Overbite depth indicator and anteroposterior dysplasia indicator cephalometric norms for African Americans

Objectives:To examine normal Overbite Depth Indicator (ODI) and Anteroposterior Dysplasia Indicator (APDI) values in African Americans and to compare them with mean values from white patients. Secondary aims were to compare mean ODI and APDI values among different age, gender, and combined age-gender groups in African American patients.Materials and Methods:Lateral cephalometric radiographs of 160 African American patients (97 boys and 63 girls; age, 7 to 14 years) with normal occlusion and no history of orthodontic treatment were collected from the Bolton-Brush Growth Center. Cephalometric images were hand traced, and ODI and APDI values were assessed. Two-sample t tests were used to compare mean ODI and APDI values between African American and white patients; and between male and female African American patients. One-way analysis of variance, followed by the Tukey test, was used to compare mean ODI and APDI values among different African American age and combined age-gender groups.Results:Mean ODI and APDI values were significantly lower (P < .0001) in African American than white patients with normal occlusion and no history of orthodontic treatment. Mean ODI and APDI values increased with age in African American patients, and there were no significant gender differences.Conclusions:The mean ODI and APDI values in 7- to 14-year-old African Americans with normal occlusion and no history of orthodontic treatment were 70.9° and 78.1°, respectively, and were significantly lower than the mean values for white patients in the same age range.     

Red blood cell distribution width and serum CA-125 level as prognostic markers in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

ObjectiveAcute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) is a primary cause of hospitalization and death in COPD. Serum CA-125 and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) are related to AECOPD. We investigated correlations between serum markers and AECOPD.MethodsIn total, 132 patients with AECOPD were included from January 2017 to December 2019. Participants were followed for 1 year. Patients were assigned to the poor prognosis (n = 40) or good prognosis (n = 92) group. We collected serum samples and general clinical information and conducted routine blood tests. We used logistic regression, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and area under the ROC curve (AUC) analyses to assess differences between groups.ResultsWe found significant differences between groups (odds ratio, 95% confidence interval) for age (1.046, 1.005–1.09), RDW (2.012, 1.339–3.023), and cancer antigen 125 (CA-125; 1.022, 1.006–1.039); these remained risk factors for AECOPD prognosis in multivariate analyses. RDW and CA-125 in combination was significant in ROC curve analysis. The AUC of RDW, CA-125, and these combined were 0.691, 0.779, and 0.772, respectively. Patients with RDW >12.75% and CA-125 >15.65 U/mL were predicted to have poor prognosis.ConclusionsWe found that RDW and CA-125 are potential prognostic indicators for AECOPD.     

The Representational Dynamics of Sequential Perceptual Averaging

It is clear that humans can extract statistical information from streams of visual input, yet how our brain processes sequential images into the abstract representation of the mean feature value remains poorly explored. Using multivariate pattern analyses of electroencephalography recorded while human observers viewed 10 sequentially presented Gabors of different orientations to estimate their mean orientation at the end, we investigated sequential averaging mechanism by tracking the quality of individual and mean orientation as a function of sequential position. Critically, we varied the sequential variance of Gabor orientations to understand the neural basis of perceptual mean errors occurring during a sequential averaging task. We found that the mean-orientation representation emerged at specific delays from each sequential stimulus onset and became increasingly accurate as additional Gabors were viewed. Especially in frontocentral electrodes, the neural representation of mean orientation improved more rapidly and to a greater degree in less volatile environments, whereas individual orientation information was encoded precisely regardless of environmental volatility. The computational analysis of behavioral data also showed that perceptual mean errors arise from the cumulative construction of the mean orientation rather than the low-level encoding of individual stimulus orientation. Thus, our findings provide neural mechanisms to differentially accumulate increasingly abstract features from a concrete piece of information across the cortical hierarchy depending on environmental volatility.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The visual system extracts behaviorally relevant summary statistical representation by exploiting statistical regularity of the visual stream over time. However, how the neural representation of the abstract mean feature value develops in a temporally changing environment remains poorly identified. Here, we directly recover the mean orientation information of sequentially delivered Gabor stimuli with different orientations as a function of their positions in time. The mean orientation representation, which is regularly updated, becomes increasingly accurate with increasing sequential position especially in the frontocentral region. Further, perceptual mean errors arise from the cumulative process rather than the low-level stimulus encoding. Overall, our study reveals a role of higher cortical areas in integrating stimulus-specific information into increasingly abstract task-oriented information.     

开展《人体与运动系统病理学》课程线上教学的实践与思考

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情期间病理学系教师们结合假肢矫形专业学生的专业特点开展 《 人体与运动系统病理学》 的线上教学.通过精心准备前期的课程教学资源、教学课件和教学路径,采用合理的教学手段和方法,以求获得学生们好的教学反馈.在特殊时期下坚持教学工作有序开展并可以最大程度保证教学效果,增强学生自主学习的能力,教学模式也从"以...     

Cancellation of elective oral and maxillofacial operations

Our aim was to assess whether the Commission for Health Improvement Performance Indicator value of 0.5% of cancellations on the day of operation or less had been achieved. We reviewed 912 consecutive elective operations, both day case and inpatient over an 8-month period (January–August 2003). A total of 117 procedures (13%) were cancelled for non-clinical or logistical reasons, of which 39 (4%) were cancelled on the day of the operation. Only 3 of the 39 patients who wanted a new admission date within 28 days of cancellation could not be accommodated. The performance indicator value of 0.3% was below the target threshold. An additional 60 (7%) patients had their admissions cancelled the day before operation and 18 (2%) had their operations deferred for a day before they were cancelled. However, these patients have been specifically excluded from the performance indictor.     

Development and Face Validity of Explicit indicators of Appropriateness of Long Term Prescribing

Objectives: To develop a set of explicit and operationalisable indicators of appropriate prescribing and assess their face validity using clinical pharmacists practising in secondary and primary care. Method: Appropriateness indicators were derived from the literature, applied to data in the hospital clinical records of all newly prescribed long-term drugs for 50 randomly selected patients, further refined and then applied to another 25 randomly selected patients. A pre-piloted postal questionnaire was sent to 200 hospitals and primary care pharmacists, asking them to assess the indicators as to their importance for the assessment of appropriateness of long-term prescribing initiated in hospitals. Results: Fourteen indicators were developed and piloted. Of the 16 original indicators, 5 were discarded, as they were unable to be operationalised, and 2 were subdivided to reflect the routinely available data. Eighty-six pharmacists with individual patient-focussed clinical duties took part in the assessment of the face validity (response rate 43%). Eleven indicators achieved a median importance rating of 1 (very important), and three indicators a median importance rating of 2 on a 5-point scale. The three most important indicators overall were ‘indication included in discharge summary’, ‘questionable high-risk therapeutic combination’ and ‘hazardous drug-drug combination’. Conclusion: It was possible to develop and operationalise 14 indicators of the appropriateness of long-term prescribing commenced in hospital practice, all of which were considered to have face validity by an expert panel of clinical pharmacists. The development of these explicit indicators highlighted the incompleteness of the patient’s record. Further work is needed to assess their validity and reliability, before their use in research or audit can be recommended.     

Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices in Patients With Left Ventricular Assist Systems

Recent progress and evolution in device engineering, surgical implantation practices, and periprocedural management have advanced the promise of durable support with left ventricular assist systems (LVAS) in patients with stage D heart failure. With greater uptake of LVAS globally, a growing population of LVAS recipients have pre-existing cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs). Strategies for optimal clinical management of CIEDs in patients with durable LVAS are evolving, and clinicians will increasingly face complex decisions regarding implantation, programming, deactivation, and removal of CIEDs. Traditional decision-making pathways for CIEDs may not apply to LVAS-supported patients, as few patients die of arrhythmic causes and many arrhythmias may be well tolerated. Given limited data, treatment decisions must be individualized and made collaboratively among electrophysiologists, advanced heart failure specialists, and patients and their caregivers. Large, prospective, well-conducted studies are needed to better understand the contemporary utility of CIEDs in patients with newer-generation LVAS.