Risk stratification and dental management of the patient with cardiovascular diseases. Part II: Oral disease burden and principles of dental management.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States and most other Western countries. In the United States alone, more than 1 million annual deaths and as many as three times that number of serious consequences can be attributed to these conditions. To provide care to patients with cardiovascular disease, oral health care providers must understand the disease, its treatment, and its impact on the patient's ability to undergo and respond to dental care.     

Glomerular podocyte vacuolation in idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis.

Vacuoles in glomerular visceral epithelial cells were found in 149 of 254 patients with idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis (IMGN). In the whole population studied, 115 patients were nephrotic, 88 (76.5%) of which were found to have intraepithelial vacuoles. Fifty (35.9%) of 139 non-nephrotic patients had vacuolated podocytes (p less than 0.01). Vacuolation occurred most frequently in stages II and III of IMGN. A few intraepithelial vacuoles were observed in stage IV. Increase in vacuolation tended to correlate with subepithelial deposits which were larger in size. From these results, we concluded that the appearance of epithelial vacuolation coincides with an increased filtration of protein in IMGN and that it is an important histological marker when diagnosing the level of severity of glomerular lesions. It was not, however, prognostic.     

Differentiation between rat brain and mouse vas deferens delta opioid receptors

Certain enkephalin analogues, including those which contain the conformationally restricted amino acid E-(2R,3S)-cyclopropylphenylalanine [2R,3S)-delta E Phe), have been shown to have high affinity for brain delta opioid receptors but are much less active in mouse vas deferens bioassays. To investigate whether there are differences between delta opioid receptors in brain and mouse was deferens, the ability of a selective delta opioid compound, [D-Pen2,pCl-Phe4,D-Pen5]enkephalin (pCl-DPDPE), and [D-Ala2,(2R,3S)-delta E Phe4,Leu5]enkephalin methyl ester (CP-OMe), to inhibit [3H]pCl-DPDPE binding in both rat brain and mouse vas deferens were measured. pCl-DPDPE recognized brain and mouse vas deferens binding sites with equal affinity, however, CP-OMe showed 33 fold lower affinity in mouse vas deferens compared to brain. This suggests that mouse vas deferens delta opioid receptors may be distinct from brain delta opioid receptors.