3D printing vs traditional workflow for the fabrication of mandibular implant overdentures: study protocol for a mixed-methods cross-over RCT.

Background: Complete tooth loss is a significant global oral health issue, particularly impacting older individuals with lower socioeconomic status. Computer-assisted technologies enhance oral healthcare access by the elderly. Despite promising in vitro reports on digital denture materials, evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is lacking to verify their performance.

Kidney function and retinol status in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Kidneys play an important role in retinol turnover. We postulated that retinol homeostasis is disturbed in diabetic nephropathy. The aim of this research was to study the effect of kidney impairment on urinary excretion and on serum concentrations of retinol in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Coordinated chemoradiation therapy with genital preservation for the treatment of primary invasive carcinoma of the male urethra.

Purpose: We evaluated the efficacy of a combined chemoradiation therapy protocol for the primary treatment of primary invasive carcinoma of the male urethra.

Materials And Methods: From January 1991 to December 2006, 18 patients with invasive carcinoma of the male urethra referred to our institution were treated with a chemoradiation therapy protocol, consisting of 2 cycles of 5-fluorouracil (1,000 mg/m(2)) on days 1 to 4 and days 29 to 32, and mitomycin-C (10 mg/m(2)) on days 1 and 29 with concurrent external beam radiation therapy (45 to 55 Gy in 25 fractions during 5 weeks) to the genitalia, perineum, and inguinal and external iliac lymph nodes. Kaplan-Meier curves were constructed to assess overall, disease specific and disease-free survival.

Increased red cell aggregation is correlated with HbA1C and lipid levels in type 1 but not type 2 diabetes.

The present study was designed to study RBC aggregability in type 1 and type 2 DM by a new method based on the dielectric properties of disperse systems. This dielectric method has a significantly higher sensitivity to detect enhanced RBC aggregation in DM than other methods. Aggregability is increased in type 1 DM and even more markedly in type 2 diabetic patients.

New agents, combinations, and opportunities in the treatment of advanced and early-stage colon cancer.

There has been a dramatic improvement in outcomes for patients who have colon cancer over recent years. These improvements have come about largely because of the availability of new chemotherapy agents (irinotecan, oxaliplatin and capecitabine) and new biologic agents (bevacizumab and cetuximab). Large, well-designed clinical trials have resulted in the routine use of all of these agents in the treatment of patients who have metastatic disease, and this has led to improved survival for these patients.

Gastrointestinal bleeding as the initial manifestation of a polyarteritis nodosa-associated hepatic artery aneurysm-duodenal fistula--a case report.

The authors report an unusual case of upper gastrointestinal bleeding from a hepatic artery aneurysm-duodenal fistula in a 21-year-old male. Arteriography revealed multiple visceral artery aneurysms. Biopsy of the hepatic artery aneurysm (HAA) revealed focal areas of necrosis, medial degeneration, fibrosis, and giant cells.

Heparin-associated antiplatelet antibodies increase morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients.

Background: Patients are frequently exposed to heparin during hemodialysis (HD) to prevent thrombosis of the extracorporeal circuit. Other groups with frequent heparin exposures have a high rate of development of heparin-associated antiplatelet antibodies (HAAb). We sought to define the prevalence of HAAb in HD patients and evaluate their effects.

A camera's view of consumer food-handling behaviors.

Objective: To compare consumer food-handling behaviors with the Fight BAC! consumer food-safety recommendations.

Design: Subjects were videotaped in their home while preparing a meal. Videotapes were coded according to Fight BAC! recommendations.

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia: twenty-nine years later.

Objective: To determine the current frequency, types of patients, indications for testing, morbidity and mortality, and management of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT).

Methods: Between December 1998 and July 2001, the charts of 102 inpatients that tested positive for heparin-associated antiplatelet antibodies (HAAb) were reviewed. There were 33,941 inpatients, 10,348 of them having received unfractionated or low molecular weight heparins.

Abdominal aortic sarcoma: report of a case with long-term survival and review of the literature.

We present a case of an intimal epitheliod aortic sarcoma. Diagnosis was established after an aortic endarterectomy. The tumor was subsequently resected and an aortic graft was inserted.

Docetaxel, estramustine, and short-term androgen withdrawal for patients with biochemical failure after definitive local therapy for prostate cancer.

Over the past 10 years, men with prostate cancer have received earlier diagnoses and are undergoing prostatectomy and/or radiation therapy with curative intent; however, many men have increasing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels without evidence of local progression or metastatic disease during the first 2 years after definitive local therapy. Optimal treatment of men with PSA-only recurrent prostate cancer has not been established. This ongoing phase II trial is evaluating docetaxel (70 mg/m(2) administered intravenously over 1 hour on day 2 every 21 days for four cycles) and estramustine (10 mg/kg/d orally on days 1 to 5 every 21 days for four cycles) followed by bicalutamide and goserelin acetate in men with increasing PSA levels after prostatectomy and/or radiation therapy.

Multidisciplinary care for patients with breast cancer.

Breast cancer management requires a multidisciplinary approach that is tailored to the patient's stage at presentation, desire for breast conservation or reconstruction, estimation of risk of recurrence, and assessment of the benefits and toxicities of potential adjuvant therapies. At the Lahey Clinic Medical Center, breast surgeons, plastic surgeons, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists staff the Breast Cancer Treatment Clinic, and work closely together to formulate treatment plans that will optimize the likelihood for cure with an acceptable cosmetic result. This involves careful preoperative work-up, surgical axillary staging, breast irradiation in the setting of breast conservation, and selection of chemotherapy or hormonal therapy if appropriate.

Functional characterization of mutant androgen receptors from androgen-independent prostate cancer.

Mutations in the androgen receptor (AR), that alter steroid hormone specificity have been identified in a series of androgen-independent prostate cancers. To address the functional properties of these mutant ARs that may have contributed to their selection in vivo, responses to a series of steroid hormones and antiandrogens were assessed. CV-1 cells were cotransfected with wild-type or mutant ARs and a luciferase reporter plasmid regulated by an androgen-responsive element.

Zinc causes an apparent increase in rhodopsin phosphorylation.

Purpose: Rhodopsin is a zinc-binding protein. We investigated the effect of low concentrations of zinc on the initial phosphorylation of rhodopsin.

Methods: Dark-adapted bovine rod outer segments (ROS) were incubated with (gamma 32P) ATP and 5 mM magnesium in the presence and absence of micromolar amounts of zinc.

ATP-binding proteins on the external surface of synaptic plasma membranes: identification by photoaffinity labeling.

8-Azidoadenosine triphosphate labeled in the alpha or gamma position with 32P was used as a photoaffinity reagent for identifying ATP binding sites on the external surface of intact rat brain synaptosomes. As revealed by autoradiography of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic patterns. UV irradiation of intact synaptosomes in the presence of the above radioactive compounds at 5-10 microM resulted in the formation of several major radioactive conjugates with approximate molecular masses of 29, 45/46, 58, and 93 kDa.

Mutation of the androgen-receptor gene in metastatic androgen-independent prostate cancer.

Background: Metastatic prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death in men. The rate of response to androgen ablation is high, but most patients relapse as a result of the outgrowth of androgen-independent tumor cells. The androgen receptor, which binds testosterone and stimulates the transcription of androgen-responsive genes, regulates the growth of prostate cells.

Direct zinc binding to purified rhodopsin and disc membranes.

Using the radionuclide 65Zn, we have demonstrated the direct binding of zinc to purified rhodopsin. 65Zn is eluted with detergent-solubilized rhodopsin from concanavalin A columns and remains bound to the visual pigment through a subsequent gel-filtration step. Zinc binding to purified disc membranes is highly specific and, of the ions tested, copper is the best competitor.

Rat brain synaptosomal ATP:AMP-phosphotransferase activity.

Adenylate kinase activity (ATP:AMP-phosphotransferase; EC 2.7.4.

Isolation of rod outer segments on Percoll gradients: effect of specific protease inhibition.

Rat rod outer segments (ROSs) were isolated by vortexing retinas and separating the detached components on performed Percoll gradients. A lighter band of 20 x 10(6) unsealed ROSs per ten retinas, and a heavier band of 60 x 10(6) sealed ROSs per ten retinas were obtained from each 12 ml gradient. The yield of sealed ROSs (but not unsealed ROSs) was increased up to twofold in the presence of the specific cysteine protease inhibitor, Ep-475.

Nucleotide binding to the rod outer segment rim protein.

The rod photoreceptor outer segment maintains a remarkable morphology. Two of the proteins which have been implicated in the maintenance of this structure are the 240 kDa spectrin-like protein, and the 220 kDa glycoprotein often referred to as the rim protein. We have probed rat rod outer segment proteins with light-activated (azido-labeled) radioactive nucleotides and found a nucleotide binding site(s) on the rim protein which has a preference for guanine nucleotides.

8-Azido-ATP (alpha 32P) binding to rod outer segment proteins.

ATP has important roles in the vertebrate rod outer segment (ROS) physiological response to light. One of them is the quench of light-activated cGMP-phosphodiesterase activity. How ATP quenches PDE is not established; however, leading hypotheses favor the intervention of a 48-kDa ATP-binding protein and/or an ATP-utilizing rhodopsin kinase in this reaction.

Identification of a peanut agglutinin-binding protein from human retina.

With the use of an antiserum raised to peanut agglutinin (PNA)-binding protein(s) from human retinas, we have identified a glycoprotein that has the same subunit molecular weight (135,000) as human interphotoreceptor retinol-binding protein (IRBP) on human retinal protein transblots, and, like IRBP, is localized in the interphotoreceptor matrix surrounding both rods and cones. We show that this PNA-binding protein is not IRBP by comparing the binding patterns of antiserum to the PNA-binding protein to binding patterns obtained with antisera to bovine and monkey IRBP.