RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Many people suffer from dry mouth (xerostomia) due to radiotherapy treatment of head and neck cancer, diseases like Sjogren's syndrome or as adverse effects to prescribed medications. Salivary substitute products like gels or sprays are often used for treatment. Efficacy of those oral care products are regularly assessed by validated or even not validated questionnaires. To determine the adhesion effect over time more objectively a new and sensitive method was established. The following study was designed to assess the dwell time of different oral care products in vitro. METHOD: Two different types of surfaces were covered with oral care products and washed using a definite protocol with artificial saliva salt solution. First, oral care gels or oral care sprays were spread to a polystyrene surface of 2.25 cm(2), then onto cell based three-dimensional gingiva models. The surfaces were washed ten times with artificial saliva salt solution. The resulting washing solutions were examined using mid infrared spectroscopy in order to detect ingredients of the oral care products. RESULTS: All assessed oral care gels or oral care sprays and their components were detected very sensitive. Even traces of the products were detected in the eluent and thus enabled to differentiate the dwell times of the different products. In general, the dwell time of oral care gels on polystyrene or gingiva models was longer than that of oral care sprays. The use of gingiva models improved the differentiation between different products. CONCLUSIONS: MIR spectroscopy turned out to be a sensitive method to detect salivary substitutes. Differences between single components and different products can be detected. The described method is a simple, reliable and easy process to evaluate the dwell time of oral care products in vitro and thus a useful tool to design optimised salivary substitute products. ETHICS: This is an in vitro study. No ethics or consent was required for this study.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To describe the characteristics of patients with type I glycogenosis, the presentation types, the main clinical signs, the diagnostic criteria and also the disease outcomes on long term follow-up. METHODS: The study group consisted of 6 patients (medium age 3 years 6 months) admitted in hospital between 2001 and 2005 and followed-up for 1 to 5 years. The sex ratio was 1:1. RESULTS: The referral reasons varied from hepatomegaly incidentally discovered (3 of 6 patients) to abdominal pain (4 of 6 patients), growth failure (3 of 6 patients), symptoms of hypoglycemia (3 of 6 patients), recurrent epistaxis (1 patient). Hepatomegaly was present in all cases. Biological profile: hypoglycemia, increased transaminase values, hypertriglyceridemia, lactic acidosis, normal uric acid levels. Two patients had neutropenia and other two had increased glomerular filtration rate. Liver biopsy showed glycogen-laden hepatocytes and markedly increased fat. Four patients had type Ia and 2 patients type Ib glycogenosis. The therapy consisted of: diet, ursodeoxycholic acid, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, broad spectrum antibiotics for those with type Ib glycogenosis. The follow-up parameters were clinical, biological, imaging. Metabolic interventions and antiinfectious therapy were necessary. All patients are alive, two of them on the waiting list for liver transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: Glycogen storage disease type I is a rare condition, but with possible life-threatening consequences. It has to be kept in mind whenever important hepatomegaly and/or hypoglycemia are present.
