The Role of Occlusal Appliances in Reducing Masseter Electromyographic Activity in Bruxism.

: Bruxism is a masticatory muscle activity, phasic or tonic, with/without teeth contact, that appears in sleep or an awake state. An instrumental technique used to measure the surface electromyographic (sEMG) activity of the masseter muscle is used to diagnose bruxism activity during sleep and while awake. The objective of this study was to compare the variation in bruxism (sleep and awake) indices and masseter activity indices in low sleep bruxism and moderate sleep bruxism before and after wearing an occlusal appliance (OA) for 3 months each night.

DNA methylation classifier to diagnose pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma metastases from different anatomical sites.

Background: We have recently constructed a DNA methylation classifier that can discriminate between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PAAD) liver metastasis and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) with high accuracy (PAAD-iCCA-Classifier). PAAD is one of the leading causes of cancer of unknown primary and diagnosis is based on exclusion of other malignancies. Therefore, our focus was to investigate whether the PAAD-iCCA-Classifier can be used to diagnose PAAD metastases from other sites.

A Microscopy Evaluation of Emergence Profile Surfaces of Dental Custom CAD-CAM Implant Abutments and Dental Implant Stock Abutments.

Recently, due to the high demand for dental implants, the use of dental implant stock abutments has increased significantly, especially dental custom CAD/CAM implant abutments milled by dental technicians in their laboratories. The purpose of this study is to analyze the surface quality of the emergence profile of dental custom CAD/CAM implant abutments made by a non-industrial milling machine, compared to original and compatible dental implant stock abutments made by industrial machines. Thirty dental implant abutments were divided into six study lots.

Factfinders for patient safety: Antibiotics for disc access and spinal cord stimulation trials.

This series of FactFinders presents a brief summary of the evidence and outlines recommendations regarding the use of antibiotics for disc access and spinal cord stimulation trials. The evidence in support of the following facts is presented: (1) There is a low but nonzero risk of discitis due to percutaneous intervertebral disc access. Strategies to mitigate this risk include use of strict aseptic technique, use of a needle stylet, and prophylactic intravenous or intra-discal antibiotics.

The Importance of Differentiating Parsonage-Turner Syndrome From Cervical Radiculopathy: A Case Report.

Parsonage-Turner syndrome (PTS) is a rare disease process in which one develops acute-onset shoulder pain, followed by progressive weakness of the upper arm and shoulder girdle musculature. PTS is difficult to diagnose as it mimics similar presenting pathologies, most commonly, cervical radiculopathy (CR). Clinical presentation and diagnostic tests are particularly important to identify this rare syndrome, as the treatment for similar conditions may be more invasive.

The Role of Interventional Pain Management in Proteus Syndrome: A Case Report.

Proteus syndrome (PS) is a rare overgrowth disease process with only a few hundred cases being reported in the literature. Abnormal formation of the vertebral bodies causing scoliosis and spinal stenosis are common features that lead to debilitating pain in these patients. We present a case of a 35-year-old male landscaper with a history of PS causing severe scoliosis and vertebral overgrowth who underwent recurrent sets of multilevel zygapophyseal joint injections for management of his axial back pain.

Do Corticosteroid Injections for the Treatment of Pain Influence the Efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines?

Myth: Corticosteroid injection for the treatment of pain and inflammation is known to decrease the efficacy of the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Fact: There is currently no direct evidence to suggest that a corticosteroid injection before or after the administration of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine decreases the efficacy of the vaccine.However, based on the known timeline of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis suppression following epidural and intraarticular corticosteroid injections, and the timeline of the reported peak efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, physicians should consider timing an elective corticosteroid injection such that it is administered no less than 2 weeks prior to a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine dose and no less than 1 week following a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine dose, whenever possible.

A comprehensive study of class incremental learning algorithms for visual tasks.

The ability of artificial agents to increment their capabilities when confronted with new data is an open challenge in artificial intelligence. The main challenge faced in such cases is catastrophic forgetting, i.e.

Pain Outcomes with an Elliptical Regimen (POWER) Study: Identifying the Proper Dosage of Exercise for Therapeutic Effect in Persons with Chronic Back Pain.

Background Context: Exercise therapy for low back pain has long been prescribed as one of the initial remedies for back pain. Traditional therapy is completed under a therapist's supervision and consists of lumbar stabilization, aerobic exercise and stretching exercises. Recent studies have explored treating back pain with aerobic exercise such as walking which can be done anywhere and without supervision which is lower cost and easily administered.

Neck Pain and Lower Back Pain.

Neck pain is the fourth leading cause of disability. Acute neck pain largely resolves within 2 months. History and physical examination play a key role in ruling out some of the more serious causes for neck pain.

Synthesis, transport properties and electronic structure of p-type CuMnInTe (x = 0, 0.2, 0.3).

The synthesis, electronic structure and temperature dependent transport properties of polycrystalline CuMnInTe (x = 0, 0.2, 0.3) are reported for the first time.

Scope and Nature of Pain- and Analgesia-Related Content of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE).

Background: "The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two substantial public health challenges-reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can result from the use of opioid medications" [1]. Improved pain education for health care providers is an essential component of the multidimensional response to both still-unmet challenges [2,3]. Despite the importance of licensing examinations in assuring competency in health care providers, there has been no prior appraisal of pain and related content within the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE).

Thermally driven anomalous Hall effect transitions in FeRh.

Materials exhibiting controllable magnetic phase transitions are currently in demand for many spintronics applications. Here we investigate from first principles the electronic structure and intrinsic anomalous Hall, spin Hall and anomalous Nernst response properties of the FeRh metallic alloy which undergoes a thermally driven antiferromagnetic-to-ferromagnetic phase transition. We show that the energy band structures and underlying Berry curvatures have important signatures in the various Hall effects.