Dental auscultation for nursing personnel as a model of oral health care education: development,baseline, and 6-month follow-up assessments

Oral health care has been shown to have low priority in nursing and has been only partly successful. To create more positive effects than those achieved through traditional oral health care education, this project tested an educational model for nursing staff personnel. In addition to traditional oral health care education, some of the nursing staff members passed an additional dental auscultation period and served as oral care aides. The aides were responsible for the oral health care of the residents at their nursing facilities (intervention group). The intervention nursing facilities were compared with facilities where nursing personnel only received a traditional oral health care education program. Assessments were made at baseline and at a 6-month follow-up. At follow-up it was shown that the nursing staff in the intervention group gave higher priority to the oral health care work than the nursing staff in the control group.     

A premaxilla with a supernumerary tooth indicating a developmental region with a variety of dental abnormalities: a report of nine cases

The aim of this study was to elucidate whether a premaxilla with a supernumerary tooth has additional dental abnormalities. The study does not include premaxillas with a mesiodens, only premaxillas with parasagittally located supernumerary teeth. Radiographs from eight children, followed from 1 year and 5 months to 11 years and 5 months in the municipal dental health service in Denmark, were analyzed. One patient was seen only once. Dental abnormalities recorded included: invaginations on permanent incisors, resorption of roots of incisors, curved roots of incisors, delayed eruption, and delayed formation of roots. The study shows that there are dental abnormalities within the premaxillary region where the supernumerary tooth is located. This indicates that, apart from the supernumerary tooth, a more widespread deviation from normal conditions including tooth malformation, arrested eruption, and root resorption occur within the premaxillary region. The most important outcome of this study is that in the region with a supernumerary tooth the adjacent incisor shows delayed eruption after surgical removal of the supernumerary tooth. The deviations in root morphology, including root resorption, are not limited to patients who have had orthodontic treatment, but patients who did not receive orthodontic treatment also revealed deviations in root morphology. Therefore the treatment outcome can be different from the expected outcome.     

Sleep apnoea, anxiety, depression and somatoform pain: a community-based high-risk sample

Community-based studies that measure both psychiatric diagnoses and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are lacking. This study reports current psychiatric disorders in community-dwelling adults at high risk for OSA identified by the Berlin Questionnaire. Furthermore, associations between OSA and current psychiatric disorders, unadjusted and adjusted for putative confounders, are reported. A subsample of the Akershus Sleep Apnoea Project consisting of 290 adults, aged 30-65 yrs, with positive Berlin Questionnaire screening underwent the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, version IV and polysomnography. Auxiliary analyses of depression are provided. The median apnoea/hypopnoea index score in the sample was 7.7 (interquartile range 2.4-22.2). Major depressive disorder, current anxiety and somatoform pain disorder were diagnosed in 12.4%, 14.8% and 19.3% of participants, respectively. At least one psychiatric disorder was diagnosed in 110 participants. The odds ratio of participants with OSA having a psychiatric disorder compared with participants without OSA was 0.54 (95% CI 0.33-0.88). A negative association did not exist among Berlin Questionnaire low-risk participants. In conclusion, more than one-third of participants in a community-based, Berlin Questionnaire high-risk sample were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. A negative association between OSA and psychiatric morbidity was found.     

Fibroblast growth factor 23 and parathyroid hormone after treatment with active vitamin D and sevelamer carbonate in patients with chronic kidney disease stage 3b, a randomized crossover trial

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) is a phosphaturic hormone that is secreted from bone and serum level increases as renal function declines. Higher levels of FGF23 are associated with increased mortality in hemodialysis-patients. The use of active vitamin D and phosphate binders as recommended in international guidelines, may affect the level of FGF23 and thereby clinical outcome. We investigated the effects of a phosphate binder and active vitamin D on the serum levels of intact FGF23 (iFGF23) and intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 3b (glomerular filtration rate (GFR) 30-44 ml/min/1.73m2). Subjects Seven women and 14 men were included, mean age 65.6 +/- 12.2 years. They were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive one of two treatment sequences. Group-1 (the alphacalcidol-sevelamer carbonate group): alphacalcidol 0.25 ug once daily for two weeks followed by sevelamer carbonate 800 mg TID with meals for two weeks after a two-week washout period. Group-2 (the sevelamer carbonate-alphacalcidol group): vice versa. Nineteen patients completed the study. The 25-hydroxyvitamin D level at baseline was 97.6 +/- 25.0 nmol/l. RESULTS: There were no treatment effects on the iFGF23 and iPTH levels overall. In group-1 the iFGF23 level was higher after treatment with alphacalcidol compared with sevelamer carbonate (mean 105.8 +/- 41.6 vs. 79.1 +/- 36.5 pg/ml, p=0.047 (CI: 0.4-52.9), and the iPTH level was lower (median: 26.5, range: 14.6-55.2 vs. median 36.1, range 13.4-106.9 pg/ml, p=0.011). In group-2 the iFGF23 level increased non-significantly after treatment with sevelamer carbonate and throughout the washout period. CONCLUSIONS: In this crossover trial with alphacalcidol and sevelamer carbonate in patients with CKD stage 3b, the levels of iFGF23 were not significantly different after the two treatments. However, in the group of patients initiating therapy with sevelamer carbonate the iFGF23 levels seemed to increase while this response was mitigated in the group of patients given alphacalcidol followed by sevelamer carbonate. This may have therapeutic implications on choice of first line therapy. The number of patients is small and this conclusion is in part based on subgroup analysis. It is therefore important that these results are confirmed in larger studies. Trial Registration Number: European Clinical trial database (EudraCT) 2010-020415-36 and ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01231438.     

The Copeland resurfacing humeral head implant does not restore humeral head anatomy. A retrospective study

Purpose

Recently, there has been concern that the Copeland resurfacing humeral head implant (RHHI) leaves the shoulder joint overstuffed. The purpose of this study was in a selected cohort of patients operated with a Copeland RHHI (1) to evaluate the Length of the Gleno-Humeral Offset (LGHO), (2) to assess the patient-reported quality of life and functional outcome measured by Western Ontario Osteoarthritis of the Shoulder Index (WOOS) and (3) to determine the number of revisions in the cohort.

Methods

Pre- and postoperative radiographs were retrieved from 71 of 91 possible patients operated with a Copeland RHHI from 2005 to 2009. The cohort consisted of 30 males and 41 females at a mean age of 61 (38–89) years. One radiologist measured the LGHO and performed double measurements. The WOOS score 1 year after surgery and the number of revisions from all patients operated with a Copeland RHHI in Denmark was requested from the Danish Shoulder Arthroplasty Registry.

Results

The mean LGHO was 4.99 ± 0.53 cm before surgery and 5.39 ± 0.58 cm after surgery, (p < 0.001). 95 % limits of agreement for measurements of LGHO were ± 0.11 cm. One year after surgery, the WOOS score was 67 for the cohort and 64 for all patients operated with a Copeland RHHI in Denmark. 13 of 71 RHHI in the cohort were revised.

Conclusion

The Copeland RHHI causes significantly increased LGHO and leads to overstuffing in the shoulder joint. The WOOS score in the cohort was comparable to that for all other Danish patients operated with a Copeland RHHI.     

Open versus arthroscopic subacromial decompressionA prospective,randomized study of 34 patients followed for 8 years

In a randomized prospective study, we selected 15 patients for arthroscopic subacromial decompression (ASD) and 19 patients for open subacromial decompression (OSD). All had impingement syndrome (Neer grade II), and had been unsuccessfully treated without surgery for more than 6 months. The UCLA Shoulder Rating Scale, Visual Analogue Scales for pain and satisfaction, isokinetic dynamometer recordings and physical testing were assessed preoperatively and at 1 (except isokinetic testing), 3, 6, and 12 months, and, finally, 8 years after surgery. We found essentially no differences in the clinical tests between the groups during this period. The use of ASD or OSD seems to be a matter of cosmesis and personal preference.     

Treatment of epilepsy in daily clinical practice: have outcomes improved over the past 10 years?

In the past decade, many new antiepileptic drugs have become available, but their influence on patient outcomes in daily practice is not well known. In a community-based study, we assessed changes in epilepsy treatment and outcomes over a 10-year period. We compared two cross-sectional community-based samples that were obtained from the same Dutch suburban region in 2000 and 2010 using pharmacy records for recruitment, including 344 and 248 epilepsy patients, respectively. The main outcome was self-reported quality of life (QoL, using the QOLIE-31). Potential predictors of QoL (adverse effects, seizure control, seizure acceptability, demographic, epilepsy- or treatment-related determinants) were assessed by multivariable linear regression. New antiepileptic drugs were used by 9 % of patients in 2000 and 34 % in 2010, P < 0.001. More than 80 % in both samples reported to be treated by a neurologist. We found no significant differences in QOLIE-31 scores (72.57 vs. 72.44), or in the proportion of patients with complete seizure control (51 vs. 54 %), between the two study samples. Seizure control and adverse effects were important independent predictors of quality of life, explaining 58 % of the variance. We found no evidence that in this community the QoL of epilepsy patients has improved in the last decade, despite unrestricted availability of healthcare resources, including accessibility to new AEDs. The relatively low proportion with complete seizure control and the high rate of adverse effects in these community-based samples suggest that the effectiveness of epilepsy treatment is still far from optimal.