Group 3 ITI Consensus Report: Patient-reported outcome measures associated with implant dentistry

Objectives: The aim of Working Group 3 was to focus on three topics that were assessed using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). These topics included the following: (a) the aesthetics of tooth and implant-supported fixed dental prostheses focusing on partially edentulous patients, (b) a comparison of fixed and removable implant-retained prostheses for edentulous populations, and (c) immediate versus early/conventional loading of immediately placed implants in partially edentate patients. PROMs include ratings of satisfaction and oral health-related quality of life (QHRQoL), as well as other indicators, that is, pain, general health-related quality of life (e.g., SF-36). Materials and methods: The Consensus Conference Group 3 participants discussed the findings of the three systematic review manuscripts. Following comprehensive discussions, participants developed consensus statements and recommendations that were then discussed in larger plenary sessions. Following this, any necessary modifications were made and approved. Results: Patients were very satisfied with the aesthetics of implant-supported fixed dental prostheses and the surrounding mucosa. Implant neck design, restorative material, or use of a provisional restoration did not influence patients’ ratings. Edentulous patients highly rate both removable and fixed implant-supported prostheses. However, they rate their ability to maintain their oral hygiene significantly higher with the removable prosthesis. Both immediate provisionalization and conventional loading receive positive patient-reported outcomes. Conclusions: Patient-reported outcome measures should be gathered in every clinical study in which the outcomes of oral rehabilitation with dental implants are investigated. PROMs, such as patients’ satisfaction and QHRQoL, should supplement other clinical parameters in our clinical definition of success

Epidemiologic approaches to assessing human cancer risk from consuming aquatic food resources from chemically contaminated water.

Epidemiologic approaches to assessing human cancer risk from consuming fish from contaminated waters must confront the problems of long latency and rarity of the end point (cancer). The latency problem makes determination of diet history more difficult, while the low frequency of cancer as an end point reduces the statistical power of the study. These factors are discussed in relation to the study designs most commonly employed in epidemiology. It is suggested that the use of biomarkers for persistent chemicals may be useful to mitigate the difficulty of determining exposure, while the use of more prevalent and timely end points, such as carcinogen-DNA adducts or oncogene proteins, may make the latency and rarity problems more tractable

Polychaete invader enhances resource utilization in a species-poor system

Ecosystem consequences of biodiversity change are often studied from a species loss perspective, while the effects of invasive species on ecosystem functions are rarely quantified. In this experimental study, we used isotope tracers to measure the incorporation and burial of carbon and nitrogen from a simulated spring phytoplankton bloom by communities of one to four species of deposit-feeding macrofauna found in the species-poor Baltic Sea. The recently invading polychaete Marenzelleriaarctia, which has spread throughout the Baltic Sea, grows more rapidly than the native species Monoporeia affinis, Pontoporeia femorata (both amphipods) and Macoma balthica (a bivalve), resulting in higher biomass increase (biomass production) in treatments including the polychaete. Marenzelleria incorporated and buried bloom material at rates similar to the native species. Multi-species treatments generally had higher isotope incorporation, indicative of utilization of bloom material, than expected from monoculture yields of the respective species. The mechanism behind this observed over-yielding was mainly niche complementarity in utilization of the bloom input, and was more evident in communities including the invader. In contrast, multi-species treatments had generally lower biomass increase than expected. This contrasting pattern suggests that there is little overlap in resource use of freshly deposited bloom material between Marenzelleria and the native species but it is likely that interference competition acts to dampen resulting community biomass. In conclusion, an invasive species can enhance incorporation and burial of organic matter from settled phytoplankton blooms, two processes fundamental for marine productivity

Perinatal asphyxia: current status and approaches towards neuroprotective strategies, with focus on sentinel proteins

Delivery is a stressful and risky event menacing the newborn. The mother-dependent respiration has to be replaced by autonomous pulmonary breathing immediately after delivery. If delayed, it may lead to deficient oxygen supply compromising survival and development of the central nervous system. Lack of oxygen availability gives rise to depletion of NAD+ tissue stores, decrease of ATP formation, weakening of the electron transport pump and anaerobic metabolism and acidosis, leading necessarily to death if oxygenation is not promptly re-established. Re-oxygenation triggers a cascade of compensatory biochemical events to restore function, which may be accompanied by improper homeostasis and oxidative stress. Consequences may be incomplete recovery, or excess reactions that worsen the biological outcome by disturbed metabolism and/or imbalance produced by over-expression of alternative metabolic pathways. Perinatal asphyxia has been associated with severe neurological and psychiatric sequelae with delayed clinical onset. No specific treatments have yet been established. In the clinical setting, after resuscitation of an infant with birth asphyxia, the emphasis is on supportive therapy. Several interventions have been proposed to attenuate secondary neuronal injuries elicited by asphyxia, including hypothermia. Although promising, the clinical efficacy of hypothermia has not been fully demonstrated. It is evident that new approaches are warranted. The purpose of this review is to discuss the concept of sentinel proteins as targets for neuroprotection. Several sentinel proteins have been described to protect the integrity of the genome (e.g. PARP-1; XRCC1; DNA ligase IIIα; DNA polymerase β, ERCC2, DNA-dependent protein kinases). They act by eliciting metabolic cascades leading to (i) activation of cell survival and neurotrophic pathways; (ii) early and delayed programmed cell death, and (iii) promotion of cell proliferation, differentiation, neuritogenesis and synaptogenesis. It is proposed that sentinel proteins can be used as markers for characterising long-term effects of perinatal asphyxia, and as targets for novel therapeutic development and innovative strategies for neonatal care

Biologiska effekter i kalkad skog. Årsrapport 1998. Effektuppföljning av Skogsstyrelsens program för kalkning och vitaliseringsgödsling av skogsmark.

Skogsstyrelsens försöksverksamhet med kalkning och vitalisering av skogsmark innehåller ett omfattande program för effektuppföljning. IVL (IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB) i Aneboda har tillsammans med Skogsvårdsstyrelserna huvudansvaret för uppföljningen. Huvuddelen av programmet är inriktat mot effekter på träd, mark och vatten, då kalkning utförts enligt Skogsstyrelsens koncept. Utöver detta basprogram finns även särskilda försök där olika typer av kalk och aska prövas. Resultaten presenteras i årliga rapporter. Tidigare rapporter har behandlat kalkningseffekter på ytvatten och effekter i marken, baserad på markkemiska och markvattenkemiska mätningar. Denna rapport redovisar resultaten från uppföljningsprogrammet för biologiska effekter. Den baseras på undersökningar av bottenfauna, påväxtalger, barrkemi och trädens vitalitet. Studierna är utförda inom Skogsstyrelsens storskaliga försök med skogsmarkskalkning och vitaliseringsgödsling. Rapporten omfattar tidsperioden, eller delar av perioden, 1991 till 1998. Resultaten i sammanfattning är: Bottenfauna. Undersökningen visar att den kalkdos på 3 ton per hektar som använts i försöken inte är tillräcklig för att påverka faunan i kraftigt försurade bäckar under de första sju till åtta åren efter behandling.Någon ökning av antalet individer och taxa eller större biodiversitet har inte kunnat påvisas. Det har heller inte framkommit något som tyder på att faunan har skadats av någon 'kalkchock' eller liknande efter behandlingenSkogsstyrelsens försöksverksamhet med kalkning och vitalisering av skogsmark innehåller ett omfattande program för effektuppföljning. IVL (IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB) i Aneboda har tillsammans med Skogsvårdsstyrelserna huvudansvaret för uppföljningen. Huvuddelen av programmet är inriktat mot effekter på träd, mark och vatten, då kalkning utförts enligt Skogsstyrelsens koncept. Utöver detta basprogram finns även särskilda försök där olika typer av kalk och aska prövas. Resultaten presenteras i årliga rapporter. Tidigare rapporter har behandlat kalkningseffekter på ytvatten och effekter i marken, baserad på markkemiska och markvattenkemiska mätningar. Denna rapport redovisar resultaten från uppföljningsprogrammet för biologiska effekter. Den baseras på undersökningar av bottenfauna, påväxtalger, barrkemi och trädens vitalitet. Studierna är utförda inom Skogsstyrelsens storskaliga försök med skogsmarkskalkning och vitaliseringsgödsling. Rapporten omfattar tidsperioden, eller delar av perioden, 1991 till 1998. Resultaten i sammanfattning är: Bottenfauna. Undersökningen visar att den kalkdos på 3 ton per hektar som använts i försöken inte är tillräcklig för att påverka faunan i kraftigt försurade bäckar under de första sju till åtta åren efter behandling.Någon ökning av antalet individer och taxa eller större biodiversitet har inte kunnat påvisas. Det har heller inte framkommit något som tyder på att faunan har skadats av någon 'kalkchock' eller liknande efter behandlinge

Tvåvingar

Abstract is not availabl

COMPUTER-ASSISTED IMAGE-ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES ALLOW A CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COMPARTMENTS WITHIN THE BASAL GANGLIA - FOCUS ON FUNCTIONAL COMPARTMENTS PRODUCED BY D-AMPHETAMINE ACTIVATION OF THE C-FOS GENE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE GLUCOCORTICOID RECEPTOR

A new computer-assisted image analysis procedure was developed for the analysis of striatal compartments of the rats visualized in this case by means of c-fos immunocytochemistry after morphine and/or d-amphetamine treatments. In particular it has been shown that d-amphetamine can induce an activation of the c-fos early gene in various subregions of the neostriatum and that morphine treatment can antagonize this activation. A different pattern of morphine antagonistic action could be detected at the rostral versus the caudal striatal level. In fact, at the rostral level the morphine antagonistic action was very marked only in the dorsomedial striatum, while at the caudal level the morphine antagonistic action was marked in all subregions. The developed computer-assisted procedure can detect differences in the pattern of distribution of profiles present in a certain neuroanatomical area. Therefore, this procedure may represent a powerful tool to study integrative functional compartments in the neostriatum. In the present study high level integrative compartments appear to be created by D1/mu-opiate receptor interactions especially within the classical patch system

Serum retinoic acid, retinol and retinyl palmitate levels in patients with lung cancer

Objectives: Epidemiological studies have shown an inverse relationship between dietary vitamin A intake and the risk of developing lung cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the vitamin A status in patients with lung cancer, by determining the serum levels of retinoic acid, retinol and retinyl palmitate. Methods: In total, 36 patients with lung cancer and 27 controls were assessed. Of the patients 14 had squamous cell carcinoma, 3 adenocarcinoma, 15 non-small cell lung cancer and 4 small cell lung cancer. Serum retinoic acid, retinol and retinyl palmitate levels were determined with HPLC and UV detection, after liquid extraction. Results: Serum retinol levels did not differ between patients (733.5 +/- 326.4 ng/mL) and controls (734.5 +/- 337.1 ng/mL). The retinyl palmitate concentration tended to be lower in patients (14.3 +/- 9.7 ng/mL) than in controls (16.7 +/- 13.7 ng/mL) The serum retinoic acid levels were significantly lower in patients (1.9 +/- 0.6 ng/mL) than in controls (2.5 +/- 1.1 ng/mL, P < 0.05). A positive correlation was observed between the retinol and retinoic acid levels and retinyl palmitate and retinoic acid levels. Conclusions: The lower levels of retinoic acid in patients with lung cancer suggest there may be a deficiency or impairment in retinol metabolism in these patients. Further studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to evaluate the possible relationship between serum retinoid levels and lung cancer