The influence of serum calcium and magnesium levels in the radiological evolution of knee osteoarthritis

Calcium and magnesium are minerals with important functions throughout the body. The deficiency has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and prostate cancer, and affects the skin and teeth. Some studies have associated it with osteoarthritis. Knee osteoarthritis is a degenerative pathology with a high prevalence that affects the knee joint, and prevention is necessary in the context of the lack of understanding of pathophysiology. The role of serum calcium and magnesium levels was considered in this regard. The study included a group of 371 hospitalized patients for unilateral or bilateral knee pain, of whom 326 patients had knee osteoarthritis and were the subject of the research. The risk factors such as age, gender, body mass index, weight status, and certain anatomical changes were analyzed, including the varus and valgus alignment. The results show the inverse relationship of Ca values with the radiological classification of knee osteoarthritis and the importance of risk factors such as age, gender, and obesity for the onset and progression of the pathology. Serum Mg values were not statistically significant in this study group

The tumour volume influence on tumour recurrence and progression-free survival in the case of atypical meningiomas: Our experience on a series of 81 cases

Objective: The objective of our study was to evaluate a possible relation between the volume of atypical meningiomas (AMs) and the risk of tumour recurrence, as well as progression-free survival (PFS). Material and methods: We evaluated 81 patients diagnosed with AMs (WHO grade II meningioma) who have undergone surgery at the "Prof. Dr. N. Oblu" Emergency Clinical Hospital Iasi between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019. The recorded data were demographic and imagistic (MRI, contrast-enhanced T1WI). We calculated the tumour volume prior to the surgery and evaluated the tumour recurrence using MRI at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 months after the surgery. Results: 50.6% of patients had meningioma volume < 26.4 cm3. Women had larger tumour volumes than men (52.6%). Patients of age ? 60 years old, had tumour volumes ? 26.4 cm3 in 58.5% of cases and meningiomas with volumes ? 26.4 cm3 recurred earlier (p=0.010). Also, patients who had tumour volumes ? 26.4 cm3, had a shorter PFS (40.976 months), compared to patients with tumour volumes < 26.4 cm3, who had better PFS (53.4 months). Conclusions: the tumour volume of AMs ? 26.4 cm3 represents a negative prognostic factor for both early tumour recurrence and reduced PFS

Bullying and Cyberbullying Victimization and Associated Factors among Adolescents in Six European Countries

Bullying and cyberbullying victimization are significant factors that threaten adolescent development and mental health. Our study aimed to analyze how socioeconomic characteristics and personal experiences of violence are associated with adolescents’ experiences of bullying and cyberbullying victimization. The study participants were 1146 students, 698 females and 448 males, aged between 13 and 16 years old, from secondary schools in Spain, Italy, Romania, Portugal, Poland and the UK. Data was collected through an online questionnaire. Prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated using Poisson regression with robust variance. In total, 37.2% of girls and 35.0% of boys reported being victims of bullying and or cyberbullying. The likelihood of bullying and or cyberbullying victimization was higher when adolescents had experienced physical and or sexual abuse before the age of 15, had witnessed domestic violence against their mother or had been victims of intimate partner violence. Perceived social support from teachers and classmates and higher self-esteem were associated with a lower likelihood of becoming a victim of bullying and or cyberbullying, but an association between experience of any other form of violence and the greater possibility of becoming a victim of bullying and or cyberbullying persisted even when self-esteem and social support were included in the model. Protecting adolescents from bullying and or cyberbullying means preventing all exposure to violent experiences in childhood and adolescence. Not having such experiences seems to be the most relevant protective factor.The project “Lights, Camera and Action against Dating Violence” (Ligts4Violence) was funded by the European Commission Directorate-General Justice and Consumers Rights, Equality and Citizen Violence Against Women Program 2016 for the period 2017–2019 to promote healthy dating relationship assets among secondary school students from different European countries, under grant agreement No. 776905. It was also co-supported by the CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health of Spain for its aid to the Gender-based Violence and Youth Research Program

METHODS FOR MULTIVARIATE DATA ANALYSIS IN THE STUDY OF ORAL DISEASES: THE MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION

During the statistical analysis of medical data, in many situations it is necessary to identify the multiple correlations established between the studied parameters. In this purpose, one of the most useful methods is to build a model of multiple regression, which allows the modeling of a dependant variable values having at least the ordinal type, based on its linear relation with more than one independent variables satisfying the same restriction, called predictors. The multiple linear regression model is a generalization of the simple linear regression model, which identifies the parameters of an equation with n variables y = b0+b1x1+b2x2+…+ bnxn+e, based on which we can find the predictors that have a statistically significant influence over the dependant variable. We used this model to identify, on a set of 202 patients having different types of oral lesions, the biochemical analysis which can be eventually correlated with the oral diagnosis. We found that the values of leucocytes, hemoglobin and hematocrit are significant for the general oral diagnosis, the cholesterol and glucose values for the oral lesion type, and the hemoglobin for the periodontal disease. The identified predictors are useful for further data processing

Application of the Warping Methods in Dental Radiology Images Analysis

The “image warping” functions are useful techniques to match image objects when there are strong correlations between the positions of these objects in space. In order to do this, a function f, called warping function, is defined and is used to convert a given image into a reference known image. Several types of warping functions are described in the specialized literature – affine function, Procrustes transformation, bilinear transformation, perspective transformation and mosaic transformation. In this work, we present these functions and apply them to process several dental radiology images in a controlled manner, defined by a variation range of parameters

METHODS OF REINFORCEMENT – IMPLICATIONS IN THE OPTIMIZATION OF COMPLETE DENTURE IN ACCORDANCE WITH CLINICAL PARTICULARITIES

The clinical reality of the total edentation from the point of view of the impact on the general condition of the patient, with extremely serious disturbances on the body pattern, correlated with the variety of clinical situations, always impregnated by the current social aspects, are only a few elements that advocate optimizing the total prosthesis structure by different reinforcement methods. The aim of the study is the practical materialization of the possibilities of optimization of the parameters of totally removable prostheses by associating the types of acrylate with the method of reinforcement with polyethylene fibers and metal nets. Material and method :A total of 12 specimens were made in the form of thin rectangular plates with a longitudinal dimension of 40 mm, a width of about 20 mm, having a thickness ranging from 1.8 to 2.5.Biomechanical tests were done on a HEKERT 50 machine (on a 10 kN scale) and on a Textenser test machine (500N maximum force).The test specimens have combined the different types of acrylate used in dental practice by associating it with various forms of reinforcement, represented by metal nets, respectively polyethylene fibers. Results and discussions: After the examination of the traction patterns of the traction specimens, the following aspects were noted: Unarmed materials showed cross-sectional sections, slightly corrugated with respect to the direction of force. The armed (asymmetric) materials yielded to areas without reinforcement (cracks usually starting from the hole made at the gripping ends). The cracks produced in the reinforcing areas had the following directions: transverse to the reinforcing fibers: I (acrylate and randomly arranged polyethylene fibers), II (acrylate, longitudinally disposed polyethylene fibers), III (acrylate, metal mesh). Conclusions: In the optimization of the therapeutic solutions excellent results are obtained in case of reinforcement with polyethylene fibers longitudinally disposed. It is known that the clinical particularity dictates the final design of the total prosthesis, so in the case of patients with muscular hypertonia, the optimal therapeutic solution remains the reinforcement with polyethylene fibers due to the very good adherence of the polyethylene fibers to the acrylate followed by the metal mesh reinforcement

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR DENTAL STUDENTS THROUGH EUROPEAN PROJECTS

Aim of the study The aim of this study is to emphasize the important role of career counselling in choosing the right career path. The dental students have multiple choices in their future career; the most important thing is to have access at objective tools in order to identify the most suitable trajectory. Material and methods We applied a questionnaire among the dental students from Iasi, the 6th year of study, during a period of 7 years (2011-2017) in order to identify their choices for the future career. The statistical processing was made in SPSS 20.0 and we reported the descriptive and the analytical results. Results It will be structured as shown here. Conclusions The study has shown that targeted career counselling has an important and valuable role in establishing the correct professional trajectory according to the individual skills, competences and aspiration

Medicine Students’ Opinions Post-COVID-19 Regarding Online Learning in Association with Their Preferences as Internet Consumers

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted e-learning as a critical component that ensured the continuity of students’ education processes. In this regard, many research groups aim to provide new scientific data about the efficiency and benefits of e-learning for healthcare students. Our study aims to evaluate the attraction of e-learning among medical and dental Romanian students, in association with their preferences as internet and computer consumers. The study enrolled 551 students in medicine from four Romanian Universities of Medicine and Pharmacy, located in major cities (Iași—64.6%, Craiova—19.6%, Timișoara—14.5% and Cluj Napoca—1.3%), mostly females (76.2%), from the first and second years of study (63.7%) or the fourth to sixth years of study (23.3%), aged 18–20 years (53.9%). To investigate their opinions about the efficiency of e-learning, we used an anonymous questionnaire with 31 items regarding advantages (17 items) and possible drawbacks (14 items). The students in medicine had favourable opinions about online learning because these tools are more comfortable (75.2%) and more flexible (60.1%). The main reasons for disagreement were the lack of direct communication and human interaction with teachers (53.2%), limitations due to the particularities of some disciplines that cannot be easily transferred to the online environment (46.4%), and the lack of proper motivation (32.5%). Older students, who liked to use multimedia resources in the learning process and used the internet mainly for information purposes or domestic facilities, had the highest scores for favourable opinions about online learning. The younger students, who did not prefer using multimedia resources in the learning process, also had the highest scores for disagreement regarding online learning. There were no statistically significant differences between genders

THE QUALITY OF DENTAL CARE SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE PRIVATE OFFICES IN IASI – PILOT STUDY RESULTS

Aim of the study was to identify the degree of satisfaction of patients about quality of the private dental medicine practices from Iasi, Romania. Material and methods. The authors of this study tested a representative sample of the population, consisting of 144 people, with different professions and ages. The data collection tool was an original questionnaire. Through its administration, it was intended to assess the patient’s satisfaction with the dental care they received in different dental offices in Iasi during year 2018. Results. The results of the study show that 74.31% of the total patients surveyed are satisfied with the clinical quality of the dental care received, and 18.06% of them are worried about the high prices. The questioned patients believe that dentists with private practice have the necessary equipment and materials to provide dental services at the proper quality. Conclusions. Our study offers useful information for quality management of dental medicine services provided to the local population

STUDY ON TEETH MORPHOLOGY VARIATIONS AMONG GREEK PATIENTS

Purpose The aim of our study was to verify the variety of some permanent teeth, known as having multiple morphological variations: maxillary incisors, maxillary molars, mandibular premolars and molars. Material and Method. For this study we used intraoral images taken in a dental private practice, in Athens (Greece), between July 2014-July 2016. The study group was composed by 239 patients (105 males and 134 females) aged 17 to 52 years. The results were statistically analyzed with SPSS 16.0. Results. We found some expected morphological aspects, as are described in the literature, but there are some findings quite surprising, especially the number of cusps in mandibular premolars and molars. Conclusions The dentist should be aware that the diversity in human body it is found also in the diversity of teeth morphology. Although in dental school he is receiving a large amount of knowledge, he must continue to learn from his own clinical experience, because in real life, the real morphology is more diverse than in textbooks