Dental erosive wear and salivary flow rate in physically active young adults

Background Little attention has been directed towards identifying the relationship between physical exercise, dental erosive wear and salivary secretion. The study aimed i) to describe the prevalence and severity of dental erosive wear among a group of physically active young adults, ii) to describe the patterns of dietary consumption and lifestyle among these individuals and iii) to study possible effect of exercise on salivary flow rate. Methods Young members (age range 18-32 years) of a fitness-centre were invited to participate in the study. Inclusion criteria were healthy young adults training hard at least twice a week. A non-exercising comparison group was selected from an ongoing study among 18-year-olds. Two hundred and twenty participants accepted an intraoral examination and completed a questionnaire. Seventy of the exercising participants provided saliva samples. The examination was performed at the fitness-centre or at a dental clinic (comparison group), using tested erosive wear system (VEDE). Saliva sampling (unstimulated and stimulated) was performed before and after exercise. Occlusal surfaces of the first molars in both jaws and the labial and palatal surfaces of the upper incisors and canines were selected as index teeth. Results Dental erosive wear was registered in 64% of the exercising participants, more often in the older age group, and in 20% of the comparison group. Enamel lesions were most observed in the upper central incisors (33%); dentine lesions in lower first molar (27%). One fourth of the participants had erosive wear into dentine, significantly more in males than in females (p = 0.047). More participants with erosive wear had decreased salivary flow during exercise compared with the non-erosion group (p < 0.01). The stimulated salivary flow rate was in the lower rage (≤ 1 ml/min) among more than one third of the participants, and more erosive lesions were registered than in subjects with higher flow rates (p < 0.01). Conclusion The study showed that a high proportion of physically active young adults have erosive lesions and indicate that hard exercise and decreased stimulated salivary flow rate may be associated with such wear

Genome-wide association identifies nine common variants associated with fasting proinsulin levels and provides new insights into the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Proinsulin is a precursor of mature insulin and C-peptide. Higher circulating proinsulin levels are associated with impaired β-cell function, raised glucose levels, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Studies of the insulin processing pathway could provide new insights about T2D pathophysiology. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We have conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association tests of ∼2.5 million genotyped or imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and fasting proinsulin levels in 10,701 nondiabetic adults of European ancestry, with follow-up of 23 loci in up to 16,378 individuals, using additive genetic models adjusted for age, sex, fasting insulin, and study-specific covariates. RESULTS: Nine SNPs at eight loci were associated with proinsulin levels (P < 5 × 10(-8)). Two loci (LARP6 and SGSM2) have not been previously related to metabolic traits, one (MADD) has been associated with fasting glucose, one (PCSK1) has been implicated in obesity, and four (TCF7L2, SLC30A8, VPS13C/C2CD4A/B, and ARAP1, formerly CENTD2) increase T2D risk. The proinsulin-raising allele of ARAP1 was associated with a lower fasting glucose (P = 1.7 × 10(-4)), improved β-cell function (P = 1.1 × 10(-5)), and lower risk of T2D (odds ratio 0.88; P = 7.8 × 10(-6)). Notably, PCSK1 encodes the protein prohormone convertase 1/3, the first enzyme in the insulin processing pathway. A genotype score composed of the nine proinsulin-raising alleles was not associated with coronary disease in two large case-control datasets. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified nine genetic variants associated with fasting proinsulin. Our findings illuminate the biology underlying glucose homeostasis and T2D development in humans and argue against a direct role of proinsulin in coronary artery disease pathogenesis

Mining the human phenome using allelic scores that index biological intermediates

J. Kaprio ja M-L. Lokki työryhmien jäseniä.It is common practice in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to focus on the relationship between disease risk and genetic variants one marker at a time. When relevant genes are identified it is often possible to implicate biological intermediates and pathways likely to be involved in disease aetiology. However, single genetic variants typically explain small amounts of disease risk. Our idea is to construct allelic scores that explain greater proportions of the variance in biological intermediates, and subsequently use these scores to data mine GWAS. To investigate the approach's properties, we indexed three biological intermediates where the results of large GWAS meta-analyses were available: body mass index, C-reactive protein and low density lipoprotein levels. We generated allelic scores in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, and in publicly available data from the first Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. We compared the explanatory ability of allelic scores in terms of their capacity to proxy for the intermediate of interest, and the extent to which they associated with disease. We found that allelic scores derived from known variants and allelic scores derived from hundreds of thousands of genetic markers explained significant portions of the variance in biological intermediates of interest, and many of these scores showed expected correlations with disease. Genome-wide allelic scores however tended to lack specificity suggesting that they should be used with caution and perhaps only to proxy biological intermediates for which there are no known individual variants. Power calculations confirm the feasibility of extending our strategy to the analysis of tens of thousands of molecular phenotypes in large genome-wide meta-analyses. We conclude that our method represents a simple way in which potentially tens of thousands of molecular phenotypes could be screened for causal relationships with disease without having to expensively measure these variables in individual disease collections.Peer reviewe

Deterioration of direct restorative materials under erosive conditions with impact of abrasion and attrition in vitro

AbstractObjective To compare the cumulative impact of sequential wear on mechanical properties and appearance of a composite resin (CR), Filtek Z250®, a glass ionomer GI, Fuji IX GP®, and a glass hybrid (GH), Equia Forte®.Material and Methods Six equally sized specimens of each material were subjected to wear tests, i.e., simulation of brushing, chewing and acidic liquid exposure, mimicking at least 6 months of clinical exposure. Surface roughness, hardness, substance loss and degree of shade lightness were determined.Results Following wear tests, significant increase in surface roughness and decrease in hardness values were observed for all materials (p < .05). Significantly larger substance loss was found in Equia Forte® specimens compared to Filtek Z250® (p < .05), while that of Fuji IX® exceeded the measurement capacity of the instrument. Opposite to the two other materials, the shade of Filtek Z250® became darker.Conclusions Sequential wear exposure mimicking abrasion, erosion and attrition to products representing CR, GI and GH, caused weakening and change in appearance of the materials. The composite resin was the most mechanically resistant to the sequential wear

Prevalence of erosive lesions with respect to risk factors in a young adult population in Poland—a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE The study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of erosive lesions and related risk factors in the population of 18-year-old young adults in Poland. MATERIALS AND METHODS Calibrated examiners measured erosive tooth wear according to Basic Erosive Wear Examination (BEWE) scoring system in 1869 patients and assessed the impact of risk factors with a questionnaire. RESULTS Erosion was present in 42.3% of the patients. Early damage to the enamel was the most frequent finding (BEWE 1)-28.9%. More advanced lesions (BEWE 2) were observed in 12% of the patients. Advanced damage to the teeth (BEWE 3) was diagnosed rarely-1.4% of the examined population. Acidic diet, hygienic habits, and medical conditions such as asthma, eating disorders, and esophageal reflux showed statistical significance, as associated with erosion in the examined population. CONCLUSIONS The present study indicates that dental erosion is a common oral disease in the 18-year-old population with prevalence of frequency and intensity in males. However, on the basis of observations carried out in recent years, it may be assumed that the prevalence of this type of lesion is increasing. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Present findings support other longitudinal studies toward evaluation of the BEWE system as a valuable standard for assessing erosive and related risk factors among different populations

Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Normal and Pathologic Puerperium

Puerperium represents a period of profound physiological and anatomical changes aimed to return to the pre-pregnancy state. As showed by the almost half maternal deaths reported related to this period, the correct diagnosis and treatment of any complication is of paramount importance. In this scenario, the ultrasonographic evaluation has a key role as first level tool to identify and diagnose any complication and to address the cause of any pathological sign and symptom. Ultrasound evaluation is able to identify or exclude retained products of conception or arteriovenous malformations in case of postpartum hemorrhage. Moreover, ultrasound allows to identify and monitor post-surgical complications after cesarean section, such as postpartum hematomas and/or pelvic abscess. Although the key role of this diagnostic tool, the reported reliability and validity of ultrasounds in the assessment of the different complications is heterogenous, and the limited specificity and sensitivity of different ultrasound appearances need to be taking into account. To address this issue, the knowledge of normal ultrasonographic appearance of genital tract during the physiological puerperal involution is the first step to achieve an accurate distinction between normal and abnormal development of puerperium