Attitude of dentists about dental care of patients with special needs

Objetivo: Evaluar la actitud de los cirujanos dentistas acerca de la atención odontológica de pacientes con necesidades especiales (PNE). Métodos: Estudio transversal que utilizó el método cuantitativo a través de un cuestionario que fue contestado por 60 cirujanos dentistas (CDs) asistentes a una Jornada Odontológica del estado de Río Grande do Sul, Brasil. Resultados: El 73% de los CDs no atienden este tipo de pacientes, de los cuales: 62,1% por no saber atenderlos; 91,4% por no haber recibido un Curso de Pacientes Especiales durante su formación académica; 25,9% porque requiere mucho tiempo y paciencia y 69% por no poseer las condiciones emocionales. Por otro lado, el 4% de los encuestados respondieron si atenderlos; bajo alguna forma de contención, sedación o de ser el caso referirlos a un especialista. El 23% restante de CDs indicó prestar atención solamente si eran pacientes colaboradores. Conclusiones: La odontología para pacientes con necesidades especiales en el estado de Rio Grande do Sul-Brasil parece no cubrir los requerimientos de estos pacientes, no solo por las dificultades inherentes a los servicios y las especificidades de dichos pacientes, sino debido a los impedimentos relacionados con los propios dentistas, problemas con las técnicas odontológicas y por toda la complejidad que envuelve la atención a personas con deficiencia.Objective: Evaluate the attitude of dental surgeons (DS) in relation to dental care for patients with special needs (PSN). Methods: Transversal study that used the quantitative method through a questionnaire which was answered by 60 DS attending at Dental Conference in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Results: 73% of the DS do not attend this type of patients, among these: 62.1% because they do not know how to treat them; 91.4% because they did not have a Special Patients Course during their academic education; 25.9% because it requires a lot of time and patience and 69% because it needs certain emotional conditions. On the other hand, 4% of the respondents answered that they atended PSN; under some form of containment, sedation or if it was the case, refer them to a specialist. The remaining 23% of DS indicated paying attention only if they were collaborating patients. Conclusions: Dentistry for PSN in the state of Rio Grande do Sul-Brazil does not seem to satisfy the requirements of these patients, not only due to the difficulties inherent to the services and the specificities of these patients, but also of the impediments related with the dentists themselves, problems with dental techniques and all the complexity involved in caring for people with disabilities

Actitud de odontólogos acerca de la atención de pacientes con necesidades especiales

Objective: Evaluate the attitude of dental surgeons (DS) in relation to dental care for patients with special needs (PSN). Methods: Transversal study that used the quantitative method through a questionnaire which was answered by 60 DS attending at Dental Conference in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Results: 73% of the DS do not attend this type of patients, among these: 62.1% because they do not know how to treat them; 91.4% because they did not have a Special Patients Course during their academic education; 25.9% because it requires a lot of time and patience and 69% because it needs certain emotional conditions. On the other hand, 4% of the respondents answered that they atended PSN; under some form of containment, sedation or if it was the case, refer them to a specialist. The remaining 23% of DS indicated paying attention only if they were collaborating patients. Conclusions: Dentistry for PSN in the state of Rio Grande do Sul-Brazil does not seem to satisfy the requirements of these patients, not only due to the difficulties inherent to the services and the specificities of these patients, but also of the impediments related with the dentists themselves, problems with dental techniques and all the complexity involved in caring for people with disabilities.Objetivo: Evaluar la actitud de los cirujanos dentistas acerca de la atención odontológica de pacientes con necesidades especiales (PNE). Métodos:Estudio transversal que utilizó el método cuantitativo a través de un cuestionario que fue contestado por 60 cirujanos dentistas (CDs) asistentes a una Jornada Odontológica del estado de Río Grande do Sul, Brasil.Resultados: El 73% de los CDs no atienden este tipo de pacientes, de los cuales: 62,1% por no saber atenderlos; 91,4% por no haber recibido un Curso de Pacientes Especiales durante su formación académica; 25,9% porque requiere mucho tiempo y paciencia y 69% por no poseer las condiciones emocionales. Por otro lado, el 4% de los encuestados respondieron si atenderlos; bajo alguna forma de contención, sedación o de ser el caso referirlos a un especialista. El 23% restante de CDs indicó prestar atención solamente si eran pacientes colaboradores. Conclusiones:La odontología para pacientes con necesidades especiales en el estado de Rio Grande do Sul-Brasil parece no cubrir los requerimientos de estos pacientes, no solo por las dificultades inherentes a los servicios y las especificidades de dichos pacientes, sino debido a los impedimentos relacionados con los propios dentistas, problemas con las técnicas odontológicas y por toda la complejidad que envuelve la atención a personas con deficiencia

Acyclic Sesquiterpenes from the Fruit Pericarp of Sapindus saponaria

Previous studies reported antiprotozoal activities of Sapindus saponaria L. The aim of this work was the evaluation of antileishmanial activity and mechanism of action of extract and fractions of S. saponaria L. Hydroethanolic extract (EHA) obtained from fruit pericarps was fractionated using solid-phase extraction in a reversed phase, resulting in fractions enriched with saponins (SAP fraction) and acyclic sesquiterpene oligoglycosides (OGSA fraction). The activities of EHA, SAP, and OGSA were evaluated by antiproliferative assays with promastigote and intracellular amastigote forms. Cytotoxicity on macrophages and hemolytic activity were also analyzed. Morphological and ultrastructural changes in Leishmania amazonensis promastigotes were evaluated by electron microscopy. Flow cytometry was used to investigate mitochondrial dysfunction and phosphatidylserine exposure. OGSA was more selective for parasites than mammalian J774A1 macrophage cells, with selectivity indices of 3.79 and 7.35, respectively. Our results showed that only the OGSA fraction did not present hemolytic activity at its IC50 for promastigote growth. Electron microscopy revealed changes in parasite flagellum, cell body shape, and organelle size, mainly mitochondria. Flow cytometry analysis indicated mitochondrial membrane and cell membrane dysfunction. OGSA showed antileishmanial activity, resulting in several changes to protozoa cells, including mitochondrial depolarization and early phosphatidylserine exposure, suggesting a possible apoptotic induction

Nanocarrier-enhanced intracellular delivery of benznidazole for treatment of Trypanosoma cruzi infection

Chagas disease is caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), an intracellular pathogen that causes significant morbidity and death among millions in the Americas from Canada to Argentina. Current therapy involves oral administration of the nitroimidazole benznidazole (BNZ), which has serious side effects that often necessitate cessation of treatment. To both avoid off-target side effects and reduce the necessary dosage of BNZ, we packaged the drug within poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene sulfide) polymersomes (BNZ-PSs). We show that these vesicular nanocarriers enhanced intracellular delivery to phagocytic cells and tested this formulation in a mouse model of T. cruzi infection. BNZ-PS is not only nontoxic but also significantly more potent than free BNZ, effectively reducing parasitemia, intracellular infection, and tissue parasitosis at a 466-fold lower dose of BNZ. We conclude that BNZ-PS was superior to BNZ for treatment of T. cruzi infection in mice and that further modifications of this nanocarrier formulation could lead to a wide range of custom controlled delivery applications for improved treatment of Chagas disease in humans

Transient Superdiffusion and Long-Range Correlations in the Motility Patterns of Trypanosomatid Flagellate Protozoa

<div><p>We report on a diffusive analysis of the motion of flagellate protozoa species. These parasites are the etiological agents of neglected tropical diseases: leishmaniasis caused by <i>Leishmania amazonensis</i> and <i>Leishmania braziliensis</i>, African sleeping sickness caused by <i>Trypanosoma brucei</i>, and Chagas disease caused by <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i>. By tracking the positions of these parasites and evaluating the variance related to the radial positions, we find that their motions are characterized by a short-time transient superdiffusive behavior. Also, the probability distributions of the radial positions are self-similar and can be approximated by a stretched Gaussian distribution. We further investigate the probability distributions of the radial velocities of individual trajectories. Among several candidates, we find that the generalized gamma distribution shows a good agreement with these distributions. The velocity time series have long-range correlations, displaying a strong persistent behavior (Hurst exponents close to one). The prevalence of “universal” patterns across all analyzed species indicates that similar mechanisms may be ruling the motion of these parasites, despite their differences in morphological traits. In addition, further analysis of these patterns could become a useful tool for investigating the activity of new candidate drugs against these and others neglected tropical diseases.</p></div

Dataset summary.

<p>Dataset summary.</p

Illustration of trajectories and velocities.

<p>A) Typical swimming trajectories of the <i>L. amazonensis</i> and B) the corresponding time series of the radial velocities <i>v</i>(<i>t</i>) are shown. See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0152092#pone.0152092.s002" target="_blank">S1 Fig</a> for other protozoa. C) Average velocities and D) standard deviation over all trajectories for each protozoan are represented in the bar plots. The error bars are 95% confidence intervals calculated via bootstrapping.</p

The velocities are not described by a two-dimensional Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.

<p>A) Typical examples of cumulative distribution functions (CDF) of the velocities <i>v</i>(<i>t</i>) from a single trajectory of the protozoa. The gray continuous lines are the best fits obtained for the two-dimensional Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0152092#pone.0152092.e019" target="_blank">Eq 8</a>), whereas the dashed black lines are the fits for the generalized gamma distribution (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0152092#pone.0152092.e020" target="_blank">Eq 9</a>). The values of parameters <i>α</i>, <i>β</i> and <i>γ</i> were obtained via maximum-likelihood method and are shown in the plots. We also present the <i>p</i>-values of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showing that we cannot reject the gamma hypothesis for these particular trajectories. We tested all trajectories and the KS test cannot reject this hypothesis for about 50% of the trajectories (all <i>p</i>-values are shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0152092#pone.0152092.s004" target="_blank">S3 Fig</a>). B) Average values of the best fitting parameters over all trajectories. The error bars are 95% confidence intervals calculated via bootstrapping.</p