First trimester screening of serum advanced glycation end products levels of pregnant women who have risk factors for gestational diabetes and their obstetric outcomes: a preliminary case-control study.

Advanced glycation end-products (AGE) are complex compounds formed by nonenzymatic glycosylation of proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids with glucose in the blood. We aimed to investigate whether there was a difference in first-trimester serum AGE levels of pregnant women with and without risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and their obstetric outcomes. There were 44 women in study group who have risk factors for GDM and 44 as controls. Demographic features, serum AGE levels, adverse perinatal and neonatal outcomes were compared between groups. Five patients (11.4%) in the study group and one patient (2.3%) in the control group were diagnosed as GDM (p = .2). The serum AGE values were not statistically different between the study and control groups. There were no statistical differences between groups in terms of adverse perinatal and neonatal outcomes. However, in the group with adverse perinatal outcome (n = 25), AGE values were higher than the control group. The results of our preliminary study suggested that high-risk women for GDM did not have increased serum levels of AGE in the first trimester. Nevertheless, a high first-trimester serum AGE level was found to be associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. IMPACT STATEMENTWhat is already known on this subject? Advanced glycation end products (AGE) are markers that are associated with diabetes and its complications. For pregnant women, a high third trimester serum AGEs levels were found in women who had gestational diabetes.What do the results of this study add? The results of our study revealed that first trimester screening of serum AGE levels of women who had risk factors for gestational diabetes was not discriminate. Nevertheless, a high first trimester serum AGE levels was associated with adverse perinatal outcome.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Whether reducing exogenous sources of AGE (western-style diet, smoking) before pregnancy will be associated with better pregnancy outcomes should be investigated in future studies.

Knowledge Graphs for Indication Expansion: An Explainable Target-Disease Prediction Method.

Indication expansion aims to find new indications for existing targets in order to accelerate the process of launching a new drug for a disease on the market. The rapid increase in data types and data sources for computational drug discovery has fostered the use of semantic knowledge graphs (KGs) for indication expansion through target centric approaches, or in other words, target repositioning. Previously, we developed a novel method to construct a KG for indication expansion studies, with the aim of finding and justifying alternative indications for a target gene of interest. In contrast to other KGs, ours combines human-curated full-text literature and gene expression data from biomedical databases to encode relationships between genes, diseases, and tissues. Here, we assessed the suitability of our KG for explainable target-disease link prediction using a glass-box approach. To evaluate the predictive power of our KG, we applied shortest path with tissue information- and embedding-based prediction methods to a graph constructed with information published before or during 2010. We also obtained random baselines by applying the shortest path predictive methods to KGs with randomly shuffled node labels. Then, we evaluated the accuracy of the top predictions using gene-disease links reported after 2010. In addition, we investigated the contribution of the KG's tissue expression entity to the prediction performance. Our experiments showed that shortest path-based methods significantly outperform the random baselines and embedding-based methods outperform the shortest path predictions. Importantly, removing the tissue expression entity from the KG severely impacts the quality of the predictions, especially those produced by the embedding approaches. Finally, since the interpretability of the predictions is crucial in indication expansion, we highlight the advantages of our glass-box model through the examination of example candidate target-disease predictions.

Effect of surface sealant on the surface roughness of different composites and evaluation of their microhardness.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a surface sealant on the surface roughness of different composites and compare their microhardness values. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty disc-shaped specimens were prepared and assigned to 6 groups (n =10). Groups were prepared as follows; Group 1 (Herculite XRV Ultra), Group 2 (Beautifil Bulk Restorative) and Group 3 (Filtek Bulk Fill Posterior Restorative). Groups 4, 5, and 6 were prepared by applying a surface sealant (BisCover LV) on the specimens in groups 1, 2 and 3. Surface hardness of the discs in group 1, 2, and 3 and surface roughness of the discs in all groups were measured using the Vickers hardness test and a profilometer, respectively. One-way ANOVA was used to test for differences among the groups. RESULTS: No significant differences were observed in the microhardness and roughness between the experimental and control groups for each restorative materials. Group 3 showed the highest surface hardness and group 4 showed the lowest surface roughness values. CONCLUSION: Using the BisCover LV resin after the polishing step has no significant effect on the surface roughness. The highest hardness values were obtained for the Filtek Bulk Fill Posterior Restorative after the polishing step. The smoothest surfaces were obtained for all experimental groups using the BisCover LV resin after the polishing step, Herculite XRV Ultra showed lower average roughness values than the other materials.

Evaluation of polymerization shrinkage of bulk-fill resin composites using microcomputed tomography.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the influence of cavity depth on polymerization shrinkage of bulk-fill resin composites with and without adhesive resin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Standardized box-shaped cavities (width, 4 mm; length, 5 mm, depth, 2 mm or 4 mm) were made on occlusal surfaces of extracted human third molars (N = 60). The teeth were assigned to 3 groups to receive bulk-fill resin composites (low-viscosity bulk-fill, SDR; high-viscosity bulk-fill; Filtek Bulk-Fill-FB; and TetricEvo Ceram Bulk-Fill-TB) in the prepared cavities with and without adhesive resin (Clearfil S3 Bond). Each specimen (n = 5 per group) was scanned twice using microcomputed tomography (micro-CT): once after application of the resin composite to the cavity prior to polymerisation and once after polymerisation. The shrinkage of volumetric loss (%) was measured using micro-CT. Data were analysed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS: The material type (p < 0.05), application of adhesive resin (p < 0.05) and cavity depth (p < 0.05) significantly affected the shrinkage values. The interaction terms were also significant (p < 0.05). All the bulk-fill resin composites tested showed significantly less shrinkage when applied in cavities with adhesive resin (0.94-2.55) compared with those without (2.01-3.45) (p < 0.05) and presented significantly more shrinkage after polymerisation (p < 0.05). At a 2-mm cavity depth without (2 mm, 2.28; 4 mm, 2.41) and with adhesive (2 mm, 0.94; 4 mm, 1.67), significantly less shrinkage was observed with FB compared with SDR and TB (p < 0.05). At a 4-mm cavity depth without (3.14) and with adhesive (2.55), SDR showed significantly higher shrinkage compared with FB and TB (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The bulk-fill composites tested presented less shrinkage when used in conjunction with adhesive resin application on dentin. Overall, the low-viscosity bulk-fill resin SDR showed more shrinkage compared with high-viscosity resins tested. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Low- or high-viscosity bulk-fill resin composites should be applied on dentin after application of adhesive resin to decrease shrinkage.

Iron supplementation should be given in breath-holding spells regardless of anemia

Background/aim: The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the effectiveness of oral iron therapy in breath-holding spells and evaluation of electrocardiographical changes Materials and methods: Three hundred twelve children aged 1­48 months and diagnosed with breath-holding spells between January 2017 and April 2018 were included. Patients' laboratory findings were compared with 100 patients who had one simple febrile seizure. Results: Cyanotic breath-holding spells were diagnosed in 85.3% (n = 266) of patients, pallid spells in 5.1% (n = 16), and mixed-type spells in 9.6% (n = 30). Sleep electroencephalograms were applied for all patients, 98.2% (n = 306) of which were normal, while slow background rhythm was determined in 1.2% (n = 4). Epileptic activity was observed in only 2 patients (0.6%). The mean hemoglobin (Hb) value in the breath-holding spell group was 10.1 mg/dL. Patients' mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was 73 fL. Patients' Hb and MCV values were statistically significantly lower than those of the control group (P < 0.001). The difference between spell burden was not statistically significant (P = 0.691). Spell burden decreased equally in both groups. Conclusion: Oral iron therapy can be administered in breath-holding seizures irrespective of whether or not the patient is anemic.

Effect of Different Antioxidants on the Microtensile Bond Strength of an Adhesive System to Sodium Hypochlorite-treated Dentin.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of different antioxidant treatments on the microtensile bond strength of an adhesive system to sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl)-treated dentin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty extracted third molars were sectioned 3 mm below the occlusal surface and divided into six groups according to the antioxidant treatment received: control group: distilled water; NaOCl group: 5.25% NaOCl and distilled water; proanthocyanidin (PA) group: 5.25% NaOCl, 5% PA and distilled water; 1-week storage group: 5.25% NaOCl and storage for 1 week in distilled water; Accel group: 5.25% NaOCl, Accel, and distilled water; noni group: 5.25% NaOCl, noni fruit juice, and distilled water. NaOCl, PA, Accel, noni, and distilled water were administered for 30 s, 10 min, 30 s, 10 min, and 30 s, respectively. A self-etching adhesive system (Single Bond Universal Adhesive) was applied to each specimen and a resin composite (Filtek Z550) was built up to a height of 5 mm on the dentin surface. Each specimen was serially sectioned to obtain sticks with a cross-sectional area of 1 mm2, and their microtensile bond strength was determined. Statistical differences between groups were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tamhane's T2 test. RESULTS: Microtensile bond strength in the NaOCl group was significantly lower than in all other groups. However, there were no significant differences in the bond strength between the groups treated with different antioxidants. CONCLUSIONS: NaOCl significantly reduced the microtensile bond strength of the adhesive system. The application of PA, Accel, and noni fruit juice to NaOCl-treated dentin significantly improved the microtensile bond strength.

Randomized controlled trial of the 2-year clinical performance of a silorane-based resin composite in class 1 posterior restorations.

PURPOSE: To compare the 2-year clinical performance of a silorane-based resin composite with that of an established nanoceramic resin composite for class 1 posterior restorations. METHODS: In this randomized controlled study, 100 class 1 molar cavities were prepared in 50 subjects. Each subject received a restoration with Filtek Silorane and Ceram.X Duo in different quadrants. The restorations were evaluated using the modified USPHS criteria at baseline and 6, 12, and 24 months. Parametric changes over the 2-year period were assessed with the Friedman test. The baseline and recall scores were compared by using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P < 0.05). RESULTS: No subject developed secondary caries or postoperative sensitivity. Further, the resin composites showed no significant differences in all the evaluated parameters over 2 years (P > 0.05). At 2 years, four Filtek Silorane and seven Ceram.X Duo restorations had Bravo scores for anatomic form, marginal adaptation, and surface texture (P < 0.05); however, these changes were mainly the effect of scoring shifts from Alfa to Bravo. Overall, both materials showed good clinical results with predominantly Alfa scores.