Intestinal Metaplasia Associated with Symptoms of Dyspepsia.

Background: Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) and Helicobacter pylori (HP) are associated with dyspepsia, but the role of gastric intestinal metaplasia (IM) has not been described. The objective of this study is to examine the association between gastric IM and dyspepsia. Methods: We developed a cohort of consecutive patients referred to gastroenterology between Jan 2019 and July 2020 for dyspepsia and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and completed an upper endoscopy with biopsies in a safety-net health system. The primary outcome was the prevalence of gastric IM in patients with dyspepsia compared to IDA. Secondary outcomes included prevalence of HP, chronic gastritis (CG) and chronic active gastritis (CAG) in the dyspepsia and IDA groups. A multivariable analysis was performed to assess the independent association between gastric IM and dyspepsia. Results: Compared to the IDA cohort (n = 366), patients with dyspepsia (n = 349) were more likely to be female (65% vs. 47%, p < 0.01), harbor gastric IM (20.3% vs. 14.2%, p = 0.03), and less likely to have CAG (12.0% vs. 26.5%, p < 0.01) or HP (10.9% vs. 21.3%, p < 0.01). After adjusting for pathological findings, race, ethnicity, gender and age, the association strengthened between IM and dyspepsia (adj OR 1.81 from OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.19-2.76, p < 0.01). Conclusions: We observed a significant relationship between the presence of gastric IM and dyspepsia symptoms, which increased after adjusting for confounding factors. Future studies should verify the relationship between IM and dyspepsia, the effect of IM regression, and possible mediators of gastric IM on symptoms.

The activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein, Arc, functions in the nucleus accumbens shell to limit multiple triggers of cocaine-seeking behaviour.

Use of addictive substances like cocaine produces enduring associations between the drug experience and cues in the drug-taking environment. In individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) and attempting to remain abstinent, these powerful drug-cue associations can trigger a return to active drug use, but the molecular mechanisms regulating drug-cue associations remain poorly understood. The activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) is induced by cocaine in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), an important brain reward region, but Arc's NAc function in SUD-related behaviour remains unclear. We show here that cocaine self-administration (SA) in rats produced a significant upregulation of Arc protein in both the core and shell subregions of the NAc. Subregion-specific Arc reduction (shRNA) in the medial NAc Shell enhanced both context-associated and cue-reinstated cocaine seeking, but without altering the motivation to work for cocaine, the sensitivity to the reinforcing effects of cocaine or the ability of cocaine priming to reinstate drug seeking. In contrast, we observed no effects of Arc knockdown in the NAc core on any aspect of cocaine SA, extinction or reinstated cocaine seeking, suggesting that Arc functions within the medial NAc shell, but not NAc core, to limit the strength of drug-context and drug-cue associations that promote cocaine-seeking behaviour.

A meta-analytic review of comprehension deficits in students with dyslexia.

Beyond the established difficulties of individuals with dyslexia in word recognition and spelling, it remains unclear how severe their difficulties in comprehension are. To examine this, we performed a meta-analytic review. A random-effects model analysis of data from 76 studies revealed a large deficit in reading comprehension in individuals with dyslexia compared to their chronological-age (CA) controls (g = 1.43) and a smaller one compared to their reading-level (RL) matched controls (g = 0.64). Individuals with dyslexia also differed significantly from their CA controls in listening comprehension (g = 0.43). Results further showed significant heterogeneity in the effect sizes that was partly explained by orthographic consistency (the deficits were larger in languages with low orthographic consistency) and vocabulary matching (the deficits were larger in studies in which the groups were not matched on vocabulary). These findings suggest, first, that individuals with dyslexia experience significant difficulties in both reading and listening comprehension, but the effect sizes are smaller than those reported in the literature for word reading and spelling. Second, our findings suggest that the deficits in reading comprehension are likely a combination of deficits in both decoding and oral language skills.

Is orthographic knowledge a strength or a weakness in individuals with dyslexia? Evidence from a meta-analysis.

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine if individuals with dyslexia (DYS) have a deficit in orthographic knowledge. We reviewed a total of 68 studies published between January 1990 and December 2019, representing a total of 7215 participants. There were 80 independent samples in the chronological-age (CA)-DYS comparison and 33 independent samples in the comparison between DYS and reading-level (RL) controls. A random-effects model analysis revealed a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.17) for the CA-DYS comparison and a small effect size (Cohen's d = 0.18) for the RL-DYS comparison. In addition, we found significant heterogeneity in the effect sizes that was partly explained by the level of orthographic knowledge (effect sizes being higher for lexical than sub-lexical orthographic knowledge). These results suggest that individuals with dyslexia experience an orthographic knowledge deficit that is as large as that of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming reported in previous meta-analyses.

How does rapid automatized naming influence orthographic knowledge?

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is a strong predictor of reading fluency across languages, and some researchers have attributed this to the contribution of RAN to the development of orthographic knowledge, which is predictive of reading fluency. However, to date, it remains unclear whether RAN (alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric) predicts orthographic knowledge (OK) and what skills may mediate their relation. To examine the RAN-OK relations, we assessed 114 Grade 3 Spanish-speaking Mexican children (58 girls; Mage = 7.9 years, SD = 0.3) on RAN (objects and digits), orthographic knowledge (lexical and sublexical; accuracy and response time), speed of processing, multi-element processing, phonemic awareness, and reading fluency. Path analyses showed first that, OK (both lexical and sublexical) partly mediated the effects of RAN on reading fluency. Second, multiple mediation analyses showed an indirect effect of both RAN tasks on lexical and sublexical OK through phonological awareness. In view of Ehri's amalgamation hypothesis and Share's self-teaching hypothesis, our findings suggest that RAN may reflect, in part, the speed with which the phonological representations of letters are accessed and retrieved, which subsequently influences how quickly orthographic representations can be formed and accessed.

Microneedles: a valuable physical enhancer to increase transdermal drug delivery.

Transdermal drug delivery offers an attractive alternative to the conventional drug delivery methods of oral administration and injection. However, the stratum corneum acts as a barrier that limits the penetration of substances through the skin. Recently, the use of micron-scale needles in increasing skin permeability has been proposed and shown to dramatically increase transdermal delivery. Microneedles have been fabricated with a range of sizes, shapes, and materials. Most in vitro drug delivery studies have shown these needles to increase skin permeability to a broad range of drugs that differ in molecular size and weight. In vivo studies have demonstrated satisfactory release of oligonucleotides and insulin and the induction of immune responses from protein and DNA vaccines. Microneedles inserted into the skin of human subjects were reported to be painless. For all these reasons, microneedles are a promising technology to deliver drugs into the skin. This review presents the main findings concerning the use of microneedles in transdermal drug delivery. It also covers types of microneedles, their advantages and disadvantages, enhancement mechanisms, and trends in transdermal drug delivery.

Electroporation as an efficient physical enhancer for skin drug delivery.

Transdermal drug delivery offers an attractive alternative to the conventional drug delivery methods of oral administration and injection. However, the stratum corneum acts as a barrier that limits the penetration of substances through the skin. Application of high-voltage pulses to the skin increases its permeability (electroporation) and enables the delivery of various substances into and through the skin. The application of electroporation to the skin has been shown to increase transdermal drug delivery. Moreover, electroporation, used alone or in combination with other enhancement methods, expands the range of drugs (small to macromolecules, lipophilic or hydrophilic, charged or neutral molecules) that can be delivered transdermally. The efficacy of transport depends on the electrical parameters and the physicochemical properties of drugs. The in vivo application of high-voltage pulses is well tolerated, but muscle contractions are usually induced. The electrode and patch design is an important issue to reduce the discomfort of the electrical treatment in humans. This review presents the main findings in the field of electroporation-namely, transdermal drug delivery. Particular attention is paid to proposed enhancement mechanisms and trends in the field of topical and transdermal delivery.

The use of sonophoresis in the administration of drugs throughout the skin.

Transdermal drug delivery offers an attractive alternative to the conventional drug delivery methods of oral administration and injection. However, the stratum corneum acts as a barrier that limits the penetration of substances through the skin. Application of ultrasound to the skin increases its permeability (sonophoresis) and enables the delivery of various substances into and through the skin. Ultrasound has been used extensively for medical diagnostics and to a certain extent in medical therapy (physiotherapy, ultrasonic surgery, hyperthermia). Nevertheless, it has only recently become popular as a technique to enhance drug release from drug delivery systems. A number of studies suggest the use of ultrasound as an external mean of delivering drugs at increased rates and at desired times. This review presents the main findings in the field of sonophoresis, namely transdermal drug delivery and transdermal monitoring. Particular attention is paid to proposed enhancement mechanisms and trends in the field of topical and transdermal delivery.

Autotrasplante dentario. presentación de un caso / Dental autotransplantion: presentation of a case

Se realiza una revisión bibliográfica sobre auto y homotrasplante dentario, donde se destaca la importancia que tiene el trauma quirúrgico y el ligamiento perodontal para la reinserción y cicatrización del diente trasplantado. Se presenta un caso clínico de trasplante del tercer molar inferior retenido a la posición del primer molar extraído por caries con resultados satisfactorios (AU)

Autotransplante dentario: presentación de un caso / Dental autotransplantion: presentation of a case

Se realiza una revisión bibliográfica sobre auto y homotrasplante dentario, donde se destaca la importancia que tiene el trauma quirúrgico y el ligamiento perodontal para la reinserción y cicatrización del diente trasplantado. Se presenta un caso clínico de trasplante del tercer molar inferior retenido a la posición del primer molar extraído por caries con resultados satisfactorios