Pentti Nieminen

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Verified

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• Senior Scientist PhD
• Senior Researcher at University of Oulu

Importance Little is known about the relative effectiveness of nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes (ECs) compared with varenicline as smoking cessation aids. Objective To determine the relative effectiveness of ECs in smoking cessation. Design, Setting, and Participants This randomized placebo-controlled single-center trial was conducted in...

Multivariable statistical analysis involves the dichotomy of modeling and predicting [...]

Assessment of tumor-associated stroma has shown a reliable prognostic value in recent research. We evaluated the prognostic value of tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) in a large multicenter cohort of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We used the conventional hematoxylin and eosin–stained slides of 115 cases of NPC to assess TSR as described in recent guidelin...

Background Professional and personal boundaries are blurred with the wide application of social media (SM) in the health professions line of work. Little is known about practice of extending friend requests to patients and faculty members among dental students, which encompass a part of E-professionalism. The aim of this study is to assess the fact...

Background Asthma is a disease that can be separated into different phenotypes and endotypes based on the clinical characteristics and the molecular mechanisms of the condition, respectively. Objective The aim of this study is to assess the association between blood eosinophil and neutrophil counts with clinical and molecular features in patients...

Background The clinical significance of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) is not well-documented in early oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC). Methods A total of 310 cases of early (cT1-2N0) OTSCC were included in this multicenter study. Assessment of TLSs was conducted on hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections. TLSs were assessed both i...

One Health, a multidisciplinary approach to public health, which integrates human, animal, and environmental studies, is prudent for circumpolar Arctic health research. The objective of our bibliometric review was to identify and compare research in select infectious diseases in Arctic wildlife species with importance to human health indexed in Eng...

The lack of consistent presentation of results in published studies on the association between a quantitative explanatory variable and a quantitative dependent variable has been a long-term issue in evaluating the reported findings. Studies are analyzed and reported in a variety of ways. The main purpose of this review is to illustrate the procedur...

Anoikis refers to apoptosis induced by the loss of contact with the extracellular matrix. Anoikis resistance is essential for metastasis. We have recently shown that it is possible to quantitatively evaluate putative anoikis resistant (AR) subpopulations in colorectal carcinoma (CRC). Abundance of these multi-cell structures is an independent marke...

CITATIONS 0 READS 129 60 authors, including: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: SafeConsume View project O perfil epidemiológico e demográfico dos pacientes com tumor da cabeça e pescoço HPV16+ numa instituição oncológica em Portugal View project

4open, its Editorial Board, scientists, and the network of the Theodor-Billroth-Academy and its International Consortium of Research Excellence (INCORE) are aware of the current dire situation for Ukrainian scientists and students. After the unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, our colleagues in Ukraine are now in fear for their fam...

4open, its Editorial Board, scientists, and the network of the Theodor-Billroth-Academy and its International Consortium of Research Excellence (INCORE) are aware of the current dire situation for Ukrainian scientists and students. After the unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, our colleagues in Ukraine are now in fear for their famil...

The increased use of social media in dentistry is associated with both advantages and disadvantages. A new form of professionalism, “e-professionalism,” has emerged. It includes an online persona and online information in any format that displays cues to professional identity, attitudes, and behaviors. The objective was to explore the perceptions o...

Social media use among students has infiltrated into dental education and offers benefits but may also cause problems. The aim of this study was to explore and compare current social media usage among dental undergraduate students from two countries—Malaysia and Finland. A self-administered structured online questionnaire was used. WhatsApp, YouTub...

Stromal categorization has been used to classify many epithelial cancer types. We assessed the desmoplastic reaction and compared its significance with other stromal characteristics in early (cT1-2N0) oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC). In this multi-institutional study, we included 308 cases treated for early OTSCC at five Finnish univers...

Proper peer review and quality of published articles are often regarded as signs of reliable scientific journals. The aim of this study was to compare whether the quality of statistical reporting and data presentation differs among articles published in ‘predatory dental journals’ and in other dental journals. We evaluated 50 articles published in...

Objective Integrins function to bind cells to extracellular matrix in tissues, which triggers downstream signaling cascades that are important in cell survival, proliferation, cytokine activation, and cytoskeleton reorganization. These processes also play significant roles in neoplasms. This work aimed to investigate the pattern of expression of FA...

A role for incisional biopsy in preoperative prognostication is increasingly being advocated in oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (OTSCC). Biopsies at two locations were compared and prognostic factors in biopsies and their corresponding resections were evaluated. A total of 138 OTSCC biopsy slides from Finland and Saudi‐Arabia were compared for...

Background Although health care professionals’ increased job demands and strain have generated much public debate in recent years, the way in which occupational therapists’ job strain has developed remains unknown. Objective To examine how Finnish occupational therapists working in municipalities experienced job demands and control in 2014–2018 co...

Astroprincin (APCN, FAM171A1) is a recently characterized transmembrane glycoprotein that is abundant in brain astrocytes and is overexpressed in some tumors. However, the expression and role of APCN is unknown in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC). Aim of this study was to investigate the expression of APCN in OTSCC tissue samples and to...

The science of statistics contributes to the development and application of tools for the design, analysis, and interpretation of empirical medical studies [...]

Background: Obesity has been associated with poor outcomes of asthma in cross-sectional studies but long-term effect of obesity on asthma remains unknown. Aims: To study the effects of obesity, found at the time of diagnosis of adult-onset asthma, on 12-year prognosis by focusing on oral corticosteroid (OCS) use and respiratory-related hospital...

Background: Cell-in-cell structures (caused by cell cannibalistic activity) have been related to prognosis of many cancers. This is the first multi-institutional study to assess the prognostic impact of cell-in-cell structures in a large cohort of early oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (OTSCC). Methods: A total of 308 cases from five Finnish...

Background: A fundamental skill in education includes the ability to search for, evaluate, and synthesize information, and this cannot be underestimated in dental education. The aim of this study was to assess how dental students from Malaysia and Finland acquire scientific information and to compare their information retrieval skills. Methods: Fou...

Background: A role for incisional biopsy in preoperative prognostication is increasingly being advocated in oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (OTSCC). Biopsies at two locations were compared and prognostic factors in biopsies and their corresponding resections were evaluated. Methods: A total of 138 OTSCC biopsy slides from Finland and Saudi-Ara...

Featured Application In this work, an applicable instrument is proposed to quickly evaluate the quality of the statistical reporting and data presentation in research papers. Abstract Background: Data analysis methods have become an essential part of empirical research papers, especially in health sciences and medical research. It has previously b...

Introduction The vitamin D binding protein (VDBP, also known as GC-globulin) and vitamin D deficiency have been associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). rs7041 and rs4588 are two single nucleotide polymorphisms of the VDBP gene, including three common allelic variants (GC1S, GC1F and GC2). Previous studies primarily assessed th...

Adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) has been suggested to be poor but long-term follow-ups are lacking. The objective of the present study was to assess adherence to ICS treatment in patients with adult-onset asthma during 12-year follow-up. A total of 181 patients with clinically confirmed, new-onset adult asthma were followed for 12 years...

Anoikis is a form of apoptosis where a cell loses contact with the extracellular matrix (ECM). Anoikis resistance is essential for metastasis formation, yet only detectable by in vitro experiments. We present a method for quantitation of putative anoikis‐resistant (AR) subpopulations in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and evaluate their prognostic signi...

Objectives: To evaluate how data analysis methods in dental studies have changed in recent years. Methods: A total of 400 articles published in 2010 and 2017 in five dental journals, Journal of Dental Research, Caries Research, Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, Journal of Dentistry, and Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, were analyzed. The st...

The mean age of diagnosis of new oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cases is around 60 years with less than 5% of all patients aged 45 years or younger (Taybos, 2003). Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is the most common, and presents with the worst prognosis (Ng et al., 2017). Several risk factors have been associated with OTSCC, many o...

Whilst heterozygous germline mutations in the ABRAXAS1 gene have been associated with a hereditary predisposition to breast cancer, their effect on promoting tumourigenesis at the cellular level has not been explored. Here, we demonstrate in patient-derived cells that the Finnish ABRAXAS1 founder mutation (c.1082G>A, Arg361Gln), even in the heteroz...

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have shown a promising prognostic value in many epithelial cancers. We sought to assess the prognostic value of TILs in a multicenter cohort of early oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC). The percentage of TILs was assessed on the surgical resection slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The assessme...

Objectives The article aims to evaluate how study designs and data analysis methods in psychiatric studies have changed over the last 22 years. Methods This study involved a total of 320 papers published in 1996 and 2018 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, British Journal of Psychiatry, and JAMA Psychiatry. We ma...

The World Health Organization (WHO) grading system has a low prognostic value for early-stage oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma; greater prognostic power has been shown with tumor budding analysis. In this study, we combined tumor budding analysis with histopathologic grading according to WHO 2017. In our proposal, a revised grade I tumor is defi...

Background Family physicians are in frequent contact with patients, and their contribution to oral health promotion programs could be utilized more effectively. We implemented an oral health care (OHC) educational seminar for physicians and evaluated its impact on their knowledge retention in OHC. Methods We conducted an educational trial for prim...

Background We examined the validity of self-reported number of teeth in middle-aged adults by using representative cohort data to compare corresponding self-reported and clinical values. Methods This validity study is part of the representative 46-year-old follow-up of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) Study. Mailed questionnaires...

Background: There is a lack of knowledge on the association between daily physical activity and lung function in patients with asthma. Objective: This study aims to examine the association between daily physical activity and asthma control, lung function, and lung function decline in patients with adult-onset asthma. Design: This study is part of S...

The prognostic significance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) has been studied recently in many cancers. For the first time in a non-endemic region, we have evaluated the prognostic value of TILs in a whole population-based nationwide cohort of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in Finland. A total of 115 cases from Finnish hospitals were includ...

Whilst heterozygous germline mutations in the gene have been associated with hereditary breast cancer predisposition, their initial effect on promoting tumorigenesis at the cellular level has not been explored. Here, we demonstrate in patient-derived cells that the Finnish founder mutation (c.1082G>A, Arg361Gln), even in the heterozygous state lead...

Data analysis methods play an important role in respiratory research. We evaluated the application and complexity of data analytical methods in high-impact respiratory journals and compared the statistical reporting in these respiratory articles with reports published in other eminent medical journals. This study involved a total of 160 papers publ...

Mercury is a toxic metal that can be disseminated into the environment from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Human exposure to the metal stems mainly from food, and more particularly from the consumption of fish and other seafoods. Examining dietary exposure and measuring mercury levels in body tissues are two ways of estimating exposure to...

It is of great clinical importance to identify simple prognostic markers from preoperative biopsies that could guide treatment planning. Here, we compared tumor budding (B), depth of invasion (D), and the combined scores (i.e., budding and depth of invasion (BD) histopathologic model) in preoperative biopsies and the corresponding postoperative spe...

Several known breast cancer susceptibility genes encode proteins involved in DNA damage response (DDR) and are characterized by rare loss-of-function mutations. However, these explain less than half of the familial cases. To identify novel susceptibility factors, 39 rare truncating mutations, identified in 189 Northern Finnish hereditary breast can...

Background There is widespread evidence that statistical methods play an important role in original research articles, especially in medical research. The evaluation of statistical methods and reporting in journals suffers from a lack of standardized methods for assessing the use of statistics. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluat...

Statistical analyses and methods evaluation form. (PDF)

A practical example of an evaluated article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (PDF)

Aims: Statistical methods play an important role in medical and dental research. Therefore, the role of statisticians has become more important because of the increased use of more complex statistical methods. However, the authors seldom report who performed the statistical analysis. The aim of this study was to examine how often the contributor to...

Diet board (DB) feeding aims to reduce the health hazards associated with ad libitum (AL) feeding. Rats have to gnaw wood to detach food from the DB, reducing their food consumption. We studied the welfare effects of DB by measuring faecal corticosterone metabolites (FCM), elevated plus-maze (EPM) behaviour and cage behaviour. In this two-year expe...

Mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis (mtFAS) is an underappreciated but highly conserved metabolic process, indispensable for mitochondrial respiration. It was recently reported that dysfunction of mtFAS causes childhood onset of dystonia and optic atrophy in humans (MEPAN). To study the role of mtFAS in mammals, we generated three different mouse li...

Objective: To carry out a double-blind RCT to compare the effectiveness of topical tacrolimus (TAC), triamcinolone acetonide (TRI) and placebo (PLA) in symptomatic OLP. Subjects and methods: A clinical score (CS, range 0-130) was developed to measure the clinical signs and symptoms of OLP. Twenty-seven OLP patients with a CS of ≥ 20 were randoml...

The proliferation marker, securin, is involved in the progression of many carcinomas. However, its expression in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) has not been previously studied. We examined securin expression by immunohistochemistry in OTSCC. A total of 93 cases treated for OTSCC were included in this study. Expression of securin in OTS...

Background: Data analysis methods play an important role in respiratory research. However, there has been no comprehensive study contrasting the current respiratory journals with other prominent medical journals in their use of statistics. Objective: To evaluate the complexity of data analysis methods in high impact respiratory journals and to com...

(1) Background: In Finland, slippery snowy or icy ground surface conditions can be quite hazardous to human health during wintertime. We focused on the impacts of the variability in weather conditions on tourists' health via documented accidents during the winter season in the Sotkamo area. We attempted to estimate the slipping hazard in a specific...

Statistical methods play an important role in medical and dental research. Earlier studies have found that the current use of methods and statistical reporting lead to errors in interpreting results. This study aimed to compare statistical methods and reporting between dental articles and reports published in highly visible medical journals. We ana...

Background: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is an idiopathic T-cell-mediated mucosal inflammatory disease. Cathepsin K (Cat K) is one of the lysosomal cysteine proteases. It is involved in many pathological conditions, including osteoporosis and cancer. The expression and role of Cat K in OLP are unknown. Methods: Twenty-five oral mucosal specimens dia...

Due to the relative rarity of mitochondrial diseases, generating reference ranges is problematic in evaluation of respiratory chain activities particularly in pediatric cases. We determined the sample distribution of respiratory chain enzyme activities in skeletal muscle biopsies collected from pediatric patients suspected of neuromuscular disorder...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by irreversible airflow limitation. Cigarette smoking represents the main risk factor but the specific mechanisms of COPD are not completely understood. Our aim was to identify COPD-specific proteomic changes involved in disease onset and severity. A comparative p...

Background: One of the core skills of competent dentist is the ability to search and analyse high-quality evidence. Problems in understanding the basic aspects of knowledge-based information may impede its implementation into clinical practice. We examined how Finnish dental students acquire scientific information and how familiar they are with me...

This study compares the nicotine patch to placebo in young adult light smokers, and the nicotine patch to varenicline in heavy smokers. Volunteer daily smokers were recruited into a randomised, placebo-controlled study via community media, colleges and the army (aged 18 to 26 years). Those subjects with light tobacco dependence were randomised to 1...

Background: The co-morbidities associated with the COPD characteristics may individually lead to a worse outcome in this disease and a higher short–term risk of death. Here we describe the co-morbidities of adult smokers at risk of COPD during a 6-year follow-up. Methods: Healthy asymptomatic subjects (n = 513) with >20 years of smoking history and...

Gao J, Ohlmeier S, Nieminen P, Toljamo T, Tiitinen S, Ka-nerva T, Bingle L, Araujo B, Rönty M, Höyhtyä M, Bingle CD, Mazur W, Pulkkinen V. Elevated sputum BPIFB1 levels in smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a longitudinal study. Am study involving a proteomic screen of induced sputum from smokers and patients with chronic obstructi...

Objective: The number of analyzed outcome variables is important in the statistical analysis and interpretation of research findings. This study investigated published papers in the field of environmental health studies. We aimed to examine whether differences in the number of reported outcome variables exist between papers with non-significant fi...

There is little quantitative information about the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among adult smokers and of what happens to patients who have already developed COPD. To examine the development and performance of COPD status over time, and the clinical characteristics of new COPD cases according to the Global Initiative...

A previous study involving a proteomic screen of induced sputum from smokers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) demonstrated elevated levels of bactericidal/permeability-increasing (BPI) fold-containing protein B1 (BPIFB1). The aim of the current study was to further evaluate the association of sputum BPIFB1 levels with...

The prognostication of patient outcome is one of the greatest challenges in the management of early stage oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC). This study introduces a simple histopathological model for the prognostication of survival in patients with early OTSCC. A total of 311 cases (from Finland and Brazil) with clinically evaluated early...

Objectives: Statistical methods play an important role in medical and dental research. In earlier studies it has been observed that current use of methods and reporting of statistics are responsible for some of the errors in the interpretation of results. The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of statistical reporting in dental resea...

Background Oral lichen planus (OLP) is an immune-mediated mucosal disease of unclear etiology and of unresolved pathogenesis. Hyaluronan (HA) is an extracellular matrix glycosaminoglycan involved in inflammation and tumor progression. However, its presence in OLP has not been reported. We therefore aimed to study the immunohistochemical expression...

The receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) is highly expressed in the lung, where it is believed to have a homeostatic role. Reduced plasma levels of soluble RAGE (sRAGE) have been reported in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association of plasma sRAGE levels...

Besides mutations in BRCA1/BRCA2, heterozygous defects in PALB2 are important in breast cancer predisposition. PALB2 heterozygosity increases the risk of malignancy about sixfold. PALB2 interacts with BRCA1 and BRCA2 to regulate homologous recombination and mediate DNA damage response. Here we show, by analysing lymphoblastoid cell lines from heter...

Background: a major problem in evaluating and reviewing the published findings of studies on the association between a quantitative explanatory variable and a quantitative dependent variable is that the results are analysed and reported in many different ways. To achieve an effective review of different studies, a consistent presentation of the res...

To assess potential PCB153-associated human health effects and risks, it is necessary to model past exposure. PCB153 blood concentrations, obtained from the AMAP biomonitoring programme, in Inuit women covering the years 1994-2006 at Disko Bay, 1999-2005 at Nuuk, and 1992-2007 at Nunavik were used to extrapolate body burden and exposure to the whol...

Besides their role in bone metabolism, receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) are also known to be associated with inflammation. We explored associations between the extent/severity of periodontitis and circulating levels of sRANKL and OPG and their ratio using a cross-sectional study design. The extent...

Ad libitum (AL) feeding of rats leads to obesity and increased result variability, as well as premature morbidity and mortality. It may also alter metabolism and responses to foreign compounds. Moderate dietary restriction (DR) reduces these untoward effects without compromising the sensitivity of rodent bioassays. The diet board (DB) is a novel me...

In some parts of the northwest Russia, Murmansk region, high exposures to heavy mining and refining industrial air pollution, especially sulphur dioxide, have been documented. Our aim was to evaluate whether living in the mining area would be an independent risk factor of the respiratory symptoms. A cross-sectional survey of 200 Murmansk region adu...