· AIM: To investigate the conditions of traumatic visual loss of inpatients in Yazd, Iran from 2005 to 2006, and to explore the possible causes and preventive methods. · METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data on all patients with eye injuries (70 cases) hospitalized at Shahid Sadoughi Hospital between August 2005 and August 2006, including age, gender, causes, type of injury, time of initial treatment, visual acuity during admission and discharge, surgical procedures, and final outcome. Furthermore, standardized international classifi-cation of ocular trauma (Birmingham Eye Trauma Terminology) was used for eye injury categorization. · RESULTS: A total of 70 inpatients with ocular injuries were selected by simple approach. The male/female ratio was 2.8 to 1. The most frequent causes of eye injury were metallic objects (34.3%) especially in age group of ≤ 10 and ≥ 30 years old, accidents (22. 8%) and assaults (17.2%). Waiting time to initial treatment was 6-24 hours in most cases (51.4%). Trauma was blunt in 38.6% and penetrating in 61.4%. The most and the least final visual acuity in blunt and penetrating trauma was LP (51.8%, 41.8%) and HM (7.5%, 4. 7%) respectively. Surgery outcome was globe saving with acceptable visual acuity in72.9% and enucleation in 24.2%. · CONCLUSION: With regard to the high incidence of ocular trauma and consequent severe visual loss, parents' attention, eye safety protection and early treatment should be considered as final preserving globe in most accidents.

Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that many nanoparticles have an adverseor toxic effect on the kidney.Objective: To investigate the nephroprotective effect of quercetin (QT) against renal injuryinduced by titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NTiO2) in rats.Methods: NTiO2-intoxicated rats received 50 mg/kg of NTiO2 for seven days. The QT +NTiO2 group was pretreated with QT for seven days before being administered NTiO2. Uric acid,creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen were considered to be biomarkers of nephrotoxicity. Catalase(CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and renal levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) weremeasured to assess the oxidative stress caused by NTiO2.Results: NTiO2 significantly increased the plasma level of the biomarkers. It alsosignificantly decreased the activities of CAT (P = 0.008) and SOD (P = 0.004), and significantlyincreased the MDA levels (P = 0.007). NTiO2 caused proximal tubule damage, the accumulationof red blood cells, the infiltration of inflammatory cells, and reduced the glomerular diameters,as well as induced apoptosis in the proximal tubules. Pre-treatment with QT attenuated thehistological changes, normalised the plasma biomarkers, suppressed oxidative stress, amelioratedthe activities of CAT (P = 0.007) and SOD (P = 0.006), and reduced apoptosis (P < 0.001).Conclusion: QT was found to have a potent protective effect against nephrotoxicityinduced by NTiO2 in rats. It also reduced apoptosis caused by NTiO2.