Khat use and trait anger: effects on affect regulation during an acute stressful challenge

Khat (Catha edulis) is a widely used stimulating drug often consumed in daily routine in Yemen and East African countries. Chewing khat acutely elicits states of euphoria and feelings of well-being which later shift into emotional instability and low mood. Little is known about emotional regulation in habitual khat chewers. In this study, we compared self-reports on trait anger as well as positive and negative affect responses to a mental arithmetic challenge. Participants included 135 men and women from Yemen who chew khat regularly, occasionally or not at all. Participants attended a laboratory session that involved resting periods and performing a math challenge. Analyses of variance and regression show that regular khat chewing is associated with higher trait anger, more pronounced negative responses during stress and less pronounced positive emotional states. These results suggest that regular khat chewing is associated with disturbances in emotion regulation processes.     

Periodontal health and its relationship with salivary factors among different age groups in a Saudi population

PURPOSE: This study aimed to describe the periodontal condition of children, adolescents and young Saudi adults and to investigate its relationship with salivary variables and oral hygiene status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample of 114 children, 99 adolescents and 99 young adults were randomly selected from patients attending dental clinics at the school of dentistry. Clinical examination of oral health status included using WHO Community Periodontal Index and Green and Vermillion oral hygiene index. In addition, salivary flow rate, pH, buffering capacity and microbial flora were measured. RESULTS: A healthy periodontal condition was found in 6.7% of the sample. Calculus was the most frequently encountered periodontal disease. Children had better periodontal condition than adolescents and adults. Males had higher plaque and gingival scores than females. The salivary flow rate and pH were significantly higher in individuals with good periodontal condition. The salivary level of fluoride and buffering capacity was not related to the periodontal condition. Yeast was the only microorganism related to periodontal condition. The relationship between poor periodontal condition and high plaque score was highly significant. CONCLUSIONS: Periodontal disease increased with age and was strongly related to salivary flow rate, pH value and yeast level, as well as plaque accumulation. Preventive efforts must be increased in order to achieve the WHO goal for the year 2010 of no more than one sextant showing bleeding or calculus at the age of 15.     

FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography studies of Wilms’ tumor

Purpose  

The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate the utility of FDG PET/CT scanning in patients with Wilms’ tumors.     

The observer and cycle-to-cycle variability in the measurement of uterine natural killer cells by immunohistochemistry

The aim of the study was to investigate the various potential sources of variability of counting endometrial uNK cells by immunohistochemistry. Precisely timed endometrial biopsy samples were obtained from women suffering from recurrent miscarriage or recurrent implantation failure (RIF) after IVF on days LH+7-LH+9 of the cycle. uNK cells in wax embedded sections were immunostained for CD56+ and expressed as a percentage of total stromal cells. The number of uNK cells in the same sample were counted by two methods, by the same observer on two occasions (intra-observer variability), by three different observers (inter-observer variability) and finally on samples obtained from the same individual at the same time in two different cycles (cycle-to-cycle variability). There was excellent agreement (κ=0.935) in the numbers of uNK cells obtained using both the traditional cell counting (TCC) and image analysis (IA) methods. The intra-observer variability (TCC, κ=0.944; IA, κ=0.935) was relatively small, although the inter-observer variability (TCC, κ=0.832 and 0.497; IA, κ=0.438) was modest. There was significant variation in number of cells in samples obtained from the same women in two different cycles (κ=0.348). The measurement of uNK cells in the endometrium has a reasonable degree of precision, but the significant cycle-to-cycle variation in results is a source of concern and requires further investigation.