No abstract

Sweet's syndrome, also known as Acute Febrile Neutrophilic Dermatosis, is a rare inflammatory condition. It is considered to be the prototype disease of neutrophilic dermatoses, and presents with acute onset dermal neutrophilic lesions, leukocytosis, and pyrexia. Several variants have been described both clinically and histopathologically. Classifications include classic Sweet's syndrome, malignancy associated, and drug induced. The cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in Sweet's syndrome have been difficult to elucidate due to the large variety of conditions leading to a common clinical presentation. The exact pathogenesis of Sweet's syndrome is unclear; however, new discoveries have shed light on the role of inflammatory signaling, disease induction, and relationship with malignancy. These findings include an improved understanding of inflammasome activation, malignant transformation into dermal infiltrating neutrophils, and genetic contributions. Continued investigations into effective treatments and targeted therapy will benefit patients and improve our molecular understanding of inflammatory diseases, including Sweet's syndrome.

Samples of altered or carious dentin for microbiological culture were obtained from 301 primary root-caries lesions in 59 patients by means of a standardized sampling procedure. This involved the cleansing of each root surface of extraneous supragingival plaque by means of a hand-held toothbrush and distilled water and the collection of the sample with a sterile dental excavator passed through the entire vertical dimension of each lesion. The total number of colony-forming units (cfu) in each sample and the numbers of mutans streptococci (primarily Streptococcus mutans), lactobacilli, yeasts, and Gram-positive pleomorphic rods (GPPR) were determined. Individual bacterial counts were expressed as log10 (cfu per sample), as a percentage of the total number of bacteria per sample, and as a frequency of isolation from lesions with different clinical diagnostic criteria. Clinical measurements of each lesion were made for color, texture, position relative to the gingival margin, and treatment need. Lesions classified as soft yielded significantly more bacteria, mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, and GPPR than leathery lesions, which yielded more bacteria than hard lesions. Lesions were classified into 5 treatment categories: soft and restore, leathery and restore, leathery and debride of caries; leathery and treat therapeutically; and hard no treatment. The total numbers of bacteria, mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, GPPR, and yeasts decreased significantly with decreasing treatment need. The frequency of isolation of mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, and yeasts was significantly greater from lesions requiring restoration and from lesions situated within 1 mm of the gingival margin. We suggest that the majority of root caries is initiated adjacent to the gingival margin.

Neutrophil-mediated skin diseases, originally named neutrophilic dermatoses (NDs), are a group of conditions due to an altered neutrophil recruitment and activation, characterized by polymorphic cutaneous manifestations with possible internal organ involvement. Although a number of diseases are included in this setting, the two prototypic forms are pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) and Sweet's syndrome (SS) which usually present with skin ulcers and plaque-type lesions, respectively. They have central features significantly overlapping with autoinflammatory conditions which manifest as repeated episodes of tissue inflammation. However, in contrast to appropriate inflammatory responses to insults or to autoimmune disease, there is an absence of identifiable pathogens, autoantibodies, or autoreactive lymphocytes. The recognition of monogenic autoinflammatory diseases which can present with NDs has led to study several genes involved in autoinflammation in NDs. Based on discovering of a number of mutations involving different autoinflammatory genes, neutrophil-mediated skin diseases are nowadays regarded as a spectrum of polygenic autoinflammatory conditions. Although disease mechanisms have not yet been completely elucidated, NDs are recognized as diseases involving dysfunctional cellular signaling mediated by pathways mainly related to inflammasome and IL-1 with the contributory role of IL-17 and other effector molecules. The precise elucidation of the above-mentioned pathologic mechanisms may pave the way to tailored treatments for patients with different neutrophil-mediated skin diseases.

For sensitive appraisal of food choice it is obviously essential to assess relevant foods, for the culture of the group being studied. Open questions provide a way of exploring which are the appropriate foods and food preparation as criteria to assess perceived chewing ability and treatment benefit. The semi-structured interview method is particularly valuable for the study of older people. Closed questions provide different information which is also necessary to secure recall by older people.

The FAD criteria' can be used to give good repeatability. The adjustments made to the original summation scale, if confirmed by new studies, would further increase the practical utility of a FAD index for general dentists. In due course with data from future studies, discrimination on weighting of items will be appropriate to relate the impact of denture quality on quality of life.

Root caries prevalence was recorded for a consecutive sample of dental patients (n = 146), aged over 55 yr and with at least 12 natural teeth. The mean root DFS score of the males (n = 49) was 6.34 +/- 4.55 and for the females (n = 97) 3.76 +/- 3.31 (P less than 0.001). The salivary levels of mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, and yeasts were determined in addition to salivary flow rate and buffering capacity. Subjects with greater than 1 root DFS had significantly higher salivary levels of mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, and yeasts. They also had fewer teeth and more exposed root surfaces. In step-wise multivariate analyses the factors significantly related to the root DFS score were the number of exposed root surfaces, number of teeth, sex and salivary yeast levels (R2 = 0.41). In the multivariate analyses salivary levels of mutans streptococci were not significantly related to any clinical measurement of root caries experience due to the greater strength of association between the root DFS score and salivary levels of yeasts. Subjects prescribed medicines with a reported xerostomic effect had significantly fewer active root lesions than those not prescribed such medicines and salivary levels of all microorganisms studied were significantly elevated in subjects prescribed medications containing sucrose.

Particle sizes obtained with progressive chewing cycles were quantified by use of an optical scanning device and compared with the sieving method. The aim of this study was to validate the optical method by comparison with sieving using a natural test food, almond. Masticatory efficiency was assessed in six dentate subjects. The almonds were chewed for 1, 4, 8, 16 and 32 chewing strokes. Each experiment was replicated. The chewed material was sieved through a 1 mm aperture sieve on a Buchner funnel and dried after washing with water and 100% alcohol. The dried particles were weighed and scanned by an optical scanning device for number and size. The same samples were sieved and weighed with a conventional sieve method. The results of both methods were described by particle size distributions based on the volume of particles. The results derived from the optical scanning and sieving showed similarity. It can be concluded that the optical method is simple to use, faster than sieving and needs little skill in the use of equipment. The comparison of the results validates both methods.