Serum Inflammatory and Prooxidant Marker Levels in Different Periodontal Disease Stages.

BACKGROUND: Periodontitis has been associated to systemic diseases and this association could be due to an increase in circulating inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers in the periodontal disease. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between inflammatory and pro-oxidant markers according to different stages of periodontitis. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 70 subjects who were divided into three groups according to periodontitis stage: stage II (n = 22), stage III (n = 30), and stage IV (n = 18). We evaluated periodontal parameters and levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), fibrinogen, and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum, and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in urine. RESULTS: Serum hsCRP and fibrinogen levels were associated with periodontitis severity, which were higher in stage IV than in stages III and II of periodontitis (p = 0.003 and p = 0.025, respectively). We observed a slight yet insignificant increase in MDA levels related to periodontitis severity. Probing depth and clinical attachment loss were associated with serum fibrinogen and hsCRP levels. However, there were no significant associations between periodontal variables and MDA and 8-OHdG levels. CONCLUSION: Our data support an association between periodontitis and systemic inflammation, which increases with periodontal disease severity. This indicates the importance of the early diagnosis and treatment of periodontal disease to avoid the development or worsening of systemic inflammatory diseases.

Optimal feature extraction for segmentation of Diesel spray images.

A one-dimensional simplification, based on optimal feature extraction, of the algorithm based on the likelihood-ratio test method (LRT) for segmentation in colored Diesel spray images is presented. If the pixel values of the Diesel spray and the combustion images are represented in RGB space, in most cases they are distributed in an area with a given so-called privileged direction. It is demonstrated that this direction permits optimal feature extraction for one-dimensional segmentation in the Diesel spray images, and some of its advantages compared with more-conventional one-dimensional simplification methods, including considerably reduced computational cost while accuracy is maintained within more than reasonable limits, are presented. The method has been successfully applied to images of Diesel sprays injected at room temperature as well as to images of sprays with evaporation and combustion. It has proved to be valid for several cameras and experimental arrangements.