Oral and Mucosal Complaints among Institutionalized Care Seniors in Malopolska Voivodeship-The Utility of the Mirror Sliding Test in an Assessment of Dry Mouth.

The purpose of this article was to evaluate reported oral and mucosal complaints among seniors residing in institutionalized 24-h care of the Municipal Center for Older and Dependent People (MHCOD) and the 3-month rehabilitation program of the Daily Medical Care House (DMCH). We evaluated the feasibility of using the dental mirror slidding test to assess dry mouth of seniors. Patients underwent a questionnaire, and clinical examination. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to assess pain, Fox's questionnaire and Challacombe's scale with Clinical Oral Dryness Score to assess dryness of the mouth, dental mirror slidding test to assess buccal mucosal resistance. Dryness, mucosal burning, impaired taste, food intake are symptoms associated with seniors, and their frequency does not depend on the type of care. The incidence of mucosal burning (Mdn = 4.0, IQR = 4.75, p = 0.032) and difficulty in using dental prosthetics (Mdn = 3.0, IQR = 4.00, p = 0.010) increase with the length of stay at MHCOD. Seniors are at risk of side effects of polypharmacy, which cause dryness (p = 0.036), complaints of lack of saliva (p = 0.009) and taste disorders (p = 0.041. Seniors with higher levels of dry mouth are more likely to exhibit mucosal burning (p = 0.026) and difficulty in taking food (p = 0.037). The implementation of the dental mirror slidding test in the scope of the primary care of geriatric examination should be discussed.

Oral Health of Elderly People in Institutionalized Care and Three-Month Rehabilitation Programme in Southern Poland: A Case-Control Study.

Demographic ageing is a global growing process and the quality of ageing is an important parameter in this process. The aim of the study was to analyse the distribution of remaining dentition in relation to oral hygiene indicators among elderly people remaining in institutional care and those who participated in a 3-month rehabilitation program, aimed at increasing time of independent functioning, in southern Poland. The patients underwent a questionnaire and clinical examination. An analysis of missing teeth was performed, plaque index, and gingival index were measured. Residents of the Municipal Health Centre for Older and Dependent People (n = 50) had a higher incidence of missing teeth in the maxilla (88.4%), mandible (77.6%), as well as in the maxilla and mandible combined (83%) than residents of the Daily Medical Care House (n = 30). The distribution of the remaining teeth, in both groups, corresponds to the outlets of the large salivary glands. The group of 53.8% of patients with dry mouth had PI scored 3. Residents with dry mouth were more likely to have plaque deposits and gingival inflammation. It is necessary to develop and implement an oral care program for patients with reduced saliva secretion, with a particular focus on dependents.

Telemonitoring in Long-COVID Patients-Preliminary Findings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the high usefulness of telemedicine. To date, no uniform recommendations or diagnostic protocols for long-COVID patients have been developed. This article presents the preliminary results of the examination of patients after SARS-CoV-2 infection who were provided with medical telemonitoring devices in order to oversee their pulmonological and cardiological health. Three cases have been analyzed. Each patient underwent a 10-day registration of basic vital signs, in three 15-min sessions daily: RR (respiratory rate), ECG (electrocardiogram), HR (pulse), SPO2 (saturation), body temperature and cough. Rule methods and machine learning were employed to automatically detect events. As a result, serious disorders of all the three patients were detected: cardiological and respiratory disorders that required extended diagnostics. Furthermore, average values of the selected parameters (RR, HR, SPO2) were calculated for every patient, including an indication of how often they exceeded the alarm thresholds. In conclusion, monitoring parameters in patients using telemedicine, especially in a time of limited access to the healthcare system, is a valuable clinical instrument. It enables medical professionals to recognize conditions which may endanger a patient's health or life. Telemedicine provides a reliable assessment of a patient's health status made over a distance, which can alleviate a patient's stress caused by long-COVID syndrome. Telemedicine allows identification of disorders and performing further diagnosis, which is possible owing to the implementation of advanced analysis. Telemedicine, however, requires flexibility and the engagement of a multidisciplinary team, who will respond to patients' problems on an ongoing basis.

Hyperglycemia in pregnancy - prevalence and perinatal outcomes. A retrospective multicenter cohort study in Poland.

OBJECTIVES: Hyperglycemia in pregnancy (HIP) is one of the most common complications of pregnancy. Recently adopted new criteria for the diagnosis of HIP as well as the greater prevalence of risk factors could have a significant impact on HIP prevalence. The objective of the study was to assess the rates of HIP and the associated complications. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of clinical records from pregnant women who delivered in eight tertiary hospitals in Poland in 2016. RESULTS: The number of pregnant women with hyperglycemia totaled 1280 (7.25%), including gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in 1169 (6.62%) women and pregestational diabetes mellitus (PGDM) in 111 (0.63%). In addition to dietary modifications, 477 (41% of the GDM group) women received medical treatment (GDMG2). In women with PGDM multiple daily insulin injections (MDI) were used in 53 (47.7%) cases, continuous subcutaneous insulin infusions (CSII) in 57 (51.3%) cases and one woman was treated with metformin. The rate of cesarean sections was 69.4% and 62.9% for PGDM and GDM, respectively. Large-for-gestational-age (LGA) infants accounted for 38% and 21% of births in the PGDM and GDM groups, respectively. Of note are high rates of hyperbilirubinemia in infants born to mothers treated with insulin (13.5% for PGDM and 14.4% for GDMG2) vs infants born to mothers with diet (GDMG1) (3.4%). CONCLUSIONS: In Poland, the prevalence of HIP has nearly doubled in the past twenty years. Even with appropriate management, HIP is a significant risk factor for a cesarean section delivery, bearing an LGA infant and adverse neonatal outcomes.

Sharp transitions in low-number quantum dots Bayesian magnetometry.

We consider Bayesian estimate of static magnetic field, characterized by a prior Gaussian probability distribution, in systems of a few electron quantum dot spins interacting with infinite temperature spin environment via hyperfine interaction. Sudden transitions among optimal states and measurements are observed. Usefulness of measuring occupation levels is shown for all times of the evolution, together with the role of entanglement in the optimal scenario. For low values of magnetic field, memory effects stemming from the interaction with environment provide limited metrological advantage.

Minimal energy ensemble Monte Carlo algorithm for the partition function of fermions coupled to classical fields.

Models of noninteracting fermions coupled to auxiliary classical fields are relevant to the understanding of a wide variety of problems in many-body physics, e.g., the description of manganites, diluted magnetic semiconductors, or strongly interacting electrons on lattices. We present a flat-histogram Monte Carlo algorithm that simulates a statistical ensemble that allows one to directly acquire the partition function at all temperatures for such systems. The defining feature of the algorithm is that it utilizes the complete thermodynamic information from the full energy spectrum of noninteracting fermions available during sampling of the configuration space of the classical fields. We benchmark the method for the classical Ising and Potts models in two dimensions, as well as the Falicov-Kimball model describing itinerant electrons interacting with heavy ions.

Quantum communication complexity advantage implies violation of a Bell inequality.

We obtain a general connection between a large quantum advantage in communication complexity and Bell nonlocality. We show that given any protocol offering a sufficiently large quantum advantage in communication complexity, there exists a way of obtaining measurement statistics that violate some Bell inequality. Our main tool is port-based teleportation. If the gap between quantum and classical communication complexity can grow arbitrarily large, the ratio of the quantum value to the classical value of the Bell quantity becomes unbounded with the increase in the number of inputs and outputs.

Purely quantum superadditivity of classical capacities of quantum multiple access channels.

We are studying classical capacities of quantum memoryless multiaccess channels in geometric terms and we are revealing a break of additivity of the Holevo-like capacity. This effect is a purely quantum mechanical one, since, as we point out, the capacity regions of all classical memoryless multiaccess channels are additive. It is the first such effect revealed in the field of classical information transmission via quantum channels.