Assessment of Masseter Muscle Appearance and Thickness in Edentulous and Dentate Patients by Ultrasonography.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was to examine ultrasonographic appearances of Masseter Muscle (MM) in dentate and edentulous patients without Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The thickness of the MM in 25 dentate (mean age: 30,68 ± 10,49) and 24 edentulous (mean age: 61,46 ± 9,71) patients, who visited routine dental examination, was measured at rest and at maximum contraction bilaterally. Examinations were performed using an Aloka Prosound α6 (Hitachi Aloka Medical Systems, Tokyo, Japan) equipped with an 8 MHz-wide bandwidth linear active matrix transducer (ranging from 1 to 15 MHz). The visibility and width of the internal echogenic bands of the MM were also assessed and the muscle appearance was classified as I of III types. Type I, characterized by the clear visibility of the fine bands; Type II, thickening echogenicity of the bands; Type III, disappearance or reduction in a number of the bands. RESULTS: MM thickness at rest and contraction in the dentate group were significantly higher than the edentulous group (p <0.05). Type I was the most common echogenic type in both dentate (right:16 (64%), left; 15 (60%)) and edentulous patients (right; 22 (91.7%), left; 18 (75%)). In a dentate group, type II was significantly higher than the edentulous group in both the right and left sides (p <0.05; p <0.01, respectively). Age and gender seemed to have no significant effect on the echogenic type (p ˃0.05). CONCLUSION: There were significant differences in the thickness at rest and contraction between the dentate and edentulous groups. It was clarified that ultrasonographic features of the MM in dentate and edentulous patients were different.

Chitosan/poly(ethylene glycol)/hyaluronic acid biocompatible patches obtained by electrospraying.

Electrospray is a promising technique to scale-up production of microparticles and nanoparticles. In this study, electrospraying was used in order to produce candidate biopatches (CPH) by using chitosan, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and hyaluronic acid (HA). Four different ratios of polymer blend compositions (CPH1, CPH2, CPH3 and CPH4) were tested by dissolving in 2% acetic acid solution (Ac.A.). The HA amount in each blend was kept the same to designate the optimum surface with different chitosan/PEG ratios for electrospray process. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies showed that obtained patches had highly adhesive surfaces with the aid of heterogeneously distributed micro- and nano-particles. Additionally, video images of FTIR microscopy and AFM images proved that all surfaces have similar heterogeneity except CPH2. The most homogenous surface was obtained by CPH3. Patches were directly subjected to antibacterial tests against ten different types of gram positive and gram negative bacteria using disc diffusion assay (Kirby-Bauer method). Extraordinarily there was no antibacterial property of patches coated with microparticles. Finally, biocompatibility studies were performed by using mouse fibroblast L929 cell lines (ATTC number CCL-1) to test cell adhesion and proliferation properties of the patches. Results of 72 h viability tests proved the electrospray of ternary blends had displayed good biocompatibility; in particular, CPH3 had the highest cell viability.