Effectiveness of silver diamine fluoride and sodium fluoride varnish in arresting dentin caries in Chinese pre-school children

Untreated dental caries in Chinese pre-school children is common. This prospective controlled clinical trial investigated the effectiveness of topical fluoride applications in arresting dentin caries. Three hundred seventy-five children, aged 3-5 years, with carious upper anterior teeth were divided into five groups. Children in the first and second groups received annual applications of silver diamine fluoride solution (44,800 ppm F). Sodium fluoride varnish (22,600 ppm F) was applied every three months to the lesions of children in the third and fourth groups. For children in the first and third groups, soft carious tissues were removed prior to fluoride application. The fifth group was the control. Three hundred eight children were followed for 30 months. The respective mean numbers of arrested carious tooth surfaces in the five groups were 2.5, 2.8, 1.5, 1.5, and 1.3 (p < 0.001). Silver diamine fluoride was found to be effective in arresting dentin caries in primary anterior teeth in pre-school children.published_or_final_versio

Caries control programme for children in China: one year results

Journal of Dental Research, 2001, v. 80 n. 4, p. 1377, abstract no. O-14published_or_final_versio

Randomized trial on fluorides and sealants for fissure caries prevention

To investigate the effectiveness of topical fluorides in preventing fissure caries, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with parallel groups. In total, 501 children (1,539 molars, 3,078 sites), mean age 9.1 years, who had at least one sound permanent first molar with deep fissures or fissures with signs of early caries were recruited. They were randomly allocated among four groups: (1) resin sealant, single placement; (2) 5% NaF varnish, semi-annual application; (3) 38% silver diamine fluoride (SDF) solution, annual application; and (4) placebo control. Follow-up examinations were conducted every 6 months by a masked examiner. After 24 months, 485 children (97%) were examined. Proportions of pit/fissure sites with dentin caries in the sealant, NaF, SDF, and control groups were 1.6%, 2.4%, 2.2%, and 4.6%, respectively. A multi-level logistic regression analysis accounting for the effects of data clustering and confounding factors showed that fissures in any of the three treatment groups had significantly lower risks of carious cavity development into dentin than did controls (p < 0.05). We concluded that placement of resin sealant, semi-annual application of NaF varnish, and annual application of SDF solution are all effective in preventing pit and fissure caries in permanent molars (ClinicalTrials.gov number CT01446107).postprin

POCS-based reconstruction of multiplexed sensitivity encoded MRI (POCSMUSE): A general algorithm for reducing motion-related artifacts.

PURPOSE: A projection onto convex sets reconstruction of multiplexed sensitivity encoded MRI (POCSMUSE) is developed to reduce motion-related artifacts, including respiration artifacts in abdominal imaging and aliasing artifacts in interleaved diffusion-weighted imaging. THEORY: Images with reduced artifacts are reconstructed with an iterative projection onto convex sets (POCS) procedure that uses the coil sensitivity profile as a constraint. This method can be applied to data obtained with different pulse sequences and k-space trajectories. In addition, various constraints can be incorporated to stabilize the reconstruction of ill-conditioned matrices. METHODS: The POCSMUSE technique was applied to abdominal fast spin-echo imaging data, and its effectiveness in respiratory-triggered scans was evaluated. The POCSMUSE method was also applied to reduce aliasing artifacts due to shot-to-shot phase variations in interleaved diffusion-weighted imaging data corresponding to different k-space trajectories and matrix condition numbers. RESULTS: Experimental results show that the POCSMUSE technique can effectively reduce motion-related artifacts in data obtained with different pulse sequences, k-space trajectories and contrasts. CONCLUSION: POCSMUSE is a general post-processing algorithm for reduction of motion-related artifacts. It is compatible with different pulse sequences, and can also be used to further reduce residual artifacts in data produced by existing motion artifact reduction methods

Sealant and topical fluoride in Fissure Caries Prevention: 3-year results

Theme: Preventive Dentistry - Caries (Oral Presentation)This journal suppl. entitled: Special Issue: Abstracts of the 2012 FDI Annual World Dental CongressAIM: To investigate the effectiveness of topical fluorides and resin sealant in fissure caries prevention in permanent molars. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A 3-year trial with ethical approval was conducted among healthy schoolchildren aged 8–9 years who regularly used fluoridated toothpaste. They were randomly allocat...postprin

Association between Helicobacter pylori infection and interleukin 1β polymorphism predispose to CpG island methylation in gastric cancer [4]

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Stability of Mine Car Motion in Curves of Invariable and Variable Radii

We discuss our experiences adapting three recent algorithms for maximum common (connected) subgraph problems to exploit multi-core parallelism. These algorithms do not easily lend themselves to parallel search, as the search trees are extremely irregular, making balanced work distribution hard, and runtimes are very sensitive to value-ordering heuristic behaviour. Nonetheless, our results show that each algorithm can be parallelised successfully, with the threaded algorithms we create being clearly better than the sequential ones. We then look in more detail at the results, and discuss how speedups should be measured for this kind of algorithm. Because of the difficulty in quantifying an average speedup when so-called anomalous speedups (superlinear and sublinear) are common, we propose a new measure called aggregate speedup

Circulating microRNAs as Specific Biomarkers for Breast Cancer Detection

Background: We previously showed microRNAs (miRNAs) in plasma are potential biomarkers for colorectal cancer detection. Here, we aimed to develop specific blood-based miRNA assay for breast cancer detection. Methodology/Principal Findings: TaqMan-based miRNA profiling was performed in tumor, adjacent non-tumor, corresponding plasma from breast cancer patients, and plasma from matched healthy controls. All putative markers identified were verified in a training set of breast cancer patients. Selected markers were validated in a case-control cohort of 170 breast cancer patients, 100 controls, and 95 other types of cancers and then blindly validated in an independent set of 70 breast cancer patients and 50 healthy controls. Profiling results showed 8 miRNAs were concordantly up-regulated and 1 miRNA was concordantly down-regulated in both plasma and tumor tissue of breast cancer patients. Of the 8 up-regulated miRNAs, only 3 were significantly elevated (p<0.0001) before surgery and reduced after surgery in the training set. Results from the validation cohort showed that a combination of miR-145 and miR-451 was the best biomarker (p<0.0001) in discriminating breast cancer from healthy controls and all other types of cancers. In the blind validation, these plasma markers yielded Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve area of 0.931. The positive predictive value was 88% and the negative predictive value was 92%. Altered levels of these miRNAs in plasma have been detected not only in advanced stages but also early stages of tumors. The positive predictive value for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) cases was 96%. Conclusions: These results suggested that these circulating miRNAs could be a potential specific biomarker for breast cancer screening. © 2013 Ng et al.published_or_final_versio

A novel peptide with potent and broad-spectrum antiviral activities against multiple respiratory viruses

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The health and economic benefits of the global programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (2000-2014)

Background Lymphatic filariasis (LF), also known as elephantiasis, is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) targeted for elimination through a Global Programme to Eliminate LF (GPELF). Between 2000 and 2014, the GPELF has delivered 5.6 billion treatments to over 763 million people. Updating the estimated health and economic benefits of this significant achievement is important in justifying the resources and investment needed for eliminating LF. Method We combined previously established models to estimate the number of clinical manifestations and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted from three benefit cohorts (those protected from acquiring infection, those with subclinical morbidity prevented from progressing and those with clinical disease alleviated). The economic savings associated with this disease prevention was then analysed in the context of prevented medical expenses incurred by LF clinical patients, potential income loss through lost-labour, and prevented costs to the health system to care for affected individuals. The indirect cost estimates were calculated using the human capital approach. A combination of four wage sources was used to estimate the fair market value of time for an agricultural worker with LF infection (to ensure a conservative estimate, the lowest wage value was used). Results We projected that due to the first 15 years of the GPELF 36 million clinical cases and 175 (116–250) million DALYs will potentially be averted. It was estimated that due to this notable health impact, 100.5 billion US Dollars will potentially be saved over the lifetimes of the benefit cohorts. This total amount results from summing the medical expenses incurred by LF patients (3 billion US Dollars), potential income loss (94 billion US Dollars), and costs to the health system (3.5 billion US Dollars) that were projected to be prevented. The results were subjected to sensitivity analysis and were most sensitive to the assumed percentage of work hours lost for those suffering from chronic disease (changing the total economic benefit between 69.30–150.7 billion US Dollars). Conclusions Despite the limitations of any such analysis, this study identifies substantial health and economic benefits that have resulted from the first 15 years of the GPELF, and it highlights the value and importance of continued investment in the GPELF.</p