PurposeThe purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of intravitreal aflibercept and ranibizumab in the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) in eyes with moderate visual loss.Patients and methodsThis study is a randomized prospective study. Seventy eyes with DME were divided into two groups (each containing 35 eyes). Eyes in group I were treated with intravitreal injection of 2 mg/0.05 mL aflibercept and eyes in group II were treated with intravitreal injection of 0.5 mg/0.1 mL ranibizumab. All the eyes had three successive injections as a loading dose (with 1 month interval), and then the patients were followed up monthly for 12 months. The outcomes of the study were visual acuity, central macular thickness (CMT), and the number of re-injections of the drug.ResultsMean age of the patients in group I was 55.05±4.7 years and in group II was 56.64±5.8 years (P=0.17). The mean baseline best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of eyes treated with aflibercept was 0.17±0.05 and with ranibizumab was 0.18±0.04 (P=0.9). BCVA was improved in both the groups at the end of the follow-up period and was found to be 0.42±0.28 and 0.37±0.23, respectively (P=0.27). The mean baseline CMT of eyes in group I was 465.29±33.7 µm and in group II was 471.5±34.4 µm (P=0.65). CMT decreased in both the groups to 360.8±85.7 µm and 387.3±87.8 µm, respectively (P=0.2). The mean number of drug re-injection was 2.62±0.68 and 3.03±0.95 in both the groups, respectively (P=0.02).ConclusionAflibercept and ranibizumab have the same efficacy in the treatment of DME in eyes with moderate visual loss but with less number of drug re-injection and less treatment burden with aflibercept (2.62±0.68 versus 3.03±0.95).

No abstract

No abstract

Corrosion is of considerable concern whenever metals and alloys are used in constructions, petroleum and gas pipelines. The present article was undertaken to investigate the hydrophobicity and corrosion resistance of PVDF polymer with and without ZnO nanoparticles using the electrospinning process. Contact angle measurements, scanning electron microscopy, SEM, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, FTIR and atomic force microscopy, AFM, were used to characterize the surface. The corrosion resistance of the superhydrophobic surface formed on aluminum sheet was investigated by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements and Tafel polarization. The results show that stable superhydrophobic PVDF-ZnO coating can be fabricated on aluminum substrate with water contact angle more than 155±2 ° and contact angle hysteresis of 4.5 ±2 °. The EIS and Tafel measurements and appropriate equivalent circuit models revealed that the prepared superhydrophobic PVDF/ZnO coating has the highest corrosion resistance compared with the bare Al and the PVDF- coated Al.