Proposal for a myofunctional therapy protocol in case of altered lingual frenulum. A pilot study.

In this article, the authors propose a specific Myofunctional Therapy Protocol for patients with altered lingual frenulum. In such cases tongue muscles are hypofunctioning and their range of motion is reduced. To compensate for this limitation, dysfunctional lingual motor patterns are established, such as the use of some muscles at the expense of others; this negatively affects the development and functions of the stomatognathic system. The Myofunctional Therapy Protocol presented in this pilot study was developed with the aim of making the muscles of the tongue, the floor of the mouth and the soft palate more coordinated, and increasing muscle contraction strength, in order to produce improvements on the muscle tone, on orofacial and nasal functions and a better wound healing and functional recovery in the case of surgical therapy (frenulotomy).

Simultaneous quantification of Gemcitabine and Irinotecan hydrochloride in rat plasma by using high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector.

In this manuscript we aimed at the simultaneous separation and quantification of Gemcitabine and Irinotecan hydrochloride (injected both as single components and in combination) from Sprague Dawley rat plasma by using a validated method obtained through the use of a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)-diode array detector (DAD). Gemcitabine and Irinotecan hydrochloride were detected and quantified using a Zorbax Extend C-18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm; 5 µm particle size) in gradient elution mode. The chromatographic analyses were carried out in 15 min. The analytical mode was calibrated and validated in the concentration range from 0.1 to 18 µg/mL both for Gemcitabine and Irinotecan hydrochloride. Sprague Dawley rat plasma was used to perform the analysis. 3-methylxanthine was the internal standard. The weighted-matrix matched standard curves of Gemcitabine and Irinotecan hydrochloride showed a good linearity up to 18 µg/mL. Parallelism tests were also performed to evaluate whether the over-range samples could be analyzed after dilution without affecting the analytical performance. The intra- and inter-day precision (RSD%) values of Gemcitabine and Irinotecan hydrochloride were ≤7.14% and ≤11.5%, respectively. The intra- and inter-day trueness (Bias%) values were in the range from -11.5% to 1.70% for both drugs. The analytical mode performance was further tested after collecting Sprague Dawley rat plasma following a single-dose administration of chemotherapeutics or their association. The validated HPLC-DAD method allowed the simultaneous quantification of Gemcitabine and Irinotecan hydrochloride in the rat plasma, besides the evaluation of the pharmacokinetic parameters and drug delivery.

Modelling the temperature evolution of bone under high intensity focused ultrasound.

Magnetic resonance-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU) has been clinically shown to be effective for palliative pain management in patients suffering from skeletal metastasis. The underlying mechanism is supposed to be periosteal denervation caused by ablative temperatures reached through ultrasound heating of the cortex. The challenge is exact temperature control during sonication as MR-based thermometry approaches for bone tissue are currently not available. Thus, in contrast to the MR-HIFU ablation of soft tissue, a thermometry feedback to the HIFU is lacking, and the treatment of bone metastasis is entirely based on temperature information acquired in the soft tissue adjacent to the bone surface. However, heating of the adjacent tissue depends on the exact sonication protocol and requires extensive modelling to estimate the actual temperature of the cortex. Here we develop a computational model to calculate the spatial temperature evolution in bone and the adjacent tissue during sonication. First, a ray-tracing technique is used to compute the heat production in each spatial point serving as a source term for the second part, where the actual temperature is calculated as a function of space and time by solving the Pennes bio-heat equation. Importantly, our model includes shear waves that arise at the bone interface as well as all geometrical considerations of transducer and bone geometry. The model was compared with a theoretical approach based on the far field approximation and an MR-HIFU experiment using a bone phantom. Furthermore, we investigated the contribution of shear waves to the heat production and resulting temperatures in bone. The temperature evolution predicted by our model was in accordance with the far field approximation and agreed well with the experimental data obtained in phantoms. Our model allows the simulation of the HIFU treatments of bone metastasis in patients and can be extended to a planning tool prior to MR-HIFU treatments.

Angiogenic potential of human dental pulp stromal (stem) cells.

Dental pulp is a heterogeneous microenviroment where unipotent progenitor and pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells cohabit. In this study we investigated whether human dental pulp stromal (stem) cells (DP-SCs) committed to the angiogenic fate. DP-SCs showed the specific mesenchymal immunophenotypical profile positive for CD29, CD44, CD73, CD105, CD166 and negative for CD14, CD34, CD45, in accordance with that reported for bone marrow-derived SCs. The Oct-4 expression in DP-SCs, evaluated through RT-PCR analysis, increased in relation with the number of the passages in cell culture and decreased after angiogenic induction. In agreement with their multipotency, DP-SCs differentiated toward osteogenic and adipogenic commitments. In angiogenic experiments, differentiation of DP-SCs, through vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induction, was evaluated by in vitro matrigel assay and by cytometric analysis. Accordingly, endothelial-specific markers like Flt-1 and KDR were basally expressed and they increased after exposure to VEGF together with the occurrence of ICAM-1 and von Willebrand factor positive cells. In addition, VEGF-induced DP-SCs maintained endothelial cell-like features when cultured in a 3-D fibrin mesh, displaying focal organization into capillary-like structures. The DP-SC angiogenic potential may prove a remarkable tool for novel approaches to developing tissue-engineered vascular grafts which are useful when vascularization of ischemic tissues is required.

Mild cognitive impairment: loss of linguistic task-induced changes in motor cortex excitability.

BACKGROUND: In amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), functional neuronal connectivity may be altered, as suggested by quantitative EEG and neuroimaging data. In young healthy humans, the execution of linguistic tasks modifies the excitability of the hand area of the dominant primary motor cortex (M1(hand)), as tested by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We used TMS to investigate functional connectivity between language-related cortical areas and M1(hand) in aMCI. METHODS: Ten elderly women with aMCI and 10 age-matched women were recruited. All participants were right handed and underwent a neuropsychological evaluation. In the first TMS experiment, participants performed three different tasks: reading aloud, viewing of non-letter strings (baseline), and nonverbal oral movements. The second experiment included the baseline condition and three visual searching/matching tasks using letters, geometric shapes, or digits as target stimuli. RESULTS: In controls, motor evoked potentials (MEP) elicited by suprathreshold TMS of the left M1(hand) were significantly larger during reading aloud (170% baseline) than during nonverbal oral movements, whereas no difference was seen for right M1(hand) stimulation. Similarly, MEP elicited by left M1(hand) stimulation during letter and shape searching/matching tasks were significantly larger compared to digit task. In contrast, linguistic task performance did not produce any significant MEP modulation in patients with aMCI, although neuropsychological evaluation showed normal language abilities. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that functional connectivity between the language-related brain regions and the dominant M1(hand) may be altered in amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Follow-up studies will reveal whether transcranial magnetic stimulation application during linguistic tasks may contribute to characterize the risk of conversion to Alzheimer disease.

[Pharmacological prevention of exercise-induced bronchospasm: review of the literature and trial of disodium cromoglycate, fenoterol and ipratropium bromide in a pediatric population]. / Prevenzione farmacologica della broncostruzione indotta dall'esercizio fisico: revisione della letteratura e sperimentazione del disodiocromoglicato, del fenoterolo e del bromuro di ipratropio su una popolazione pediatrica.

Exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) is an instrumentally-measurable paraphysiologic phenomenon, related to bronchial hyperreactivity in asthmatic children. Therefore EIB is very useful to evaluate airways hyperreactivity and pharmacological treatment in asthmatic child. We have evaluate EIB inhibition and bronchodilator effect of three drugs: Disodiumcromoglycate (DSCG), Fenoterol (F), Ipratropium Bromide (IB), in a group of 27 asymptomatic and therapy-free asthmatic children. The bronchial provocation test was performed by physical exercise (free-running for six minutes) according to criteria stated by Paediatric Bronchopneumology Group of S.I.P. Therefore we have analysed the most recent studies to correlate our results with other's data: our study confirm DSCG and Beta-adrenergic drugs effectiveness; theophylline has a similar validity, but is less useful in clinical practice; anticholinergic drugs and corticosteroids seem less valid; the new drugs (Ketotifen, alpha-blockers and calcium antagonists) need further controlled studies.

[Physical exercise-induced bronchospasm in asthmatic children. Clinical usefulness of the specific free-running bronchial provocation test]. / Broncostruzione indotta dall'esercizio fisico in bambini asmatici. Utilità clinica del test di provocazione bronchiale aspecifica mediante corsa libera.

Exercise-induced bronchospasm (E.I.B.) is frequently observed in children. Here are reported the correlation between E.I.B. and some clinical-anamnestical parameters found in a group of thirty-eight asthmatic children examined by exercise. The aspecific bronchial provocation test was performed with six minutes free-running. The exercise-induced bronchospasm was estimated by bronchial obstruction index (b.o.i.). All the children were tested at 4 p.m., out of attacks, without clinical signs of airway obstruction, with basal pick-flow rate (PEFR) at least 80% of predicted. We have looked for the possible correlations between E.I.B. and the following parameters: sex, exercise-induced asthma, house heating, season, period of clinical remission, length of the disease and number of attacks per year. These results indicate that bronchial provocation test with free-running is useful in asthmatic children to objectify the bronchial hyperreactivity and to follow-up the course of the disease.