The usefulness of the Retinomax autorefractor for childhood screening validated against a Danish preterm cohort examined at the age of 4 years

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Refractometers have gained a foothold in childhood screening for ophthalmic disorders. Given the results of an ophthalmic follow-up of an extremely preterm Danish cohort, the results of the Retinomax autorefractor were further evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A nationwide cohort of infants born before gestational age 28 weeks (n=178) and 56 term controls were examined at the age of 4 years. Refraction was given as the cycloplegic Retinomax value. For this study, we analysed the equipment's confidence value on the printout and equipment-induced myopization (as the difference between refraction measured before and after topical cyclopentholate 1%), both items hypothetical with a view to having identified factual ophthalmic deviations. RESULTS: Thirty-two of 42 eyes with visual acuity ≤0.4 had high Retinomax confidence values (8–9); the Retinomax values were also high in 10 of 12 children with strabismus and lack of stereopsis. Low values (1–6) were recorded in 11 single eyes, 5 of which were normal (false positives). Three children already known to have low vision were unable to cooperate. The overall mean value for equipment-induced myopization was 1.9 D (range, 0–6.87 D). Myopization showed no correlation with visual acuity and corneal curvature, and a weak positive correlation with refractive value disappeared when the myopic outliers were excluded. CONCLUSIONS: The hand-held Retinomax seemed to be reliable for assessing refraction in 4-year-old children, provided a cycloplegic agent is applied; if used alone, the Retinomax would have missed several cases of ophthalmic deviation during screening. Equipment-induced myopization was not indicative

Blood-Biomarkers for Glucose Metabolism in Preterm Infants

This was an exploratory, prospective, longitudinal, cohort study that aimed to establish “healthy” reference levels related to growth parameters and glucose metabolites in preterm infants. This was conducted to further investigate growth and metabolic disturbances potentially related to neonatal illness. The study sample consisted of 108 preterm infants born before 32 weeks in 2018–2019 in the Capital Region of Denmark. Repetitive blood samples were acquired at the neonatal wards, while clinical data were obtained from the regional hospital medical record system. Thirty-four “healthy” preterm infants (31%) were identified. The “ill” infants were divided into four subgroups dependent on gestational age and small for gestational age. Reference levels for the growth parameters and metabolic biomarkers glucose, albumin, and adiponectin, and two glucose control indicators, glycated albumin and fructosamine, were determined for the “healthy” and “ill” subgroups. The “ill” extremely preterm infants had increased glucose levels (mean difference 0.71 mmol/L, 95% CI 0.23; 1.18 mmol/L) and glycated albumin (corrected; %) (mean difference 0.92 mmol/L, 95% CI 0.38 mmol/L;1.47 mmol/L) compared to the “healthy” infants. In “ill” extremely preterm infants and “ill” very preterm infants born small for gestational age, levels of biomarkers containing proteins were decreased. In the “Ill” extremely preterm infants and infants born small for gestational age, postnatal growth was continuously decreased throughout the postconceptional period. The short-term glucose-control indicator, glycated albumin (corrected; %), reflected well the high glucose levels due to its correction for the depleted plasma-protein pool

An Analysis of Monte Carlo Simulation as an Estimator of Original Oil In Place and Original Gas In Place

The Monte Carlo Method has been increasingly used in the petroleum industry as a means of quantifying uncertainty. Most commonly, this technique is used to calculate a range of values for hydrocarbon volumes originally in place. The distributions of the input variables input into the Monte Carlo simulator are estimated by obtaining a sufficient number of measurements of reservoir and fluid properties. This report will analyze several depleted or very mature fields for which the ultimate hydrocarbon recovery is known. For each of these fields, distributions of porosity, water saturation, reservoir thickness, and reservoir size are obtained from cores, openhole logs, seismic, and other data. These distributions are input into the Crystal Ball computer program to obtain the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of oil or gas volume originally in place for each of the fields. By comparing the actual ultimate recovered volumes of hydrocarbons to the range of original in place volumes predicted by the Monte Carlo calculations, the accuracy of the Monte Carlo method will be analyzed.Petroleum and Geosystems Engineerin

N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide urinary concentrations and retinopathy of prematurity

BACKGROUND: To validate the findings of a single-center pilot study showing elevated urinary N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) concentrations in preterm infants subsequently developing severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in a multicenter setting across eight European and Middle East countries. METHODS: Prospective observational study in 967 preterm infants <30 weeks' gestational age assessing the capacity of urinary NTproBNP on days of life (DOLs) 14 and 28 to predict ROP requiring treatment. RESULTS: Urinary NTproBNP concentrations were markedly elevated in infants who developed ROP requiring treatment (n = 94) compared with survivors without ROP treatment (n = 837), at both time points (median (interquartile range) DOL14: 8,950 (1,925-23,783) vs. 3,083 (1,193-17,393) vs. 816 (290-3,078) pg/ml, P <0.001) and DOL28 (2,203 (611-4,063) vs. 1,671 (254-11,340) vs. 408 (162-1,126) pg/ml, P <0.001). C-statistic of NTproBNP for treated ROP or death was 0.731 (95% confidence interval 0.654-0.774) for DOL14 and 0.683 (0.622-0.745) for DOL28 (P <0.001). Threshold scores were calculated, potentially enabling around 20% of infants with low NTproBNP scores never to be screened with ophthalmoscopy. CONCLUSION: There is a strong association between early urinary NTproBNP and subsequent ROP development, which can be used to further refine subgroups of patients with high or low risk of severe RO