Effects of timing of adjunctive systemic antibiotics on the clinical outcome of periodontal therapy : a systematic review

Many systematic reviews and meta-analysis have indicated beneficial effects of adjunctive systemic antibiotics in periodontal therapy in specific situations. However, some essential issues such as the ideal time of their administration during periodontal therapy remain unanswered. This systematic review aimed to determine at which phase of periodontal treatment would adjunctive systemic antibiotics lead to the best clinical outcomes, during the active phase or in the reevaluation phase. Searches in the databases Medline, Scopus and Cochrane Library were conducted. The randomized clinical trials and retrospective cohort studies comparing the clinical benefits of adjunctive systemic antibiotic administration in the active phase of periodontal treatment versus their administration in the reevaluation phase were included. The primary outcomes assessed were differences in clinical changes in periodontal pocket depth and clinical attachment loss at all post-treatment phases. Of the 6209 records identified, two randomized clinical trials and two retrospective cohort studies were eligible according to inclusion criteria. Two studies suggested there were greater clinical benefits when systemic antibiotics were prescribed during the active phase of periodontal therapy than in the reevaluation phase while two other studies showed no significant difference in clinical outcomes at 6 months between these two different timing of administration. The evidence available and evaluated in this systematic review is of heterogeneous quality and limited by the restricted number of studies and their dissimilarities in their study design and outcome reporting. Despite insufficient evidence to determine the ideal time to the adjunctive systemic antibiotic administration in the periodontal therapy, it seems that prescription of systemic antibiotic at the active phase of periodontal therapy leads to better clinical outcomes

Effets économiques de la pandémie covid19 et le défi d’endettement au Maroc

Le Maroc a été durement touché par la crise de la pandémie de Covid-19. Cela a paralysé le pays et s'est très vite transformé en crise économique et financière. En période de contrôle démographique, on peut même parler de pannes uniques, notamment dans des secteurs clés comme le tourisme et les services en général. La dette totale du Maroc représente 94% du PIB en 2020 contre 80,4% du PIB en 2019. L'augmentation de la dette publique s'explique en grande partie par la pandémie. Le déficit budgétaire a augmenté de plus de 76 % entre 2019 et 2020 pour atteindre 82 milliards de dirhams, soit plus de 7,6 % du PIB.Ainsi, cet article aura comme objectif de bien disséquer les impacts économiques de la pandémie au niveau du Maroc en mettant l’accent sur son niveau d’endettement et les défis que le royaume doit faire face

THE ROLE OF ISLAMIC CULTURE COURSES IN MAINTAINING THE ISLAMIC IDENTITY: CASE STUDY OF FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION FEMALE STUDENTS AT KING KHALID UNIVERSITY

The present study is an interdisciplinary research that investigates the role of Islamic culture courses in maintaining the Islamic identity among the female students of the English department at King Khalid University. It is due to the significance of these courses that the researchers design this study to explore the extent to which the Islamic culture courses achieve the objectives envisaged by them. This study further explores the ability of these courses to confront the ideas of globalization and the new international order including the world’s economic, political, cultural and social ideologies. The study also investigates the need of such courses to enable the students of the English department to be prepared to study certain courses enrolled at the faculty of languages and translation (i.e. religious translation course). For this end, the students are requested to complete an online survey composed of closed-ended and open-ended questions on their perceptions about the Islamic culture courses and their significance. As such, the study adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods and ends up with suggesting certain recommendations towards improving the courses specifications and implementing the students’ special knowledge of the English language and culture in empowering them to present the disciplined Islamic concept and identity.

Chlorhexidine alcohol base mouthrinse versus Chlorhexidine formaldehyde base mouthrinse efficacy on plaque control: double blind, randomized clinical trials

Background: Chlorhexidine is well known for its antiplaque effect. However, the mouthrinse based chlorhexidine antiplaque efficiency may vary according to the formulation of the final product. The aim of the present study was to compare anti-plaque effectiveness of two commercial mouthrinses: 0.12 % Chlorhexidine alcohol base (CLX-A) versus a diluted 0.1% Chlorhexidine non-alcohol base with 0.1% of Formaldehyde (CLX-F). Material and Methods: the study was a seven day randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial including 30 volunteers. At the start, all participants received a dental prophylaxis. Over 7 days experimental non-brushing period, during which subjects abstained from all forms of mechanical oral hygiene, one group test rinsed twice daily with 15ml of an alcohol base 0.12% Chlorhexidine mouthrinse. The second group test used 15ml of alcohol free 0.1% Chlorhexidine mouthrinse base 0.1% formaldehyde twice daily. The negative control group used a placebo. Plaque indexes were recorded in all volunteers prior to treatment at Day 0, 1 and 7. Results: After 7 days, the mean plaque index for the first group was 0.76±0.38 compared with a mean plaque index of 1.43±0.56 for the second group. The difference in plaque scores between the groups was statistically significant. Conclusion: the results of this study showed that rinsing with an alcohol base 0.12% Chlorhexidine mouthrinse is significantly different from rinsing with an alcohol free 0.1% Chlorhexidine mouthrinse on plaque inhibition

ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECTIVENESS OF SELECTED MOROCCAN ESSENTIAL OILS AGAINST THE HIGHLY VIRULENT JP2 CLONE OF AGGREGATIBACTER ACTINOMYCETEMCOMITANS

Objective: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) serotype b JP2 clone is a highly virulent strain, considered as a major etiologic agent in aggressive periodontitis in patients of African descent, such as Moroccan adolescents. Antibiotics have been and continue to be the only effective treatment of periodontal infections caused by this periodontal bacterium. However, today there is enough scientific evidence on the existence of an increased resistance of oral bacteria to antibiotics. Therefore, the search for new natural agents, that are safe and effective, such "essential oils," has become a necessity. The present study was conducted to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activities of three selected essential oils from Moroccan aromatic medicinal plants (Origanum compactum, Thymus vulgaris and Cymbopogon martinii) against clinical Moroccan isolate of Aa JP2 strain.Methods: Antibacterial activity of essential oils was investigated using agar well diffusion method, then measured using broth microdilution method.Results: All the selected essential oils exhibited significant antibacterial activity on the highly pathogenic JP2 strain of Aa. Essential oil of Origanum compactum was found to be the most effective with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 0.03% (v/v) and a minimum bactericidal concentration value (MBC) of 0.07%.Conclusion: The present findings indicate the possibility of exploiting these essential oils as potential antimicrobial agents in treatment of aggressive periodontitis associated to this pathogen

Apport des cires de diagnostic et des prothèses d’attente dans les cas prothétiques complexes

La décision thérapeutique dans les cas prothétiques complexes est prise à la suite de l’analyse de tous les paramètres répertoriés à partir de l’examen clinique. Elle doit être ensuite matérialisée par des modèles de diagnostic, véritables maquettes de la restauration prothétique terminale et qui vont servir de fil conducteur pendant tout le traitement. De plus, ces maquettes vont également permettre la réalisation des prothèses provisoires. Étape primordiale de la restauration prothétique, la phase des provisoires permet, d’une part de restaurer les fonctions altérées et d’autre part, de tester les configurations occlusales et les choix esthétiques

Usefulness of salivary and serum auto-antibodies against tumor biomarkers HER2 and MUC1 in breast cancer screening

International audienceBackground: The aim of this work was to investigate if serum and salivary auto antibodies, isotypes IgG and IgM, against HER2 and MUC1 tandem repeat fragments could play a role in breast cancer screening. Materials and Methods: Our case-control study was conducted in breast cancer patients, in early stages (n=29), at the gynecology service, Maternity Souissi Hospital, Rabat, Morocco and healthy woman (n=31). Salivary and serum auto-antibodies against HER2 and MUC1 (tandem repeat) were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and compared between patients and healthy women using the Mann Whitney U test. A P-value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Our data showed higher expression of all serum and salivary autoantibodies in patients as compared to healthy women p<0.05. However, serum IgM anti-MUC1 expression did not show a significant difference between cases and controls (p=0.79). Similarly, salivary IgG anti-HER2 expression did not differ (p=0.15). The correlation between the different isotypes of antibodies revealed that the highest correlation was between salivary IgG anti-HER2 and salivary IgG anti- MUC1(r=0.65). In fact, we have found in saliva the correlation between autoantibodies anti-MUC1 and anti HER2 more important than in serum (r=0.59 and r=0. 55). However, the correlation between serum and saliva values for all antibodies was weak. Conclusions: Autoantibodies against HER2 and MUC1 may provide a useful approach in breast cancer screening when using both serum and saliva values

Le bilan biologique en odontostomatologie : intérêt et interprétation

En odontostomatologie, certains actes thérapeutiques nécessitent la réalisation de tests biologiques en préopératoire. La connaissance de ces tests est indispensable pour les prescrire de manière pertinente et pour interpréter les résultats en collaboration avec le médecin traitant. Elle permet d’une part, une bonne planification des soins potentiellement à risque et d’autre part le dépistage précoce de certaines pathologies à manifestations buccales ainsi que la prévention des complications lors des soins bucco-dentaires. Dans la première partie de cet article, ces différents tests sont décrits ainsi que les principales étiologies pouvant être à l’origine de résultats significatifs. Dans la deuxième partie, les situations dans lesquelles ces tests seront prescrits sont développées ainsi que leurs interprétations

qPCR Detection and Quantification of <i>Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans</i> and Other Periodontal Pathogens in Saliva and Gingival Crevicular Fluid among Periodontitis Patients

Objective: The detection of special bacterial species in patients with periodontitis is considered useful for clinical diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of specific periopathogens and investigate whether there is a correlation between the results of different bacterial species in whole saliva and pooled subgingival plaque samples (healthy and diseased sites) from individuals with periodontitis and periodontally healthy subjects. Materials and methods: In total, 52 patients were recruited and divided into two groups: non-periodontitis and periodontitis patients. For each group, the following periodontal pathogens were detected using real-time polymerase chain reaction: A. actinomycetemcomitans JP2 clone, A. actinomycetemcomitans non JP2 clone, Porphyromonasgingivalis, and total eubacteria. Results: Higher levels of the various studied bacteria were present in both saliva and plaque samples from the periodontitis group in comparison to non-periodontitis subjects. There were significant differences in P. gingivalis and A. actinomycetemcomitans JP2 clones in the saliva of periodontitis patient compared to the control group. Subgingival plaque of diseased sites presented a significant and strong positive correlation between A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis. In saliva samples, there was a significant positive correlation between A. actinomycetemcomitans JP2 clone and P. gingivalis (p ≤ 0.002). Conclusion: Quantifying and differentiating these periodontal species from subgingival plaque and saliva samples showed a good potential as diagnostic markers for periodontal disease. Regarding the prevalence of the studied bacteria, specifically A. actinomycetemcomitans JP2 clone, found in this work, and the high rate of susceptibility to periodontal species in Africa, future larger studies are recommended

Pre-therapeutic lymphocytopenia: a new prognostic factor for failure of endovesical BCG-immunotherapy in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

Abstract Background Inflammation plays a key role in the initiation and development of cancers. The prognostic value of inflammation biomarkers is proven in several urological and non-urological cancers. Knowing that the mechanism of action of endovesical BCG-immunotherapy in the treatment of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) is based on inflammation; lymphocytes have a key role in this reaction, particularly in the cytotoxic phase and can be predictive biomarkers of the response to BCG-therapy. The main objective of our work is therefore to study the impact of the number of lymphocytes on the response to endovesical BCG-immunotherapy, and more specifically lymphocytopenia (Lp) as a prognostic factor for BCG-failure. Methods Our study is a monocentric retrospective cohort carried for prognostic purposes, including 200 patients neodiagnosed with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (Ta -T1 stages), who required adjuvant treatment to TURB by BCG-immunotherapy, over a period of 5 years from January 2012 to December 2016. The cutoff value chosen was 1.67 × 109/L using maximized Log-Rank test. Survival analysis was studied using a Kaplan–Meier model. The comparison between the thresholds (L ≤ Vs > 1.67 × 109/L) concerning the recurrence and progression rates was carried out using the Log-Rank test. The association between lymphocytopenia and BCG-therapy failure was assessed in univariate and multivariate analysis by the Cox model. Statistical analysis was performed using Jamovi statistical software. Results One hundred and eight patients had a lymphocyte count > 1.67 × 109/L while 92 had a lymphocyte count ≤ 1.67 × 109/L. The median lymphocyte value was 1.64 (1.19; 2.4). The median survival without failure of BCG treatment was significantly better in the high lymphocyte-count group, with median of 22 months in the > 1.67 × 109/L group versus 11 months until failure in the ≤ 1.67 × 109/L group. A lymphocyte count ≤ 1.67 × 109/L was associated with failure of BCG-therapy in univariate (HR = 4.80, P ≤ 0.001) and multivariate (HR = 1.88, P = 0.025) studies. Other factors associated in the univariate study were found: T1 stage (P = 0.001), high-grade urothelial carcinoma (P = 0.001), multifocal tumor (P = 0.001), tumor size > 3 cm (P = 0.001), concomitant carcinoma in situ (Cis) (P = 0.001) and vascular emboli (P = 0.001). Multivariate study showed significant factors that are, in addition to lymphocytopenia, the presence of T1 stage (P = 0.011) and vascular emboli (P = 0.013). Conclusion Our study has shown an association between lymphocytes count and NMIBC progression. Patients with lymphocytopenia carry an increased risk of endovesical BCG-immunotherapy failure. These results should be further validated