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Purpose: To review the oral prosthetic rehabilitation of patients with epidermolysis bullosa hereditaria (EBH) and study the level of evidence and quality of the presented available articles and establish clinical recommendations for the prosthetic management of these patients., Materials and Methods: An electronic search was done in July 2022 in five databases following PICOTS elements. The quality of the reports was established using the modified Pierson, Bradford Hills, and Ottawa Newcastle scale., Results: Data extracted from 19 case reports for protocolized analysis corresponded to 64 patients and 80 dental prostheses, with almost 9 out of 10 patients being completely edentulous. The distribution of EBH types was 84% dystrophic, 10.5% junctional, and 5.5% simplex. The difficulties encountered by the authors synthesized in this review characteristically reflected those most likely encountered in dental practice. Most rehabilitations were implant-supported prostheses (85%), followed by removable dentures (10%) and dental-supported rehabilitations (5%). Fixed full-arch implant-supported prostheses represented 76.4% of implant-supported prostheses, and this prosthetic solution reflected the highest scientific quality., Conclusions: For an individualized approach to treatment, we recommend that in cases of total edentulism, fixed full-arch implant-supported prostheses are the most appropriate because they allow the best computer-aided planning, design, manufacture, and fitting of the prosthesis in such a complex clinical context.

The post-mortem interval (PMI) is the time elapsed between the death of an individual and its forensic examination. It is a crucial information for judicial authorities, but current techniques still cannot establish a precise time interval. Novel approaches are therefore required. Recently, gingival tissue has emerged as interesting for forensic analysis thanks to the protection offered by lips to this tissue, limiting the influence of environmental factors. It is also easily accessible, and its sampling is minimally invasive even in the presence of rigor mortis. Moreover, the expression of HIF-1α, a master mediator of the hypoxic environment, has been described in gingival samples at different post-mortem (PM) times. We have hypothesized that the time-dependent post-mortem expression of HIF-1α could serve as a biomarker to more accurately predict the PMI. Our analyses were performed in an animal model, the mouse, where environment can be precisely controlled. Therewith, gingival tissue morphology was evaluated through histochemical staining and HIF-1α expression was analyzed by qPCR, western blots and immunofluorescence at different post-mortem times (0h to 100h). Our results showed (a) a global post-mortem stability of gingival tissue (b) a rapid increase in HIF-1α mRNA expression in the short post-mortem times followed by a slow decrease in transcript expression until 100h PM (c) an expression of the HIF- 1α protein and its degradation products, that follows the mRNA pattern (d) the presence of HIF-1α protein in the epithelial and connective layers of the tissue, with signal accumulation in both gingival strata until at least 32h post-mortem. This pilot study thus validated the mouse and the gingival tissue as models for post-mortem analyses, as well as for studying the fate of proteins such as HIF-1α. Transferring these approaches to human subjects may provide a more accurate estimate of PMI., Competing Interests: The authors state that they have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright: © 2024 Mascarell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Prolactin hypersecretion from a pituitary adenoma usually results in a serum prolactin level less than 1,000 ng/ml. During therapy with a dopamine agonist, prolactin levels usually normalize and the tumors shrink substantially. In the past few years, we have seen three men who presented with serum prolactin levels greater than 10,000 ng/ml. All presented with large tumors, visual field deficits, and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. All other pituitary hormones were normal. In all three patients, significant tumor shrinkage was achieved with improvement or resolution of headaches and visual field deficits. None of our patients has been able to achieve a normal prolactin or testosterone. A literature review identified 32 patients with prolactin levels of more than 10,000 ng/ml. Twenty-six (81%) were males. Most had large tumors, headaches and visual field defects. Even with the addition of surgery and/or radiation therapy to medical therapy, normalization of serum prolactin occurred in only six patients (19%) and only one man achieved a normal testosterone. We conclude that in patients with massive prolactin hypersecretion, therapy with a dopamine agonist will lead to tumor shrinkage and improvement of mass effects, but usually does not normalize prolactin or testosterone. Rather than waiting for maximal prolactin reduction, we would recommend early institution of testosterone replacement therapy.