Diagnosis of tooth wear

Tooth wear is gradually increasing with increasing life expectancy. In particular, it is important to establish a treatment plan in the early stages so that it does not proceed to moderate or severe wear stages. It is essential to diagnose tooth wear accurately in order to plan a treatment for it. There are many risk factors including age, diet, and drugs which affects tooth wear. For the diagnosis of a tooth wear, appropriate index and evaluation method should be used. There were various tooth wear indices such as TWI, Lussi index, BEWE, and TWES. The evaluation method includes clinical examination, dental cast examination and clinical photographs. Recently, a 3D scanner is being used to assess tooth wear. The risk factors, tooth wear evaluation system, the methods of measuring tooth wear, and related literature were reviewed. The strengths and weaknesses of each index and evaluation methods were compared to derive a proper way to diagnose tooth wear.

Evaluation of Digital PCR as a Technique for Monitoring Acute Rejection in Kidney Transplantation

Early detection and proper management of kidney rejection are crucial for the long-term health of a transplant recipient. Recipients are normally monitored by serum creatinine measurement and sometimes with graft biopsies. Donor-derived cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) in the recipient's plasma and/or urine may be a better indicator of acute rejection. We evaluated digital PCR (dPCR) as a system for monitoring graft status using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based detection of donor DNA in plasma or urine. We compared the detection abilities of the QX200, RainDrop, and QuantStudio 3D dPCR systems. The QX200 was the most accurate and sensitive. Plasma and/or urine samples were isolated from 34 kidney recipients at multiple time points after transplantation, and analyzed by dPCR using the QX200. We found that donor DNA was almost undetectable in plasma DNA samples, whereas a high percentage of donor DNA was measured in urine DNA samples, indicating that urine is a good source of cfDNA for patient monitoring. We found that at least 24% of the highly polymorphic SNPs used to identify individuals could also identify donor cfDNA in transplant patient samples. Our results further showed that autosomal, sex-specific, and mitochondrial SNPs were suitable markers for identifying donor cfDNA. Finally, we found that donor-derived cfDNA measurement by dPCR was not sufficient to predict a patient's clinical condition. Our results indicate that donor-derived cfDNA is not an accurate predictor of kidney status in kidney transplant patients.

Validity of Estimating EuroQol (EQ5D) from a Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) / 대한류마티스학회지

OBJECTIVE: Assessment of health-related quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has become important in health research. Health economists have used linear regression equations to mathematically transform changes in HAQ scores into EQ5D data, which can be used to calculate quality adjusted life years (QALYs). We aimed to examine whether a given approach is justified. METHODS: A total of 223 patients with RA were recruited from the Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases at Hanyang University. They completed the HAQ and EQ5D and a correlation analysis was performed between the two instruments. We compared HAQ and EQ5D score changes for patients who completed the EQ5D and HAQ at first and second visits (n=159). Predicted EQ5D was estimated from the HAQ using the calculating method of Bansnack et al. The mean difference between the predicted EQ5D from the HAQ and observed health utility score at the first visit and change during the study were tested by the paired t-test. RESULTS: In the cross-sectional study, EQ5D scores were moderately inversely correlated with HAQ (r=-0.716, p<0.001). However, the predicted EQ5D from the HAQ was significantly different from the observed EQ5D (p=0.001; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.020~0.079). The change in EQ5D was also inversely correlated with the change in the HAQ (r=-0.615, p<0.001), and change in the predicted EQ5D scores corresponded well with changes in observed health utility scores (p=0.155; 95% CI (-0.0873~0.0140). CONCLUSION: Changes in predicted EQ5D corresponded with observer changes in EQ5D, suggesting that it may be better to use predicted EQ5D form HAQ to identify change in the quality of life.

Characteristics of Korean Patients with RA: A Single Center Cohort Study / 대한류마티스학회지

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to describe the general characteristics and potential susceptibility genes of a large cohort of Korean rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS: After giving consent, the patients were invited to undergo a structured interview and clinical examination that were performed by rheumatologists and a specially trained research nurse. When appropriate, the information obtained by interview was supplemented by information from the patient's medical record. We reviewed the genetic studies for the subjects in the Hanyang RA cohort to investigate the genetic characteristics of Korean RA patients. RESULTS: The mean age of the Hanyang RA cohort was 51.6+/-12.4 years, and 88.1% were women. The unemployment rate was 19.6%, and 52.2% of the patients had limitation of everyday life or their work life. The mean age at the time of disease onset was 41.0+/-12.9 years and the duration from disease onset to initiation of treatment was 23.6+/-57.1 months. The smoking rate of the Hanyang RA cohort was 16.8%, and 30.8% of the patients were exposed to passive smoking. Total joint arthroplastys were performed in 158 (10.3%) patients, and the most common operation site was the knee. On the review of the genetic studies for the Hanyang RA cohort, the representative susceptibility genes for the development of RA were HLA-DRB1, PADI4, STAT4 and TRAF1-C5. CONCLUSION: This data of Korean RA patients can be used as the preliminary data for important studies. Establishment of a large prospective, multicenter cohort is imperative to determine the characteristics of Korean RA, and the Hanyang RA cohort is expected to play a lead role for this.