Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the DNA damage caused by ceramic bracket (Clear II, SIA Orthodontic Manufacturer Srl, Italy) on human buccal mucosal cells using comet assay and mutagenicity orthodontic bonding system (Transbond XT; 3M Unitek) Ames test. Methods: In study, twenty patients were recruited from Specialist Clinic, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. Buccal ce...

BACKGROUND Dengue is an important viral infection with different presentations. Predicting disease severity is important in triaging patients requiring hospital care. We aim to study the value of proteinuria in predicting the development of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), utility of urine dipstick test as a rapid prognostic tool. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Adult patients with undiffer...

BACKGROUND The clinical significance of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function (DF) improvement after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is not fully elucidated. We sought to investigate the long-term clinical and hemodynamic effects of post-TAVI DF improvement and to identify its determinants.Methods and Results:Clinical and serial echocardiographic data before and after TAVI wer...

By inducing controlled changes in the electrophysiologic properties of the whole heart, numerous studies have analysed the onset and maintenance mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias. In this contribution a new method that cause local heterogeneities in the cardiac tissue is explained. A specific device, based on the Peltier effect, has been developed to quantify, in an experimental model (Lang...

Materials and Methods: This was an open, prospective, randomized trial in COPD patients whose FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second) levels were between 80% and 50% predicted. A total of 44 patients who met the inclusion and exlusion criteria and who gave written informed consent were included in the study. At the end of the two week wash-out period, the patients were randomized to receive...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are immunotoxicants in fish. In mammals, phase I metabolites are believed to be critically involved in the immunotoxicity of PAHs. This mechanism has been suggested for fish as well. The present study investigates the capacity of immune organs (head kidney, spleen) of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, to metabolize the prototypic PAH, benzo [a]pyrene (B...

The pluripotent mammalian epiblast undergoes unusually fast cell proliferation. This rapid growth is expected to generate a high transcriptional demand, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We show here that the chromatin remodeler Chd1 is required for transcriptional output and development of the mouse epiblast. Chd1 embryos exhibit proliferation defects and increased apoptosis, are s...

the gene coding claudin (cldn5) is located on 22q11. since the proteins of cldn5 family are a ma-jor component for barrier-forming tight junctions, it may be important to test whether or not the cldn5 locus could be associated with schizophrenia.a total of 150 individuals affected with schizophrenia and 150 healthy persons were recruited. the relation-ship between the three single nucleotide po...

AIM To investigate which recent infection could have caused the present dengue-like symptoms, in adult patients clinically fulfilling the WHO criteria for dengue, in which serologically were not confirmed for dengue virus infections. METHODS Prospective study. During an outbreak of dengue (between May 1995 and May 1996) 118 consecutive adults (>13 years) suspected by the WHO 1997 case definit...