Pridržavanje terapije i kvaliteta života hipertenzivnih bolesnika

This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the association between medication adherence and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in 120 hypertensive patients. Personal Information Form, SF-36 Quality of Life Scale (SF-36 QoL) and Medication Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale (MASES) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed with SPSS program using percentage, mean value, standard deviation, significance test of difference between two means, analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test and χ2-test. MASES and SF-36 QoL scores of the patients were found to be low. Adherence to medication and compliance were found to be low in males, patients using two or more drugs, and those that did not control their blood pressure regularly. In addition, a statistically significant positive relationship was found between adherence to medication/compliance, self-efficacy and quality of life (p<0.001). Regular and continuous adaptation programs addressing patients on antihypertensive therapy will improve the quality of life of these patients.Cilj ove presječne studije bio je procijeniti udruženost pridržavanja farmakoterapije i kvalitete života povezane sa zdravljem (Health-related Quality of Life, HRQoL) kod 120 hipertenzivnih bolesnika. Za prikupljanje podataka rabili su se sljedeći alati: Personal Information Form, SF-36 Quality of Life Scale (SF-36 QoL) i Medication Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale (MASES). Podaci su analizirani pomoću programa SPSS uz primjenu postotka, testa značajnosti razlike između dviju srednjih vrijednosti, analize varijance, Mann-Whitneyjeva U testa, Kruskal-Wallisova testa i χ2-testa. Vrijednosti MASES i SF-36 QoL dobivene kod bolesnika bile su niske. Pridržavanje farmakoterapije bilo je nisko kod muškaraca, a bolesnici koji su uzimali dva lijeka ili više njih nisu redovito kontrolirali krvni tlak. Uz to, utvrđen je statistički značajan pozitivan odnos između pridržavanja farmakoterapije, samostalnog odlučivanja o tome i kvalitete života (p<0,001). Kvalitetu života ovih bolesnika može se poboljšati redovnim i trajnim programima prilagodbe usmjerenim ka bolesnicima koji uzimaju antihipertenzivne lijekove

“Planting Trees is Always Good”

This thesis explores how two Swedish companies and a sample of Swedish consumers describe the role of private actors in climate change mitigation. Carbon offsetting by planting trees in the Global South has become a common approach for Swedish food and beverage companies (among other companies) that seek to reduce their climate impact. Since 2018, the Swedish fast food restaurant Max Burgers AB (MAX) has been offsetting 110% of its greenhouse gas emissions and advertises a ‘climate positive’ menu. The initiative has been prized by the UN Global Climate Action Awards for being an innovative, replicable and scalable climate solution. MAX is also urging other companies and private individuals to implement the ‘climate positive’ model, in order to solve the climate crisis. This thesis draws on Carol Bacchi’s WPR approach for policy analysis to explore how the proposed solution can be understood in terms of problem representations. Two Swedish companies’ websites were analysed and semi-structured interviews with 13 customers at MAX were conducted in order to understand what kinds of problems carbon offsetting by planting trees in countries in the Global South responds to according to these actors. The thesis presents four problem-solution complexes in which the two companies mainly represent climate change as a problem of 1) reduced emissions and carbon dioxide removal, 2) consumption, 3) deforestation and carbon sequestration and 4) where carbon offsetting also is represented as a solution to sustainable development challenges in the Global South. The study concludes that on the two companies’ websites, these four problem representations reinforced each other and created a strong narrative for practicing carbon offsetting by planting trees in countries in the Global South as a solution to climate change and sustainable development challenges. At the same time, the customers’ responses imply that the discourse on how private actors and individuals can mitigate climate change is not homogenous, as they partially contrasted the two companies’ problem representations of climate change. The customers’ responses also illustrated a mental distance to the tree planting project in Uganda that MAX purchases carbon credits from, as well as a lack of awareness regarding local impacts of the project. Moreover, this thesis illustrates how planting trees has enabled MAX to communicate to its customers that they are the ones that will solve climate change, by eating burgers at the Swedish fast food restaurant

Turkish Dental Students’ Perceptions and Awareness of Dental Implant Education: A Questionnaire Study

Objective. This study aimed to assess Turkish dental students’ awareness of and attitudes toward dental implant therapy, as well as the effectiveness of dental implantology lecture from their point of view. Materials and Methods. This study used a cross-sectional online survey. A total of 425 third-, fourth- and fifth-year dental students enrolled in Gazi University School of Dentistry during the 2020-2021 academic year were invited to participate in the survey anonymously and voluntarily. Following the descriptive part (age, gender, and education status), all the participants were asked 11 questions. Results. Total of 415 questionnaires were analyzed. The 3rd-year students stated that they were“ poorly” informed about dental implants (n=88, 64.7%), while the 4th- and 5th-year students were“ moderately” infromed (n=78, 54.2% and n=60, 44.4%, respectively) (p &lt; 0.001). All the students were believed that they needed to get more information during their undergraduate studies (p &lt; 0.01). More than half of all students preferred to have PhD or speciality training after graduation (p &gt; 0.05). Approximately 80% of all students believed that dentists should receive specialized training in order to practice implant dentistry (p &gt; 0.05). Conclusions. The results of this study show that some Turkish dental students find DI treatment a difficult operation and that they do not know enough about it. As a result, it is anticipated that improving the current curriculum will contribute to the course success and make dental students feel better prepared for dental implantology following graduation

Applications of Infrared Spectroscopy and Microscopy in Diagnosis of Obesity

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a vibrational spectroscopic technique based on the absorption of infrared radiation by matters that excite vibrations of molecular bonds. It is a powerful method for investigating structural, functional, and compositional changes in biomolecules, cells, and tissues. In recent years, scientific researchers have continued to increase the performance of this technique on clinical cases such as cancers and metabolic disorders. Obesity is one of the main factors that increases the risk of many diseases and contributes to functional disabilities in tissues such as adipose, liver, and muscle. Applications of IR spectroscopic techniques allow identifying molecular changes due to obesity, to understand the molecular mechanism of the disease, to identify specific spectral biomarkers that can be used in diagnosis. In addition, these spectral biomarkers can be used to identify the appropriate drugs and their doses for treatment. In this chapter, applications of IR spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to the characterization and understanding the obesity metabolism will be presented. The discriminatory power of these techniques in diagnosis of obesity will be discussed. In future, these novel approaches will shed light on the internal diagnosis of obesity in clinical application

Digital solutions replacing academic travel during the corona pandemic – what can we learn?

During the spring of 2020, the corona pandemic created an entirely new context for university employees to work within. In a matter of weeks, it became customary to replace physical meetings with digital alternatives whenever possible. Conferences, seminars, meetings and doctoral thesis defences – among other activities – were moved to digital platforms. Meanwhile, many activities were either postponed or cancelled. The crisis resulted in a vast decrease in air travel and significantly reduced physical mobility. Increased digitalisation and reduced emissions from aviation were central to SLU’s policies and strategies prior to the corona pandemic. A part of SLU's ambition of becoming a climate-neutral university by 2027 is to significantly reduce emissions from business trips and, since 2016, SLU is requested by the Swedish government to increase the share of digital and travel free meetings. SLU is also developing a new strategy for 2021-2025. A better understanding of the implications of increased digitalisation is highly relevant in this work. This study aims to provide a better understanding of how SLU staff members experienced the drastic reduction in travel and the increased use of digital solutions during the spring of 2020. We also want to shed light on what types of activities – that originally were intended to include a business trip – could be replaced by a digital alternative with maintained or improved quality and what activities that on the contrary were difficult or impossible to carry out using a digital alternative. In order to fulfil our aims, we conducted a mixed-methods study based on semistructured interviews and an online survey. The results from the survey indicate that a majority (83%) of the respondents have experienced that their work in general was either mainly positively affected, equal parts negatively and positively affected, or not affected at all by the decrease in business travel and increase in digital meetings. The respondents also painted a picture as to what activities that can work well and what activities that will be difficult to perform digitally after the corona crisis. Fieldwork stood out as the least suitable activity to perform digitally, as 60% of the respondents could imagine replacing 0% or 0-25% of the fieldwork with digital solutions. What stood out on the opposite side was that a vast majority thought that between 50-100% of project meetings, administrative meetings and seminars could be replaced with digital options. As for workshops, conferences, and reviews and presentation of research, the opinions varied much more. These findings also resonate with the experiences that were brought up in the interviews. Summary Some of the main findings in the interviews was that digital meetings were perceived as more efficient, but that they lacked in terms of social and creative aspects. Furthermore, informants largely agreed that brainstorming, spontaneous discussions and forming of new relationships was harder to achieve digitally. On the other hand, well-structured interactions with a clear agenda between people that had previously met in person worked excellent on digital platforms. Many informants expressed that they were surprised regarding how well the digital meetings had worked and pointed to the many benefits of replacing travel with digital solutions in terms of increased equality, accessibility, efficiency, reduced stress and reduced emissions. Looking forward, participants talked about a better mix of digital and physical activities. Many believed that some activities – for example establishing new relationships and performing fieldwork – to a larger extent than other activities require travel for maintained quality. Other types of activities – such as administrative meetings, project meetings, seminars and presentations – were considered possible to replace with digital solutions to a higher degree with maintained, or even enhanced, quality of work and life. The study concludes: * A majority of the SLU employees that participated in our study reported that it in general had worked well to replace longer business trips with digital alternatives during the spring of 2020. * Our quantitative findings illustrate that an overwhelming majority of the respondents thought that their work and research either had been mainly positively affected, equal parts positively and negatively affected, or not affected at all by them not being able to travel. * Certain types of fieldwork and data collection, as well as activities requiring spontaneous discussions and networking were experienced as the most difficult to perform digitally. * Well-structured interactions with a clear agenda and people that had previously met in person, as well as activities such as administrative meetings, project meetings and seminars, were perceived as most suited to perform digitally. * The study recommends a better mix between digital and physical meetings in a post-corona context. SLU should strategically make use of digital solutions and replace longer business trips to improve the work situation of the employees, the quality of their work in addition to reducing GHG emissions

Comparison between self-formulation and compounded-formation dexamethasone mouth rinse for oral lichen planus: a pilot randomized, cross-over trial

Aim: There is a lack of appropriate, commercially-available topical corticosteroid formulations for use in oral lichen planus (OLP) and oral lichenoid reaction. Current therapy includes crushing a dexamethasone tablet and mixing it with water for use as a mouth rinse. This formulation is unpleasant esthetically and to use in the mouth, as it is a bitter and gritty suspension, resulting in poor compliance. Thus, the present study was designed to formulate and pilot an effective, esthetically-pleasing formulation. Methods: A single-blinded, cross-over trial was designed with two treatment arms. Patients were monitored for 7 weeks. Quantitative and qualitative data was assessed using VAS, numeric pain scales, the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication-9, and thematic analysis to determine primary patient-reported outcomes, including satisfaction, compliance, quality of life, and symptom relief. Results: Nine patients completed the pilot trial. Data analysis revealed the new compounded formulation to be superior to existing therapy due to its convenience, positive contribution to compliance, patient-perceived faster onset of action, and improved symptom relief. Conclusion: Topical dexamethasone is useful in the treatment of OLP. When carefully formulated into a compounded mouth rinse, it improves patient outcomes

Oral lichen planus: A retrospective study of 110 Brazilian patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by multiple clinical presentations and a relatively high prevalence in the population. This retrospective patient record study investigated the profile of OLP in a group of Brazilian patients seen between 1989 and 2009.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The clinical records were analyzed and data such as gender, age, race, clinical presentation of OLP, site affected, presence of symptoms and extraoral manifestations of the disease, smoking habit, and consumption of alcoholic beverages were obtained. Among the 1822 records of patients with oral mucosal lesions, OLP was identified in 6.03%. Of these, 76.36% were females, with a mean age of 54 years, and 85% were whites. The reticular form was the most frequent (81.81%). Extraoral lesions were observed in 32.72% of the patients and painful symptoms were reported by 50.90%. The cheek mucosa was the site most affected (92.72%) and multiple oral lesions were observed in 77.27% of the patients. Among patients with OLP, 18.18% reported a smoking habit and 29.09% the consumption of alcoholic beverages.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This retrospective study showed a relatively high prevalence of OLP in the population studied, with a predominance of the disease among middle-aged white women and bilateral involvement of the cheek mucosa. Reticular lesions were the most frequent, followed by the erosive form which is mainly associated with painful symptoms. No relationship with tobacco or alcohol consumption was observed.</p

Oral carcinoma after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation – a new classification based on a literature review over 30 years

BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have a higher risk of developing secondary solid tumors, in particular squamous cell carcinoma, because of several risk factors, including full-body irradiation (TBI), chemotherapy, and chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD). Based on the review presented here, a classification of oral changes is suggested in order to provide a tool to detect high-risk patients. Methods and Results The literature over the last 30 years was reviewed for development of malignoma of the oral cavity after HSCT. Overall, 64 cases were found. In 16 out of 30 cases, the tongue was the primary location, followed by the salivary gland (10 out of 30); 56.4% appeared in a latency time of 5 to 9 years after HSCT. In 76.6%, GVHD was noticed before the occurrence of oral malignancy. Premalignant changes of the oral mucosa were mucositis, xerostomia, and lichenoid changes, developing into erosive form. CONCLUSION: All physicians involved in the treatment of post-HSCT patients should be aware of the increased risk, even after 5 years from the development of oral malignancy, in particular when oral graft versus host changes are visible. In order to develop evidence management and to detect and offer adequate therapy as early as possible in this patient group, multicenter studies, involving oncologists and head and neck surgeons, should be established