The degree of defective neutrophil Chemotaxis in patients with Down's syndrome (DS) and its relationship to the severity of periodontal disease were studied. Fourteen patients with DS and 14 healthy controls were examined. Oral hygiene, gingival inflammation, and pocket depths were measured in clinical surveys. Bone loss was evaluated on the oral radiographs. Neutrophil Chemotaxis was measured by the agarose plate method and the Boyden chamber method. The chemotactic index of the agarose plate method and the mean numbers of migrated cells of the Boyden chamber method were correlated with statistical significance (rs = 0.066, P < 0.01). DS patients showed significantly lower Chemotaxis than healthy volunteers with both methods. No difference was shown between the two groups in the random migration of the neutrophils. From the oral radiographie analysis, the DS patients exhibited various prevalence of bone loss which was inversely proportional to the chemotactic index and a significant correlation between them was shown (rs = ‐0.612 P < 0.05). A significant correlation was also found between the age of the patient and the prevalence of bone loss (rs = 0.591 P < 0.05). These results indicate that defective neutrophil Chemotaxis influences the progression of periodontal disease in DS patients.
Background: Three hundred and forty-five patients who underwent urgent colonoscopy for acute hematochezia during the past 20 years (from 1976 to 1995) were retrospectively analyzed. Methods: Urgent colonoscopy was defined as endoscopy performed within 24 h after a bleeding episode. Preparation was initially minimal with a water or glycerine enema. Recently, however, polyethylene glycol is used. Results: The overall diagnostic accuracy for bleeding site detection was 89.1% (307 cases). Successful insertion was made to the ileocecal region in 193 cases (55.9%). The disease most frequently discoverd by urgent colonoscopy was transient ischemic colitis (62 cases). Negative urgent colonoscopy specimens (18 cases) were later diagnosed by other methods as being small intestinal bleeding foci. In 10 cases, initial colonoscopy failed to detect the bleeding foci. Endoscopic hemostasis was performed in 48 cases. Permanent hemostasis succeeded in 32 cases (66.7%). Complications of urgent colonoscopy were fever after the examination (22 cases) and hypotension during endoscopy (7 cases). Conclusion: Urgent colonoscopy is considered to be a safe and useful examination for acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding and hemostasis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.