Comparison of Effectiveness of Two Teaching Methods on Acquisition of Skills in Preclinical Fixed Prosthodontics.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dental faculty-student interactions, virtual assessment software, and associated rubrics on student performance by assessing tooth preparations generated during the students' final practical exam. The study, conducted in 2017 and 2018, compared teeth prepared for preclinical fixed prosthodontics competency exams by two subsequent classes of second-year dental students trained using different methods. Class A was trained for nine months prior to the exam using feedback via student-faculty interactions and conventional rubrics.

[Women and cardiovascular diseases].

The authors draw attention to the important role played by menopause in the onset of arterial hypertension, enhanced coronary risk and dyslipidemia, for which a particularly useful association has been found to be estrogens, only if administered by mouth (alone or with progestins), and statins. The authors review numerous studies for or against the use of estrogens as a means of reducing arterial hypertension and the incidence of myocardial ischemia in menopausal women. In order to ensure therapeutic efficacy, replacement estrogen therapy should not be started at not too late an age, but instead as young as possible (the first 5 years after the start of menopause are optimal), namely before levels of endothelial estrogen receptors start to fall.

[Spontaneous recovery of sinus rhythm in long-standing mitral fibrillation].

The case of a 73-year-old woman with a 10 year history of mitral valvulopathy in atrial fibrillation is reported. On two occasions spontaneous recovery of sinus rhythm occurred. The first, lasting about 48 hours, followed acute digitalis poisoning.