Assessment of awake bruxism (AB) is problematic due to the inability to use continuous recordings during daytime activities. Recently, a new semi-instrumental approach was suggested, namely, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), via the use of a smartphone application. With the application, subjects are requested to report, at least 12 times per day, the status of their masticatory muscle activity (relaxed muscles, muscle bracing without tooth contact, teeth contact, teeth clenching, or teeth grinding). The aim of the present study was to test the association between a single observation point self-report and EMA assessment of AB. The most frequent condition recorded by the EMA was relaxed muscles (ca. 60%) and the least frequent was teeth grinding (less than 1%). The relaxed muscle condition also showed the lowest coefficient of variance over a seven-day period of report. Additionally, only the relaxed muscles and the muscle bracing conditions presented an acceptable ability to assess AB-positive and AB-negative subjects, as defined by single-point self-report questions. The combination between self-report and EMA may have the potential to promote our ability to assess AB. We suggest to re-consider the conditions of teeth contact and teeth grinding while using EMA to evaluate AB.

The induction of autoantibodies is common following therapy with anti-TNF-α agents. However, anti-TNF-α-induced lupus (ATIL) is rare. We assessed the clinical characteristics of three patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who were treated with infliximab and developed distinct subsets of ATIL. Also, we searched for similar cases in the published literature. We describe three patients with ATIL. The first patient had a classical drug-induced lupus (DIL) presented by thrombocytopenia that resolved after infliximab discontinuation. The second case experienced symmetric polyarthritis of 14 joints in rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-like distribution accompanied by lymphopenia. The third one had a severe serositis including ascites and pleural and pericardial effusions along with pancytopenia. In this patient, ATIL coexisted with anti-TNF-α-induced hepatitis. The second and third patients met the American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for SLE. Nevertheless, all three cases exhibited ANA and anti-dsDNA positivity, and only the second patient had anticardiolipin (aCL IgG) and anti-histone antibodies. The coexistence of both lupus-like syndrome and hepatitis following anti-TNF-α therapy in the same patient is very rare, and to the best of our knowledge, only four such case reports are mentioned in literature. Patients with mild ATIL may tolerate another anti-TNF-α agent without recurrence of the disease. Rheumatologists should be aware of the distinct clinical presentations of ATIL and its coexistence with other rare anti-TNF-alpha complications such as hepatitis.

The issue of psychosocial factors and concurrent conditions associated with AB is a relatively new approach in the study of Awake Bruxism (AB). In the present study a population of 84 dental students were assessed for probable AB with two modes of AB assessment: Single point self-report (SR) and ecological momentary assessment through a designated smartphone application (BA). The two assessment modes were compared with regard to their ability to phenotype subjects as far as the following psychosocial and behavioral variables are concerned: Gender; depression; somatization; oral behaviors; chronic pain and associated pain symptoms in the head, neck and scapula. Two-way ANOVA showed main effect of SR for the following variables: Chronic Pain Intensity score (F(1,49) = 6.441, p < 0.02), migraine/headache (F(1,81) = 7.396, p < 0.01), pain in neck (F(1,81) = 6.726, p < 0.05), pain in scapula (F(1,81) = 8.546, p < 0.005) and the oral behaviors of pushing the tongue forcefully against the teeth (F(1,81) = 5.222, p < 0.05) and inserting the tongue between the upper and lower teeth (F(1,81) = 5.344, p < 0.03). The effect of SR on the habit of chewing gum was borderline (F(1,81) = 3.369, p = 0.07). Main effect of BA was found for depression (F(1,81) = 6.049, p < 0.05), while the effect of BA on somatization was borderline (F(1,81) = 3.657, p = 0.059). An interaction between SR and BA groups could be observed for the behavior of biting, chewing or playing with the tongue, cheeks or lips (F(1,81) = 4.117, p < 0.05). The results suggest that a combination of a single-point self-report referring to the past 30 days, and an ecological momentary assessment supplying information about the actual timing of the report, can help us to better assess AB, as well as increase our ability to define the phenotype of subjects with AB as far as psychosocial and behavioral factors are concerned.

OBT is sensitive for potentially evaluating liver function in rat models of acute hepatitis and thioacetamide-induced liver cirrhosis but not in cholestatic liver injury. The MBID test may be better for evaluation of cholestatic liver disease in this model.