Management of talon cusp affecting the primary central incisor: a case report

Talon cusps are relatively rare dental anomalies that manifest as accessory cusplike structures and project from the cingulum area of the anterior teeth. The condition can occur in both the primary and permanent dentitions. However, the occurrences of anomalous cusps are rather infrequent in the primary dentition. Little has been written about the treatment of talon cusps in the primary dentition compared with their counterparts in the permanent dentition. The purpose of this article was to document the management of a patient with a maxillary primary incisor affected by a talon cusp and the long-term follow up.     

Endoscopic removal of a dental prosthesis in the hepatic flexure of the colon

The diagnosis of impacted foreign body in the colon is usually delayed until the complications such as perforation or abscess formation occur. Here we describe a patient who presented with diffuse abdominal pain due to the impaction of a dental prosthesis in the hepatic flexure of the colon. The dental prosthesis, which was inadvertently swallowed, was successfully removed under colonoscopy. Unexplained abdominal pain should alert the clinician to the possibility of foreign body ingestion and further therapeutic colonoscopy may replace or lessen the need for surgical procedures to extract foreign bodies from the colon.     

Simultaneous determination of urinary cadmium,cobalt, lead,and nickel concentrations in steel production workers by differential pulse stripping voltammetry

Screening for metals in urine is important because toxic levels of these elements are linked to disease. In the current study, the authors used differential pulse stripping voltammetry on a hanging mercury drop electrode for the simultaneous determination of cadmium, cobalt, lead, and nickel in the urine of 63 production and 63 quality control workers in a steel production plant, along with 63 matched normal controls. Urinary sampling is a noninvasive procedure, and in this study participants had good compliance. Metal levels for both the production and quality control workers were significantly higher than for controls. The results reveal the need for immediate improvements in workplace ventilation and industrial hygiene practices for this cohort.     

Lack of evidence for the association of tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene promoter polymorphism with calcium oxalate stone and bladder cancer patients

Urinary stone disease and bladder cancer are two of the most commonly seen urologic diseases in Taiwan. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is one of the cytokines secreted by macrophages and is related to a sequence of events in response to inflammation and cancer formation. We investigated the polymorphism of the TNF-alpha gene promoter -308 as a genetic marker in searching for the association between these two commonly seen urologic diseases. One hundred and fourteen patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder and 103 patients with calcium oxalate stone were compared with 150 healthy controls. The polymorphism was detected by polymerase chain reaction-based restriction analysis (Nco I endonuclease). The results revealed no significant differences between normal individuals and the patients with the two commonly seen urologic diseases (P > 0.05). We concluded that the polymorphism of the TNF-alpha promoter -308 is not a valid genetic marker for these two urologic diseases.