Mineral trioxide aggregate pulpotomy: patient selection and perspectives.

This narrative aims at reviewing the available literature for mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) pulpotomy to understand the procedure better and eventually improve the clinical and radiographic outcomes. An electronic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane, ScienceDirect and ClinicalKey databases with the following keywords: MTA pulpotomy, clinical outcomes, radiographic outcomes, primary teeth. No specific inclusion or exclusion criteria were applied as to what articles would be included in this review. The time period for the search began from 2001 with respect to MTA pulpotomy. However, this was not restrictive during the search. MTA pulpotomy has been a successful treatment modality in primary molars with proven success over the years. There is limited literature to support its success in primary incisors.

Clinical Pulpotomy Trial of Copaifera Langsdorffii Oil Resin Versus Formocresol and White Mineral Trioxide Aggregate in Primary Teeth.

PURPOSE: This study's purpose was to assess clinical and radiographic outcomes of Copaifera langsdorffii oil resin (CLOR) as a pulpotomy medicament compared with one-minute full-strength formocresol (FC) and white mineral trioxide aggregate (WMTA). METHODS: Determined by a power analysis, 152 primary molars of 64 four- to eight-year-olds with at least two asymptomatic molars requiring vital pulpotomies were recruited, randomly assigned to receive CLOR, WMTA, or FC, and restored with prefabricated metal crowns. At the 12-month follow-up, recordings of 59 children with 142 treated teeth were taken for clinical and radiographic symptoms. Clinical evaluation was performed by a blinded calibrated evaluator, whereas four evaluators scored each radiograph for pathologies based upon a modified scale previously proposed. The data were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: At 12 months, 100 percent clinical success was observed with all groups. CLOR had the highest frequency of pathologic radiolucencies at 12 months. The radiographic success at 12 months was 76 percent, 90.91 percent, and 88.23 percent for the CLOR, FC, and WMTA groups, respectively (P=0.10). CONCLUSION: Copaifera langsdorffii oil resin can be suggested as a pulpotomy agent for primary teeth up to one year. However, further clinical studies with long-term follow-ups are needed to test its efficacy as a pulpotomy medicament.

Automated refinement and inference of analytical models for metabolic networks.

The reverse engineering of metabolic networks from experimental data is traditionally a labor-intensive task requiring a priori systems knowledge. Using a proven model as a test system, we demonstrate an automated method to simplify this process by modifying an existing or related model--suggesting nonlinear terms and structural modifications--or even constructing a new model that agrees with the system's time series observations. In certain cases, this method can identify the full dynamical model from scratch without prior knowledge or structural assumptions. The algorithm selects between multiple candidate models by designing experiments to make their predictions disagree. We performed computational experiments to analyze a nonlinear seven-dimensional model of yeast glycolytic oscillations. This approach corrected mistakes reliably in both approximated and overspecified models. The method performed well to high levels of noise for most states, could identify the correct model de novo, and make better predictions than ordinary parametric regression and neural network models. We identified an invariant quantity in the model, which accurately derived kinetics and the numerical sensitivity coefficients of the system. Finally, we compared the system to dynamic flux estimation and discussed the scaling and application of this methodology to automated experiment design and control in biological systems in real time.