Palatalized articulation is one of the major articulation disorders which patients with cleft palate face after palatoplasty. Various causal factors have been suggested to date, but the main cause remains poorly understood. To clarify the possible causes of palatalized articulation in speakers with cleft palate, three-dimensional palatal morphology in patients with/without palatalized articulation in unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) was analyzed.Twelve UCLP patients with palatalized articulation (P group) and 20 UCLP patients with normal articulation (N group) participated in the present study. Speech was assessed in the two groups at the age of about four. Dental casts of the maxilla taken at the same time were analyzed three-dimensionally, and measurements in the horizontal, frontal, and sagittal planes were compared between patients with palatalized articulation and those with normal articulation. All dental casts were measured with a non-contact 3D laser scanner and the 3D data were analyzed with 3D-analyzing software.Our study demonstrated three major findings of palatal morphology in UCLP patients with palatalized articulation when compared with their non-palatalized counterparts: 1) the posterior region of the palate was narrow in the horizontal plane, 2) asymmetry of the anterior palate was severe in the frontal plane, and 3) the palate was flat and shallow in the sagittal plane.These findings suggested that palate deformities can affect the lingual-contact pattern, and may account for the backward movement of the articulation point.

PURPOSE: Although various strategies have been reported, there are no defined criteria for cosmetic evaluation methods after breast-conserving surgery (BCS). Since Asians tend to have smaller breasts, indistinct inframammary folds, and conspicuous scars, differences in the cosmetic results are expected. So we examined two subjective methods and one objective method to determine the differences, and elements necessary for a cosmetic evaluation after BCS. METHODS: Frontal photographs of 190 Japanese were evaluated using the Harris scale (Harris) and the evaluation method proposed by the Japanese Breast Cancer Society Sawai group (Sawai group) as the subjective methods, and the Breast Cancer Conservation Treatment cosmetic results (BCCT.core) as the objective method, respectively. In order to examine the necessary elements for developing a new ideal method, 100 out of 190 were selected and assessed separately by six raters using both the Harris and modified Sawai group methods in the observer assessment. The correlation between the two methods was examined using the Spearman rank-correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The results of the BCCT.core and the other two methods were clearly different. In the observer assessment, the consensuses of the six raters were evaluated as follows: 27, 27, 26, and 20 cases were evaluated as "excellent," "good," "fair," and "poor," respectively. For the Spearman rank-correlation coefficient, values higher than 0.7 indicated a strong correlation, as seen by the values of 0.909 for the breast shape and 0.345 for the scar. The breast shape accounted for the most significant part of the evaluation, and the scar had very little correlation. CONCLUSION: In this study, we recognized a clear difference between the subjective and objective evaluation methods, and identified the necessary elements for cosmetic evaluation. We would like to continue developing an ideal cosmetic evaluation that is similar to subjective one and is independent from raters.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cicatrix ; Consensus ; Esthetics ; Humans ; Mastectomy, Segmental*

This study was undertaken to elucidate the usefulness and problems of autologous blooddonation for the patients with low-lying placenta. Seventy-eight women with low-lying placentawho gave birth in our institution were retrospectively analyzed. Autologous blood donation wasperformed in 58 patients (74%). The median volume of donated blood was 300 mL. Patients withor without autologous blood donation showed no significant difference in the distance betweenthe edge of the placenta and the internal os of the uterus. Median blood loss due to intrapartumhemorrhage was 1183 mL. All 7 patients with blood loss of more than 2000 mL had donatedautologous blood. The donated blood was transfused in 9 of the 58 patients (16%) who underwentautologous blood donation. No patients underwent allogenic blood transfusion. Althoughautologous blood donation was expected to be useful for avoiding allogenic blood transfusion inthese patients with low-lying placenta, the high discard rate suggests the need for a strategy toselect those patients at high risk for blood loss requiring transfusion.