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Background: This research paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of gender identification utilizing palatal rugae. Materials and Methods: The size of the sample that was selected included 100 people. They were made up of 50 men and 50 women, all in between the ages of 18 and 25. To examine their palatal rugae patterns, casts were made after taking maxillary impressions. Based on the size and rugae amount found on the left as well as the right sides, the palatal rugae patterns were investigated. Rugae patterns have been recognized based on the categorization provided by Thomas and Kotze (1983). Statistical Analysis: Chi-square analysis has been used. Results: There were comparative variations in the shape of rugae patterns among male and female individuals. The study revealed that the circular pattern was higher in males (P < 0.01) as compared to females and the unification pattern was comparatively greater in females (P < 0.05) as compared to males. The most predominant pattern that was seen in both genders was the wavy pattern that was seen to be present in 57.17% of males and 53.42% of females. The rugae number on the right and left sides did not exhibit any significant variations. Conclusions: This research thus exhibits a relevant difference in patterns of rugae and also confirms the uniqueness of patterns in each individual. Hence, it could be utilized as an adjunct to other tools for identification in the forensic sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This research study aimed to evaluate and compare the capability of four various bite registration materials to reproduce precise interocclusal relationships in the vertical dimension. Materials and Methods: Ideal maxillary and mandibular casts were mounted on the semi-adjustable articulator in maximum intercuspation after mock tooth preparation on 46, 47, and 48. Models were scanned by the Medit T500 Dental Lab Scanner, and initial reading was noted at the predetermined points. Ten interocclusal bite registrations were made using four materials (CADbite, Jet Bite, Ramitec, and Aluwax). The mandibular model was demounted and again remounted using the interocclusal records, and the final reading was noted after scanning. Results: Ramitec showed superior results when compared to polyvinyl bite registration material and Aluwax, but the differences between Ramitec, CADbite, and Jet Bite were nonsignificant. Conclusions: Although all four materials are suitable for clinical use, elastomeric materials showed superior results. In that, polyether was found to be the best. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) is one of the most important treatable endocrine causes of short stature. A problem anywhere in the Growth Hormone (GH) - Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) axis can lead to short stature. Childhood GH deficiency can be congenital, acquired, or idiopathic. Hereby, the authors present a case series consisting of five cases of short stature, aimed to provide an overview of the spectrum of GH-related disorders. All five patients presented to the Paediatric Endocrinology Outpatient Department of a tertiary care Institute with complaints of not gaining height. The patients in present case series had significant short stature (Z score for height <-3 SD (Standard Deviation) in each case). These patients were suspected of having GH deficiency based on clinical presentation and investigations. After a proper diagnostic work-up and GH stimulation tests, cases 1 to 4 were found to have GH deficiency. The 5th case was suspected of having Laron Syndrome based on high GH levels and low IGF-1. There were subtle differences in the spectrum of GH deficiency. The 1st case had Multiple Pituitary Hormone Deficiency (MPHD). Cases 2 to 4 had Isolated Growth Hormone Deficiency (IGHD). Case 2 had findings of pituitary stalk interruption on brain imaging. We found a genetic association in the 3rd case, while the 4th case had almost normal brain imaging. Cases 1 to 4 received GH therapy, and all showed appreciable height gain. These subtle differences can sometimes make the diagnosis difficult, and often a different approach to treatment is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital dentistry has gained significant attention in recent years due to its potential to improve the accuracy of implant placement and prosthesis fabrication. However, the literature on its effectiveness remains controversial, and a systematic review and meta-analysis are necessary to evaluate the available evidence. A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple online databases using MeSH keywords and Boolean operators. Data extraction was performed, and a bias assessment was conducted based on modified CONSORT guidelines. The pooled odds ratios (OR) and risk ratios (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were then calculated. Five studies met the inclusion criteria. The overall analysis showed no statistically significant difference in the accuracy of implant placement and prosthesis fabrication between digital and conventional techniques (OR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.73 to 1.23 and RR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.73 to 1.23). Subgroup analysis based on individual studies did not demonstrate consistent results. This review suggests that digital techniques do not significantly impact the accuracy of implant placement and prosthesis fabrication compared to conventional techniques in an in vitro setting. However, the overall evidence is limited by the small number of studies and the heterogeneity observed. Future well-designed studies, including randomized controlled trials and clinical studies, are needed to provide more robust evidence on the effectiveness of digital dentistry in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Salivary substitutes are gaining popularity these days because of the increase in patients with dry mouth. These substitutes must satisfy certain criteria to fulfill the patient's needs. One of these is wettability. Materials and Methods: One hundred fifty rectangular specimens of heat-cured denture base acrylic resin were prepared. A drop of test liquids (human saliva, distilled water, aqwet, saleva, and wet mouth) was placed over the test specimen and right and left contact angles were measured using optical contact angle machine. Results: All test liquids performed better than distilled water. Human saliva has the least contact angle followed by aqwet. Conclusion: Carboxymethyl cellulose base aqwet saliva substitute was found to be best having similar contact angle values to human saliva. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Autism is reportedly the most severe neuropsychiatric disorder affecting children. Autistic subjects can be characterized by impairments in social interactive behavior along with restricted interests and quite frequently, are seen exhibiting repetitive behavior patterns in stereotyped manner. The inability to perform routine tasks can widely impact the oral health and also, the constant care and sense of helplessness might drastically affect quality of life. Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the oral health status and perceptions regarding an autistic child's oral health among parents. Materials and Methods: Parental perception regarding the quality of life among the afflicted autistic children was done using a self-assessment questionnaire that included eight questions which were replied to in an affirmation or negative answer. 300 parents of autism affected children formed the study participants. Recorded responses were evaluated and percentage of each response was derived. Oral health status was measured by determination of dental caries prevalence and OHI-S index using chair light illumination, mouth mirror, diagnostic probe and a standard WHO periodontal probe. For statistical analysis, the calculations were performed by using the paired t test. Statistical significance, which was fixed at P < 0.05, which is statistically significant.Results: Approximately 18.33% of parents showed were aware that oral health can influence general health; 15% did have exhibit awareness. 15% of parents did not consider that primary teeth were important; 59.1% visited any dentist only when suffering from pain; 5% went for an annual dental examination; 15% and 24.6% parents visited dental practitioners at intervals of 3 and 6 months, respectively. 30%, 25% and 51.66% parents considered obtaining consultation and getting treatment from pediatric dentist; general dentist and general physician. 41.6% parents had taken their children for restorations. 52% reported constant stress whereas 48% reported with constant distressed emotions. No significant difference was determined between the parameters. 75% of autistic children suffered from dental caries whereas oral hygiene scores demonstrated high mean value of 4. Conclusion: Autism is a severely distressing condition wherein oral health along with general physical health is affected. Since parents are directly involved in upbringing of these individuals, they also subsequently show a reduction in quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary aim of this study was to evaluate the role of C-reactive protein (CRP) in cerebrospinal fluid to establish the diagnosis of Acute Bacterial Meningitis (ABM), and to measure the specificity, sensitivity, positive and negative predictive values of CRP in Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) in the diagnosis of Acute Bacterial Meningitis. Methods: Fifty patients between age 0 to 15 years with fever and convulsion were screened, randomly selected and divided into three groups on the basis of CSF findings i.e. bacterial meningitis, non-bacterial meningitis and no meningitis as control group. CSF CRP was measured in all cases along with CSF cytology, biochemistry and culture-sensitivity. Complete blood count, random blood sugar done to treat all cases. All patients were treated adequately (if culture positive according to sensitivity) and were monitored as long as they stayed in hospital. Outcome was assessed clinically during discharge. Results: Twenty patients had acute bacterial meningitis, 15 had aseptic meningitis and 15 cases had CSF findings normal (control). CSF-CRP was positive (>6mg/L) in 40% of the cases of ABM but it was found negative in all aseptic meningitis and in the control groups. Sensitivity of CSF -CRP was low (40%) but specificity was high (100%). The positive predictive value of CSF-CRP was 100% and negative predictive value 55.5%. Among the organisms isolated H. influenzae was the leading pathogen (52%) in infancy followed by S. pneumoniae (42%) and N. meningitidis (5%). Outcome of the treatment of CSF-CRP positive ABM cases was found poor (p= 0.035). Conclusion: Study concludes that significant level of CRP in CSF is highly specific for diagnosis of ABM and ruled out aseptic meningitis. But negative CSF-CRP could neither exclude pyogenic meningitis nor did it rule out aseptic meningitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Bidi, a leaf rolled cigarette, is the most popular form of smoking in India. Bidi cigarette contains higher tar, ammonia, and nicotine content than a conventional cigarette and is more hazardous.Aim Of Study: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of bidi smoking on periodontitis by assessing the interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-8 from a gingival crevicular fluid (GCF).Materials and Methods: A total of 60 patients were selected, which included 40 patients diagnosed with chronic periodontitis (20 bidi smokers and 20 non-bidi smokers) and 20 periodontal healthy controls. Diseased and healthy sites were selected from each of the chronic periodontitis subjects. Clinical parameters assessed were plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), periodontal probing depth (PPD), recession (RC), and clinical attachment level (CAL). Pooled GCF samples were taken from the same site and analyzed for IL-1β and IL-8 using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results: Bidi smokers displayed decreased levels of IL-1β and IL-8 than non-bidi smokers for both healthy and diseased sites and significantly reduced IL-8 levels among bidi smokers when compared to controls. Among bidi smokers, the diseased site had significantly higher levels of IL-8 than the healthy site. Non-smoker subjects with chronic periodontitis especially diseased sites contained significantly higher amounts of IL-1β and IL-8 than smokers and controls. The PI scores were highest among bidi smokers with reduced BOP and GI scores.Conclusions: Bidi smoking influenced the cytokine profile among periodontitis patients exhibiting decreased levels of IL-1β and IL-8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The presence of circulating maternal endotoxin can arise from pathogenic periodontal bacteria resulting in preterm labour and delivery of Low Birth Weight (LBW) infant. Aim: The aim of this study was to find if periodontitis induced maternal endotoxemia could be a risk factor for delivery of LBW infant. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 primiparous mothers between the age group of 18-35 years delivering LBW infants (weight ≤2500 gm) were selected for this case control study. Cases were 30 postpartum mothers with periodontitis whereas controls were 30 postpartum mothers without periodontitis. Periodontitis was defined according to WHO criteria, as pocket probing depth of ≥4 mm in atleast one site. Endotoxin level was assessed by a quantitative end point chromogenic limulus amebeocyte lysate (Lonza QCL 1000®). Odds Ratio (OR) was calculated to see if periodontitis was a risk factor. Results: Periodontitis increased the risk for occurrence of endotoxemia by more than three times among mothers delivering LBW infants with an OR of 3.21. Conclusion: Maternal endotoxemia due to periodontal infection can form a possible biological explanation for periodontitis as a risk factor for delivery of LBW babies. Future research is needed to study the effect of endotoxins in periodontal pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pomegranate (Punica granatum) fruit extract has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant and immunemodulatory features. Due to increased bacterial resistance to synthetic agents Pomegranate Extract Gel (PEG) could become a natural remedy for the treatment of periodontal disease. Aim: To compare topically applied PEG, chlorhexidine (CHX) gel, ornidazole-chlorhexidine (ORN-CHX) gel and Placebo Gel (PG) on clinical parameters and on gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-8 and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 28 (CCL28) levels in a two week human experimental gingivitis model. Materials and Methods: Eighty systemically healthy subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four groups; Group I: PEG, Group II: CHX gel, Group III: ORN-CHX gel, and Group IV: PG. On the selected quadrant the subjects refrained from routine hygiene procedure and solely used the topical gel. The primary outcome measured were IL-1β, IL-8 and CCL28 levels from GCF at baseline and 14 days. Gingival Index (GI), Plaque Index (PI), Bleeding On Probing (BOP) and Probing Depth (PD) were secondarily assessed at baseline, 14 and 60 days. Paired t-test and one-way ANOVA followed by post-hoc Tukey's test was used for intra and intergroup comparisons with p-value of 0.05 as significant. results: The PEG had an inhibitory effect on pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokine. PEG showed significantly less increase in IL-1β, IL-8 (p=0.003, 0.002) while CCL28 levels showed no difference from baseline (p=0.15) when compared to other three groups (p<0.001). The BOP and GI among subjects using PEG showed less increase (p=0.01, 0.05) compared to other three gels (p<0.001) after 14 days. PEG and CHX-ORD gel were similar (p=0.96) in exhibiting lowered PI. conclusion: Pomegranate extract gel was effective in reducing the inflammatory markers and can be used as an adjunct to mechanical therapy for the treatment of gingivitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneity among Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients confounds clinical trial patient selection and therapeutic efficacy evaluation. This work defines separable AD clinical sub-populations using unsupervised machine learning. Clustering (t-SNE followed by k-means) of patient features and association rule mining (ARM) was performed on the ADNIMERGE dataset from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Patient sociodemographics, brain imaging, biomarkers, cognitive tests, and medication usage were included for analysis. Four AD clinical sub-populations were identified using between-cluster mean fold changes [cognitive performance, brain volume]: cluster-1 represented least severe disease [+17.3, +13.3]; cluster-0 [−4.6, +3.8] and cluster-3 [+10.8, −4.9] represented mid-severity sub-populations; cluster-2 represented most severe disease [−18.4, −8.4]. ARM assessed frequently occurring pharmacologic substances within the 4 sub-populations. No drug class was associated with the least severe AD (cluster-1), likely due to lesser antecedent disease. Anti-hyperlipidemia drugs associated with cluster-0 (mid-severity, higher volume). Interestingly, antioxidants vitamin C and E associated with cluster-3 (mid-severity, higher cognition). Anti-depressants like Zoloft associated with most severe disease (cluster-2). Vitamin D is protective for AD, but ARM identified significant underutilization across all AD sub-populations. Identification and feature characterization of four distinct AD sub-population "clusters" using standard clinical features enhances future clinical trial selection criteria and cross-study comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link prediction in artificial intelligence is used to identify missing links or derive future relationships that can occur in complex networks. A link prediction model was developed using the complex heterogeneous biomedical knowledge graph, SemNet, to predict missing links in biomedical literature for drug discovery. A web application visualized knowledge graph embeddings and link prediction results using TransE, CompleX, and RotatE based methods. The link prediction model achieved up to 0.44 hits@10 on the entity prediction tasks. The recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as COVID-19, served as a case study to demonstrate the efficacy of link prediction modeling for drug discovery. The link prediction algorithm guided identification and ranking of repurposed drug candidates for SARS-CoV-2 primarily by text mining biomedical literature from previous coronaviruses, including SARS and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS). Repurposed drugs included potential primary SARS-CoV-2 treatment, adjunctive therapies, or therapeutics to treat side effects. The link prediction accuracy for nodes ranked highly for SARS coronavirus was 0.875 as calculated by human in the loop validation on existing COVID-19 specific data sets. Drug classes predicted as highly ranked include anti-inflammatory, nucleoside analogs, protease inhibitors, antimalarials, envelope proteins, and glycoproteins. Examples of highly ranked predicted links to SARS-CoV-2: human leukocyte interferon, recombinant interferon-gamma, cyclosporine, antiviral therapy, zidovudine, chloroquine, vaccination, methotrexate, artemisinin, alkaloids, glycyrrhizic acid, quinine, flavonoids, amprenavir, suramin, complement system proteins, fluoroquinolones, bone marrow transplantation, albuterol, ciprofloxacin, quinolone antibacterial agents, and hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors. Approximately 40% of identified drugs were not previously connected to SARS, such as edetic acid or biotin. In summary, link prediction can effectively suggest repurposed drugs for emergent diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]