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This retrospective chart review study investigates the long-term clinical outcome of Biodentine® (Tricalcium silicate) as a medicament for pulpotomy in primary molars. Data in this retrospective study was collected from the dental records of all patients that had at least one primary molar receive pulpotomy treatment (CDT code: D3221) between 01 July 2012 and 01 July 2015. This data includes child's age, medical history, dental history, dental radiographs, pulpotomy procedure details and follow-up clinical notes. Kaplan-Meier Estimate was used to measure the fraction of successful pulpotomy procedures for up to 24 months. A total of 1758 pulpotomy procedures were performed on 1032 patients in our institute in the three-year period and 21.4% of them (N = 376) had follow-up dental records that qualified for the study. Eleven teeth out of 376 teeth were excluded from the statistical analysis due to loss of/broken stainless steel crowns (3.1%). Seventeen pulpotomy failures were identified out of the remaining 365 procedures. The survival probablity of using Biodentine® as a pulpotomy medicament is 96.3% for 18-month follow-up and 95.4% for 24-month follow-up. Biodentine®, a tricalcium silicate formulation, used as a pulpotomy medicament demonstrates a high clinical success rate (95.4%) over a 24-month peroid in primary molars., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Gerald A. Ferretti is serving as one of the Editorial Board members of this journal. We declare that Gerald A. Ferretti had no involvement in the peer review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to GS., (©2024 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.)

Purpose: COVID-19 continues to be an urgent World issue. Receptors of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), gateway of SARS-CoV-2, are present in the lungs, bladder, prostate, and testicles. Therefore, these organs face high risk of damage caused by the virus and this mechanism may explain non-respiratory symptoms of the disease., Materials and Methods: This systematic review, guided by the PRIMSA statement, was proposed to elucidate possible urological complications of COVID-19. Searches were carried out in Medline (PubMed), Cochrane (CENTRAL), Embase, MedRxiv and LILACS. Bias analysis was made using the specific Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for each study design., Results: Search was carried out until April 2022, and 8,477 articles were identified. Forty-nine of them were included in this systematic review. There is evidence that lower urinary tract symptoms and acute scrotum may be signs of COVID-19 in men, although in a small proportion. Also, the disease may have a transitory impact on male fertility, evidenced by several alterations in sperm counts. However, it must be clarified whether this impact is transitory, or may last for longer periods. Several patients showed reduction of total value of testosterone. Two authors linked low levels of testosterone with worse outcomes of COVID-19, suggesting that the hormone may be used as an early biomarker of the severity of the disease. Moreover, it is extremely unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by semen., Conclusion: This systematic review identified possible repercussions of COVID-19 in the urinary as well as in the male reproductive system., Competing Interests: None declared., (Copyright® by the International Brazilian Journal of Urology.)

Aim: To evaluate the readability and quality of online patient information regarding treatment for constipation in the English language. Methods: By utilizing the Google © website, the keyword "treatment for chronic constipation" was searched. Each webpage was assessed by 2 authors independently for readability using both the Gunning Fog Index (GFI) and the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES). The quality of the information produced on each individual website was assessed using the DISCERN instrument. Other parameters that were recorded included the country of origin, the organization type, and whether or not the website was issued a Health on the Net (HoN) certificate. Results: This study identified a mean GFI score of 13.2 and a mean FRES score of 48.9. This result indicates poor overall readability. A mean DISCERN score of 37.9 was produced, indicating an overall weak quality of online information on this topic. This study indicated that parameters such as website organization type and the presence or absence of HoN certification impacted the quality of the information websites on this topic. Conclusion: This study indicated a poor level of quality and readability of online information on the topic of chronic constipation treatment. Further resources should be directed towards improving website readability and quality. Patients may be advised that if they wish to access online information on this topic, websites that display HoN accreditation will likely produce higher quality information., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

An organ donor PaO2 above 40 kPa is generally required for lung transplantation. Point-of-care (POC) blood gas analyzers are commonly used by organ procurement organizations (OPO) but may underestimate the PaO2 at high levels. We hypothesized that changing to a more accurate blood gas analyzer would result in additional lungs transplanted. All PaO2 measurements on organ donors managed at one OPO's recovery center were performed on an i-STAT POC analyzer prior to October 2015, and on a GEM 4000 subsequently. For 24 weeks, all blood gases were tested simultaneously on both analyzers. We compared lung outcomes of 147 donors in the year prior to this change (using the i-STAT) with 56 donors in the 24-week study period (using the GEM 4000 for lung allocation). When the PaO2 was above 40 kPa, the i-STAT PaO2 was 7.2 kPa lower on average than the GEM 4000. When the GEM PaO2 measured between 40 and 50 kPa, the corresponding i-STAT PaO2 value registered less than 40 kPa 25 out of 48 times (52%), with an average difference of 7.3 kPa (SD = 2.9). The rate of lungs transplanted using the GEM 4000 was 48% compared with 35% in the year prior using the i-STAT ( p  = .11), with equivalent recipient outcomes. The i-STAT analyzer underestimated the PaO2 above 40 kPa and changing to a more accurate PaO2 analyzer may increase lungs transplanted.

Paraneoplastic syndromes are a rare clinical presentation of tumor thought to affect 0.01% of patients with cancer. Paraneoplastic syndromes present a diagnostic challenge as a wide variety of signs and symptoms may appear. This study examines the use of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ( 18 F-FDG PET/CT) as a diagnostic imaging tool for detecting tumor in suspected paraneoplastic syndrome cases. This single-center retrospective study included patients with suspected paraneoplastic syndrome who underwent whole-body 18 F-FDG PET/CT scan between December 2005 and December 2016. Associated clinical data were gathered via electronic chart review. Patient records were reviewed for age, sex, clinical signs and symptoms, ancillary diagnostic procedures, date of diagnosis, and follow-up time. Ninety-nine patients met inclusion criteria for this study. Mean follow-up period was 1.8 years. Cancer prevalence was 12.1%. The 18 F-FDG PET/CT results are as follows: 10 true positives, 5 false positives, 82 true negatives, and 2 false negatives. The diagnostic values are as follows: sensitivity 83.3%, specificity 94.3%, positive predictive value 66.7%, and negative predictive value (NPV) 97.6%. The high NPV in our study supports the effectiveness of 18 F-FDG PET/CT to rule out tumor in suspected paraneoplastic syndrome. Future research aims to analyze which patients with suspected paraneoplastic syndrome would benefit most from 18 F-FDG PET/CT., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2020 World Journal of Nuclear Medicine.)

Objectives: Our aims were to evaluate HRV in pulmonary hypertension (WHO Group 1 and 4) compared to control subjects, and to assess whether the presence of sleep apnea in those with pulmonary hypertension would be deleterious and cause greater impairment in HRV., Methods: This retrospective case-control study analyzed electrocardiogram segments obtained from diagnostic polysomnography., Results: Forty-one pulmonary hypertension patients were compared to 41 age, sex and apnea-hypopnea index matched healthy controls. The pulmonary hypertension group had decreased high frequency, very low frequency, low frequency, and percentage of normal R-R intervals that differ by > 50 ms compared to control subjects. Moderate to severe right ventricle dysfunction on echocardiography was a predictor of lower high frequency in pulmonary hypertension patients., Conclusions: There were no differences in any HRV measures in pulmonary hypertension patients with or without sleep apnea. Impaired HRV was demonstrated in pulmonary hypertension patients however, the presence of sleep apnea did not appear to further reduce vagal modulation.

Background: The ability of characteristics to predict first time performance in laparoscopic tasks is not well described. Videogame experience predicts positive performance in laparoscopic experiences but its mechanism and confounding-association with aptitude remains to be elucidated. This study sought to evaluate for innate predictors of laparoscopic performance in surgically naive individuals with minimal videogame exposure., Methods: Participants with no prior laparoscopic exposure and minimal videogaming experience were recruited consecutively from preclinical years at a medical university. Participants completed four visuospatial, one psychomotor aptitude test and an electronic survey, followed by four laparoscopic tasks on a validated Virtual Reality simulator (LAP Mentor™)., Results: Twenty eligible individuals participated with a mean age of 20.8 (±3.8) years. Significant intra-aptitude performance correlations were present amongst 75% of the visuospatial tests. These visuospatial aptitudes correlated significantly with multiple laparoscopic task metrics: number of movements of a dominant instrument (r s  ≥ -0.46), accuracy rate of clip placement (r s  ≥ 0.50) and time taken (r s  ≥ -0.47) (p < 0.05). Musical Instrument experience predicted higher average speed of instruments (r s  ≥ 0.47) (p < 0.05). Participant's revised competitive index level predicted lower proficiency in laparoscopic metrics including: pathlength, economy and number of movements of dominant instrument (r s  ≥ 0.46) (p < 0.05)., Conclusion: Multiple visuospatial aptitudes and innate competitive level influenced baseline laparoscopic performances across several tasks in surgically naïve individuals., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives/hypothesis: To evaluate the changes in health-related quality of life in unilateral adult cochlear implant patients using the Medical Outcome Study Short-Form Survey-36 (SF-36) and the Health Utility Index Mark 3 (HUI-3). To do so, a health utility index was obtained by converting the SF-36 to the Medical Outcome Study Short-Form Survey-6D (SF-6D) to permit comparison with HUI-3 scores in the context of health preference as measured by quality-adjusted life years., Study Design: Prospective cohort study., Methods: Eighty-one postlingually deaf adult patients undergoing cochlear implantation completed the SF-36 and HUI-3 preoperatively and at a median of 1.4 years (range, 11 months-5 years) after cochlear implantation., Results: The SF-36 improvement was statistically significant in two domains. The SF-36 data were converted to SF-6D. Preoperatively, the mean SF-6D utility score was 0.575 ± 0.056. One year postoperatively this score increased to 0.590 ± 0.064. The improvement of 0.015 ± 0.082 was not statistically significant (P = .1118). Of the HUI-3 attributes, two showed improvement between preoperative and postoperative evaluations. The overall HUI-3 score increased from 0.464 ± 0.207 preoperatively to 0.611 ± 0.190 postoperatively. The gain of 0.146 ± 0.19 was statistically significant (P < .0001). The intraclass correlation coefficient between the SF-6D and HUI-3 showed a very small correlation, both pre- and postoperatively., Conclusions: Against the backdrop of diminishing resources for healthcare, cost-effective analysis is fast becoming an important tool. There remains a strong need for health-related quality-of-life instruments that can truly reflect the benefit of cochlear implantation, in which utility estimates are fundamentally important. The SF-36 scores, when converted to SF-6D, do not correlate well with HUI-3 scores in a cohort of adult cochlear implant recipients. The HUI-3 remains the most appropriate tool for this patient group., Level of Evidence: 4, (© 2014 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.)