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Purpose: Clinicians often do not have the benefit of adequate safety or clinical data when evaluating the merit of either newly marketed implant devices or novel clinical procedures. This has been the case for dental implants following the initial documentation of their safety and efficacy and is demonstrated in the evolution of immediate load application. Following demonstration of safety and successful application of an implant in an animal study prior to its market release, this report provides the clinical outcomes for the first 100 Ti-Unite implants provided to 24 patients in a clinical practice over 9 years. Materials and Methods: An electronic record/clinical database review of consecutive early loaded implants from a multiple surgeon/single prosthodontist practice was conducted for quality assurance. Data extraction of standard exposure and outcome variables was accomplished by a trained individual not affiliated with the clinical practice. Results: The results revealed one failure before and none following definitive restoration with a variety of prostheses. The mean length of time from immediate to definitive restorations was 5.3 ± 1.1 months for crowns, 3.9 ± 1.3 months for fixed partial dentures, and 7.8 ± 4.1 months for mandibular 'hybrid' prostheses. The most common unexpected findings during the initial three postinsertion visits were lost access restoration and cement failure. Conclusions: Pre-market animal data regarding the safety and success of a new implant used with an early loading protocol was replicated in the clinical results of the first 100 implants used in practice. Additionally, the clinical results are favorable when compared to conventional loading protocols from this same practice and provide helpful comparative metrics (delayed vs immediate loading) to use when discussing implant treatment with patients. Int J Prosthodont 2011;24:199-203. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the 20th century, more than 370 villages with a total amount of about 120,000 inhabitants have been relocated in Germany due to open-pit lignite mining. The devastation of villages and resettlement of their inhabitants had and still have massive implications on the rural landscape and settlement structure of the region. The planning of the relocations reflects, to a great extent, social, economic, and political change in post-war Germany, as well as development in town planning and architectural concepts. The paper focuses on there settlements that took place due to the surface mine of Welzow-Süd (Lusatia, southern Brandenburg), where the development of the resettlement practices of the GDR since the late 1960s and after reunification up until today can be studied in one single open-pit mine.

Purpose: This case series examined preoperative findings and the surgical, anesthetic, and postoperative management of 6 patients with congenital myopathies (CMs) and congenital muscular dystrophies (CMDs) treated at a tertiary medical institution with orthognathic surgery over 15 years to describe pertinent considerations for performing orthognathic surgery in these complex patients., Materials and Methods: According to the institutional review board-approved protocol, chart records were reviewed for all orthognathic surgical patients with a clinical, genetic, or muscle biopsy-proved diagnosis of CM or CMD., Results: Six patients (5 male, 1 female) qualified, and they were treated by 4 surgeons in the division of oral and maxillofacial surgery from 1992 through 2007. Average age was 19.5 years at the time of orthognathic surgery. Five patients had Class III malocclusions and 1 patient had Class II malocclusion. All 6 patients had apertognathia with lip incompetence. Nasoendotracheal intubation with a difficulty of 0/3 (0=easiest, 3=most difficult) was performed in all cases. Routine induction and maintenance anesthetics, including halogenated agents and nondepolarizing muscle relaxants, were administered without malignant hyperthermia. All 6 patients underwent Le Fort level osteotomies; 4 also had mandibular setback surgery with or without balancing mandibular inferior border osteotomies. Five patients required planned intensive care unit care postoperatively (average, 18.4 days; range, 4 to 65 days). Postoperative respiratory complications resulting in major blood oxygen desaturations occurred in 5 patients; 4 of these patients required reintubation during emergency code response. Five patients required extended postoperative intubation (average, 4.2 days; range, 3 to 6 days) and ventilatory support. Average hospital length of stay was 21.8 days (range, 6 to 75 days). Average postoperative follow-up interval was 29.8 weeks (range, 6 to 128 weeks)., Conclusions: Patients with CMs or CMDs often have characteristic dentofacial malocclusions that contribute to functional problems with feeding and drooling and psychosocial problems. Orthognathic surgery, usually bimaxillary, can be judiciously considered in these patients; these procedures typically require multidisciplinary pre- and postoperative evaluation and care over lengthy hospital stays with a high risk of respiratory complications that bear consideration in treatment planning., (Copyright © 2016 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

West Nile virions incorporate 180 envelope (E) proteins that orchestrate the process of virus entry and are the primary target of neutralizing antibodies. The E proteins of newly synthesized West Nile virus (WNV) are organized into trimeric spikes composed of pre-membrane (prM) and E protein heterodimers. During egress, immature virions undergo a protease-mediated cleavage of prM that results in a reorganization of E protein into the pseudo-icosahedral arrangement characteristic of mature virions. While cleavage of prM is a required step in the virus life cycle, complete maturation is not required for infectivity and infectious virions may be heterogeneous with respect to the extent of prM cleavage. In this study, we demonstrate that virion maturation impacts the sensitivity of WNV to antibody-mediated neutralization. Complete maturation results in a significant reduction in sensitivity to neutralization by antibodies specific for poorly accessible epitopes that comprise a major component of the human antibody response following WNV infection or vaccination. This reduction in neutralization sensitivity reflects a decrease in the accessibility of epitopes on virions to levels that fall below a threshold required for neutralization. Thus, in addition to a role in facilitating viral entry, changes in E protein arrangement associated with maturation modulate neutralization sensitivity and introduce an additional layer of complexity into humoral immunity against WNV.

Simpson Golabi Behmel syndrome (SGBS) is a complex congenital overgrowth syndrome with features that include macroglossia, macrosomia, and renal and skeletal abnormalities as well as an increased risk of embryonal cancers. Most cases of SGBS appear to arise as a result of either deletions or point mutations within the glypican-3 (GPC3) gene at Xq26, one member of a multigene family encoding for at least six distinct glycosylphophatidylinositol-linked cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans. As a class of molecules, heparan sulfate proteoglycans have been found to play essential roles in development by modulating cellular responses to growth factors and morphogens. Specifically, mutations in both the murine GPC3 gene and the Drosophila glypican, dally, have been found to modify cellular responses to bone morphogenetic proteins, providing important clues to the molecular basis of SGBS in humans. Despite these advances, there remains a paucity of information about the natural history of SGBS and optimal medical management strategies, and whether select mutations influence the SGBS phenotype and risk of cancer. To this end, an International SGBS Registry has been created and is being maintained to improve the clinical care and understanding of the pathogenesis of SGBS. Using an integrated approach employing epidemiology, molecular genetic characterization of specific GPC3 mutations, and the use of model organisms should rapidly expand the understanding of this complex disorder., (Copyright 2001 Academic Press.)