The effect of dental education and dental treatment on the dental status of a handicapped population: a longitudinal study

Thirty-nine patients, aged 3 to 22, who have handicapping conditions were examined twice in a range of 1 1/2 years to determine oral hygiene level, periodontal treatment needs, and level of caries. During this period, each patient was given periodontal treatment, including scaling, caries treatment, and oral health education, which also was given to hospital staff members. Findings showed a slight increase in the DMF rate, a minor improvement in oral hygiene, and a significant reduction in periodontal treatment needs. The results showed that without cooperation of the staff members, a dental education program would not succeed in this setting.     

Short-term decrease of skin-test sensitivity after rush desensitization in Hymenoptera venom hypersensitivity

Thirty-seven patients with a history of systemic anaphylactic stings were desensitized by the rush method. Patients were evaluated by skin testing twice, before and 6 weeks after desensitization. An additional control group of 10 patients, not yet desensitized, were tested for skin test technique reproducibility at 6-week intervals. Results were compared with IgE and IgG antibody levels, and with platelet reactivity towards specific Hymenoptera venom. Before desensitization, the maximum skin-test sensitivity was observed at 10(-5) micrograms venom/ml in 56% of patients and decreased to 10(-1) micrograms venom/ml after desensitization (48.6% of patients). Decrease of cutaneous tests was observed in 28/37 patients (75%) (P less than 0.001) and was not associated with significant variations of specific IgE or IgG antibody levels, but was correlated with the decrease of platelet reactivity (P less than 0.05). Conversely, variations of skin-test sensitivity in the control group was not significant.     

Two-to-One AV Block Associated with the Congenital Long QT Syndrome

2:1 AV Block in LQTS. Introduction Conduction abnormalities associated with long QT syndrome (LQTS) have been reported as "pseudo 2:1 AV block" due to sinus intervals shorter than ventricular refractoriness.
Method and Results: We report the electrophysiologic characteristics of a patient suffering from congenital LQTS with episodes of true 2:1 AV block. Induction of 2:1 infra-Hisian blocks and return to 1:1 conduction were observed using single atrial and ventricular extrastimuli. The block was located in the Purkinje network but not in the myocardium.
Conclusion: The His-Purkinje system of our LQTS patient displayed dynamic properties with a strong increase in refractoriness for short-long sequences and a decrease for long-short sequences that triggered intermittent 2:1 AV blocks.