Clinical evaluation of platelet-rich plasma and bioactive glass in the treatment of intra-bony defects

BACKGROUND: There are limited numbers of studies focused on the using of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) combined with different types of bone substitutes in intra-bony defects. Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of bioactive glass graft material (BG) with and without PRP on the clinical healing of intra-bony defects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-nine intra-bony defects were randomly treated with either PRP/BG or BG alone. Clinical parameters were recorded at baseline and repeated 9 months after surgery and surgical reentries were also performed. RESULTS: The results showed that both treatment modalities were effective. Pocket depth reduction of 3.60 +/- 0.51 mm, clinical attachment gain of 3.3 +/- 1.77 mm and defect fill of 3.47 +/- 0.53 mm were noted in the PRP/BG group, with 3.29 +/- 1.68, 2.86 +/- 1.56 and 3.36 +/- 0.55 mm improvements, respectively, noted for the BG group. None of the differences between the two treatment modalities were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that both PRP/BG combination and BG alone are effective in the treatment of intra-bony defects. The results also showed that using PRP with BG has no additional benefit in the reduction of pocket depth, clinical attachment gain and defect fill.     

Review of flap design influence on the health of the periodontium after mandibular third molar surgery

The purpose of this study is to review the effect of flap design in terms of periodontal status of the preceding second molar after lower third molar surgery. Impacted lower third molar surgery may result in periodontal complications on the distal surface of the adjacent second molar. Flap design that is used during impacted third molar surgery is important to prevent those complications. Several different flap techniques, mainly envelope, triangular (vertical) flaps, and their modifications have been developed to minimize those complications. Each technique has some advantages as well as disadvantages. It is also reported that the selection of a flap design does not seem to have a lasting effect on the health of periodontal tissue. The effect of the type of flap used for lower third molar surgery on the periodontal status of the second molar, as well as the factors that may influence this outcome, has been uncertain. The decision to use on one or the other of the flaps should be based on surgeon's preference.     

Trunk muscle strength in relation to balance and functional disability in unihemispheric stroke patients

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate trunk muscle strength in unihemispheric stroke patients and to assess how it relates to body balance and functional disability in this patient group. DESIGN: This prospective case-comparison study investigated isometric and isokinetic reciprocal trunk flexion and extension strength at angular velocities in 38 unihemispheric stroke patients and 40 healthy volunteers. The Berg balance scale was used to assess balance and stability, and the FIM instrument was used to evaluate functional disability in the patient group. Patients were evaluated as soon as they were able to stand long enough for testing. RESULTS: Peak torque values for trunk flexion and extension were lower in the stroke patients than in the controls. The differences were significant for trunk flexion and for trunk extension. In both groups, peak torque values for trunk flexors were greater than peak torque values for trunk extensors. There was a significant positive correlation between trunk muscle strength and Berg balance scale score at discharge. Trunk muscle strength was not correlated with FIM total score or FIM motor score, but the locomotion-transfers FIM subscore at discharge was positively correlated with trunk muscle torque values, except for isometric extension. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate trunk flexion and extension muscle weakness in unihemispheric stroke patients, which can interfere with balance, stability, and functional disability.     

Rectum mucinous adenocarcinoma metastasis to bilateral breast in a male patient: A case report

A 47‐year‐old male presented to our clinic with complaints of mass in both breasts. In the patient's history, he had undergone low anterior resection for rectum mucinous adenocarcinoma 2 years ago. The masses in both breasts of the patient were excised. Mucinous adenocarcinoma metastases were reported in the pathologic evaluation of the masses. Metastasis should be considered in patients with bilateral breast mass and previously diagnosed cancer even if the patient is male.     

Symmetrical drug-related intertriginous and flexural exanthema (SDRIFE) induced by oral metronidazole

Baboon syndrome is a special form of systemic contact dermatitis to systemic or local administration of contact allergens. Baboon syndrome without known previous cutaneous sensitisation was also described as drug-related baboon syndrome or symmetrical drug-related intertriginous and flexural exanthema (SDRIFE). The major drugs causing SDRIFE was beta-lactam antibiotic such as amoxicillin and ampicillin. We report a case of 16-year-old woman who developed pruritic eruptions after oral metronidazole treatment for diarrhea. She was diagnosed SDRIFE according to her clinical and histopathological findings. To our knowledge, our patient is the first case who developed SDRIFE due to metronidazole in the literature.     

Aortic cusp ablation for premature ventricular contractions and ventricular tachycardia in children: a 5-year single-center experience

Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology - Aortic cusps might be the source of supraventricular or ventricular arrhythmias. For many years, aortic cusp ablation has been widely used to...     

A scale-development study: Exploration of intensive-care nurses’ attitudes towards futile treatments

The study was conducted to determine the validity and reliability of the tool used to assess nurses’ attitudes towards futility, and to explore intensive-care nurses’ attitudes towards futility. Principal components analysis revealed that 18item scale was made up of four subdimensions that assess Identifying(beliefs), Decision-Making, Ethical Principles and Law, and Dilemma and Responsibilities related to futile treatments. The internal consistency of the scale was in the acceptable range, with a total Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.72. Overall the results of study suggest that scale can be used as a valid and reliable assessment tool to assess nurses’ attitudes towards futility.     

Years of good life is a well-being indicator designed to serve research on sustainability

Sustainable development (SD) as popularized by the Brundtland Commission and politically enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals has been the explicit focus of sustainability science. While there is broad agreement that the trend of human well-being (W) over time should serve as a sustainability criterion, the literature so far has mostly addressed this in terms of its determinants rather than focusing on W itself. There is broad agreement that an indicator for W should have multiple constituents, clearly going beyond gross domestic product. Here, we propose a tailor-made indicator to serve precisely this purpose following a set of specified desiderata, including its applicability to flexibly defined subnational populations by gender, place of residence, ethnicity, and other relevant characteristics. The indicator, years of good life (YoGL), reflects the evident fact that in order to be able to enjoy any quality of life, one has to be alive and thus is primarily based on life expectancy. However, since mere survival is not considered good enough, life years are counted conditional on meeting minimum standards in two dimensions: the objective dimension of capable longevity (consisting of being out of absolute poverty and enjoying minimal levels of physical and cognitive health) and the subjective dimension of overall life satisfaction. We illustrate the calculation of this indicator for countries and subpopulations at different stages of development and with different degrees of data availability.

Sustainability science refers to the most comprehensive scholarly effort to understand the interactions between natural and social systems in order to assess whether certain developmental pathways can be considered sustainable. This should also include the possible negative effects of environmental changes, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, on future human well-being. In this paper, we propose a tailor-made indicator to assess long-term human well-being as the ultimate end of sustainable development. This indicator, called “years of good life” (YoGL), is designed in such a way that it can be both empirically measured—which is the focus of this paper—and modeled in its long-term future trends—which will be the focus of future work.When assessing changes over time in the well-being of certain human populations (or subpopulations, as defined, e.g., by gender, ethnicity, urban/rural place of residence, or other social groupings), one can focus on the determinants or the constituents of well-being. In sustainability science, thus far, empirical and theoretical research has placed more emphasis on studying the determinants, including environmental services (1), whereas specifying its constituents has received less systematic attention, often leaving us with nothing but the unspecific notion of “utility.” The focus on determinants has led to the concept of “inclusive wealth” (IW) which can be used to assess whether a society is on a sustainable development trajectory in terms of the productive base necessary to maintain a high standard of living in the future (2). However, empirically measuring the values and relative effects of the different capitals determining human well-being remains extremely challenging and “no current attempt to date can be said to be fully inclusive” (3).The idea behind YoGL, on the other hand, is to study sustainability by focusing explicitly on the constituents of well-being and its change over time. In doing so, YoGL avoids several of the pitfalls by which the IW approach is plagued (3, 4). For example, rather than making contestable quantitative assessments of the relative contributions of the different determinants of well-being, the demographic approach underlying YoGL provides numerical values of human well-being directly, expressed as the average number of years of good life a person can expect to live as part of a given subpopulation under the conditions of a specified point in time. Based on the assumed universal nature of its unit of measurement—YoGL lived today in one specific population has the same meaning as YoGL lived in the future or in another population—the indicator has a time-independent meaning. This also avoids the pitfalls of specifying a rate at which to discount future well-being, which have become apparent at least since the debates around the Stern report (5). YoGL allows us to directly compare human well-being across different subpopulations and generations. Moreover, while all estimates of the different determinants of future human well-being are highly sensitive to population growth, as a measure referring to per-person well-being the derivation of YoGL is not directly affected by assumptions about the future trajectory of population size. Finally, as stressed by Dasgupta (6), the nature of determinants can change over time and across places depending on different commodities and technological regimes, whereas the constituents of well-being—as used in YoGL—are arguably shared across space and time.In the following, we will first present the proposed design of the indicator. We will then provide a step-by-step user’s guide for empirically deriving YoGL based on the most appropriate available data source, before offering examples of how it can be calculated based on auxiliary information on populations for which the necessary data are not yet fully available. We will close with a discussion and brief outlook as to what is still needed to use this indicator for the assessment of sustainability.