Correlation and stability of heart rate and ventricular ectopy variability in patients with congestive heart failure.

The stability of indexes of heart rate variability and their possible association with spontaneous variability of ventricular ectopy was examined in 13 patients with advanced congestive heart failure over 14 consecutive days of 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic recording. It was found that time and frequency domain measures of heart rate variability are stable over time and are inversely correlated with spontaneous variability of ventricular ectopy.

Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis: case report.

Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis is a rare disorder. A case of a male patient presenting with loss of pain and temperature sensation, lack of sweat, and mild mental retardation is described. Differential diagnosis with similar pathological conditions is presented. Although 15 similar cases have been reported in the medical literature, this is the first case in which the dental characteristics are described in detail and the dental treatment of patients is discussed.

[Oral habits. Etiology and treatment]. / Stomatikes hexeis. Aitiologia - antimetopise.

Oral habits have been described by psychologists and psychyatrists as psychodynamic phenomena. Dentists are concerned with oral habits because of the detrimental consequences they have in the oral facial system. The dentist who is in a position to confront a child with an oral habit in order to treat his dentinofacial problems is required to be aware of the psychological background of his patient as well as of the conditions under which the children do the habit in order to overcome emotional difficulties. The dentist should also search into the child's family to find out what the causes of the child's oral habit maybe. For the treatment of an oral habit the dentist should ensure both the child's and the family's cooperation and he should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of every available method for treatment. Methods of treatment are: Use of orthodontic appliances: This method has the disadvantage that disturbs the child's psychological need for the habit, it can be interpreted as a punishment, it is visible and it causes speaking difficulties. It should be applied only in cooperation with the child. Behavioristic technique: This method aims to reinforce the child's positive behavior according to the Skinnerian principle: stimulus-response-reward. It has fast results but it is a conditioned treatment. Psychoanalytic method: It could solve the problem of the child's primary need for the oral habit in a radical manner. However it is practically impossible to be applied in Dentistry. Behavior modification according to ego psychology. With this method we attempt to analyse and understand the psychological cause of an oral habit.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Hemophilic patients. Treatment protocol in the dental office]. / O aimorrhophilikos asthenes--protokollo antimetopises sto odontiatreio.

Hemophilia is an inherited hemorrhagic disease which is due to the insufficiency of Factor VIII, or Factor IX, or Factor XI. Hemophilia patients are regarded as special patients with increased dental problems. The present paper consists of two parts. In the first part the types of hemophilia, ways of transmission, severity forms, and clinical characteristics are described. In the second part a protocol concerning the dental treatment of hemophilia patients is presented. There are four basic types of hemophilia: hemophilia A or classical hemophilia or Factor VIII deficiency, hemophilia B or Christmas disease, hemophilia C and von Willebrand's disease. Hemophilia is transmitted either as a sex-linked recessive or as an autosomal dominant trait, depending on the type of the disease. The severity of hemophilia depends on the amount of the coagulation factor present. According to this amount, there are four scales of severity. The clinical characteristics of the disease also depend on the amount of the factor present and vary, from occasional bleedings to serious and even life-threatening bleeding episodes. In the second part of the paper the special psychological and physiological problems of the hemophiliacs are discussed. In addition, there is reference to the hematologic coverage these patients need, as well as to the protection measures for the dental personnel against hepatitis and AIDS. The dental treatment plan at the office is presented in detail, including a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the treatment of hemophilia patients in the operating room under general anesthesia.