Oral health conditions of the elderly in Ancona: a population-based study.

AIM: Information currently available regarding the oral health of elderly people is poor, especially in Italy. The aim of this study was to evaluate oral health conditions in older people in the city of Ancona, Italy. The usefulness of a dedicated medical record, specifically designed for older people, was tested. METHODS: A total of 124 elderly subjects aged between 65 and 95 years, all autonomous and self-sufficient, were recruited for this study. The specific medical/dental record, designed for older people, was used to collect data and was divided into three parts. The first part lists the patient's demographics. The second part was devoted to general medical history. The third part includes the dental history and the dental visit. As regards the oral conditions, injury to the soft tissues, degree of oral hygiene, presence of caries, periodontal diseases, missing teeth, presence of the prosthesis, and presence of xerostomia, were noticed. RESULTS: Among the examined subjects 53% were male and 47% were female. The most prevalent medical condition was hypertension (64.5%); 74.2% of the examined population took up to 3 drugs/day, while the 25.8% more than 3 drugs/day. Only 9.6% of patients had soft tissues lesions and only 33.3% had sufficient oral hygiene; 45.1% of patients suffered decayed teeth; 44% of patients had fewer than 8 missing teeth, the 33.4% had the number of missing teeth including between 9 and 15, and 22.6% had more than 16 missing teeth. Only 7 patients were completely edentulous; 32.3% of the patients had fixed partial dentures, 17.7% had removable partial dentures, 22.6% had both fixed partial dentures and removable partial dentures, 4% removable total dentures and 23.4% do not have any dentures. Only 29.1% patients had xerostomia. CONCLUSION: The most important data from this study are the following: 1) the majority of elderly patients is hypertensive; 2) the majority of elderly patients take up to 3 drugs/day; 3) the majority of elderly patients has insufficient oral hygiene; 4) the majority of elderly patients do not have removable dentures but fixed dentures. Therefore, it is important to preserve and take care of the teeth of the older people, especially of the autonomous and self-sufficient elderly patients. Further visits are therefore necessary in order to make a complete epidemiological study in Ancona.

In vivo comparative efficacy of three surgical hand preparation agents in reducing bacterial count.

BACKGROUND: Besides objective efficacy, the choice between an antiseptic-based liquid soap, or an alcohol-based hand rub for surgical hand preparation technique is based on personal preference. Glycerol is often added to the formulations in order to enhance tolerability; however, it has been recently reported as a factor reducing the sustained effect of surgical hand rubs. AIM: To compare the efficacies of three commercial products for hand decontamination. METHODS: The in vivo efficacy of an alcohol-based hand rub (isopropyl alcohol 40%; N-propyl alcohol 25%; glycerin 1.74%; triethanolamine salt of carbomer <1%) was compared with other widely used products in surgical hand antisepsis (chlorhexidine and povidone-iodine). All products were used according to the manufacturers' instructions. FINDINGS: The best results were achieved with the alcohol-based hand rub and these were sustained for a period of 3h. Some volunteers experienced skin peeling off the hands when using alcohol-based hand rub; in this group of participants, the bacterial count was reduced only by 0.91 ± 1.67 log10 compared with 2.86 ± 1.22 log10 in the group who did not show this phenomenon. CONCLUSION: Besides confirming the importance of alcohol-based hand rubs for surgical hand decontamination, the results suggest the value of assessing the characteristics, and response of healthcare workers' skin, that may contribute to the development of skin peeling, and the subsequent possibility of a paradoxical overcolonization of hands after surgical preparation with alcohol-based hand rub.

Synthesis and characterization of copper hexacyanoferrate nanoparticles for building up long-term stability electrochromic electrodes.

Nanoparticles of a Prussian blue (PB) analogue, copper hexacyanoferrate, were synthesized by using ultrasonic radiation and characterized by spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques. The nanoparticles (ca. 10 nm diameter) were immobilized onto transparent indium tin oxide electrodes by electrostatic layer-by-layer deposition. These modified electrodes showed interesting electrochromic properties, changing the coloration during the redox process from brown to orange when oxidized. The nanostructured electrode presented high stability, in contrast to that observed for PB nanoparticles; this fact must be related to the maintenance of the electrostatic assembly because the oxidized compound, CuII/FeIII(CN)6, still possesses a negative excess of charge due to the high number of cyanide groups that link the nanoparticles with the polycation, assuring the integrity of the whole electrostatic assembled film.

The implementation of an autoregressive model with exogenous input in a single sweep visual evoked potential analysis.

Based on a model of signal-noise interaction, we present a method for single-sweep analysis of Visual Evoked Potentials. The EEG is represented as an autoregressive process and the single-sweep VEP as a filtered version of a reference signal taken as the running average of 20 consecutive sweeps. The algorithm for model identification and filtering is an ARX (AutoRegressive with eXogenous input) which provides a fast and efficient solution by means of a least squares approach. The choice of reference signal, as well as the complexity of the model, is also discussed. A further advantage of this approach is parameter reduction: all the single-sweep information is contained in 18 model coefficients and the reference signal.

Cryotherapy in the treatment of keloids.

A brief account of the clinical and histological features of keloids, their differentiation from hypertrophic scars, their etiopathogenesis, and the various methods for their treatment is followed by an assessment of the possibilities offered by cryotherapy and its advantages and drawbacks. Reference is made by way of illustration to 4 patients chosen from a series of more than 100 on the basis of the importance of their clinical pictures. The conclusion is drawn that cryotherapy with nitrogen protoxide is both useful and practical in the management of carefully selected cases and deserves fuller understanding and more widespread employment than it enjoys at present.

[Platelet anti-aggregants in the prevention of disseminated intravascular coagulation in severe burns]. / Gli antiaggreganti piastrinici nella profilassi della C.I.D. nei grandi ustionati.

Two groups of patients with burns involving from 40-70% of the body surface have been examined. One group of 34 patients was not treated with antiaggregating therapy, and one of 28 was treated with platelet antiaggregating therapy from the first day of admission. It was noted that this treatment has a favourable influence on burn shock by means of a mechanism which impedes the onset of D.I.C.