divergence

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a consequence of an arrest in normal retinal neural and vascular development, which determines the aberrant retinal regeneration [1,2]. ROP is a disease process mostly reported in preterm neonates ranging from mild, transient changes in the retina with regression to severe progressive vasoproliferation, scarring, detachment of retina and blindness and it is common blinding disease in children and a major cause of vision loss among preterm infants [3]. Today it is well known that oxygen therapy is not the single causative factor, but many other risk factors play a causative role in the pathogenesis of ROP [4,5]. The risk factors for ROP include oxygen administration, hypoxia, hypercapnia, blood transfusion exchange transfusion, apnea,sepsis and total parenteral nutrition. The incidence of ROP has been reported to be similar in multiple and singleton births [6-8]. Twin studies show that from 70% to 80% of the susceptibility to ROP is conditioned by genetic factors [9,10]. Hence this study is to find out the incidence of ROP in twins in a tertiary care centre in a developing country. It also attempts to identify the difference in risk factors among twins which predispose to ROP in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Alopecia is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, and it appears that there is a relationship between the degree of hair loss and the risk of coronary heart disease, meaning, the greater the severity of alopecia, the greater the risk of coronary heart disease. Alopecia is also associated with an increased risk of hypertension, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome as well as elevated serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels. It has not been definitively established whether patients with androgenetic alopecia have a higher cardiovascular risk or prevalence of metabolic syndrome, and results of recent studies indicate that androgenetic alopecia patients do not show differences in insulin resistance or the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. However, androgenetic alopecia patients do show a higher cardiovascular risk, characterised by increased inflammatory parameters and Lp(a) levels. Data collected from female populations are scarce, but it would be interesting to extend our clinical knowledge with this type of data to further our understanding of the connection between androgenetic alopecia, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk. The divergence in results from different studies done in this context may simply be a result of the composition of the study populations with respect to age, gender, severity of alopecia, sample size and perhaps ethnicity. In this connection, a large group of androgenetic alopecia patients is necessary, including different representative groups and varying severities of alopecia. Furthermore, it is recommended that all women and men with androgenetic alopecia be thoroughly examined and that lifestyle changes are made early on to reduce the risk of various problems associated with metabolic syndrome, since androgenetic alopecia can be considered an early marker of metabolic syndrome.