Post surgery follow-up key to correcting paediatric cataract PUNE: Vision loss and blindness due to paediatric cataract can have a profound impact on children. Continuous follow up post surgery is essential as a childs eye is very different from that of an adult,says a new study,presented at the World Opthalmology Congress held at Abu Dhabi in February. Surgical technique is important to correct the problem but it was more crucial to get a regular follow up for the child. Long term outcome of paediatric cataract showed that the visual acuity of 20/63 (6/18 is cut off for normal vision) was achieved in 43 per cent of the children and 20/200 (6/60 is cut off for being considered as blind in USA and India ) was achieved in 61 per cent of the patients. Pune-based researcher Dr Parikshit Gogate who along with Lions National Association of Blind Eye hospital in Miraj and Orbis International (an international non-governmental developmental organisation working for combating avoidable blindness globally) presented the findings at the Congress and said that results in children are poor in developing countries and not much better elsewhere. ANURADHA MASCARENHAS Sitting for too long could lead to a shorter life NEW YORK: People who spend a lot of time sitting at a desk or in front of a TV are more likely to die of any cause during a three-year period than those who are only sedentary a few hours a day,according to a new study. Researchers found that the link between too much time sitting and shortened lives stuck when they accounted for how much moderate or vigourous exercise people got as well as their weight and other measures of health. That suggests shifting some time from sitting to light physical activity such as slow walking might have important long-term benefits,researchers said. When we give people messages about how much physical activity they should be doing,we also need to talk to them about reducing the amount of hours they spend sitting each day, Hidde van der Ploeg,the new studys lead author from the University of Sydney,said. Soon,a vaccine against Alzheimers London: Scientists claim to have moved a step closer to developing a vaccine against Alzheimers,after they discovered a way to identify which proteins in the brain mutate and cause memory loss. A team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston says the vaccine could be used to treat Alzheimers or even prevent the most common form of dementia from taking hold in the first place by giving it to patients in the early stages of the illness. In fact,the scientists claim to have already developed new antibodies to both diagnose and treat Alzheimers. These target Alzheimers-causing protein of a type known as tau and raise the possibility of an immunisation jab given at an early stage of the disease.
