Posttreatment stability following therapy using passive self-ligating brackets: extraction vs. nonextraction.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of lower premolar extraction on posttreatment stability one year following fixed orthodontic treatment with passive self-ligating brackets (Damon system, Ormco, Orange, CA, USA).

Methods: All patients were treated with fixed orthodontic appliances using passive self-ligating brackets (Damon). For retention, removable Hawley retainers were used.

Benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin topical skin preparation decreases Propionibacterium acnes colonization in shoulder arthroscopy.

Background: Propionibacterium acnes is a gram-positive anaerobe that can lead to devastating postoperative shoulder infections. The objective of this study was to investigate whether a benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin preoperative skin preparation reduces the incidence of P. acnes colonization during shoulder arthroscopy.

A biomechanical analysis of tibial ACL reconstruction with graft length mismatch.

Introduction: The incidence of graft length mismatch (GLM) during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is reported to be up to 13%, with a rate of 20% when using bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) allografts. Multiple techniques have been described to accommodate for the longer BPTB graft. As no study has compared the biomechanical properties of these methods (with cyclic loading), we evaluated the strength of four different surgical techniques used to accommodate for GLM during ACL reconstruction.

MYCN amplification confers enhanced folate dependence and methotrexate sensitivity in neuroblastoma.

MYCN amplification occurs in 20% of neuroblastomas and is strongly related to poor clinical outcome. We have identified folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism as highly upregulated in neuroblastoma tumors with MYCN amplification and have validated this finding experimentally by showing that MYCN amplified neuroblastoma cell lines have a higher requirement for folate and are significantly more sensitive to the antifolate methotrexate than cell lines without MYCN amplification. We have demonstrated that methotrexate uptake in neuroblastoma cells is mediated principally by the reduced folate carrier (RFC; SLC19A1), that SLC19A1 and MYCN expression are highly correlated in both patient tumors and cell lines, and that SLC19A1 is a direct transcriptional target of N-Myc.

Prognostic significance of promoter DNA methylation in patients with childhood neuroblastoma.

Purpose: To characterize the clinical significance of promoter methylation in a cohort of primary neuroblastoma tumors and investigate the association between DNA methylation and clinical outcome.

Experimental Design: A customized Illumina GoldenGate methylation assay was used to assess methylation status of 96 CpG sites within 48 candidate genes in primary neuroblastoma tumors obtained from 131 children diagnosed in Australia. Genes were selected on the basis of previous reports of altered DNA methylation in embryonal cancers.

Modulation of NOXA and MCL-1 as a strategy for sensitizing melanoma cells to the BH3-mimetic ABT-737.

Purpose: Drug resistance in melanoma is commonly attributed to ineffective apoptotic pathways. Inhibiting antiapoptotic BCL-2 and its relatives is an attractive strategy for sensitizing lymphoid malignancies to drugs but it has been largely unsuccessful for melanoma and other solid tumors. ABT-737, a small-molecule BH3-mimetic, selectively inhibits BCL-2, BCL-XL, and BCL-w and shows promise for treating leukemia, lymphoma, and small-cell lung cancer.

Peripheral blood gene expression in postinfective fatigue syndrome following from three different triggering infections.

Background: Several infections trigger postinfective fatigue syndromes, which share key illness characteristics with each other and with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Previous cross-sectional case-control studies of CFS have suggested that unique gene expression signatures are evident in peripheral blood samples.

Methods: Peripheral blood transcriptomes in samples collected longitudinally, in 18 subjects with a fatigue syndrome lasting ≥ 6 months after acute infection due to Epstein-Barr virus, Ross River virus, or Coxiella burnetii (Q fever), and 18 matched control subjects who had recovered promptly, were studied by microarray (n = 127) and confirmatory quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Impact of diabetes mellitus on survival in South East Asian patients with congestive heart failure due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction.

Objective: We assessed the impact of diabetes mellitus on survival in South East Asian patients with congestive heart failure.

Methods: 1668 consecutive patients with chronic heart failure (age 65+/-13 years, ejection fraction 28+/-12%, 67% male) were followed up for 36+/-12 months. 837 patients (50.

Impact of race on morbidity and mortality in patients with congestive heart failure: a study of the multiracial population in Singapore.

Aim: We assessed the impact of race on clinical outcome in the multiracial Singapore congestive heart failure (CHF) population.

Methods: 668 CHF patients (Age 66+/-12 years, Ejection fraction 29+/-13%), consisting of Chinese (72%), Malays (17.1%) and Indians (10.

The 6-minute walk test predicts clinical outcome in Asian patients with chronic congestive heart failure on contemporary medical therapy: a study of the multiracial population in Singapore.

Background: We sought the value of the 6-min walk test (6MWT) in predicting morbidity and mortality in Asian patients with congestive heart failure (CHF).

Methods: 668 patients (Age 66+/-12 years, Ejection fraction 29+/-13%, NYHA I to IV) were prospectively followed up for 36+/-12 months. 386 patients (58%) took the 6MWT.

Characterization of systemic hypertension in the San Francisco Chinese community.

This report examines the prevalence of hypertension, its management and control, and the use of antihypertensive medication, diet, and exercise in Chinese adults residing in the San Francisco community. Blood pressure (BP) was measured objectively using an automated oscillometric Dinamap recorder on 708 Chinese adults (295 men and 413 women; age range from 19 to 98 years, mean 59.7), and hypertension, defined as BP >140/90 mm Hg and/or the use of antihypertensive medications, was found in 489 (69%), most of them immigrants from China.