@article{StraubBrandsBorgmannetal.2022, author = {Straub, Anton and Brands, Roman and Borgmann, Anna and Vollmer, Andreas and Hohm, Julian and Linz, Christian and M{\"u}ller-Richter, Urs and K{\"u}bler, Alexander C. and Hartmann, Stefan}, title = {Free skin grafting to reconstruct donor sites after radial forearm flap harvesting: a prospective study with platelet-rich fibrin (PRF)}, series = {Journal of Clinical Medicine}, volume = {11}, journal = {Journal of Clinical Medicine}, number = {12}, issn = {2077-0383}, doi = {10.3390/jcm11123506}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-278854}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Reconstruction of the donor site after radial forearm flap harvesting is a common procedure in maxillofacial plastic surgery. It is normally carried out with split-thickness or full-thickness free skin grafts. Unfortunately, free skin graft transplantation faces wound healing impairments such as necrosis, (partial) graft loss, or tendon exposure. Several studies have investigated methods to reduce these impairments and demonstrated improvements if the wound bed is optimised, for example, through negative-pressure wound therapy or vacuum-assisted closure. However, these methods are device-dependent, expansive, and time-consuming. Therefore, the application of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) to the wound bed could be a simple, cost-effective, and device-independent method to optimise wound-bed conditions instead. In this study, PRF membranes were applied between the wound bed and skin graft. Results of this study indicate improvements in the PRF versus non-PRF group (93.44\% versus 86.96\% graft survival, p = 0.0292). PRF applied to the wound bed increases graft survival and reduces impairments. A possible explanation for this is the release of growth factors, which stimulate angiogenesis and fibroblast migration. Furthermore, the solid PRF membranes act as a mechanical barrier ("lubrication" layer) to protect the skin graft from tendon motion. The results of this study support the application of PRF in donor-site reconstruction with free skin grafts.}, language = {en} } @article{VollmerVollmerLangetal.2022, author = {Vollmer, Andreas and Vollmer, Michael and Lang, Gernot and Straub, Anton and Shavlokhova, Veronika and K{\"u}bler, Alexander and Gubik, Sebastian and Brands, Roman and Hartmann, Stefan and Saravi, Babak}, title = {Associations between periodontitis and COPD: An artificial intelligence-based analysis of NHANES III}, series = {Journal of Clinical Medicine}, volume = {11}, journal = {Journal of Clinical Medicine}, number = {23}, issn = {2077-0383}, doi = {10.3390/jcm11237210}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-312713}, year = {2022}, abstract = {A number of cross-sectional epidemiological studies suggest that poor oral health is associated with respiratory diseases. However, the number of cases within the studies was limited, and the studies had different measurement conditions. By analyzing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III), this study aimed to investigate possible associations between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and periodontitis in the general population. COPD was diagnosed in cases where FEV (1)/FVC ratio was below 70\% (non-COPD versus COPD; binary classification task). We used unsupervised learning utilizing k-means clustering to identify clusters in the data. COPD classes were predicted with logistic regression, a random forest classifier, a stochastic gradient descent (SGD) classifier, k-nearest neighbors, a decision tree classifier, Gaussian naive Bayes (GaussianNB), support vector machines (SVM), a custom-made convolutional neural network (CNN), a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP), and a radial basis function neural network (RBNN) in Python. We calculated the accuracy of the prediction and the area under the curve (AUC). The most important predictors were determined using feature importance analysis. Results: Overall, 15,868 participants and 19 feature variables were included. Based on k-means clustering, the data were separated into two clusters that identified two risk characteristic groups of patients. The algorithms reached AUCs between 0.608 (DTC) and 0.953\% (CNN) for the classification of COPD classes. Feature importance analysis of deep learning algorithms indicated that age and mean attachment loss were the most important features in predicting COPD. Conclusions: Data analysis of a large population showed that machine learning and deep learning algorithms could predict COPD cases based on demographics and oral health feature variables. This study indicates that periodontitis might be an important predictor of COPD. Further prospective studies examining the association between periodontitis and COPD are warranted to validate the present results.}, language = {en} }