Dental arch form in three Pacific populations: a comparison with Japanese and Australian aboriginal samples

The purpose of this study was to provide information about arch shape variations among South Pacific populations. The application of Fourier transforms, Y(phi i) = ao/2 + sigma (aicos phi i + bisin phi i) was used to separate two components of variation; size and shape. Dental arch size can be described by one coefficient (ao), while the shape can be summarized by the first three harmonics (amp1-3) in the Fourier series. The materials used in this study were dental casts of South Pacific populations (Fiji, Western Samoa and Kiribati), Australian Aboriginals and Japanese. Fijians, Western Samoans and Kiribati people have larger upper and lower dental arches than that of Japanese. These populations were separated by the arch size and first Fourier amplitudes which showed the arch depth/width ratio. The Fijian upper and lower dental arches were significantly larger than those found in other populations and was characterized by a wide posterior arch breadth. The Western Samoan and Kiribati arch shape was more similar to the Japanese arch shape than the Fijian. Distribution patterns of arch shape characteristics in these populations showed the same tendencies in the upper and lower arches.     

Treatment of functional decline in adults with Down syndrome using selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor drugs

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common cause of functional decline in Down syndrome (DS) adults. Acquired cognitive deficits may be difficult to evaluate in the context of baseline impairments. Behavioral symptoms are also common and may represent the effects of depression, AD, or both. Therefore, the objective of this study was to report a clinical case series of selected adults with DS and behavioral change who responded to treatment with selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication. Six patients, aged 23 to 63 years, 5 women and 1 man, with the clinical diagnosis of DS presented for diagnosis and treatment of functional decline in adult life. Noncognitive symptoms were prominent and included aggression, social withdrawal, and compulsive behaviors. Memory dysfunction was reported in varying degrees. Treatment with SSRI antidepressants was instituted for depressive, apathetic, and compulsive behaviors. Treated patients showed improvement in behaviors as reported by caregivers, and on objective measures, such as workplace productivity. Noncognitive symptoms are a cardinal feature of functional decline in adults with DS and may represent either depression or AD. In some patients, the symptoms respond well to SSRI agents with concomitant improvement in daily function. Treatment trials with SSRIs may, therefore, be warranted in such cases.     

Month of birth and schizophrenia in Taiwan: effect of gender, family history and age at onset

Schizophrenic patients have been shown to have a moderate excess of winter births in the areas where seasonal variations in weather are large. In this report, we examined the seasonality of schizophrenic births in Taiwan, which has a subtropical climate. Using nationwide hospitalization data (2429 male and 1320 female schizophrenic patients), we applied the life table method to compare the risk of schizophrenia among 12 cohorts of month-of-birth for males and females, respectively. Differences among the risks of the 12 cohorts were tested using the logrank test. The samples were further stratified by family history and age at onset. There was a significant association between the risk of being admitted as a schizophrenic and month of birth for both males and females. The cohorts born in November and January had the highest risks. After stratification, the association was significant only for non-familial, male, and early onset schizophrenic patients. The results indicate that seasonally varying factors might increase the risk of schizophrenia, especially in those without a family history of the disease. Men are more vulnerable to such factors than women, and the schizophrenics resulting from such insults tend to be early onset.     

Pathogenesis of chronic allograft nephropathy

We found normal individuals whose aspartoacylase gene Y231X mutation site consistently gave no signal in a primer extension assay. We determined the nucleotide sequence of the relevant region of the gene in those individuals, and found a new allele with a thymidine residue at the mutation site instead of a cytidine. Since both TAC and TAT code for tyrosine, this sequence polymorphism has no effect on the amino acid sequence of the ASPA protein. We found the relative frequencies of the 693C and the 693T alleles in the tested population to be 0.75 and 0.25 respectively.