A major cause of morbidity and mortality in thalassemic patients is infections, assumed to be the result of immunological changes. In this study immune functions of peripheral blood lymphocytes have been studied in 38 beta-thalassemia major, 12 beta-thalassemia trait, and 17 healthy children. Results show decrease in CD4+/CD8+ ratios in the beta-thalassemia major group and no difference according to absolute T-lymphocyte numbers and activated T-cell numbers. These results do not correlate with the tendency to infection. No significant difference was found in humoral immunity. The study of other factors in thalassemia is needed to detect those who are more susceptible to infections.

The impact strength of PMMA was enhanced by including E-glass fibers, increasing parallel with the fiber concentration.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) signs in a group of institutionalized patients with schizophrenia. Three hundred thirty-nine patients with schizophrenia were examined and compared with 107 age-matched and gender-matched control subjects. TMD signs were evaluated according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria to assess temporomandibular joint pain to palpation, limitation of maximum mouth opening, alteration of mouth opening pathway (deviation/deflection) and temporomandibular joint noises. In addition, tooth wear was recorded for the assessment of bruxism. The prevalence of any TMD signs was observed higher (P = 0.001) in the patients with schizophrenia (284/339, 83.7%) than in the controls (72/107, 67.3%). The prevalence of more than one TMD sign was also significantly higher (P = 0.03) in the patients with schizophrenia (131/339, 38.6%) than in the controls (29/107, 27.1%). Significant differences between the two groups were apparent for joint pain on palpation (P = 0.006), deflection (P = 0.006) and joint sounds (P = 0.002). Severe tooth wear was evident in 39.2% of the patients with schizophrenia compared with 21.2% in the control group (P = 0.001). The finding of the present study showed that, compared to control population, chronically hospitalized patients with schizophrenia seem to be more prone to the development of TMD signs and severe tooth wear and bruxism.

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Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of different forms and concentrations (2.5, 3, 4, 5% by volume) of glass fibres (chopped strand mat, continuous and woven) on fatigue resistance of acrylic denture base resin. Material and Methods: The fatigue resistance was measured by applying repeated three-point bending deflection to the specimens, the cycle frequency of 1.05 g and magnitude of deflection of 2.0 mm. The number of loading cycles needed to cause a fracture in the test specimen was considered the fatigue resistance of the specimen. Results: The results of this study revealed that the addition of three different glass fibre forms at all concentrations to acrylic resin did not produce a statistically significant increase in the fatigue resistance (p ‡ 0.05). This study also revealed that there were significant differences (p < 0.05) between glass fibres forms used concerning the effects on the fatigue resistance. Conclusion: This study showed that the woven glass fibres had a definite superiority over the chopped fibres and the continuous fibres in regard to the fatigue resistance of the acrylic denture base resin.