[Features of the hormonal status in patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunction and class II malocclusion].

The article presents data on androgen levels in female patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction of varying degree and class II malocclusion. The study revealed significant correlation between degenerative and inflammatory TMJ changes and androgens level in patients with stigmas of connective tissue dysplasia (p<0.05), probably due to indirect proinflammatory action of androgens as they stimulate inflammatory mediators expression.

Serum IGF-1 levels as a clinical tool for optimizing orthodontic treatment timing.

BACKGROUND: The study aims to associate serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels with cervical maturation stages (CS) 3, 4, and 5 on lateral cephalogram in male subjects and to find out peak serum IGF-1 levels among these three stages. METHODS: The study was conducted on 45 male subjects who were at skeletal maturation stage CS-3, CS-4, and CS-5. Subjects were selected using simple random sampling technique. Serum IGF-1 levels were estimated from blood samples using chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) method. CS was evaluated using a six-stage method of evaluating the cervical vertebrae. Mean IGF-1 levels between the stages were compared by analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. RESULTS: One-way ANOVA showed highly significant differences between all cervical stages with p value<0.01, but post hoc Tukey test showed highly significant differences between CS-4 and CS-5 with p value 0.006. Serum IGF-1 levels showed good association with skeletal age in male subjects; 53.3% of subjects at CS-3, 66.7% subjects at CS-4, and 6.7% subjects at CS-5 showed IGF-1 levels in peak range. CONCLUSIONS: Serum IGF levels can be used as an additional tool to optimize orthodontic treatment timing.