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Research on the existence of various elements in the universe has been extensive, but their role in the human body is not fully understood. About 98% of the human body mass consists of nine non-metallic elements, categorized into abundant and non-abundant/trace elements. Micronutrients, including trace elements, vitamins, and antioxidants, play a vital role in regenerative processes, coping with oxidative stress, and providing immunity against pathogens. Dental health is also dependent on these nutrients, which help in the production and development of oral mucosa, teeth, and surrounding tissues. The recommended intake of these nutrients remains variable due to factors such as geography, altitude, age, weight, physiological needs, pathological backlogs, and other recognizable/unrecognizable factors. Essential trace elements are broadly categorized into macro-elements, micro-elements or trace elements, probably essential elements, and potentially toxic elements. The current review focuses on the role of essential trace elements in maintaining oral health and their implications in various oral diseases and disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis that a relationship exists between body mass index (BMI), functional class, and 6 min walk distance (6MWD) in Group 1‐pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was examined. Analysis of data from the UK National Cohort Study for heritable pulmonary arterial/idiopathic PAH suggests increased BMI is a predictor of worse functional class and shorter 6MWD; increased body‐weight in mice and man may be associated with increased estrogen metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Tobacco consumption is one of the most serious public health threats globally and is emerging as pandemic. Data from World Health Organisation proves that about 5 million people die prematurely per year around the globe due to tobacco use with India being a leading nation among tobacco users. Aim: To evaluate the most prevalent tobacco habit and the oral Potentially Malignant Disorders (PMDs) among the tobacco users and assessment of prevalence rate of awareness and change in various habits in relation to similar studies conducted in past in Eastern zone. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of six months, wherein all the patients visiting the OPD were assessed and questioned for Tobacco related habits. A detailed history about the duration and frequency of the habit and the type of tobacco and the predominant reason for its consumption among males and females were recorded and evaluated for the evidence of PMDs. Patients below the age of 13 years and with systemic/metabolic disorder with oral manifestations were excluded from the study. Results: The results of the study revealed that the tobacco consumption was more prevalent in males than in females. Most prevalent tobacco habit was chewing tobacco with slaked lime followed by smoking then mixed tobacco. Most common age group affected was 20-50 years and tobacco pouch keratosis were most prevalent lesion followed by leukoplakia. Conclusion: This study imparted us the particulars of association of Oral PMDs in different kinds of tobacco users thus reducing the chances of morbidity and mortality associated with them due to their asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic nature which remains unnoticed till advanced stages due to relative lack of awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco usage even in current times of social media, thus guiding physicians to provide better patient care at an early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Out of all the morphological landmarks on the human body, the mental foramen is thought to be one of the most reliable for determining age and gender. It has therefore been utilised in the current investigation to assess age and gender because of its durability. Aim: To determine sexual dimorphism and to estimate the age in a subset of population in Kolkata, West Bengal by analysing the mental foramen using Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted using CBCT of 70 subjects, of which 50 were included in the study as per the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The patient's OPD registration number, gender, date of birth was kept confidential, and a unique study case number was allotted. The required measurements in the CBCT scans, were done on these following parameters in both right and left side: 1. superior border of crest of mandible to superior border of mental foramen (SBMSBMF), 2. superior border of crest of mandible to inferior border of mandible (SBM-IBMF), 3. superior border of mental foramen to inferior border of mandible (SBMF-IBM), 4. inferior border of mental foramen to inferior border of mandible (IBMF-IBM), 5. superior border of mental foramen to inferior border of mental foramen. The information gathered was entered into a Microsoft Office Excel sheet, from which it was extracted to produce the desired outcomes using Stata version 13.1 and SPSS version 20 for Windows software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: The study's findings indicate that there is bilateral dimorphism in the (UM-IM) and (LM-IM) distances for both genders, making it a useful tool for distinguishing gender. Regarding age estimation, the research demonstrates substantial values for each of the four criteria. There were also bilateral differences noted. There is a substantial correlation between the estimated and original ages, according to the age regression model. Conclusion: The mental foramen, a stable landmark in the mandible, is a useful tool for determining gender and age. As a result, using particular Mental Foramen measurements, one can determine the age of an individual. Additionally, pre-prosthetic surgery, implant placement, and orthognathic treatments use its location and distance from the alveolar crest as a guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Potentially malignant oral mucosal diseases such as oral leukoplakia, oral Erythroplakia and oral submucous fibrosis have a high malignant transformation rate with tobacco, alcohol, chewing of betel quid containing areca nut being etiological agents. Early identification, diagnosis and treatment hinder 'progression of the disease to severe dysplasia and even carcinoma in-situ and/or squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore, early intervention is highly advocated to attain favourable prognosis as well as treatment outcome. Aim: To assess, compare and correlate the levels of serum folate and iron in patients with/without any visible Oral leukoplakia. Materials and Methods: A total of 136 patients (34 Oral leukoplakia patients with habit(s) 34 patients without leukoplakia with habit(s) in Bengaluru and 34 Oral leukoplakia patients with habit(s) and 34 patients without leukoplakia with habit(s) in Kolkata. Serum folate was measured by chemi-luminescent immunoassay and serum iron concentration was measured by photometric method. Results: There was a definite male predilection with majority of the subjects found in the age group of 20-30 years. The mean folate levels in BOL (34 Individuals with oral leukoplakia and habits in Bangalore), BWOL (34 Individuals without leukoplakia but with habits in Bangalore), KOL (34 Individuals with oral leukoplakia and habits in Kolkata), KWOL (34 Individuals without leukoplakia but with habits in Kolkata) was found to be 5.20, 5.3, 6.4 and 5.6 respectively, whereas the mean iron levels were 91.20, 105.73, 102.12 and 114.53 respectively, which was statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The mean serum folate and iron levels were found to be high in the Kolkata population in comparison to that of the Bengaluru population. A clear decline in the serum iron and folate levels in patients with clinically diagnosed leukoplakia amongst smokers as well as in tobacco chewers was recorded; however, the folate levels were found to increase amongst smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Introduction: Smoking is one of the common recreational drug uses. Tobacco smoking habit has spread across the world, and is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity. Smokers are more likely to develop many deadly diseases such as cancer and other types of respiratory diseases. Tobacco smokingrelated diseases have been shown to kill around half of long-term smokers compared with the overall mortality levels faced by nonsmokers. Aim: To investigate and assess the knowledge, attitude and awareness of the effects of smoking on oral health among non dental and non Medical University students in Kolkata Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by circulating the self-designed questionnaire among 150 college students. The questionnaire was designed to assess the data's on demographics, smoking prevalence, smoking related knowledge and attitudes and health effects due to smoking habits. The survey was conducted through an online setting through google form. Results: The responses from the study were analysed and represented in pie charts. The findings were 85% of individuals are aware of the complications of smoking. Around10% of individuals felt that the habit of smoking is greatly influenced by friends and stress. 87% of individuals felt that smoking in public places is an offence. 81% of individuals strongly impose smoking Cessation Campaigns at their Institutions Conclusion: The study concludes that students are well aware about smoking habits and its ill effects which cause major complications in their health. In addition, collaborative and more comprehensive anti-tobacco efforts are important to curb the tobacco epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a lethal vasculopathy characterized by pathogenic remodeling of pulmonary arterioles leading to increased pulmonary pressures, right ventricular hypertrophy, and heart failure. PAH can be associated with other diseases (APAH: connective tissue diseases, congenital heart disease, and others) but often the etiology is idiopathic (IPAH). Mutations in bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2) are the cause of most heritable cases but the vast majority of other cases are genetically undefined. Methods: To identify new risk genes, we utilized an international consortium of 4241 PAH cases with exome or genome sequencing data from the National Biological Sample and Data Repository for PAH, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the UK NIHR BioResource – Rare Diseases Study. The strength of this combined cohort is a doubling of the number of IPAH cases compared to either national cohort alone. We identified protein-coding variants and performed rare variant association analyses in unrelated participants of European ancestry, including 1647 IPAH cases and 18,819 controls. We also analyzed de novo variants in 124 pediatric trios enriched for IPAH and APAH-CHD. Results: Seven genes with rare deleterious variants were associated with IPAH with false discovery rate smaller than 0.1: three known genes (BMPR2, GDF2, and TBX4), two recently identified candidate genes (SOX17, KDR), and two new candidate genes (fibulin 2, FBLN2; platelet-derived growth factor D, PDGFD). The new genes were identified based solely on rare deleterious missense variants, a variant type that could not be adequately assessed in either cohort alone. The candidate genes exhibit expression patterns in lung and heart similar to that of known PAH risk genes, and most variants occur in conserved protein domains. For pediatric PAH, predicted deleterious de novo variants exhibited a significant burden compared to the background mutation rate (2.45×, p = 2.5e−5). At least eight novel pediatric candidate genes carrying de novo variants have plausible roles in lung/heart development. Conclusions: Rare variant analysis of a large international consortium identified two new candidate genes—FBLN2 and PDGFD. The new genes have known functions in vasculogenesis and remodeling. Trio analysis predicted that ~ 15% of pediatric IPAH may be explained by de novo variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adenamatoid odontogenic tumor (AOT) is an odontogenic tumor with a prevalence of 2.2–7.1%. AOT is a benign, noninvasive, and progressive lesion which is also known as "a two third tumor." As the name suggests the tumor occurs in the maxilla in two third of cases. It occurs in young patients in two third of cases and associated with missing or unerupted teeth in two third of cases. Two third cases are associated with the maxillary canine. Characterized by slow growing, gradually enlarging, painless swelling associated with missing teeth. We report a case of a male patient of age 22 years, with characteristic findings. AOT resembles different odontogenic cysts and tumors which may include dentigerous cyst, globulomaxillary cyst, ameloblastoma, and other entities, hence must be well differentiated. Conservative surgical enucleation is the treatment of choice. Recurrence rate for AOT is 0.2%. Prognosis is excellent when completely removed in toto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral cancer is one of the most common deadliest cancers leading to disfigurement. Despite recent advancement in the treatment modalities, it has less improvement in the prognosis. Early detection plays vital role survival rate of the patients. There is no accurate, cost-effective and reliable method for screening of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Hence, many patients are diagnosed at advanced stages. Early detection would, therefore, help to identify patients and modify treatment with close monitoring. There is a need for mass screening with a rapid and reliable oral cancer diagnostic test that can be widely used in a clinical setting. Recent diagnostic techniques for OSCC require modern laboratory facilities, sophisticated equipment with elaborative and lengthy processing techniques by skilled personnel. Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) or micro-total-analysis systems, one of the microfluidics technology that is defined as adaptation, miniaturization, integration, and automation of analytical laboratory procedures into a single device or "chip." This technology assures the replacement of complicated techniques with miniaturized, integrated, programmed and economical diagnostic devices. The detection of oral dysplastic and cancer cells utilizing chip is based on membrane-associated cell proteins. There is unique gene transcription profiles singularly expressed on the cell membranes for its detection. Hence, this system provides a means for rapid, automated, molecular analysis of cancer cells. This review articles emphasis on LOC technology for identification of biomarkers of oral cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Na Zhu, Emilia M. Swietlik, Carrie L. Welch, Michael W. Pauciulo contributed equally to this work. Reference 1 Zhu N. Rare variant analysis of 4241 pulmonary arterial hypertension cases from an international consortium implicates FBLN2, PDGFD, and rare de novo variants in PAH. [Extracted from the article]

Background - Approximately 25% of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) have been found to harbor rare mutations in disease-causing genes. To identify missing heritability in PAH we integrated deep phenotyping with whole-genome sequencing data using Bayesian statistics. Methods - We analyzed 13,037 participants enrolled in the NIHR BioResource - Rare Diseases (NBR) study, of which 1,148 were recruited to the PAH domain. To test for genetic associations between genes and selected phenotypes of pulmonary hypertension (PH), we used the Bayesian rare-variant association method BeviMed. Results - Heterozygous, high impact, likely loss-of-function variants in the Kinase Insert Domain Receptor ( KDR ) gene were strongly associated with significantly reduced transfer coefficient for carbon monoxide (KCO, posterior probability (PP)=0.989) and older age at diagnosis (PP=0.912). We also provide evidence for familial segregation of a rare nonsense KDR variant with these phenotypes. On computed tomographic imaging of the lungs, a range of parenchymal abnormalities were observed in the five patients harboring these predicted deleterious variants in KDR . Four additional PAH cases with rare likely loss-of-function variants in KDR were independently identified in the US PAH Biobank cohort with similar phenotypic characteristics. Conclusions - The Bayesian inference approach allowed us to independently validate KDR , which encodes for the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2 (VEGFR2), as a novel PAH candidate gene. Furthermore, this approach specifically associated high impact likely loss-of-function variants in the genetically constrained gene with distinct phenotypes. These findings provide evidence for KDR being a clinically actionable PAH gene and further support the central role of the vascular endothelium in the pathobiology of PAH.