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BACKGROUND: Orofacial clefts are characterized by a frequent occurrence of dental anomalies. Numerous studies demonstrate the high prevalence of dental aplasia, supernumerary teeth, and hypoplastic teeth in patients with cleft lip with/without cleft palate (CL/P), yet the therapeutic consequences are rarely discussed. This study explores prevalence, localization, and association between primary and secondary dentition in a large European collective and begins to evaluate the significance of dental anomalies in the therapeutic course of patients with CL/P. METHODS: The medical reports of 1070 patients with different entities of CL/P who presented to our clinic within a 15-year investigation period were evaluated retrospectively. Dental anomalies were classified into three different diagnostic groups: dental aplasia, supernumerary teeth and hypoplastic teeth. The statistical analyses included studies of the frequency and localization of dental anomalies in different cleft entities as well as of the association between primary and secondary dentition and the therapeutic consequences. RESULTS: Uni- or bilateral cleft lip and palate (CLP) (47.5%) occurred most frequently, followed by cleft palate only (CPO) (32.9%) and cleft lip with or without alveolus (CL ± A) (19.6%). Dental anomalies were found significantly more often on the side of the cleft. Aplastic permanent teeth were mostly found in patients with CLP (54.8%), while supernumerary permanent teeth occurred primarily in patients with CL ± A (21.7%). Patients with CPO presented dental aplasia but no patient with CPO showed supernumerary teeth. The occurrence of dental aplasia in the primary dentition significantly increases the probability of aplastic teeth in the permanent dentition. Dental anomalies, in particular dental aplasia, significantly increase patients' need for subsequent orthodontic therapy and orthognathic surgery. CONCLUSION: Dental aplasia and hypoplasia are common in patients with CL/P not only in the cleft area but in the whole dentition. In the event of dental aplasia in the primary dentition, the frequency of aplastic teeth in the permanent dentition is significantly higher. Additionally, the need for therapeutic interventions, especially concerning orthognathic surgery, seems to be significantly higher in patients with CL/P who are affected by dental anomalies. Clinicians should take this into account when creating long-term treatment plans.

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BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to develop and validate a specific screening instrument for assessing the quality of life (QoL) of patients with orofacial clefts. The Cleft-Screen-Questionnaire (CSQ) aims at identifying the main problematic areas and is intended for the routine use in everyday clinical practice to constantly evaluate the conditions' and treatments' effects on patients' well-being. METHODS: First, a pool of 58 questions is created by collecting items from validated questionnaires previously used for assessing the QoL in cleft populations. After the removal of duplicate questions, the questionnaires are answered by 152 patients from a tertiary care center. A factor analysis followed by the calculation of Cronbach's alpha as a reliability measurement led to the final CSQ presented here. RESULTS: The applied factor analysis resulted in five factors. Items showing low factor loadings (seen as <0.5) were excluded initially. Accordingly, factor analysis led to a preliminary number of 43 items. A reliability analysis using Cronbach's alpha and corrected alpha if item deleted showed an overall moderate to high reliability (seen as: 0.6-0.9). After excluding questions with increasing alphas if item deleted, analyses yielded in a final number of 38 questions. CONCLUSION: The final 38-item CSQ is a reliable instrument for evaluating the health-related QoL of cleft patients.

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Despite improvements in the management of patients in critical care, about 3% patients who have an operation with curative intent for oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) do not survive their stay in hospital. Our aim was to assess the risk factors for postoperative death that were independent of the stage of the cancer, or the age and sex of the patients. We screened 4760 consecutive inpatients at a maxillofacial tertiary care centre from 2011 to 2016, and 34 of them had died within the first three months after operation. We matched them with a further 34 patients with the same TNM stage, age, and sex. General personal and clinical data and preoperative laboratory values were screened, and we applied a Charlson Comorbidity Score (for anaesthetic risk) for each group. Patients' mean (SD) age was 66 (12) years old. There was no significant difference in sex (p=1), age (p=0.718), or TNM classification. Those who died after operation had significantly more renal (p=0.027) and gastrointestinal (p=0.006) diseases, but cardiac diseases (p=0.468) and diabetes mellitus (p=1) were not significant risk factors in themselves. Patients who died postoperatively had significantly worse risk scores (p=0.001) overall. The most common causes of death were septic shock (n=10) and acute cardiac (n=9) or respiratory failure (n=7). Our findings suggested that general diseases were not intrinsically a contraindication for operation with curative intent. The Charlson Comorbidity Score helped to detect potentially fatal courses and could be useful in the preoperative assessment of patients whose general health is not good.

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Because peripartal production diseases are prevalent in dairy cows, early recognition is crucial. Several studies reported metabolic variables as risk predictors for subsequent diseases. To improve on-farm testing and application of those methods, the sampling procedure should take into account variation in gestation length. Furthermore, additional variables indicating cows at risk of any production disease should be sought. Therefore, the objective was to characterize differences between cows with and without postpartum production disease (retained fetal membranes, ketosis, hypocalcemia, abomasal displacement, metritis, mastitis) by prepartum measurement of serum nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) and plasma insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I concentrations relative to the artificial insemination (AI) that established pregnancy. Blood was collected from 41 Holstein Friesian cows on 235 to 241, 242 to 248, 249 to 255, 256 to 262, 263 to 269, 270 to 276, 277 to 283, and 284 to 290 d after AI. Health status was assessed daily for 3 wk after calving; 25 cows (66%) had at least one production disease. Cows developing postpartum diseases had higher mean serum NEFA concentrations (450 ± 26 µmol/L; mean ± SE) and lower plasma IGF-I concentrations (78 ± 6 ng/mL) prepartum compared with healthy cows (259 ± 19 µmol/L and 117 ± 8 ng/mL, respectively). In conclusion, because of substantial variation among cows in gestation length, blood samples should be collected and studies performed on risk prediction relative to AI rather than expected date of calving. As the somatotropic axis is one of the key regulators of metabolic adaption for onset of lactation, IGF-I might be a useful variable to differentiate between cows susceptible to production diseases and cows that are able to adapt adequately within the transition period and remain healthy.

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Impaired function of polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leukocyte (PMNL) during the peripartal period is a major reason for increased susceptibility of dairy cows to infections in this critical interval. Factors dysregulating PMNL function are widely unknown. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) enhanced PMNL functions in vitro. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of IGF-I and, additionally, ß-hydroxybutyrate and nonesterified fatty acid concentrations on phagocytic activity (PA, percentage of viable PMNL) and phagocytic capacity (PC, mean fluorescence intensity of phagocytic PMNL) assessed by flow cytometry. Antepartum (i.e., wk -3, -2, -1; before calving), plasma concentrations of IGF-I were high (80-110 ng/mL) without significant differences between primiparous and pluriparous cows (n=18 and n=41, respectively). Concentrations of IGF-I declined toward the week of calving (wk 1). Postpartum (i.e., wk 2, 3, and 4; after calving), IGF-I remained lower than before parturition, with concentrations higher in primiparous compared with those of pluriparous cows. The PA was constant in primiparous cows throughout the study period. Conversely, PMNL of pluriparous cows had a significantly increased and higher PA in wk 2 and 3 postpartum compared with that of primiparous cows. The PC decreased significantly only in primiparous cows the week of calving, whereas the number of PMNL in primiparous cows exceeded that of pluriparous cows significantly. The phagocytic power (PP, a product of PA by PC), but not the phagocytic overall performance (POP, a product of PA, PC, and PMNL number), differed between primiparous and pluriparous cows in wk 3 postpartum. No significant differences in POP were found, except in wk 4 after calving between the primi- and pluriparous cows. In both groups, POP increased in the week of calving (wk 1). In contrast to ß-hydroxybutyrate, which was weakly positive correlated with PA and PP in pluriparous cows in the transition period (wk -3 antepartum to wk 4 postpartum), pluriparous animals had weak negative correlations of PMNL number, PA, PP, POP, and IGF-I concentration in this period. In primiparous animals, only PP and PC were weakly negatively correlated with IGF-I in the transition period. Increased plasma IGF-I concentrations were not associated with enhanced phagocytosis function of bovine blood PMNL ex vivo and, thus, can not be regarded as a suitable predictor for this function.

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