Vanessa De Carla Batista Dos Santos

Geographic Tongue and Fissured Tongue in 348 Patients with Psoriasis: Correlation with Disease Severity

Geographic tongue (GT) and fissured tongue (FT) are the more frequent oral lesions in patients with psoriasis. The aims of this study were to compare the prevalence of GT/FT between psoriasis group (PG) and healthy controls (HC) and investigate the correlation between GT/FT and psoriasis severity using the PASI and age of psoriasis onset. Three hundred and forty-eight PG and 348 HC were selected. According to the age of psoriasis onset, the individuals were classified as having early psoriasis and late psoriasis. The severity of vulgaris psoriasis was determined according to PASI. A follow-up was conducted in patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV) with GT to evaluate the progression of oral and cutaneous lesions. The FT and GT were more frequent in PG than in HC. The incidence of GT was higher in patients with early psoriasis and that of FT in late-psoriasis. There is association between psoriasis intensity and GT; and a higher monthly decrease of PASI score in patients without GT. The presence of GT and FT is higher in PG than in the HC. GT is associated with disease severity and may be a marker of the psoriasis severity.

Geographic tongue and psoriasis: clinical, histopathological, immunohistochemical and genetic correlation - a literature review

Geographic tongue is a chronic, inflammatory, and immune-mediated oral lesion of unknown etiology. It is characterized by serpiginous white areas around the atrophic mucosa, which alternation between activity, remission and reactivation at various locations gave the names benign migratory glossitis and wandering rash of the tongue. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease with frequent cutaneous involvement and an immunogenetic basis of great importance in clinical practice. The association between geographic tongue and psoriasis has been demonstrated in various studies, based on observation of its fundamental lesions, microscopic similarity between the two conditions and the presence of a common genetic marker, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) HLA-C*06. The difficulty however in accepting the diagnosis of geographic tongue as oral psoriasis is the fact that not all patients with geographic tongue present psoriasis. Some authors believe that the prevalence of geographic tongue would be much greater if psoriatic patients underwent thorough oral examination. This study aimed to develop a literature review performed between 1980 and 2014, in which consultation of theses, dissertations and selected scientific articles were conducted through search in Scielo and Bireme databases, from Medline and Lilacs sources, relating the common characteristics between geographic tongue and psoriasis. We observed that the frequency of oral lesions is relatively common, but to establish a correct diagnosis of oral psoriasis, immunohistochemical and genetic histopathological analyzes are necessary, thus highlighting the importance of oral examination in psoriatic patients and cutaneous examination in patients with geographic tongue.

Investigation of the clinical features of geographic tongue: unveiling its relationship with oral psoriasis

Few studies have examined the clinical features of geographic tongue (GT), an inflammatory lesion, making diagnosis and the investigation of oral psoriasis difficult.

The Advantages of Oral Cytopathology in the Early Diagnosis of HIV/AIDS: Three Case Reports

Oral lesions are common in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients, which may indicate impairment of the patient’s general health status, and, in many cases, the oral lesions are the first sign of an HIV infection. Oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL) is a benign lesion of the oral mucosa related to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) observed in HIV-positive individuals. The aim of this study was to report the contribution of oral cytopathology in the investigation of the HIV/AIDS status of patients as well as in the clinical and subclinical identification of OHL. Three patients were referred to the Oral Medicine Clinic in 2010. The patients were submitted to oral examination, and scrapes of the tongue were obtained. The Papanicolaou staining technique was used, and cytopathological analysis showed nuclear changes corresponding to cytopathic effects of EBV epithelial infection and candidiasis. The final diagnosis was OHL and candidiasis. Based on cytopathological diagnosis, an HIV serologic test was requested which revealed positive HIV serology. None of the patients was aware of their HIV serological status, and thus the cytopathology, by identifying OHL, contributed to the early diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. Cytopathology should be used as a routine procedure and it may be the method of choice for clinical and subclinical OHL diagnosis.

A simple technique to construct tissue macroarrays

Aims In the diagnostic or research field, there is a need that the histopathological evaluation provides as much information as possible, with the shortest time and lowest cost. The development of the tissue microarray (TMA) technology has significantly facilitated and accelerated studies with tissue analyses using in situ technologies. Nevertheless, one of the most recognised limitations of TMA is that the small cores used to construct a TMA may not accurately represent characteristics of the whole tissue specimen. The aim is to present the technical aspects of a simple system to construct tissue macroarrays (TMaAs), its advantages and limitations, and some results of its use in for research purposes. Methods The study presents three possibilities of preparing the specimens with up to 6 mm diameter to be included into the TMaA paraffin block using our method. Results With this technique, it was possible to obtain glass slides with multiple whole fragments, which were used in five different studies. Conclusions We presented a method for construction of multi-TMaA paraffin blocks, which is very simple for optimising laboratory techniques requiring paraffin-embedded tissue sections and can be easily implemented in any institution with a histology laboratory.

Conditioning strategies in the dental care of patients with autism spectrum disorders

Objective: to address the findings in the literature regarding behavioral management strategies used by dentists in the dental care of patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Material and Methods: the study was carried out at the Craveiro Costa Central Library, where scientific publications from 2000 to 2016 were reviewed. The search was carried out in the main databases, PubMed, Bireme, MedLine, EBSCO and SciELO, using the following key words: dentistry; autism; embracing; behavioral management; management. Results: 43 papers published in English, Portuguese and Spanish were retrieved. Based on the techniques used in the studies, it cannot be concluded which one would be the best and most effective because the choice for a technique depends on multiple factors. Conclusion: studies in dentistry related to behavioral management in patients with ASD are scarce, and further research in this area is necessary.

O perfil epidemiológico pode influenciar as características clínicas e malignas dos carcinomas orais e orofaríngeos

Objective: the aim of this study was to analyze possible associations between the epidemiological variables of the study and the clinical stage and malignancy grade of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the oral cavity and oropharynx, and to evaluate whether there is a correlation between clinical stage and histological grade in SCCs. Material and Methods: retrospective analytical study of SCCs cases diagnosed between June 2005 and December 2013. The data from medical records and histopathological findings of patients over 18 years old were entered into an Excel® spreadsheet and analyzed by SPSS® 20, using the chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests to analyse the variables. The level of significance of the tests was 0.05. Results: patients were predominantly black, male, illiterate, in their sixth decade of life, living in country towns and exposed to tobacco and alcohol. There was also predominance of advanced-stage tongue lesions with high-grade malignancy treated with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment. There was association between exposure to alcohol with advanced stage at diagnosis (p=<0.001). Conclusion: association of alcohol consumption with more advanced lesions at diagnosis underscores the need to address the risk factors more emphatically. Although classic factors implicated in the course of oral and oropharyngeal SCC have been observed, it is remarkable the high frequency of illiterate patients coming from country towns, which could have hampered the access to health care and contributed to a delayed diagnosis and thus, to a poorer prognosis.