Tongue Score Research Articles

Enzymatic Preparation, Identification by Transmembrane Channel-like 4 (TMC4) Protein, and Bioinformatics Analysis of New Salty Peptides from Soybean Protein Isolate.

To address the public health challenges posed by high-salt diets, this study utilized pepsin and flavourzyme for the continuous enzymatic hydrolysis of a soy protein isolate (SPI). The separation, purification, and identification of salt-containing peptides in SPI hydrolysate were conducted using ultrafiltration (UF), gel filtration chromatography (GFC), and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Subsequently, a molecular docking model was constructed between salt receptor protein transmembrane channel 4 (TMC4) and the identified peptides. Basic bioinformatics screening was performed to obtain non-toxic, non-allergenic, and stable salt peptides. After the enzymatic hydrolysis, separation, and purification of SPI, a component with a sensory evaluation score of 7 and an electronic tongue score of 10.36 was obtained. LC-MS/MS sequencing identified a total of 1697 peptides in the above component, including 84 potential salt-containing peptides. A molecular docking analysis identified seven peptides (FPPP, GGPW, IPHF, IPKF, IPRR, LPRR, and LPHF) with a strong theoretical salty taste. Furthermore, residues Glu531, Asp491, Val495, Ala401, and Phe405 of the peptides bound to the TMC4 receptor through hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions, and electrostatic interactions, thereby imparting a significant salty taste. A basic bioinformatics analysis further revealed that IPHF, LPHF, GGPW, and IPKF were non-toxic, non-allergenic, and stable salt-containing peptides. This study not only provides a new sodium reduction strategy for the food industry, but also opens up new avenues for improving the public's healthy eating habits.

Orofacial Myofunctional Aspects of Nursing Infants and Preschoolers.

Introduction Clinical assessment in orofacial motricity is required for the speech therapist to diagnose and treat disorders involving the stomatognathic system. Validated tools can help establish a prognosis and outline intervention methods connected to human development. Objective The goal of the present study was to examine the domains of the oromyofunctional assessment of nursing infants and preschoolers according to sex and age group, as well as the application of the MMBGR Protocol - Nursing Infants and Preschool Children. Methods A quantitative technique was used to conduct an analytical and cross-sectional investigation. The present study included a total of 214 healthy breastfeeding infants and preschoolers of both sexes. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the medians. The Spearman correlation of each test domain was determined. R Core Team 2021 (R Foundation, Vienna, Austria) was used, and the significance threshold was set at 5%. Results In intraoral and extraoral examinations, there was a difference between sexes for tongue scores in nursing infants (d = - 0.428; p = 0.045), worse in males. When the orofacial functions were considered in nursing infants, there were differences between the sexes for the liquid/solid/semisolid deglutition scores (d = 0.479; p = 0.031), with females performing worse. There were sex differences in solid/semisolid deglutition (d = - 0.335; p = 0.043), and speech in preschoolers (d = - 0.478; p = 0.034), including the production of phones/phonemes (d = - 0.599; p = 0.007), which were always worse in males. Conclusion The research revealed sex disparities and related the domains of oromyofunctional assessment, according to scores, of the domains of myofunctional assessment, as recorded in a standardized oromyofunctional assessment protocol by age group.

Effect of A Clinician-Delivered Chewing Program on Masticatory Function in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Objectives: Studies documenting the training effect of the Functional Chewing Training (FCT) program using objective methods are limited. The present study attempts to evaluate the effect of FCT on chewing dynamics by comparing the pre-, post-treatment and follow-up scores in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Study design: A time series design was employed to study the treatment effects. Methods: Six children with a confirmed diagnosis of oral dysphagia secondary to CP in the age range of 3 to 8 years formed the participant group. Chewing performance was assessed using Mastication Observation Evaluation (MOE, Remijn et al., 2014) and quantified using surface electromyography (sEMG) for the masseter muscle. Subsequently, 20 sessions of intensive chewing training was carried out. The assessments were repeated after intervention and at 4 weeks post-discharge, during which no intervention or home training was provided. Results: Friedman’s Two-Way Analysis of Variance revealed that there was a significant improvement in jaw, lip, and tongue scores for chewing as well as for the sEMG parameters. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test revealed that there was a significant difference in the pre- versus post-therapy and pre- versus follow-up conditions for all the parameters (p<0.017). Conclusions: The study revealed that FCT leads to improvements in lip seal, jaw stability and tongue lateralization aiding in effective masticatory performance. The continued improvement post-discharge indicates the effect of better management and progression of food textures. The present study is one of the first to elucidate the efficacy of the FCT program by illustrating the changes with respect to instrumental measures.

Differential item functioning analysis on the Geriatric Depression Scale-15: An iterative hybrid ordinal logistic regression.

The elderly population has extensively increased globally, so depression like a common problem in late life may convert to one of the economic, social, and health challenges of the 21st century. Due to the high cost of clinical diagnosis of depression, it is necessary to provide effective questionnaires like the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) for screening. But, the measurement invariance of GDS-15 is still unknown in the general population. In our study, 1473 participants of all Iran’s ethnic groups were asked to answer GDS-15 and demographic factors such as human settlements, employment, disease, marital status, age, gender, homebound, financial status, and ethnicity. Then, the lordif package in R 3.1.3 was used to assess differential item functioning (DIF) items that behave unevenly across demographic factors. Our findings reveal that women, homebound patients, poorer, and non-Persian mother tongue score classic psychological symptoms higher than peoples of the same depression score in other groups. Since, psychologists have to remove or replace these items before using this questionnaire for screening geriatric depression.

Expanded Exploration of the Auditory Naming Test in Patients with Dementia.

Auditory naming tests are superior to visual confrontation naming tests in revealing word-finding difficulties in many neuropathological conditions. To delineate characteristics of auditory naming most likely to reveal anomia in patients with dementia, and possibly improve diagnostic utility, we evaluated a large sample of patients referred with memory impairment complaints. Patients with dementia (N = 733) or other cognitive impairments and normal individuals (N = 69) were evaluated for frequency of impairment on variables of the Auditory Naming Test (ANT) of Hamberger & Seidel versus the Boston Naming Test (BNT). Naming impairment occurred more frequently using the ANT total score (φ= 0.41) or ANT tip-of-the tongue score (TOT; φ= 0.19) but not ANT mean response time compared to the BNT in patients with dementia (p < 0.001). Significantly more patients were impaired on ANT variables than on the BNT in Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), mixed AD/VaD, and multiple domain mild cognitive impairment (mMCI) but not in other dementias or amnestic MCI (aMCI). This differential performance of patients on auditory versus visual naming tasks was most pronounced in older, well-educated, male patients with the least cognitive impairment. Impaired verbal comprehension was not contributory. Inclusion of an ANT index score increased sensitivity in the dementia sample (92%). Poor specificity (41%) may be secondary to the inherent limitation of using the BNT as a control variable. The ANT index score adds diagnostic utility to the assessment of naming difficulties in patients with suspected dementia.

Myofunctional Therapy App for Severe Apnea-Hypopnea Sleep Obstructive Syndrome: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundMyofunctional therapy has demonstrated efficacy in treating sleep-disordered breathing. We assessed the clinical use of a new mobile health (mHealth) app that uses a smartphone to teach patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea–hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) to perform oropharyngeal exercises.ObjectiveWe conducted a pilot randomized trial to evaluate the effects of the app in patients with severe OSAHS.MethodsForty patients with severe OSAHS (apnea–hypoxia index [AHI]>30) were enrolled prospectively and randomized into an intervention group that used the app for 90 sessions or a control group. Anthropometric measures, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (0-24), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (0-21), Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI) scores, and oxygen desaturation index were measured before and after the intervention.ResultsAfter the intervention, 28 patients remained. No significant changes were observed in the control group; however, the intervention group showed significant improvements in most metrics. AHI decreased by 53.4% from 44.7 (range 33.8-55.6) to 20.88 (14.02-27.7) events/hour (P<.001). The oxygen desaturation index decreased by 46.5% from 36.31 (27.19-43.43) to 19.4 (12.9-25.98) events/hour (P=.003). The IOPI maximum tongue score increased from 39.83 (35.32-45.2) to 59.06 (54.74-64.00) kPa (P<.001), and the IOPI maximum lip score increased from 27.89 (24.16-32.47) to 44.11 (39.5-48.8) kPa (P<.001). The AHI correlated significantly with IOPI tongue and lip improvements (Pearson correlation coefficient −0.56 and −0.46, respectively; both P<.001). The Epworth Sleepiness Scale score decreased from 10.33 (8.71-12.24) to 5.37 (3.45-7.28) in the app group (P<.001), but the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index did not change significantly.ConclusionsOrofacial exercises performed using an mHealth app reduced OSAHS severity and symptoms, and represent a promising treatment for OSAHS.Trial RegistrationSpanish Registry of Clinical Studies AWGAPN-2019-01, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04438785; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04438785

Establishment and Evaluation of a Rat Model of Spinal Cord Injury with the Pathopattern of Qi-Deficiency and Blood-Stasis in Traditional Chinese Medicine

ABSTRACT Objective To establish a rat model of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) with the pathopattern of Qi-deficiency and Blood-stasis (QDBS) in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and then assess its feasibility. Methods Swimming exhaustion method and Rubrospinal Tract (RST) transection were combined to establish arat model of SCI with pathopattern of QDBS in TCM. Macroscopic representation, including the body weight, food intake and tongue scores, was recorded. Behavioristics was scored with spontaneous vertical exploration test. Hemorrheology was analyzed using hemorheological analyzer and morphology of spinal cord was observed. The feasibility of the model was confirmed on the basis of the reversion caused by administration of Bu Yang Huan Wu Decoction (BYHWD). Results The findings in the QDBS group were consistent with the symptoms of QDBS syndrome, including reduced body weight, food intake, and forelimb utilization rate and increased tongue scores. However, the corresponding findings in the BYHWD group were superior to those in the QDBS group after 35 d (P Conclusion Swimming exhaustion method combined with RST transection operation can successfully establish a rat model of SCI with pathopattern of QDBS.

Effects of tongue coating and oral health on halitosis among dental students.

To assess halitosis and determine the relationship between halitosis and tongue scores, periodontal status and DMFT among dental students. The study comprised 268 (178 female, 90 male) dental students. Halitosis was measured using a Halimeter and the organoleptic method. Halitosis was diagnosed with a mean volatile sulphur compounds (VSC) level of >=125 ppb and an organoleptic measurement of >= 2 on a 0- to 5-point scale. Tongue scores were obtained using a tongue coating index (TCI), periodontal status was measured and assessed using the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN) and DMFT indices were calculated. Halitosis occurred at higher rates among male students than female students (83% vs 71%, P = 0.02). No differences were found in halitosis rates among students in different academic years (P = 0.6) or age groups (P = 0.6). A relationship was found between halitosis and tongue scores (P < 0.001) and between halitosis and mean CPITN scores (P = 0.004). The mean DMFT was 4.02 (SD = 3). No relationship was found between halitosis and DMFT index (P = 0.5). Halitosis was prevalent among dental students. Given their responsibilities for diagnosing and improving oral health, they may benefit from increased awareness of the problem and encouragement to improve their own oral hygiene, especially male students.