OBJECTIVE:Evaluation of several factors that affected the outcome in patients who underwent cochlear implant surgery. MATERIALS and METHODS:Retrospective study on 8 postlingual adults and 52 prelingual children with severe to profound hearing loss who underwent cochlear implantation at the Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery department, Kasr-Al Aini Hospital, Cairo University. A statistical analysis of several factors was performed to reveal any significant effect of the outcome of the procedure. RESULTS:The duration of deafness in adults showed a significant linear yet non-monotonic correlation with the postoperative average auditory thresholds as revealed by Pearson's correlation coefficient (r=0.839, p=0.009) and a linear regression model (f=14.211, p=0.009), which showed that the increase in the duration of deafness led to an increase in hearing thresholds and accounted for 70.3% of the variance in the outcome (β=0.839, t=3.770, and p=0.009). Age at implantation in children showed a positive linear, monotonic relation with the postoperative receptive (r=0.725, p<0.001, r S =0.354, p=0.010) and was a significant predictor of outcome (β=0.440, t=2.961; p=0.005) according to multiple linear regression. Mann-Whitney U-test was performed to evaluate the difference in medians of outcomes in relation to the regularity of attendance to speech rehabilitation. We found a significant effect over the auditory hearing thresholds (the mean ranks of regulars and irregulars were 21. 48 and 31.92, respectively; u=202.00, z=2.48, p<0.05) CONCLUSION: An increase in the duration of deafness leads to less favorable results of postoperative auditory thresholds in postlingual adults. Additionally, an increase in age at implantation may be associated with increased expressive language age in the first year postimplantation, and regular attendance to a speech rehabilitation program is associated with better postoperative auditory thresholds and a higher receptive language age.

Background: the present study was aimed to evaluate the levels of IL-17 as a core cytokine and a diagnostic marker of both OLP and PV for comparison and evaluation regarding saliva and serum. Subjects and Methods:The present study was performed on a total of 45 subjects divided into 3 groups Group I Fifteen patients diagnosed with OLP Group II Fifteen patients diagnosed with PV with oral lesions and Group III Fifteen healthy patients (control Group). Salivary and serum samples were collected from all participating subjects for determination of IL-17 levels using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results: Mean IL-17 levels in saliva of OLP group were significantly higher statistically than PV patients and control subjects with p values 0.12 and 0.03 respectively. Serum levels of IL-17 in OLP and PV patients were higher compared to control subjects with a statistically significant p value of <0.001 and 0.013 respectively. IL-17 serum levels were significantly higher statistically in OLP than PV patients with a p value of 0.036. Conclusion:According to the results the high serum and salivary levels of IL-17 in OLP patients when compared to healthy control group or PV group suggested that it could be used as a diagnostic marker for OLP and could be used to differentiate it from PV.

Introduction: Periostin is a matricellular protein highly expressed by the fibroblasts in the periodontal ligament. It is entangled in the maintenance of periodontal integrity which is affected by periodontal disease.Aim: this study aimed to compare both GCF and salivary periostin levels during periodontal disease to their levels after non-surgical periodontal therapy. Subjects and methods:The present study was performed on a total of 30 subjects, 13 males and 17 females. The thirty selected participants were sampled at baseline and after receiving the non-surgical periodontal treatment.Results: In GCF, there was a statistically significant (at P ≤ 0.05) increase in mean Periostin level after treatment. While in saliva, there was a statistically significant (at P ≤0.05) decrease in mean Periostin level after treatment. ConclusionOur results suggested that GCF periostin level may be considered as a reliable marker in the evaluation of periodontal disease activity, while salivary periostin level could have a promising diagnostic potential. So, further investigations are recommended.

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Introduction: Recurrent aphthous ulcer is one of the most common oral diseases worldwide. The prevalence ranges from 2% to 66% in different populations. Detection of the prevalence of oral ulcerations in the general population is very important as the ulcers have significant negative effects on the oral health, irrespective to the etiology. Moreover, many syndromes were known to be associated with recurrent aphthous ulcers. Aim: the present study was performed to detect RAU prevalence among a sample of Egyptian population and to find out its incidence in relation to the precipitating factors. Subjects & Methods: The present study was performed on a total of 4362 subjects, 1874 males and 2488 females. The subjects were recruited from the outpatient clinic of Oral Medicine and Periodontology Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University. For patients with RAU, the diagnostic sheets were provided. Data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed using software SPSS 16.0 for windows Results: There were 50/4362 cases with aphthous ulcer giving a prevalence of 1.15%. Ten cases (20.0%) had major aphthous ulcer while 40 cases (80.0%) had minor aphthous ulcer and no herpetiform aphthous ulcers were reported. Conclusions: The present study shed the light on the prevalence of recurrent aphthous ulcers and also pointed to the importance of a thorough history taking to identify the main risk factors of the ulceration and then to get the needed preventive measures.