Cost and Expected Visual Effect of Interventions to Improve Follow-up After Cataract Surgery: Prospective Review of Early Cataract Outcomes and Grading (PRECOG) Study.

Importance: Some experts recommend increasing low rates of follow-up after cataract surgery in low- and middle-income countries using various interventions. However, little is known about the cost and effect of such interventions.

Objective: To examine whether promoting follow-up after cataract surgery creates economic value.

Safety of Spectacles for Children's Vision: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: To study safety of children's glasses in rural China, where fear that glasses harm vision is an important barrier for families and policy makers.

Design: Exploratory analysis from a cluster-randomized, investigator-masked, controlled trial.

Methods: Among primary schools (n = 252) in western China, children were randomized by school to 1 of 3 interventions: free glasses provided in class, vouchers for free glasses at a local facility, or glasses prescriptions only (Control group).

Effect of providing free glasses on children's educational outcomes in China: cluster randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To assess the effect of provision of free glasses on academic performance in rural Chinese children with myopia.

Design: Cluster randomized, investigator masked, controlled trial.

Setting: 252 primary schools in two prefectures in western China, 2012-13.

Assessment of cataract surgical outcomes in settings where follow-up is poor: PRECOG, a multicentre observational study.

Background: Poor follow-up after cataract surgery in developing countries makes assessment of operative quality uncertain. We aimed to assess two strategies to measure visual outcome: recording the visual acuity of all patients 3 or fewer days postoperatively (early postoperative assessment), and recording that of only those patients who returned for the final follow-up examination after 40 or more days without additional prompting.

Methods: Each of 40 centres in ten countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America recruited 40-120 consecutive surgical cataract patients.

Two-year changes in refractive error and related biometric factors in an adult Chinese population.

Importance: This article provides, to our knowledge, the first longitudinal population-based data on refractive error (RE) in Chinese persons.

Objective: To study cohort effects and changes associated with aging in REs among Chinese adults.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A 2-year, longitudinal population-based cohort study was conducted in southern China.

Accuracy of rural refractionists in western China.

Purpose: We assessed the prevalence and predictors of inaccurate refractive error among rural refractionists in western China.

Methods: A subset of primary school children with visual acuity (VA) ≤6/12 in ≥1 eye, undergoing subjective refinement by local refractionists after cycloplegic autorefraction in an ongoing population-based study, received repeat refraction by university optometrists for quality control.

Results: Among 502 children (mean age 10.

Determinants and two-year change in anterior chamber angle width in a Chinese population.

Objective: To study the population distribution and longitudinal changes in anterior chamber angle width and its determinants among Chinese adults.

Design: Prospective cohort, population-based study.

Participants: Persons aged 35 years or more residing in Guangzhou, China, who had not previously undergone incisional or laser eye surgery.

Clot lysis time and the risk of myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke in young women; results from the RATIO case-control study.

Reduced overall fibrinolytic capacity increases the risk of myocardial infarction (MI), as demonstrated in studies with predominantly male participants. We determined the influence of altered fibrinolysis on the risk of MI and ischaemic stroke (IS) in young women. The RATIO (Risk of Arterial Thrombosis In relation to Oral contraceptives) study is a population-based case-control study including young women with MI (n=203), IS (N=175) and 638 matched healthy controls.

Plasma levels of fibrinolytic proteins and the risk of myocardial infarction in men.

Hypofibrinolysis as measured with overall clot lysis assays is associated with risk of arterial thrombosis. Individual components of the fibrinolytic system, however, have not been studied extensively in relation to arterial disease, or results of studies were inconsistent. The relation between plasminogen and alpha2-antiplasmin levels and cardiovascular risk factors and the association between plasminogen, alpha2-antiplasmin, tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and risk of myocardial infarction was investigated in the Study of Myocardial Infarctions Leiden (555 men with a first myocardial infarction and 635 controls).

Venous thrombosis risk associated with plasma hypofibrinolysis is explained by elevated plasma levels of TAFI and PAI-1.

Elevated plasma clot lysis time (CLT) increases risk of venous and arterial thrombosis. It is unclear which fibrinolytic factors contribute to thrombosis risk. In 743 healthy control subjects we investigated determinants of CLT.

The impact of the fibrinolytic system on the risk of venous and arterial thrombosis.

In this review we discuss the association of overall hypofibrinolysis and individual fibrinolytic protein levels with venous and arterial thrombosis. Decreased overall fibrinolytic potential and high plasma levels of thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor have been consistently associated with risk of venous thrombosis, whereas little evidence exists for a role of plasminogen, alpha2-antiplasmin, tissue plasminogen activator, and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1. Overall fibrinolytic potential has been associated with arterial thrombosis in young individuals, but studies on the individual components gave conflicting results.

Low thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor activity levels are associated with an increased risk of a first myocardial infarction in men.

Background: Studies on the relation between thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) and arterial thrombosis have produced conflicting results. TAFI regulates fibrinolysis, but other roles of this inhibitor, including anti-inflammatory properties, have also been demonstrated.

Design And Methods: We investigated the association between TAFI activity and the risk of myocardial infarction.

Reduced plasma fibrinolytic capacity as a potential risk factor for a first myocardial infarction in young men.

Studies on the relationship between fibrinolysis and arterial thrombosis have been conflicting. Previously, we demonstrated that hypofibrinolysis, as measured by a plasma-based assay, increased the risk of venous thrombosis. The present study investigated increased clot lysis time (CLT) measured with the same assay as a risk factor for myocardial infarction in a case-control study including 421 men with a first myocardial infarction and 642 controls below 70 years.

Synergistic effects of hypofibrinolysis and genetic and acquired risk factors on the risk of a first venous thrombosis.

Background: Previously, we demonstrated that hypofibrinolysis, a decreased capacity to dissolve a blood clot as measured with an overall clot lysis assay, increases the risk of venous thrombosis. Here, we investigated the combined effect of hypofibrinolysis with established risk factors associated with hypercoagulability.

Methods And Findings: Fibrinolytic potential was determined with a plasma-based clot lysis assay in 2,090 patients with venous thrombosis and 2,564 control participants between 18 and 70 y of age enrolled in the Multiple Environmental and Genetic Assessment (MEGA) of risk factors for venous thrombosis study, a population-based case-control study on venous thrombosis.

Fibrinolysis and the risk of venous and arterial thrombosis.

Purpose Of Review: The fibrinolytic system is often regarded as just an innocent bystander in the pathogenesis of venous and arterial thrombosis, while (hyper)coagulation as a risk factor has been studied extensively. In this review, we evaluated studies that investigated the association between fibrinolysis and thrombosis.

Recent Findings: There is some evidence for an association between impaired overall fibrinolytic activity and increased risk of venous or arterial thrombosis.