Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome:towards a new era in diagnosis, treatment and e-patient education

Het syndroom van Sjögren (SS) is een auto-immuunziekte waarbij o.a. de speeksel- en traanklieren worden aangetast met monddroogheid en droge ogen als gevolg. Veel SS patiënten klagen tevens over vermoeidheid. Om de diagnose SS te kunnen stellen, moeten de patiënten een veelheid aan onderzoeken ondergaan. Mogelijk kan echografisch onderzoek van de speekselklieren een aanvulling zijn op deze testen. Echografie is een alom beschikbaar, snel en pijnloos onderzoek. Met betrekking tot de behandeling van SS bleek een behandeling met rituximab, dat aangrijpt op B-cellen, effectief te zijn. Onbekend was echter welke patiënten juist wel of niet goed reageren op rituximab. Tenslotte raadplegen veel patiënten het internet om informatie te vinden over SS. Het was echter onbekend hoe betrouwbaar deze informatie is. De in dit proefschrift beschreven studies toonden aan dat echografisch onderzoek van de speekselklieren inderdaad een betrouwbare techniek is om SS te diagnosticeren, een goede aanvulling is op meer invasieve onderzoeken (o.a. speekselklierbiopsie). Met betrekking tot de behandeling van SS met rituximab zagen we dat de speekselklieren herstel vertoonden. Bovendien bleek dat rituximab het beste werkte in patiënten waarbij een groot aantal B-cellen in het speekselklierweefsel aanwezig waren. Deze kennis kan worden gebruikt om een behandeling met rituximab beter op de patiënt af te stemmen. Tenslotte bleek de op Websites en YouTube beschikbare informatie over SS vaak niet van een goede kwaliteit te zijn. Alleen informatie van nieuwsdiensten en universitaire web-sites bleken betrouwbare informatie te geven. In het algemeen is er een risico dat patiënten onjuiste informatie krijgen over SS

Subjective and objective perception of orthodontic treatment need: a systematic review

The aim of this work was to investigate the published evidence on the comparison of self-perception and diagnosis of orthodontic treatment need. A search of Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Scopus databases, and archives of two orthodontic journals was carried out from January 1966 to August 2011 by the two authors using Medical Subject Heading terms. Studies that investigated solely either self-perception of orthodontic need by laypersons or assessment of orthodontic need by professionals were excluded from the data analysis. The methodological soundness of each study and the aggregate level of evidence were evaluated according to predetermined criteria. Moderate level of evidence, the relatively highest grade, was assigned to 9.1 per cent of the 22 studies, finally included in the data analysis. The overall evidence level provided by the evaluated publications was rated as limited. However, the existing body of evidence indicated a highly variable association between self-perception of orthodontic treatment need and orthodontist's assessment. Future controlled studies with well-defined samples and common assessment methodology will clarify further the relationship between perception of treatment need by laypersons and orthodontists and enhance international comparison and development of health care strategie

“Dear Doctor, greetings of the day!”:A 1-year observational study of presumed predatory journal invitations

Background: This study aimed at investigating the predatory publishing phenomenon in orthodontics by analyzing the content of unsolicited e-mail invitations received within 12 months.Methods: All electronic invitations for manuscript submission, review and editorial membership received between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022 were collected from an orthodontist’s inbox. The following data were recorded for each e-mail: date, journal title and origin, requested contribution, e-mail language, relevance to the researcher’s discipline, journal characteristics (claimed metrics, editorial services, article types accepted, and publication fees), journal/publisher contact information and online presence. Journal/Publisher legitimacy and publishing standards were evaluated by listing in the Beall’s list of potential predatory journals and publishers, the Predatory Reports of Cabell’s Scholarly Analytics, and the Directory of Open Access Journals.Results: A total of 875 e-mail invitations deriving from 256 journals were retrieved within the observation period, with most of them soliciting article submissions. More than 76% of the solicitations originated from journals and publishers included in the blocklists used in the study. Salient features of predatory journals like flattering language, abundant grammatical errors, unclear publication charges and wide variety of article types and topics accepted for publication were confirmed for the examined journals/publishers.Conclusions: Nearly 8 out of 10 unsolicited e-mail invitations sent to orthodontists for scholarly contribution may be related to journals suspicious for publishing malpractices and suboptimal standards. Excessive flattering language, grammatical errors, broad range of submissions, and incomplete journal contact information were commonly encountered findings. Researchers in orthodontics should be alert to the unethical policies of illegitimate journals and their harmful consequences on the scientific literature.</p

Tracking trends of transgender health research online:are researchers and the public on the same page?

Altmetric Explorer was searched for the most popular online articles published in Pubmed-indexed journals. The 75 articles with the highest Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) were screened for article information (date, journal, access), authorship (number of authors, affiliation and origin of the corresponding author), and research (type, subject, funding). The reviewed articles displayed a mean AAS of 241.52, were broadcast 17.03 times by news agencies, posted on Twitter 101.47 times, downloaded by 67.21 Mendeley readers, and received 62.67 citations. There was intense online interest in the transgender health literature, mainly related to mental health and social well-being. Online visibility of transgender health articles was not significantly correlated with citation counts, implying that the public, likely including transgender persons and allies, may place emphasis on different health issues than scholars. Monitoring altmetrics and interactions on electronic media may help researchers conduct research that is more meaningful to transgender individuals, and to society in general

How has the dental literature evolved over time?:Analyzing 20 years of journal self-citation rates and impact factors

Objective: As journal impact factors (IFs) can be artificially inflated by excessive journal self-citation practices, research quality evaluation based solely on IF ranking may be manipulated and, therefore, ethically challenged. This study aimed to analyze the longitudinal development of journal self-citation rates (SCRs) and IFs in dental literature and to determine possible confounders.Methods: Twenty-eight journals with scope within general dentistry and (sub)specialties listed in 1997-2016 Journal of Citation Reports® were scrutinized. The following information was retrieved: publication year, total number of citations, number of self-citations, IF, corrected IF, and SCR.Results: Endodontic journals had the highest SCR (median = 35.3, IQR = 21.6-47.5), journals related to periodontics had the lowest (median = 14.7, IQR = 8.9-25.5). Periodontics had the highest IF (median = 2.1, IQR= 1.7-2.8) and general dentistry had the lowest (median = 0.9, IQR = 0.7-1.2). SCR significantly decreased over time (p < .0001) by 1 unit per year. Additionally, 1 unit increase in corrected IF resulted in 15.2 units decrease in SCR. IFs significantly increased 0.06 units per year (p < .000).Conclusions: Overall, favourable changes in citation metrics have been observed for dental journals during the 20-year observation period. SCR significantly decreased per observation year whereas IFs significantly increased, indicating a healthy publishing environment in the dental literature. SCR was regulated both by time and corrected IF

Investigation of bacteremia induced by removal of orthodontic mini-implants

SUMMARY The aim of this study was to investigate potential occurrence of bacteremia in orthodontic patients after removal of miniscrews.The study group comprised 30 healthy subjects (17 males, 13 females) with a mean age of 24.1 years treated with self-ligating fixed appliances and mini-implant anchorage. Two 20ml venous blood samples were obtained prior to and 30-60 seconds after miniscrew explantation following an aseptic technique. Blood culturing in aerobic and anaerobic conditions was carried out by means of the BACTEC blood culture analyzer. Microbiological analysis showed that none of the pre- and post-operative samples exhibited detectable bacteremia. Future research should be focused on determining the collective bacteremic effect of a sequence of orthodontic procedures including miniscrew placement or removal, typically performed during a single treatment sessio