Objectives: To understand the prevalence of dry eye disease (DED) in undergraduate medical students and assess its association with online overexposure due to COVID-19. Materials and methods: The study was carried out with 200 medical undergraduate students aged 18-25 years at North Indian Medical College during the third and fourth weeks of September, 2021 & enquired regarding the online exposure pattern, type of device used and presence of eight dry eye symptoms (foreign body sensation, vision difficulties, discharge, itching, ocular pain, redness, photophobia, watering) followed by Schirmer’s strips examination. Cut off for dry eye disease was <10 mm. Data was analyzed using SPSS 21.0 package & Chi-square test for comparisons. Results: Mean age was 21.00±1.93 years. Majority were females (54.5%). Prevalence of dry eye symptoms was 85.5%. Vision difficulties (54.0%), itching (56.0%), watering (51.5%) were the most common symptoms. Majority (64.0%) had >3 symptoms. Use of mobile device, >4 hours of online exposure for other than study purposes and >1.5 increase in online exposure after COVID-19 were associated with presence of >3 dry eye symptoms. On Schirmer’s test, prevalence of dry eye disease was 12.0%. Conclusion: Longer duration of online exposure and increase in online activities as a result of COVID-19 was associated with an increased risk of dry eye disease and its prevalence in undergraduate medical students.

To study WDR36 gene polymorphism (rs10038177 , rs1971050) and its association with clinical parameters in patients of primary open angle glaucoma. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted on 105 cases of POAG to study its association with WDR36 gene polymorphisms (rs 10038177, rs 1971050). The study subjects underwent complete ophthalmic examination, slit lamp examination, IOP measurement by Goldmann’s Applanation Tonometer, gonioscopy, fundus evaluation by 90D lens. RNFL thickness was measured using cirrus 500 OCT by Carl Zeiss. Peripheral blood samples were collected in EDTA-anticoagulant tubes, then DNA was extracted using the genomic DNA extraction and genotyped by PCR-RFLP by using (AluI) enzyme.Data analysis by SPSS, version 21.0. Chi-square and Independent sample ‘t’-tests used for comparison. Results: The association of genotypic expression of rs10038177 polymorphism with different clinical variables in POAG patients ,and the mean IOP (31.66 +/-5.88) and CDR (0.72+/- 0.15) for heterozygous genotype TC was significantly higher as compared to homozygous de33eeeee4(p<0.05) while in rs1971050 polymorphism, Diabetic history was significantly higher in genotype TC(60%)(p=0.012) as compared to genotype TT (19.1%). Conclusion: Our study shows that WDR 36 polymorphism (rs10038177) and (rs1971050) have an association with higher IOP and RNFL thinning which could be the underlying factors in pathogenesis and progression of POAG.