Early Clinical Experience and Mentoring of Young Dental Students-A Qualitative Study.

The literature reports that student transition between preclinical and clinical dental education can be traumatic and stressful for many reasons. Early clinical experience has been reported to provide some relief. In this qualitative study, twelve final year dental students were interviewed about their perceptions and experiences with a mentee/mentor (FOAL) program in Aarhus, Denmark, to see if it (1) counteracted stress perceptions from preclinical education to the clinic, (2) inspired professionalism and a sense of study relevance, (3) helped in learning to reflect on competencies and attitudes, (4) helped with clinical social perspectives (communication/contact), (5) helped with motivation to learn and (6) helped to reaffirm one's professional study choice. Using qualitative description methods with purposeful sampling, data from interviews were collected, transcribed, analyzed and validated with a short questionnaire. The FOAL program, today, has several benefits for mentees, including partially helping in the preclinic to clinic transition and the increased insight into mentors' clinical tasks and communication with patients. Informants described that FOAL also contributed positively to both mentee and mentor students' learning motivation, collaborative skills and professional attitudes. Challenges were lack of organization/planning, not enough clinical hours, lack of clinical knowledge and persistent stress levels at the clinical transition. These issues are already being considered in the curriculum reform currently in progress and are also relevant to other dental curricula internationally.

Thoracoscopic sympathectomy at the T2 or T3 level facilitates bradykinin-induced protein extravasation in human forearm skin.

BACKGROUND: The endogenous peptide bradykinin (BK) is an inflammatory mediator that induces nociceptor activation and sensitization as well as protein extravasation and vasodilation. OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis if sympathectomy affects BK-induced inflammation in humans. METHODS: Dermal microdialysis was employed on the volar forearm in 10 patients (21-41 years) with regional hyperhidrosis before and three months after preganglionic endoscopic transthoracic sympathetic clipping (ETSC) at the T2 or T3 level and in 10 healthy volunteers (22-36 years). After 60 minutes perfusion with Ringer's solution microdialysis fibers were perfused with BK 10(-7) M and 10(-5) M for 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes Ringer's solution again. To assess protein extravasation dialysate protein content was measured photometrically and Laser-Doppler imaging was used to quantify axonreflex vasodilation. RESULTS: Baseline flux values after ETSC were higher as compared with controls and preoperative values (anova, Bonferroni post hoc test, P < 0.05), but neither BK 10(-7) M nor 10(-5) M led to significant vasodilation. Baseline dialysate protein did not significantly differ between groups. BK 10(-5) M induced protein extravasation while BK 10(-7) M was ineffective, and BK 10(-5) M induced protein extravasation was significantly enhanced after ETSC (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Forearm skin perfusion is increased after ETSC on the T2 or T3 level indicating decreased sympathetic activity while BK-induced protein extravasation was increased. These results show that preganglionic sympathectomy does not diminish bradykinin-induced protein extravasation as found for postganglionic sympathectomy in rats.

[Type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents--new strategies in management and treatment]. / Typ-1-Diabetes bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. Neue Strategien in Diagnostik und Therapie.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is the most common metabolic disease in childhood with an increasing incidence of about 3 to 5% per year, particularly in preschool children. Despite substantial progresses in diabetes research concerning its pathogenesis and etiology in the last decades, there is no strategy for primary prevention in subjects with subclinical signs of diabetes. Nowadays, it is well-known that T1D is caused by partial or total destruction of pancreatic islet cells, resulting in progressive incapacity to produce insulin. This inflammation is of an autoimmune nature, resulting both from environmental and genetic influences. Children with T1D usually have a several day history of typical symptoms such as frequent urination, excessive thirst and weight loss, which appear when about 80% of the pancreatic beta cells are already destroyed. If those symptoms are misinterpreted, the continuing hyperglycaemic metabolism leads to a potential life-threatening condition the diabetic ketoacidosis. Patients with T1D require daily subcutaneous injections of insulin, with the overall aim to mimic the physiological release of insulin during meal-associated and fasting periods (intensive insulin therapy). The most important parameters to evaluate the effectiveness of insulin treatment are blood glucose monitoring and HbA1c. The increased availability of systems for continuous glucose monitoring may help patients to have a better insight into their metabolic conditions. Sensor-based insulin treatment is likely to have a significant impact on paediatric diabetes therapy and education in the future.