Therapeutic effect of laser on pediatric oral soft tissue problems: a systematic literature review.

In recent years, extensive evidence has been published about usage of laser in oral lesions. The aim of the present study was to review the effectiveness of laser radiation in the treatment of pediatric oral soft tissue problems. The relevant keywords were searched in EBSCO, Medline (via Ovid), PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science (WOS) databases. Then, eligible case series and controlled clinical trial studies, which published up to the end of 2018, were extracted and scrutinized. In this study, the age range of ≤ 21 years or the average age of ≤ 21 years was considered as the pediatric group. After limiting the search results, removing duplicate titles and eligibility evaluation, 17 papers were enrolled to the study (seven controlled clinical trials and ten case series). Er:YAG (2940 nm), CO2 (10,600 nm), Er,Cr:YSGG (2780 nm), and diode (650, 660, and 975 nm) lasers indicated successful clinical results on mucocele excision, frenectomy, gingival incision and re-contouring, and treatment of vascular malformations. In addition, 660-nm diode laser radiation was an effective adjuvant treatment for halitosis and gingivitis induced by multi-bracket appliances. Reduction or absence of pain and bleeding, suitable homeostasis, reduction of operation time, less analgesic consumption, and antibacterial effect were among the advantages of the laser radiation in the studies. Laser as a main or adjuvant tool can have an effective role in surgical and non-surgical treatments of pediatric oral soft tissue problems. Conducting further randomized controlled trial studies on different soft tissue lesions can contribute to drawing better conclusions.

Health-related quality of life of patients with asthma: a cross-sectional study in Semnan, Islamic Republic of Iran.

Asthma can profoundly affect the quality of life of individuals with the disease. There are limited data on the quality of life of people with asthma in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate quality of life in adults with asthma in Semnan using the 36-item short form health survey (SF-36). The effect of sociodemographic characteristics on quality of life scores was examined. The study included a convenience sample of 385 outpatients with asthma attending a pulmonary clinic from June to December 2013. The mean physical and mental component scores were 58.8 (SD 18.3) and 57.3 (SD 17.0) respectively. The study sample had lower quality of life scores in all the fields than the reference population (P < 0.05). Patients with lower education, urban residents, widowed/divorced patients and manual workers had lower quality of life scores (P < 0.05). Efforts are needed to improve the quality of life of people with asthma in parallel with precise management plans.

Novel non-invasive biological predictive index for liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus genotype 4 patients.

AIM: To investigate the diagnostic ability of a non-invasive biological marker to predict liver fibrosis in hepatitis C genotype 4 patients with high accuracy. METHODS: A cohort of 332 patients infected with hepatitis C genotype 4 was included in this cross-sectional study. Fasting plasma glucose, insulin, C-peptide, and angiotensin-converting enzyme serum levels were measured. Insulin resistance was mathematically calculated using the homeostasis model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). RESULTS: Fibrosis stages were distributed based on Metavir score as follows: F0 = 43, F1 = 136, F2 = 64, F3 = 45 and F4 = 44. Statistical analysis relied upon reclassification of fibrosis stages into mild fibrosis (F0-F) = 179, moderate fibrosis (F2) = 64, and advanced fibrosis (F3-F4) = 89. Univariate analysis indicated that age, log aspartate amino transaminase, log HOMA-IR and log platelet count were independent predictors of liver fibrosis stage (P < 0.0001). A stepwise multivariate discriminant functional analysis was used to drive a discriminative model for liver fibrosis. Our index used cut-off values of ≥ 0.86 and ≤ -0.31 to diagnose advanced and mild fibrosis, respectively, with receiving operating characteristics of 0.91 and 0.88, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and positive likelihood ratio were: 73%, 91%, 75%, 90% and 8.0 respectively for advanced fibrosis, and 67%, 88%, 84%, 70% and 4.9, respectively, for mild fibrosis. CONCLUSION: Our predictive model is easily available and reproducible, and predicted liver fibrosis with acceptable accuracy.