Pretreatment and on-treatment indicators of virologic breakthrough of lamivudine therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients: an Egyptian study.

The primary objectives of hepatitis B treatment include improved clinical and histological progression as well as virus eradication. For many years, lamivudine was a first-line therapy for treating hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. However, its long-term use is associated with high resistance rates (up to 70% after 5 years) due to mutations in the viral YMDD motif.

Effects of mixing technique on bubble formation in alginate impression material.

Previous studies have found that variations in mixing technique can influence the porosity content of alginate impression material. The aim of this study was twofold: determine whether bubble formation in alginate is influenced by the sequence of water/powder addition prior to mixing, and to compare 4 different mixing techniques. Manual spatulation, an automated spinning bowl, a centrifugal mixer and a vacuum mixer were evaluated for the resulting porosity in the set alginate.