Patricia Corby

Systemic inflammatory markers, periodontal diseases, and periodontal infections in an elderly population

Objectives: To study the levels of systemic markers for inflammation with parameters of periodontal diseases in older people.

Periodontitis and Airway Obstruction

BACKGROUNDnThe objective of this study was to examine the relationship between airway obstruction and periodontal disease.nnnMETHODSnParticipants were a subset of 860 community- dwelling, well functioning elderly (aged 70 to 79, blacks and whites, males and females) selected from 2,732 participants enrolled in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study (Health ABC). The periodontal evaluations occurred over years 2 and 3 of the study and included four indices of periodontal health: plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), probing depth (PD), and loss of attachment (LOA). The pulmonary evaluation took place in year 1: conducted according to American Thoracic Society criteria, based on the forced expiratory volume/forced vital capacity (FEV1 /FVC) ratio and then using the percent of predicted FEV1 to categorize severity.nnnRESULTSnGI (P = 0.023) and LOA (P = 0.009) were significantly better in participants with normal pulmonary function compared to those with airway obstruction after adjusting for age, race, gender, and field center. When stratified by smoking status and after adjusting for age, race, gender, center, and pack-years, there was a significant association between periodontal health and airway obstruction in former smokers. Within this group, those with normal pulmonary function had significantly better GI (P = 0.036) and LOA (P = 0.0003) scores than those with airway obstruction. All periodontal indices were elevated in smokers regardless of pulmonary status; however, the current smoker group was too small to detect a periodontitis effect.nnnCONCLUSIONnWhile the present cross-sectional study cannot provide direct inference of cause and effect, it does reveal a significant association between periodontal disease and airway obstruction, particularly in former smokers.

Periodontal disease and weight loss in older adults.

Objectives: To determine the association between periodontal disease and weight loss in an elderly cohort.

A preliminary analysis of the dental informatics literature.

Dental informatics is an emerging discipline applying computer and information science to dental practice, research, education, and management. To date, the dental informatics research literature has not been comprehensively reviewed. This study reports an initial analysis of the dental informatics literature. We developed an initial, comprehensive retrieval strategy to locate dental informatics citations in MEDLINE (1966–April 2003), including three concepts: dentistry, computers, and research. After refinement of the search, we manually classified the final set into four categories: (1) non-dental; (2) dental, but neither dental informatics nor IT-related; (3) dental informatics; and (4) IT in dentistry. We analyzed informatics and IT-related citations regarding their distribution across journals, growth rate, the number of authors and their publication frequency, and content as expressed by Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The final set of citations (n = 3872) consisted of: 12% non-dental articles; 59% dental, but not informatics- or IT-related articles; 16% informatics-related articles; and 13% IT-related articles. Informatics-related citations appeared in 176 journals, and IT-related citations in 206 journals. Approximately 50 papers are currently published in both categories yearly. While a great many authors have contributed to this literature, very few have published more than three papers. Main topics of articles included “Imaging and Image Processing”, “Computer-aided Diagnosis and Therapy”, “Computer-aided Instruction”, and “Other”. The dental informatics literature is small, but growing. Imaging and image processing predominate as research topics.

Using biometrics for participant identification in a research study: a case report.

This paper illustrates the use of biometrics through the application of an iris-based biometrics system for identifying twins and their parents in a longitudinal research study. It explores the use of biometrics (science of measuring physical or anatomical characteristics of individuals) as a technology for correct identification of individuals during longitudinal studies to help ensure data fidelity. Examples of these circumstances include longitudinal epidemiological and genetic studies, clinical trials, and multicenter collaborative studies where accurate identification of subjects over time can be difficult when the subject may be young or an unreliable source of identification information. The use of technology can automate the process of subject identification thereby reducing the need to depend on subject recall during repeated visits thus helping to ensure data quality. This case report provides insights that may serve as useful hints for those responsible for planning system implementation that involves participants authentication that would require a more secure form of identification.