are lied on a straight line. We performed an intensive simulation using data gathered from real web servers. The simulation indicates that the proposed method is superior to Hill estimation technique or LLCD plot method in efficiency of data analysis. Moreover, the proposed method eliminates the possible decision error, which Pareto distribution or traditional method might cause.

Design and synthesis of novel 4-phenyl-1-arylsulfonylimidazolones3 and 4-phenyl-3-arylsulfonylimidazolones4 and evaluation of their cytotoxic activity against eleven human cancer cell lines and two murine leukemia cell linesin vitro were performed. As a result, a series of 4-phenyl-1(N)-arylsulfonylimidazolones (3) has been found to be the potential anticancer agent. Compounds3b, 3c, and3d exhibit strong activity as indicated by their IC50 values 0.39, 3.19, 0.31 μg/mL against A549 and 0.80, 0.48, 0.0007 μg/mL against SK-Mel-2, respectively. These compounds also possess much more potent activity (10–1000 times) than LY186641 against eleven other cell lines.

Synthesis of novel arylsulfonylimidazolidinones 3 and 4 containing sulfonylurea pharmacophore and evaluation of their in vitro cytotoxicity against human cell lines were investigated. As a result, a series of 4-phenyl-1(N)-arylsulfonylimidazolidinones have been found to be the potential anticancer agent.

Synthesis of novel arylsulfonylimidazolidinones 3 and 4 containing sulfonylurea pharmacophore and evaluation of their in vitro cytotoxicity against human cell lines were investigated. As a result, a series of 4-phenyl-1(N)-arylsulfonylimidazolidinones have been found to be the potential anticancer agent.

Novel 1-(1-benzoylindoline-5-sulfonyl)-4-phenyl-4,5-dihydroimidazolones 3 synthesized show highly potent and broad cytotoxicities. Among them compound 3b (DW2143) exhibits much more potent cytotoxicities than doxorubicin and highly effective antitumor activities against murine (3LL, Colon 26) and human xenograft (NCI-H23, SW620) tumor models.