A prospective, single-center study to evaluate the clinical performance of Meril ABFind in individuals vaccinated against COVID-19

Background: Accurate rapid antibody detection kits requiring minimum infrastructure are beneficial in detecting post-vaccination antibodies in large populations. ChAdOx1-nCOV (COVISHIELD) and BBV-152 (Covaxin) vaccines are primarily used in India. Methods: In this single-centre prospective study, performance of Meril ABFind was investigated by comparing with Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quant (Abbott Quant), GenScript cPass SARS-CoV-2 neutralization antibody detection kit (GenScript cPass), and COVID Kawach MERILISA (MERILISA) in 62 vaccinated health care workers (HCW) and 40 pre-pandemic samples. Results: In the vaccinated subjects, Meril ABFind kit displayed high sensitivity of 93.3% (CI, 89.83%-96.77%), 94.92% (CI, 91.88%-97.96%), and 90.3% (CI, 86.20%-94.4%) in comparison to Abbott Quant, MERILISA, and GenScript cPass respectively. The results of the Meril ABFind in the COVISHIELD-vaccinated group were excellent with 100% sensitivity in comparison to the other three kits. In the Covaxin-vaccinated group, Meril ABFind displayed sensitivity ranging from 80% to 88.9%. In control samples, there were no false positives detected by Meril ABFind, while Abbott Quant, MERILISA, and GenScript cPass reported 2.5%, 10.0%, and 12.5% false positives, respectively. In the pre-pandemic controls, specificity of Meril ABFind was 100%, Abbott Quant 97.5%, MERILISA 90%, and GenScript cPass 87.5%. Conclusion: The Meril ABFind kit demonstrated satisfactory performance when compared with the three commercially available kits and was the only kit without false positives in the pre-pandemic samples. This makes it a viable option for rapid diagnosis of post vaccination antibodies.

Single-Chamber Leadless Cardiac Pacemaker in Patients Without Atrial Fibrillation: Findings From Campania Leadless Registry

Introduction:Little is known about the clinical performance of single-chamber leadless pacemaker (LLPM) in patients without atrial fibrillation (AF) as pacing indication. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of patients who underwent single chamber LLPM implantation at three tertiary referral centers and to compare the safety and effectiveness of the single-chamber LLPM among patients with or without AF.Materials and Methods:All the consecutive patients who underwent LLPM implantation at three referral centers were analyzed. The indications to LLPM in a real-world setting were described. The study population was divided into two groups according to AF as pacing indication. We assessed the procedure-related complications; moreover, we compared syncope, cardiac hospitalization, pacemaker syndrome, and all-cause death recurrence during the follow-up between patients with and without AF as pacing indication.Results:A total of 140 consecutive patients (mean age, 76.7 ± 11.24 years, men 64.3%) were included in the study. The indication to implantation of LLPM was permanent AF with slow ventricular response (n: 67; 47.8%), sinus node dysfunction (n: 25; 17.8%), third atrioventricular block (AVB) (n: 20; 14.2%), second-degree AVB (n: 18; 12.8%), and first degree AVB (n: 10; 7.1%). A total of 7 patients (5%) experienced perioperative complications with no differences between the AF vs. non-AF groups. During a mean follow-up of 606.5 ± 265.9 days, 10 patients (7.7%) died and 7 patients (5.4%) were reported for cardiac hospitalization; 5 patients (3.8%) experienced syncope; no patients showed pacemaker syndrome. No significant differences in the clinical events between the groups were shown. The Kaplan–Meier analysis for the combined endpoints did not show significant differences between the AF and non-AF groups [hazard ratio (HR): 0.94, 95% CI: 0.41–2.16; p = 0.88].Conclusion:Our real-world data suggest that LLPM may be considered a safe and reasonable treatment in patients without AF in need of pacing. Further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary results.

Evaluation of white spot lesions around orthodontic brackets using different bonding agents – An in vivo study

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the white spot lesions around orthodontic bracket macroscopically using two different bonding agents – one with amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) (Aegis Ortho) and one without ACP (Transbond XT). Materials and Methods: The study comprises 10 patients from 14 to 23 years of age. Patients were divided into control and study groups. Forty premolar teeth were then observed (20 teeth in each group). Bonding procedure was done and brackets were positioned on all four 1st pre-molars teeth and pre-treatment photographs were taken. The experimental material used was Aegis Ortho composite (study group) and Transbond XT (control group). Debonding procedure (by Wing deformation technique) was performed after 16 weeks which led to adhesive fracture at composite resin adhesive bracket interface leaving essentially all adhesive on the enamel. Then, follow-up photographs were taken to evaluate each. Results: Aegis Ortho containing ACP used for bonding purpose, provided lesser enamel demineralization than Transbond XT. Conclusion: Aegis Ortho for orthodontic bonding is significantly more beneficial and reliable, however, further investigations are also required to understand its clinical performance better.

An educational approach for early student self-assessment in clinical periodontology

Background Self-assessment is a mandated educational requirement for use in dental undergraduate programmes. It is weakly supported for use in early clinical training and studies are criticized for the conceptual and methodology shortfalls. The aim of the study was to compare the alignment of student self-assessment to both staff assessment and written exams in early clinical training using an educational approach. Methods In 2014-2015, 55 third-year dental students completed three educational sessions comprising of (a) classroom teaching (lecture, video) with post-lesson written exam and (b) clinical activity with student self-assessment, staff assessment and student reflection. An intra-individual analysis approach, staff validation, and student scoring standardization were implemented. Cognitive (clinical competency) and non-cognitive (professionalism) items were separated in the analyses. Results There were medium correlations (Spearman’s rho, r) between student self-assessment and staff assessment scores for cognitive items (r, 0.32) and for non-cognitive items (r, 0.44) for all three combined sessions. There were large correlations for individual sessions. Compared to the post-lesson written exam, students showed small correlation (r, 0.22, 0.29) and staff showed medium correlation (r, 0.31, 0.34) for cognitive and non-cognitive items. Students showed improvements in their mean scores for both cognitive (t-test; p > 0.05) and non-cognitive items (t-test; p = 0.000). Mean scores of students were not different statistically from that of staff (p > 0.05). Conclusions Students may adequately act as self-assessors at the beginning of their clinical work in periodontology. Self-assessment may potentially improve the clinical performance. Self-assessment may be nurtured through clear guidelines, educational training strategies, feedback and reflection leading to better evaluative judgement and lifelong learning.

Clinical Performance of Friend Leukemia Virus Integration 1 Methylation as a Biomarker for Colorectal Carcinoma

Objectives Accumulating evidence supports the reliability of molecular biomarkers and cancer, the current situation is lacking. This present study was aimed to investigate clinical performance of friend leukemia virus integration 1 (FLI1) methylation as a biomarker for colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods The datasets of UALCAN, GEPIA, cBioPortal, STRING, TIMER2.0, GEO, and KOBAS were utilized in this present study. In order to testify the methylation function of FLI1 in CRC, we studied 6 CRC cell lines and 20 pairs of tumor tissues. The transcriptional levels of FLI1 were tested by reverse transcription PCR quantitatively and western blot. Cell viability, transwell assays and plate clone assay were utilized to assess the cell function. Results FLI1 was up-regulated in the GBM, KIRC, LAML, etc. Meanwhile, it was down-regulated in BLCA, BRCA, CESC, etc (p<0.05). The CPTAC dataset showed higher total protein in the primary tissues of KIRC, lower protein in the BRCA, OV, LUAD, UCEC than normal tissues(p<0.05). Highly expressed FLI1 was linked to poor prognosis of overall survival (OS) in LGG, UVM (p<0.05). Low expression of FLI1 was associated with short OS in KIRC, LUAD, SKCM (p<0.05). Compared with normal tissues, the methylation level of FLI1 was increased in BRCA, CESC, CHOL, COAD, etc (p<0.05). In the contrary, it was decreased in KIRP, PCPG obviously (p<0.05). Moreover, it showed a reduced phosphorylation for selected probes (BRCA: NP_002008.2:S39, NP_002008.2:S3241; OV: NP_002008.2:S39; LUAD: NP_002008.2:S79, NP_002008.2:S3241; all p<0.05). Meanwhile, it showed an enhanced phosphorylation level of FLI1 in KIRC for selected probes (NP_002008.2:S241, p<0.05). Besides, a statistical negative correlation was found between FLI1 and Treg cells, neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, NK cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, and common immune checkpoint gene levels (p<0.05). Besides, in vivo experience showed that 5-Aza-2’-deoxycytidine diminished FLI1 methylation level and restored transcriptional levels (p>0.05) in CRC. In vitro experiments demonstrated that the proliferation, colony formation, invasion and migration of CRC cells were inhibited by FLI1 overexpression through FMNL1 (p<0.05). Conclusions This present study offers a comprehensive understanding of FLI1 in carcinomas with oncogenesis and immunotherapeutic implications. Moreover, FLI1 reduced the proliferation, colony formation, invasion and migration of CRC by FMNL1.

Clinical Performance of the cobas Liat SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza AB for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasal Samples

Background and Objective: Point-of-care type molecular diagnostic tests have been used for detecting SARS-CoV-2, although their clinical utility with nasal samples has yet to be established. This study evaluated the clinical performance of the cobas Liat SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza AB (Liat) in nasal samples. Methods: Nasal and nasopharyngeal samples were collected and were tested using the Liat, the cobas 6800 system and the cobas SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza AB (cobas), and a method developed by National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan (NIID). Results: A total of 814 nasal samples were collected. The Liat assay was positive for SARS-CoV-2 in 113 (13.9%). The total, positive, and negative concordance rate between the Liat and cobas/NIID assays were 99.3%/98.4%, 99.1%/100%, and 99.3%/98.2%, respectively. Five samples were positive only using the Liat assay. Their Ct values ranged from 31.9 to 37.2. The Ct values of the Liat assay were significantly lower (p < 0.001) but were correlated (p < 0.001) with those of other molecular assays. In the participants who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the Liat assay using nasopharyngeal samples, 88.2% of their nasal samples also tested positive using the Liat assay. Conclusion: The Liat assay showed high concordance with other molecular assays in nasal samples. Some discordance occurred in samples with Ct values > 30 on the Liat assay.