Jorge Alberto F Caldeira

Tear Calcium Levels in Normal Subjects

Tear calcium contents were measured in 30 normal subjects divided into six groups of 5 individuals each, age ranging from the second to the seventh decade. No significant difference was found among the age groups. A mean of 4.40 mg of calcium/100 ml was determined for the 30 subjects with a standard deviation of 1.22 and a range 2.60-7.60 mg/100 ml. The tear calcium as percentage of the serum calcium was similar in the six groups and a mean of 45.68 was found for the 30 subjects. This figure is quite similar to that of serum ionised calcium as percentage of the total serum calcium values obtained by different authors.

Quantification of ocular inflammation with technetium-99m glucoheptonate

Histological and morphometric evaluation of ocular inflammation is difficult, particularly when there is extensive ocular involvement with abscess formation and necrosis. A quantitative imaging procedure applicable to humans would be important clinically. To establish such a procedure, turpentine-induced ocular inflammation was obtained by subconjunctival injection in the right eye of 55 rabbits. The left eye was used as control and injected with a volume of saline equal to the volume of turpentine in the right eye. Volumes of turpentine or saline were 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.2 and 0.6 ml, and the rabbits were divided into groups 1–5, according to these volumes. Imaging was performed 48 h after turpentine injection and 6 h after intravenous injection of 10 mCi of technetium-99m glucoheptonate (99mTc-GH). An inflammatory reaction index (IRI), defined as the ratio of counts of the right eye divided by counts of the left eye, was used. IRIs were proportional to the degree of inflammation and allowed the distinction of 3 subgroups: one represented by group 4, one by group 5 and one by groups 1, 2 and 3. This method of quantification of ocular inflammatory processes using 99mTc-GH is original, rapid, non-invasive, reproducible and safe, although unable to differentiate inflammatory processes caused by doses of turpentine which are very small and close to each other. It is conceivable that its application to humans will bring new insight into the ocular inflammatory process and response to therapy.

Testes visuomotores em crianças com estrabismo

Forty-three children with different forms of strabismus and 44 normal children were submited to the following tests: Terman-Merrill intelligence scale, form L-M; Goldstein-Scheerer stick test; Bender-Santucci graphic perceptive organisation; Zazzo lateral dominance test; Tyson cross-modality matching test. Children with squint exhibited poorer results with the Terman-Merrill, Goldstein-Scheerer and Tyson tests as compared with normal children. The differences found with the other tests were not significant.