Patient Satisfaction Following Orthodontic Treatment: A Systematic Review.

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) have become increasingly important in orthodontic treatment as they reflect patients' perceptions of treatment outcomes. Understanding patient satisfaction with orthodontic treatment is crucial for improving healthcare delivery and patient-centered care. This systematic review aimed to critically appraise the evidence regarding patient satisfaction after orthodontic treatment, exploring the effects of different treatment types, patient demographics, and other factors on satisfaction levels. Eight electronic bibliographic databases were searched without publication time or language restrictions, including PubMed®, Scopus®, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science™, Embase®, Google™ Scholar, Trip, and OpenGrey. A manual search was conducted on the references in the included papers. Eligibility criteria were established based on the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Study (PICOS) framework. Studies were included if they reported patient satisfaction levels following orthodontic treatment using standardized questionnaires. Two reviewers independently collected and analyzed the data. The risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane's risk of bias tool (RoB2) for randomized clinical trials, and the methodologic quality for cohort and cross-sectional studies was assessed using the modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Fourteen studies employed various questionnaires and timings to gauge post-orthodontic treatment satisfaction. Patient satisfaction levels were generally high, with most studies reporting satisfaction rates above 91%. Fixed orthodontic appliances were associated with higher satisfaction levels compared to removable appliances. While age and gender did not significantly influence satisfaction, the quality of care and doctor-patient relationships were crucial factors in patient satisfaction. This systematic review proves that patient satisfaction with orthodontic treatment is generally high, with fixed appliances and positive doctor-patient relationships contributing to higher satisfaction levels. However, the quality of the evidence was moderate to low, highlighting the need for further high-quality clinical studies in this area.

Cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 3 (CDKN3) upregulation is associated with unfavorable prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and shapes tumor immune microenvironment: A bioinformatics analysis.

Cell cycle regulatory proteins plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of many human malignancies. Identification of their biological functions as well as their prognostic utility presents an active field of research. As a continuation of the ongoing efforts to elucidate the molecular characteristics of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC); we present a comprehensive bioinformatics study targeting the prognostic and mechanistic role of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 3 (CDKN3) in ccRCC. The ccRCC cohort from the Cancer Genome Atlas Program was accessed through the UCSC Xena browser to obtain CDKN3 mRNA expression data and their corresponding clinicopathological variables. The independent prognostic signature of CDKN3 was evaluated using univariate and multivariate Cox logistic regression analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis and co-expression gene functional annotations were used to discern CDKN3-related altered molecular pathways. The tumor immune microenvironment was evaluated using TIMER 2.0 and gene expression profiling interactive analysis. CDKN3 upregulation is associated with shortened overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.325, 95% confident interval [CI]: 1.703-3.173, P < .0001) in the Cancer Genome Atlas Program ccRCC cohort. Univariate (HR: 0.426, 95% CI: 0.316-0.576, P < .001) and multivariate (HR: 0.560, 95% CI: 0.409-0.766, P < .001) Cox logistic regression analyses indicate that CDKN3 is an independent prognostic variable of the overall survival. High CDKN3 expression is associated with enrichment within the following pathways including allograph rejection, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, mitotic spindle, inflammatory response, IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling, spermatogenesis, TNF-α signaling via NF-kB pathway, complement activation, KRAS signaling, and INF-γ signaling. CDKN3 is also associated with significant infiltration of a wide spectrum of immune cells and correlates remarkably with immune-related genes. CDKN3 is a poor prognostic biomarker in ccRCC that alters many molecular pathways and impacts the tumor immune microenvironment.

Subject-Specific Effect of Metallic Body Accessories on Path Loss of Dynamic on-Body Propagation Channels.

This paper presents the investigation of path loss variation for subject-specific on-body radio propagation channels, considering the effect of metallic spectacles and loop like metallic accessories. Adding metallic items may affect the operability of Body Centric Wireless Communications (BCWC). Measurements were carried out in an RF-shielded room lined with microwave absorbing sheets for strategically placed bodyworn antennas covering the upper front torso and the lower limbs. The path loss of the on-body radio channel was characterized explicitly taking into account the body size of the subjects. For metallic loop-like accessories, the results indicate that for underweight subjects, there was a slightly higher influence, up to 2%, compared to normal and overweight subjects. Our findings indicate that a noticeable effect exists on on-body channels for dynamic movements where the metallic watch acts as a local scatterer that affects the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signal path between transmitter and receiver for underweight subjects in comparison to normal and overweight subjects. The path loss decreases when the receiving terminal was positioned very close to the metallic item. If a loop-like metallic accessory is not appropriately considered when designing the radio channel on a subject, the reliability of the body-centric wireless system may degrade.