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BACKGROUND Masticatory function declines with age or disease, implicating a poor chewing efficiency and an often-unconscious change for a less healthy, yet easy to chew diet. Timely screening of masticatory function may foster an early-onset diagnosis and potential treatment. The aim of this study was to compare alternative diagnostic tools for masticatory function to a Jelly-scan test. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients aged 70 years and older who were hospitalized for rehabilitation were recruited for this study. A total of four different tests for masticatory function were administered. The Japanese Society of Gerodontology glucose extraction test (Jelly-scan) was used as reference to compare a colour-changing gum test (Gum1-colour) as well as a mixing ability test with a visual (Gum2-visual) and opto-electronical (Gum2-digital) analyses. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to establish the discriminative value, kappa-values were used to estimate individual agreements and correlations were verified using Spearman's tests. RESULTS Sixty-one patients (Men n=23, Women n=38) aged 82.4±6.8 years participated in the experiments. The average number of natural teeth was 16.5 ± 10.5, 34.4% of the participants wore removable dentures. For all tests, the sum of sensitivity and specificity was >150%. All test correlated with Jelly-scan (absolute Rho >0.5). With Jelly-scan 51 participants (83.6%) were diagnosed with "masticatory hypofunction". After reducing the cut-off value of the test from 100 mg/dl to 65 mg/dl, only 33 participants (54%) fulfilled the diagnosis. This post-hoc analysis increased the sensitivity of the Gum2-tests and the agreement to kappa >0.5 for all three tests. CONCLUSION All three tests can be considered useful screening alternatives. In its original version, Jelly-scan may tend to over-diagnose masticatory hypofunction, hence a novel cut-off with better agreement between tests is suggested.

Aim Portal hypertension induces pancreatic congestion and impaired insulin secretion in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC). However, its mechanism is unclear, with no established noninvasive imaging method for the evaluation of its pathogeneses. The present study focused on pancreas stiffness, as assessed by shear wave elastography (SWE), and examined its association with portal hypertension and insulin secretion. Methods SWE and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CE-US) were utilized to evaluate pancreas stiffness and congestion, respectively. A glucagon challenge test was employed for insulin secretion assessment. Furthermore, rat models of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 )-induced LC and portal hypertension were used to identify the direct effects of pancreatic congestion. Immunohistochemistry staining of the pancreas was performed on human autopsy samples. Results Pancreas stiffness measured by SWE was higher in patients with LC than that in controls and showed significant correlation with pancreatic congestion. The glucagon challenge test indicated a lower value for the change in C-peptide immunoreactivity in the LC group, which was inversely correlated with pancreas stiffness and congestion. Additionally, portal hypertension and insulin secretion dysfunction were confirmed in CCl4 rat models. Autopsy of human samples revealed congestive and fibrotic changes in the pancreas and the relationship between insulin secretion and their factors in patients with LC. Conclusions In patients with LC, pancreas stiffness measured by SWE could be a potential non-invasive test for evaluating pancreatic congestion and fibrosis due to portal hypertension. Moreover, it was associated with impaired insulin secretion, and aid in guiding the treatment for hepatogenous diabetes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION Reduced tongue pressure may render eating and swallowing difficult. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the tongue training device can also be used as a diagnostic device and whether its sensitivity and specificity are equal to the numerical tongue pressure measuring device. MATERIAL AND METHODS The target group is patients aged 70��years and over who are hospitalised for rehabilitation. Tongue pressure was measured by both, a tongue pressure measuring instrument and a tongue training tool. The diagnosis of the reduced tongue pressure was made with the tongue pressure measuring instrument and set the verified with the novel tongue training tool. RESULTS Sixty-two participants were included in the study. Forty-five were classified by the tongue pressure measuring device and 53 by the tongue training device as 'low tongue pressure'. Spearman correlation confirmed a positive correlation between the tongue pressure measuring device and the tongue training device rs ��=��0.800, p��=��0.01��level (2-tailed). The tongue training device test identified sensitivity was 100%, and its specificity was 52.9%. The AUC of the ROC curve is 0.901. CONCLUSION The tongue training device seems a simple, safe and readily available alternative to the tongue pressure measuring device for the diagnosis of low tongue pressure, with an excellent sensitivity and very good specificity.

Aripiprazole, a dopamine D2 receptor partial agonist, has been used to treat schizophrenia and might be effective for alcohol dependence and craving. We treated a 53-year-old woman with refractory medication overuse headache, which was successfully treated with aripiprazole. Our experience suggests that aripiprazole may be effective for patients with medication overuse headache.