The use of mind mapping in health education in extended care for children with caries

Objective To investigate the application of mind mapping-based health education in extended care for children with caries. Methods This was a prospective study of 159 eligible children with caries. Participants were randomly assigned to an observation group and a control group, and received extended health education and guidance. Patients in the observation group received health education with mind mapping. In the third month after the first visit, a questionnaire survey was conducted to assess knowledge of extended caries diagnosis and treatment in children and their parents. Children also underwent a bacterial plaque test. Results Caries knowledge was significantly greater in the observation group than in the control group. There was no significant between-group difference in debris index on the bacterial plaque test. The observation group had a significantly greater number of follow-up visits in 12 months than the control group. Conclusions Mind mapping was effective in the implementation of extended care. Mind mapping information was more accessible to children and their parents, increasing their compliance with health education. Thus, mind mapping is an appropriate health education tool for use in extended care for children with caries.

Mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates with Discordant Results for Drug-Susceptibility Testing in Peru

Evaluation of resistance to antituberculosis drugs is routinely performed with genotypic or phenotypic methods; however, discordance can be seen between these different methodologies. Our objective was to identify mutations that could explain discordant results in the evaluation of susceptibility to rifampicin and isoniazid between molecular and phenotypic methods, using whole genome sequencing (WGS). Peruvian strains showing sensitive results in the GenoType MTBDRplus v2.0 test and resistant results in the proportions in the agar-plaque test for isoniazid or rifampin were selected. Discordance was confirmed by repeating both tests, and WGS was performed, using the Next Generation Sequencing methodology. Obtained sequences were aligned “through reference” (genomic mapping) using the program BWA with the algorithm “mem”, using as a reference the genome of the M. tuberculosis H37Rv strain. Discordance was confirmed in 14 strains for rifampicin and 21 for isoniazid, with 1 strain in common for both antibiotics, for a total of 34 unique strains. The most frequent mutation in the rpoB gene in the discordant strains for rifampicin was V170F. The most frequent mutations in the discordant strains for isoniazid were katG R463L, kasA G269S, and Rv1592c I322V. Several other mutations are reported. This is the first study in Latin America addressing mutations present in strains with discordant results between genotypic and phenotypic methods to rifampicin and isoniazid. These mutations could be considered as future potential targets for genotypic tests for evaluation of susceptibility to these drugs.