· AIM: To determine the influence of topical anaesthetic drops, age and central corneal thickness (CCT) in the determination of intraocular pressure (IOP) by non contact tonometry (NCT). · METHODS: Ninety-three eyes from 47 patients were examined for CCT and lOP by NCT before and after the instillation of topical anaesthetic drops.· RESULTS: Average age was 66.4 (SD 16, range 34 to 88years-of-age). Thirty one patients were female and 16 were male. Average basal IOP was 16.0 mmHg (SD 4.0, range 8.5to 26.1). IOP pressure one minute after topical anesthesia instillation was 15.0 mmHg (SD 3.8, range 7.7 to 26.7), and 14.9 mm Hg (SD 3.9, range 7.6 to 26.3) five minutes after the instillation. The differences were statistically significant for the 0 to 1 minute lapse (P=0.0007) and for the 0 to 5minute lapse (P=0.0003), but not for the 1 to 5 minute lapse (P=0.27) (Student's t test for paired data). Average CCT before topical anaesthetic drops was 565.4 microns. Simple linear regression analysis demonstrated absence of significant variation between age and IOP changes and between CCT and IOP changes,· CONCLUSION: Our study confirms that the instillation of topical anaesthetics causes a reduction in IOP, which is progressive during the first 5 minutes after instillation. This IOP reduction does not seem to be associated with basal CCT or age.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the prognostic and predictive value of the nucleotide excision repair-related gene GTF2H5, which is localized at the 6q24.2-26 deletion previously reported by our group to predict longer survival of high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients. METHODS: In order to test if protein levels of GTF2H5 are associated with patients' outcome, we performed GTF2H5 immunohistochemical staining in 139 high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas included in tissue microarrays. Upon stratification of cases into high- and low-GTF2H5 staining categories (> and < or = median staining, respectively) Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test were used to estimate patients' survival and assess statistical differences. We also evaluated the association of GTF2H5 with survival at the transcriptional level by using the on-line Kaplan-Meier plotter tool, which includes gene expression and survival data of 855 high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients from 13 different datasets. Finally, we determined whether stable short hairpin RNA-mediated GTF2H5 downregulation modulates cisplatin sensitivity in the SKOV3 and COV504 cell lines by using cytotoxicity assays. RESULTS: Low expression of GTF2H5 was associated with longer 5-year survival of patients at the protein (hazard ratio [HR], 0.52; 95% CI, 0.29 to 0.93; p=0.024) and transcriptional level (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.97; p=0.023) in high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients. We confirmed the association with 5-year overall survival (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.38 to 0.78; p=0.0007) and also found an association with progression-free survival (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.96; p=0.026) in a homogenous group of 388 high-stage (stages III-IV using the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics staging system), optimally debulked high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients. GTF2H5-silencing induced a decrease of the half maximal inhibitory concentration upon cisplatin treatment in GTF2H5-silenced ovarian cancer cells. CONCLUSION: Low levels of GTF2H5 are associated with enhanced prognosis in high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients and may contribute to cisplatin sensitization.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Biomarkers, Tumor/biosynthesis/genetics ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous/*genetics/metabolism/pathology ; Female ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Grading ; Neoplasm Proteins/biosynthesis/genetics ; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial/*genetics/metabolism/pathology ; Ovarian Neoplasms/*genetics/metabolism/pathology ; Prognosis ; Transcription Factors/biosynthesis/*genetics ; Tumor Cells, Cultured