Using Threads to Overcome Synchronization Delays in Parallel Multiple Progressive Alignment Algorithms

Sao Paulo State Research Foundation-FAPESP

Diabetes triggers the loss of tooth structure associated to radiographical and histological dental changes and its evolution to progressive pulp and periapical lesions in rats

The aim of this study was to evaluate the putative influence of diabetes without metabolic control in the loss of tooth structure as well as histological changes in dentin and pulp tissue in rats. Diabetes was induced in Wistar rats (n=25) by intravenous administration of alloxan (42mg/kg). Diabetic and non-diabetic control rats were evaluated at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of follow-up. In order to evaluate the presence and progression of dental caries and periapical lesions, hemimandibles were removed and submitted to radiographical, histological, and morphometrical procedures. Dental caries were detected after radiographical and histological evaluations in diabetic group from the third month of diabetes onset, increasing gradually in frequency and severity in periods. Diabetic rats dental pulps also presented significant reduction in volume density of collagen fibers and fibroblasts at third month, parallel with a trend towards the increase in inflammatory cells volume density. Diabetic rats presented a generalized pulp tissue necrosis after 6 months of diabetes induction. Moreover, periapical lesions were not detected in control group, while these lesions were observed in all rats after 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of diabetes induction. Uncontrolled diabetes seems to trigger the loss of tooth structure, associated to histological dental changes and mediates its evolution to progressive severe pulp and periapical lesions in rats. Therefore, diabetes may be considered a very important risk factor regarding alterations in dental pulp, development of dental caries, and periapical lesions.

Dental care for cerebral palsy patients using auxiliary resources to inhibit pathological tonic reflexes

Cerebral paralysis is a chronic illness that affects the central nervous system. In this article the author describes the techniques used at CAOE (Odontological Center for Assistance to patients with special needs) to restraint CP patients during dental treatment, because they present some pathological reflexes which interfere in their odontological assistance. Also it shows how to perform a special physical restraint and how to keep the mouth open by using simple tools including a homemade one. All the devices used during the dental treatment in cerebral palsy patients, such as the physical restraint with bands or sheet to wrap them up, cylindrical pad or cushion made of a soft material, or simple tools including a homemade one to keep the mouth open are usually and safely used in CAOE. All these simple devices are necessary, because there are no available funds for the acquisition of expensive material or equipment. Despite of a shortage of resources we can easily and efficiently assist these patients.

Parental reports of the oral health-related quality of life of children with cerebral palsy

Background: The severity of physical and mental impairments and oral problems, as well as socioeconomic factors, may have an impact on quality of life of children with cerebral palsy (CP). The aim of this research was to assess the impact of impairments and oral health conditions, adjusted by socioeconomic factors, on the Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) of children with CP using their parents as proxies. Methods: Sixty children, between 6-14 years of age were selected. Their parents answered a children's OHRQoL instrument (5 domains) which combines the Parental-Caregivers Perception Questionnaire (P-CPQ) and Family Impact Scale (FIS). The severity of dental caries, type of CP, communication ability, gross motor function, seizures and socioeconomic conditions were assessed. Results: Considering the total score of the OHRQoL instrument, only the reduction of communication ability and dental caries severity had a negative impact on the OHRQoL (p < 0.05). Considering each domain of the instrument, the severity of the type of CP and its reduction of communication ability showed a negative impact on oral symptoms and functional limitations domains (p < 0.05). Seizures have a negative impact on oral symptoms domain (p = 0.006). The multivariate fitted model showed that the severity of dental caries, communication ability and low family income were negatively associated with the impact on OHRQoL (p = 0.001). Conclusions: The severity of dental caries, communication ability, and family income are conditions strongly associated with a negative impact on OHRQoL of children with CP.

Characterization of the motor performance in infants with a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy in process of rehabilitation: the importance of the proactivity of caregivers

Introduction: The progress in technology, associated to the high survival rate in premature newborn infants in neonatal intensive care units, causes an increase in morbidity. Individuals with CP present complex motor alterations, with primary deficits of abnormal muscle tone affecting posture and voluntary movement, alteration of balance and coordination, decrease of force, and loss of selective motor control with secondary problems of contractures and bone deformities. Objective: The aim of this work is to describe the spontaneous movement and strategies that lead infants with cerebral palsy to move. Methods: Seven infants used to receive assistance at the Essential Stimulation Center of CIAM (Israeli Center for Multidisciplinary Support - Philanthropic Institution), with ages ranging between six and 18 months with diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy (CP) were assessed. Results: The results show the difficulty presented by the infants with respect to the spontaneous motor functions and the necessity of help from the caregiver in order to perform the functional activity (mobility). Prematurity prevails as the major risk factor among the complications. Conclusion: The child development can be understood as a product of the dynamic interactions involving the infant, the family, and the context. Thus, the social interactions and family environment in which the infant live may encourage or limit both the acquisition of skills and the functional independence.

Antifibrotic Effect of Tamoxifen in a Model of Progressive Renal Disease

Tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, has antifibrotic properties; however, whether it can attenuate renal fibrosis is unknown. In this study, we tested the effects of tamoxifen in a model of hypertensive nephrosclerosis (chronic inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis with L-NAME). After 30 days, treated rats had significantly lower levels of albuminuria as well as lower histologic scores for glomerulosclerosis and interstitial fibrosis than untreated controls. Tamoxifen was renoprotective despite having no effect on the sustained, severe hypertension induced by L-NAME. Tamoxifen prevented the accumulation of extracellular matrix by decreasing the expression of collagen I, collagen III, and fibronectin mRNA and protein. These renoprotective effects associated with inhibition of TGF-beta 1 and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, and with a significant reduction in a-smooth muscle actin-positive cells in the renal interstitium. Furthermore, tamoxifen abrogated IL-1 beta- and angiotensin-II-induced proliferation of fibroblasts from both kidney explants and from the NRK-49F cell line. Tamoxifen also inhibited the expression of extracellular matrix components and the production and release of TGF-beta 1 into the supernatant of these cells. In summary, tamoxifen exhibits antifibrotic effects in the L-NAME model of hypertensive nephrosclerosis, likely through the inhibition of TGF-beta 1, suggesting that it may have therapeutic use in CKD treatment.

Isokinetic analysis of the elbow joint in children with cerebral palsy

The joint torque is an important variable related to children with cerebral palsy. The present study analyzed kinetic parameters during elbow flexion and extension movements in healthy and cerebral palsy children. Ten healthy and 10 cerebral palsy children participated of the study. An isokinetic dynamometer was used to measure the elbow mean peak torque, mean angle peak torque, coefficient of variation and acceleration during flexion and extension movements at different angular speeds. The mean peak torque on extension movement in healthy children group was significant higher compared to the cerebral palsy group. The coefficient of variation on both flexion and extension movements was significantly higher in cerebral palsy group. However there were significantly difference on both groups compared the lowest and highest velocities. Although the results showed no difference in flexor peak torque, the acceleration is significantly lower in lowest and highest angular velocity.

Outcomes of correction of internal hip rotation in patients with spastic cerebral palsy using proximal femoral osteotomy

Internal hip rotation (IHR) is the major cause of intoeing gait in patients with cerebral palsy (CP). Femoral derotation osteotomy (FDO) is the preferred treatment to correct excessive anteversion, however the condition may persist or recur postoperatively. Retrospective clinical and kinematic evaluation of 75 spastic diplegic CP patients was conducted for a mean duration of 22 months following proximal FDO. The patients were divided into two groups depending on the correction or persistence of IHR evident at kinematics after surgery. If corrected, mean patient follow-up was extended to 53 months. Outcomes were analyzed using Two Proportions Equality, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests. IHR persisted in 33.3% of cases at mean follow-up of 22 months and subtrochanteric femur osteotomy was more frequent in this group (p = 0.033). Thirty-five of the fifty-four patients with first-round gait correction were monitored during the extended follow-up. Those for whom IHR recurred (9.5%) had undergone FDO at a comparatively younger age. Patient gender, operations prior to or at the time of femoral osteotomy, topographic classification, GMFCS level, or the extent of preoperative clinical and kinematic abnormalities had no apparent influence on persistence or recurrence of abnormal gait. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quantitative comparison of mobility and gross motor function in Brazilian children with cerebral palsy

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) presents changes in posture and movement as a core characteristic, which requires therapeutic monitoring during the habilitation or rehabilitation of children. Besides clinical treatment, it is fundamental that professionals use systems of evaluation to quantify the difficulties presented to the individual and assist in the organization of a therapeutic program. The aim of this study was to quantitatively verify the performance of children with spastic di-paresia type CP. Methods: The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) and Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFM) tests were used and classification made through the GMFCS in the assessment of 7 patients with CP, 4 females and 3 males, average age of 9 years old. Results: According to GMFCS scales, 17% (n=1) were level II and 83% (n=6) were level III. The PEDI test and 88 GMFM items were used in the area of mobility. We observed that there was high correlation between mobility and gross motor function with Pearson's correlation coefficient =0.929) showing the likely impact of these areas in the functional skills and the quality of life of these patients. Conclusion: We suggest the impact of the limitation of the areas in functional skills and quality of life of these patients.

Semantic Dementia Versus Nonfluent Progressive Aphasia Neuropsychological Characterization and Differentiation

Background: Early progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) may be difficult to differentiate from semantic dementia (SD) in a nonspecialist setting. There are descriptions of the clinical and neuropsychological profiles of patients with PNFA and SD but few systematic comparisons. Method: We compared the performance of groups with SD (n = 27) and PNFA (n = 16) with comparable ages, education, disease duration, and severity of dementia as measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale on a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Principal components analysis and intergroup comparisons were used. Results: A 5-factor solution accounted for 78.4% of the total variance with good separation of neuropsychological variables. As expected, both groups were anomic with preserved visuospatial function and mental speed. Patients with SD had lower scores on comprehension-based semantic tests and better performance on verbal working memory and phonological processing tasks. The opposite pattern was found in the PNFA group. Conclusions: Neuropsychological tests that examine verbal and nonverbal semantic associations, verbal working memory, and phonological processing are the most helpful for distinguishing between PNFA and SD.

Vascular smooth muscle cells exhibit a progressive loss of rigidity with serial culture passaging

One drawback of in vitro cell culturing is the dedifferentiation process that cells experience. Smooth muscle cells (SMC) also change molecularly and morphologically with long term culture. The main objective of this study was to evaluate if culture passages interfere in vascular SMC mechanical behavior. SMC were obtained from five different porcine arterial beds. Optical magnetic twisting cytometry (OMTC) was used to characterize mechanically vascular SMC from different cultures in distinct passages and confocal microscopy/western blotting, to evaluate cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix proteins. We found that vascular SMC rigidity or viscoelastic complex modulus (G) decreases with progression of passages. A statistically significant negative correlation between G and passage was found in four of our five cultures studied. Phalloidin-stained SMC from higher passages exhibited lower mean signal intensity per cell (confocal microscopy) and quantitative western blotting analysis showed a decrease in collagen I content throughout passages. We concluded that vascular SMC progressively lose their stiffness with serial culture passaging. Thus, limiting the number of passages is essential for any experiment measuring viscoelastic properties of SMC in culture.

Visual impairment in children with spastic cerebral palsy measured by psychophysical and electrophysiological grating acuity tests

Background: This study measured grating visual acuity in 173 children between 6-48 months of age who had different types of spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Behavioural acuity was measured with the Teller Acuity Cards (TAC) using a staircase psychophysical procedure. Electrophysiological visual acuity was estimated using the sweep VEP (sVEP). Results: The percentage of children outside the superior tolerance limits was 44 of 63 (69%) and 50 of 55 (91%) of tetraplegic, 36 of 56 (64%) and 42 of 53 (79%) of diplegic, 10 of 48 (21%) and 12 of 40 (30%) of hemiplegic for sVEP and TAC, respectively. For the sVEP, the greater visual acuity deficit found in the tetraplegic group was significantly different from that of the hemiplegic group (p < 0.001). In the TAC procedure the mean visual acuity deficits of the tetraplegic and diplegic groups were significantly different from that of hemiplegic group (p < 0.001). The differences between sVEP and TAC means of visual acuity difference were statistically significant for the tetraplegic (p < 0.001), diplegic (p < 0.001), and hemiplegic group (p = 0.004). Discussion: Better visual acuities were obtained in both procedures for hemiplegic children compared to diplegic or tetraplegic. Tetraplegic and diplegic children showed greater discrepancies between the TAC and sVEP results. Inter-ocular acuity difference was more frequent in sVEP measurements. Conclusions: Electrophysiologically measured visual acuity is better than behavioural visual acuity in children with CP.

Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) in human progressive-intensity running: effects on exercise performance, skeletal muscle status, and oxidative stress

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) on exercise performance, oxidative stress, and muscle status in humans. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover trial was performed with 22 untrained male volunteers. LLLT (810 nm, 200 mW, 30 J in each site, 30 s of irradiation in each site) using a multi-diode cluster (with five spots - 6 J from each spot) at 12 sites of each lower limb (six in quadriceps, four in hamstrings, and two in gastrocnemius) was performed 5 min before a standardized progressive-intensity running protocol on a motor-drive treadmill until exhaustion. We analyzed exercise performance (VO(2 max), time to exhaustion, aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold), levels of oxidative damage to lipids and proteins, the activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), and the markers of muscle damage creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Compared to placebo, active LLLT significantly increased exercise performance (VO(2 max) p = 0.01; time to exhaustion, p = 0.04) without changing the aerobic and anaerobic thresholds. LLLT also decreased post-exercise lipid (p = 0.0001) and protein (p = 0.0230) damages, as well as the activities of SOD (p = 0.0034), CK (p = 0.0001) and LDH (p = 0.0001) enzymes. LLLT application was not able to modulate CAT activity. The use of LLLT before progressive-intensity running exercise increases exercise performance, decreases exercise-induced oxidative stress and muscle damage, suggesting that the modulation of the redox system by LLLT could be related to the delay in skeletal muscle fatigue observed after the use of LLLT.

Expression Analysis of Wound Healing Genes in Human Periapical Granulomas of Progressive and Stable Nature

Introduction: Wound healing process involves the activation of extracellular matrix components, remodeling enzymes, cellular adhesion molecules, growth factors, cytokines and chemokines genes. However, the molecular patterns underlying the healing process periapical environment remain unclear. Here we hypothesized that endodontic infection might result in an imbalance in the expression of wound healing genes involved in the pathogenesis of periapical lesions. Furthermore, we suggest that differential expression of wound healing markers in active and latent granulomas could account for different clinical outcomes for such lesions. Methods: Study samples consisted of 93 periapical granulomas collected after endodontic surgeries and 24 healthy periodontal ligament tissues collected from premolars extracted for orthodontic purposes as control samples. Of these, 10 periapical granulomas and 5 healthy periapical tissues were used for expression analysis of 84 wound healing genes by using a pathway-specific real-time polymerase chain reaction array. The remaining 83 granulomas and all 24 control specimens were used to validate the obtained array data by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Observed variations in expression of wound healing genes were analyzed according to the classification of periapical granulomas as active/progressive versus inactive/stable (as determined by receptor activator for nuclear factor kappa B ligand/osteoprotegerin expression ratio). Results: We observed a marked increase of 5-fold or greater in SERPINE1, TIMP1, COL1A1, COL5A1, VTN, CTGF, FGF7, TGFB1, TNF, CXCL11, ITGA4, and ITGA5 genes in the periapical granulomas when compared with control samples. SERPINE1, TIMP1, COL1A1, TGFB1, and ITGA4 mRNA expression was significantly higher in inactive compared with active periapical granulomas (P < .001), whereas TNF and CXCL11 mRNA expression was higher in active lesions (P < .001). Conclusions: The identification of novel gene targets that curb the progression status of periapical lesions might contribute to a more accurate diagnosis and lead to treatment modalities more conducive to endodontic success. (J Endod 2012;38:185-190)