Dental panoramic indices and fractal dimension measurements in osteogenesis imperfecta children under pamidronate treatment.

Objectives: To verify radiomorphometric indices and fractal dimension (FD) in dental panoramic radiographs (DPRs) of children with different types of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) and also to verify the effect of pamidronate (PAM) treatment in such panoramic analyses.

Methods: In this retrospective study, 197 DPRs of 62 children with OI Types I, III and IV who were in treatment with a comparable dosage of intravenous PAM were selected. The mandibular cortical width (MCW), mandibular cortical index, visual estimation of the cortical width and FD of three standardized trabecular and cortical mandibular regions of interest were obtained from the radiographs.

Pamidronate affects the mandibular cortex of children with osteogenesis imperfecta.

We hypothesized that mandibular cortical width (MCW) is smaller in children with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) than in healthy children and that pamidronate can improve the cortical mandibular thickness. The aim of this study was to assess changes in the MCW on dental panoramic radiographs (DPRs) of children with normal bone mineral density (BMD) and with OI. We also compared the MCW of children with different types of OI regarding the number of pamidronate cycles and age at the beginning of treatment.

Fractal dimension and mandibular cortical width in normal and osteoporotic men and women.

Objective: To verify whether fractal dimensions (FD) on the mandibular trabecular and cortical bone and mandibular cortical width (MCW) differ between patients with normal bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis.

Study Design: In this retrospective study, 133 dental panoramic radiographs from men aged >60 years and postmenopausal women with a bone densitometry report of the lumbar spine and hip classified as either normal or osteoporotic were selected. Fractal dimensions of five standardized trabecular and cortical mandibular regions of interest and mandibular cortical width were measured on the panoramic radiographs by an experienced oral radiologist, blinded to the densitometric diagnosis.

Experimental selective sympathicotomy (ramicotomy) and sympathetic regeneration.

Ramicotomy is a surgical procedure, with less adverse effects than conventional sympathectomy, however, it was abandoned due to the high recurrence rate. Twenty-eight pigs underwent bilateral videothoracoscopic ramicotomy and were divided into five groups. The animals were sacrificed at 15th, 45th, 90th, 135th and 180th postoperative days (POD).