BACKGROUND: Caregivers play an important role in the oral health care of elders in nursing homes.
METHODS: This study employed a qualitative approach using the nominal group technique (NGT) to obtain caregivers' feedback in nursing homes in Malaysia. Data were manually transcribed, summarised into keywords/key phrases, and ranked using weighted scores.
RESULTS: In total, 36 caregivers (21 from government and 15 from private nursing homes) participated in the NGT sessions. Overall, caregivers were satisfied with the low treatment cost, the quality of treatment, and the availability of dental visits to nursing homes. Caregivers were dissatisfied with the frequency of dental visits, long waiting times at government dental clinics, and inadequate denture hygiene education for elders in nursing homes. The challenges faced by caregivers were elders' poor oral health knowledge and attitude and lack of elders' trust of caregivers to look after their oral health. Suggestions for improvement were to increase the frequency of dental visits to nursing homes, provide oral health education to elders and caregivers, and give treatment priority to elders at dental clinics.
CONCLUSION: Despite being satisfied with the basic oral healthcare services received by elders in Malaysian nursing homes, caregivers raised some issues that required further attention. Suggestions for improvement include policy changes in nursing home dental visits and treatment priority for elders at government dental clinics.
METHODS: Five groups of adult male rats were used in this experiment. Normal/control group; the rats were injected subcutaneously with 15 mg/kg of sterile normal saline once a week for two weeks, and orally administered with 10% Tween 20 (5 mL/kg). Carcinogen and treatment groups; the rats were injected subcutaneously each with 15 mg/kg body weight AOM once a week for 2 weeks and were continued to be fed for two months, respectively with 10% Tween 20, 500 and 250mg/kg body weight plant extracts. Reference group; the rats were injected subcutaneously with 15 mg/kg body weight AOM once a week for 2 weeks, and injected intraperitoneally with fluorouracil 35 mg/kg body weight for five consecutive days.
RESULT: Total ACF detected in methylene blue stained whole mounts of rat colon were 21, 23and 130 in rats fed with 500, 250 mg/kg body weight treatment and carcinogen groups, respectively. Treatment with high and low doses of the plant extract led to83.6% and 82.2% decrease in the total crypts in the groups fed 500 mg/kg and 250 mg/kg Gynura procumbens respectively compared to carcinogen group. Immunohistochemical staining of ACF showed suppressed azoxymethane induced colonic cell proliferation and Bcl-2 expression. Glutathione-S-transfarase and superoxide dismutase activities were higher in treated rats compared to carcinogen groups.
CONCLUSION: Gynura procumbens reduced the incidence of AOM induced ACF. The findings showed that Gynura procumbens may have antiproliferative and antioxidative properties. Moreover, Gynura procumbens possesses the medicinal properties to prevent colon cancer.
METHODS: The active compounds in cocoa pod extracts (CPE) were screened using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Fibroblast cells were used to determine the effective concentration of CPE to maintain the viability for at least 50% of the cells (EC50 ). The gel was tested by 12 panelists to determine the efficacy of CPE in gel form using Visioscan to reduce skin wrinkles and improve skin condition.
RESULTS: CPE was detected to contain malic acid, procyanidin B1, rosmarinic acid, procyanidin C1, apigenin, and ellagic acid, all of which may contribute to functional cosmetic properties of CPE. The EC50 value of cocoa pod extracts was used to calculate the amount of CPE to be incorporated into gel so that the formulated product could reach an effective concentration of extract while being nonintoxicant to the skin cell. The results showed that CPE is potential ingredient to reduce wrinkles. Skin wrinkles reduced at 6.38 ± 1.23% with the application of the CPE gel within 3 weeks and significantly improved further (12.39 ± 1.59%) after 5 weeks. The skin hydration increased (3.181 ± 1.06%) after 3 weeks of the CPE gel application.
CONCLUSION: Flavonoid compounds in CPE contributed to the functional cosmetic properties of CPE. The CPE which is nontoxic to skin cells help to reduce wrinkles on skin after 3 weeks of application. CPE can be used as the active ingredients in antiwrinkle products, and prolonged application may result in significant visual changes to the naked eyes.
Methods: Sprague-Dawley female rats were ovariectomized or sham-operated and divided into four groups: sham-operated rats fed a normal diet (ND); ovariectomized rats fed a normal diet (OVX-ND); sham-operated rats fed a HFSD; ovariectomized rats fed a high-fat style diet (OVX-HFSD). Mean blood pressure and fasting blood glucose were measured on weeks 0 and 10. The rats were sacrificed 10 weeks after initiation of ND or HFSD, the kidney and liver were harvested for histological, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence studies.
Results: HFSD-fed rats presented a significantly greater adiposity index compared to their ND counterparts. Liver index, fasting blood glucose and mean blood pressure was increased in OVX-HFSD rats compared to HFSD rats at study terminal. Histological and morphometric studies showed focal interstitial mononuclear cell infiltration in the kidney of HFSD rats with mesangial expansion being greater in the OVX-HFSD rats. Both HFSD fed groups showed increased expressions of renal inflammatory markers, namely TNF-alpha, IL-6 and MCP-1, and infiltrating M1 macrophages with some influence of ovarian hormonal status. HFSD-feeding also caused hepatocellular steatosis which was aggravated in ovariectomized rats fed the same diet. Furthermore, hepatocellular ballooning was observed only in the OVX-HFSD rats. Similarly, HFSD-fed rats showed increased expressions of the inflammatory markers and M1 macrophage infiltration in the liver; however, only IL-6 expression was magnified in the OVX-HFSD.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that some of the structural changes and inflammatory response in the kidney and liver of rats fed a HFSD are exacerbated by ovariectomy.
METHOD: A retrospective analysis of the universal newborn hearing screening database from each hospital was performed. The database consisted of 28,432 and 30,340 screening results of babies born in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Quality indicators (coverage rate, referral rate, return for follow-up rate, and ages at screening and diagnosis) were calculated.
RESULTS: Overall coverage rate across the four hospitals was 75% in 2015 and 87.4% in 2016. Over the two years, the referral rates for the first screening ranged from 2.7% to 33.93% with only one hospital achieving the recommended benchmark of <4% in both years. The return for follow-up rates for each participating hospital was generally below the recommended benchmark of ≥95%. The mean age at screening was 3.9 ± 1.2 days and 3.3 ± 0.4 days, respectively. The mean age at diagnosis for 70 infants diagnosed with permanent hearing loss was 4.7 ± 0.7 months in 2015 and 3.6 ± 0.9 months in 2016.
CONCLUSIONS: Quality measures for the universal newborn hearing screening program in four public hospitals in Malaysia were lower than the required standards. Nevertheless, some quality indicators showed statistically significant improvements over the two years. Next steps involve identifying and implementing the best practice strategies to improve the outcome measures and thus the quality of the program.
METHODS: A group of 33 healthy children, aged from 5 years 9 months-12 years 4 months (mean ± SD = 8.83 ± 1.92 years), was recruited. Their otolith saccular function was assessed using 750 Hz tone burst for cVEMPs (with ER3A insert phone), while their utricular function was assessed using Brüel & Kjaer Mini-shaker Type 4810 (Naerum, Denmark) for oVEMPs.
RESULTS: For cVEMPs, the mean value of P13 latency, N23 latency, P13-N23 interamplitude and asymmetry ratio were 12.62 ± 1.38 ms, 19.85 ± 1.95 ms, 92.47 ± 50.35 μV and 14.03 ± 9.75%, respectively. For oVEMPs, the mean value of N10 latency, P15 latency, N10-P15 interamplitude and asymmetry ratio were 9.23 ± 1.07 ms, 14.41 ± 1.04 ms, 10.32 ± 5.65 μV and 15.84 ± 11.49%, respectively. Two-way ANOVA analysis found that ear laterality and gender had no significant effect on all cVEMPs and oVEMPs parameters. No significant correlation was found between age and all VEMPs parameters.
CONCLUSIONS: The normative data for cVEMPs and oVEMPs obtained in this study can be used as a guide by health professionals to assess saccular and utricular functions among children age from 5 to 12 years of age.
METHODS: Presently, we provide a review of key studies evaluating the effects of dietary flavonoids in different stages of adipocyte development with a particular emphasis on the investigations that explore the underlying mechanisms of action of these compounds in human or animal cell lines as well as animal models.
RESULTS: Flavonoids have been shown to regulate several pathways and affect a number of molecular targets during specific stages of adipocyte development. Although most of the studies reveal anti-adipogenic effect of flavonoids, some flavonoids demonstrated proadipogenic effect in mesenchymal stem cells or preadipocytes.
CONCLUSION: The anti-adipogenic effect of flavonoids is mainly via their effect on regulation of several pathways such as induction of apoptosis, suppression of key adipogenic transcription factors, activation of AMPK and Wnt pathways, inhibition of clonal expansion, and cell-cycle arrest.