Water quality series: Drinking water testing

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

Memorandum for the Record with William H. Brewster

Other individuals present in this conversation are as follows: Tom Stanton, Tom Borgers, and Karen Duba

Children's tooth decay in a public health program to encourage low-income pregnant women to utilize dental care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A community-based public health program to provide a dental home for women covered by the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) in Klamath County, Oregon USA was instituted with the long-term goal to promote preventive oral care for both mothers and their new infants provided by dental managed care companies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>As part of the evaluation of the program, children in Klamath and comparable non-program counties were examined in their 2^ndyear of life to begin to determine if benefits accrued to the offspring of the mothers in Klamath County.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eighty-five and 58.9% of the children were caries free in the Klamath and comparison county samples, respectively (RR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.13, 1.93). The mean (SD) number of teeth with any decay was .75 (2.5) in the test population and 1.6 (2.5) in the comparison population (t = 2.08, p = .04).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The assessment showed that children of mothers in the Klamath County program were about one and a half times more likely to be caries free than children in the comparison counties. Additional controlled studies are being undertaken.</p

No-till cropping systems in Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

Water quality handbook for nurseries

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service periodically issues revisions to its publications. The most current edition is made available. For access to an earlier edition, if available for this title, please contact the Oklahoma State University Library Archives by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-744-6311

Gender-specific differences in patients with psoriatic arthritis receiving ustekinumab or tumour necrosis factor inhibitor: real-world data

Objective: Investigate effects of gender on disease characteristics and treatment impact in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Methods: PsABio is a non-interventional European study in patients with PsA starting a biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (bDMARD; ustekinumab or tumour necrosis factor inhibitor [TNFi]). This post-hoc analysis compared persistence, disease activity, patient-reported outcomes and safety between male and female patients at baseline and 6 and 12 months of treatment. Results: At baseline, disease duration was 6.7 and 6.9 years for 512 females and 417 males respectively. Mean (95% CI) scores for females versus males were: clinical Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (cDAPSA), 32.3 (30.3;34.2) versus 26.8 (24.8;28.9); Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ-DI), 1.3 (1.2;1.4) versus 0.93 (0.86;0.99); total Psoriatic Arthritis Impact of Disease-12 (PsAID-12) score, 6.0 (5.8;6.2) versus 5.1 (4.9;5.3), respectively. Improvements in scores were smaller in female than male patients. At 12 months, 175/303 (57.8%) female and 212/264 (80.3%) male patients achieved cDAPSA low disease activity, 96/285 (33.7%) and 137/247 (55.5%), achieved minimal disease activity (MDA), respectively. HAQ-DI scores were 0.85 (0.77;0.92) versus 0.50 (0.43;0.56), PsAID-12 scores 3.5 (3.3;3.8) versus 2.4 (2.2;2.6), respectively. Treatment persistence was lower in females than males (p = &lt;0.001). Lack of effectiveness was the predominant reason to stop, irrespective of gender and bDMARD. Conclusions: Before starting bDMARDs, females had more severe disease than males and a lower percentage reached favourable disease states, with lower persistence of treatment after 12 months. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these differences may improve therapeutic management in females with PsA. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02627768

Changes in lipid levels with inflammation and therapy in RA: a maturing paradigm

Dyslipidaemia is commonly observed in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with lower total cholesterol levels as well as lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) reported in these patients than in individuals without RA. This pattern is mirrored in sepsis and other inflammatory states, suggesting systemic inflammation has the general effect of lowering circulating lipid levels. In line with such observations, suppressing inflammation with DMARDs, biologic therapies and small-molecule Janus kinase inhibitors seems to elevate levels of lipid fractions in RA, albeit in a variable manner dependent presumably upon the mechanism of action of the different agents. In addition, limited epidemiological data in patients with RA suggest increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk at relatively low cholesterol levels, a pattern contrasting with that observed in the population without RA. Our understanding of the potential mechanisms behind these inflammation-associated lipid changes remains suboptimal and requires further study. In clinical terms, however, use of the total cholesterol to HDL-C ratio as the lipid component of CVD risk scoring in patients with RA would seem appropriate given that these lipid parameters generally change in parallel with inflammation and suppression of inflammation. Whether alternative lipid or lipoprotein measures (or simple markers of inflammation) could improve stratification of CVD risk in RA beyond the established risk factors requires future investigation