To study the epidemiology of ocular trauma requiring hospital admission in children under 18 years in age. This retrospective cohort study included pediatric patients with ocular injuries at the Ophthalmology Department of the Clinical Hospital Centre, Split, Croatia, from 2000 to 2015, classified according to the Birmingham Eye Trauma Terminology. There were 353 children hospitalized, 82% of boys (mean age 11 years) and 18% of girls (mean age 10 years). The majority of traumas occurred in the outside environment (70%, n = 249), followed by occurrences at home (17%, n = 60), and at a school/nursery (8%, n = 28). Final visual acuity was 6/18 or better in 286 (96%) patients with closed globe injury and in 26 (49%) patients with open globe injury. Severe impairment of vision was found in 12 (4.4%) patients in the closed globe injury group and 26 (49%) patients in the open globe injury group. A statistically significant difference was found between final visual acuity and initial visual acuity in all patients (χ2 = 12.8; P < 0.001). The majority of pediatric eye injuries are happening in the outside environment and are preventable. Implementation of well-established safety precautions would greatly reduce this source of visual disability in children.

The pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) remains elusive, despite numerous research studies. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the changes of plasma and IgG-specific N-glycosylation across the disease severity spectrum. We examined 2835 subjects from the 10.001 Dalmatians project, originating from the isolated Croatian islands of Vis and Korčula. All subjects were classified into four groups, namely (i) bilateral AMD, (ii) unilateral AMD, (iii) early-onset drusen, and (iv) controls. We analysed plasma and IgG N-glycans measured by HPLC and their association with retinal fundus photographs. There were 106 (3.7%) detected cases of AMD; 66 of them were bilateral. In addition, 45 (0.9%) subjects were recorded as having early-onset retinal drusen. We detected several interesting differences across the analysed groups, suggesting that N-glycans can be used as a biomarker for AMD. Multivariate analysis suggested a significant decrease in the immunomodulatory bi-antennary glycan structures in unilateral AMD (adjusted odds ratio 0.43 (95% confidence interval 0.22–0.79)). We also detected a substantial increase in the pro-inflammatory tetra-antennary plasma glycans in bilateral AMD (7.90 (2.94–20.95)). Notably, some of these associations were not identified in the aggregated analysis, where all three disease stages were collapsed into a single category, suggesting the need for better-refined phenotypes and the use of disease severity stages in the analysis of more complex diseases. Age-related macular degeneration progression is characterised by the complex interplay of various mechanisms, some of which can be detected by measuring plasma and IgG N-glycans. As opposed to a simple case-control study, more advanced and refined study designs are needed to understand the pathogenesis of complex diseases.

Background: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common microvascular complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Catestatin (CST) has been implicated in cardiovascular physiology and autonomic modulation, but its role in diabetic microvascular disease remains unclear. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, serum CST levels were compared between healthy controls (n = 59) and patients with T2DM (n = 91), and further between T2DM patients with (n = 63) and without DR (n = 28). Results: CST levels did not differ between T2DM and healthy controls (16 vs. 14 ng/mL; p = 0.693). Among normotensive individuals, healthy controls had the lowest CST levels (6 ng/mL), whereas normotensive T2DM participants showed significantly higher concentrations (11 ng/mL; p = 0.004). Participants with DR exhibited significantly higher CST than those without DR (14 vs. 10 ng/mL; p = 0.034). In the total cohort, arterial hypertension (AH) was the strongest independent predictor of CST (B = 0.562; p < 0.001). In the multivariable model restricted to T2DM patients, DR emerged as the sole independent determinant of CST (B = 0.251; p = 0.028), whereas AH was no longer significant (p = 0.581). Conclusions: Circulating catestatin levels were not associated with the presence of T2DM itself but were significantly elevated in patients with DR. These findings suggest that CST may reflect microvascular and neurovascular stress rather than metabolic status and could represent a biomarker of diabetic microangiopathy.

Background/Objectives: A pterygium is a fibrovascular ocular surface lesion whose recurrence after surgical excision remains a major clinical challenge, yet its molecular determinants of recurrence remain poorly understood. This study investigated transcriptomic profiles of primary pterygium tissue collected at the time of surgery to identify molecular signatures associated with subsequent recurrence. Methods: Eighty-five patients undergoing primary pterygium surgery were enrolled and followed for a mean of 7.32 years. RNA sequencing was performed on primary pterygium tissues collected at the time of surgery. Samples from four pterygia that developed recurrence and four non-recurrent pterygia were studied, with differential expression analyzed using DESeq2 and pathway enrichment via Reactome and GSEA. Results: Recurrence occurred in 5.8% of patients (mean time to recurrence was 8.87 months), exclusively in higher-grade (T2–T3) lesions. Transcriptomic analysis identified 1374 differentially expressed genes (1020 upregulated, 354 downregulated), showing separation between pterygia that developed recurrence from non-recurrent samples. Upregulated genes, including ECM1, HOXB5, MARCO, SHISAL1, CWH43, and PSORS1C1, reflected extracellular matrix remodeling and innate immune pathways, whereas downregulated genes, such as LCN10, ZBTB16, and GPR101, were linked to GPCR signaling and neuronal communication. Samples with the earliest recurrence displayed the most pronounced transcriptomic changes. Conclusions: These findings suggest that extracellular matrix remodeling and innate immunity activation, already present at initial surgery, are associated with subsequent pterygium recurrence and may help in the identification of candidate molecular biomarkers for recurrence risk stratification.