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Background: Conjunctivitis is a common cause of reference to pediatrician and general hospitals. The common method of treatment is prescription of antibiotics however, there are concerns over the development of antibiotics resistance and their adverse effects. Therefore, this study was done to compare the effects of boiled water as supplementary treatment and antibiotics on the severity of infants' conjunctivitis. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, 110 infants referring to the Pediatric Clinic of Amir Kabir Hospital in Arak were randomly allocated to 2 groups. The first group (intervention) received boiled water together with ophthalmic erythromycin ointment 1% and sulfastamid ophthalmic solution 10% four times a day and the second group (control) just received antibiotics. Severity of infants conjunctivitis on the first, third, and seventh days of treatment were compared between the two groups using SPSS software. Results: On the 3rd day, 18.2% of the infants in the intervention group and 9.1% of the infants in the antibiotics group were cured which did not indicate a significant difference (p=0.44). On the 7th day, the recovery rate was promoted to 32.7% and 34.5% in the intervention and control groups, respectively (p>0.05). Mild severity cases were 58.2% in the intervention and 45.5% in the control groups (p>0.05) while moderate severity cases of conjunctivitis were 9.1% and 20% in the intervention and control groups, respectively (p>0.05). Conclusion: Although the number of infants who were cured was more in the boiled water group with antibiotics group and the intensity and duration of their disease were less than the control group, these differences were not statistically significant.

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Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory arthritis. Keratoconjunctivitis sicca, scleritis, and episcleritis are ocular complications of this disease. The aim of this study is to evaluate Sjogren’s syndrome in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, ninety patients diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis that followed up in rheumatology clinic of Rasool Akram hospital for six months and no definite cause was found for their dry eye, enrolled in the study. Rheumatoid arthritis activity was evaluated by DAS28 index and the severity of dry eye was assessed by Japanese dry eye diagnostic criteria.

Results: Mean activity of disease according to DAS28 was 2.9±1.56 and 88.9% of patients had dry eye based on Japanese dry eye diagnostic criteria. Twelve patients (13.3%) had secondary Sjogren's syndrome. SSA antibody was positive in 13.3% patients and 10% patients had positive SSB antibody. There was significant correlation between rheumatoid arthritis activity based on DAS28 and severity of dry eye according to Japanese dry eye diagnostic criteria in the both Sjogren (p=0.045) and non Sjogren groups (p=0.001).

Conclusion: We found significant correlation between rheumatoid arthritis activity and dry eye in the both sjogren and non-Sjogren groups. Most of rheumatoid arthritis subjects do not have Sjogren’s syndrome but dry eye is common even in rheumatoid arthritis patients without Sjogren's syndrome.