Diagnostic sleep testing in the evaluation of snoring and sleep apnea

The dilemma frequently encountered by the dentist wishing to offer an appliance for treatment of snoring or sleep apnea is whether there is a need for extensive testing of patients who present with a complaint of snoring. This article describes diagnostic sleep testing in the evaluation of patients with snoring and sleep apnea.     

Antileishmanial chalcones: statistical design, synthesis, and three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship analysis

A large number of substituted chalcones have been synthesized and tested for antileishmanial and lymphocyte-suppressing activities. A subset of the chalcones was designed by using statistical methods. 3D-QSAR analyses using 67 (antileishmanial activity) and 63 (lymphocyte-suppressing activity) of the compounds for the training sets and 9 compounds as an external validation set were performed by using the GRID/GOLPE methodology. The Smart Region Definition procedure with subsequent region selection as implemented in GOLPE reduced the number of variables to approximately 1300 yielding 3D-QSAR models of high quality (lymphocyte-suppressing model, R2 = 0. 90, Q2 = 0.80; antileishmanial model, R2 = 0.73, Q2 = 0.63). The coefficient plots indicate that steric interactions between the chalcones and the target are of major importance for the potencies of the compounds. A comparison of the coefficient plots for the antileishmanial effect and the lymphocyte-suppressing activity discloses significant differences which should make it possible to design chalcones having a high antileishmanial activity without suppressing the proliferation of lymphocytes.     

Induction of labor with use of a Foley catheter and extraamniotic corticosteroids

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to examine the hypothesis that corticosteroids, when administered extraamniotically, can enhance the labor process and reduce the induction-to-delivery interval. STUDY DESIGN: A double-blind, randomized study was conducted on 98 women with a gestational age of 36 to 42 weeks, an unfavorable cervix, and medical indications for delivery, who were assigned to receive either 20 mg of dexamethasone in saline solution (study group, n = 50) or saline solution only (control group, n = 48) administered extraamniotically through an intracervical inflated Foley balloon catheter. The net effect of steroids was assessed with use of multivariant logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The mean time intervals between induction of labor to the active phase and between induction of labor to delivery were significantly shorter in the study group compared with those of the control group (7.8 +/- 3.1 hours vs 9.9 +/- 3.9 hours, p < 0.03, 11.9 +/- 3.0 hours vs 14.5 +/- 4.8 hours, p < 0.01, respectively). Those not receiving steroids were at a 3.2 higher risk of having a longer time interval of induction to delivery (95% confidence interval 1.1 to 9.5). The general success rate in achieving vaginal delivery was, however, similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Induction of labor with use of an intracervical Foley balloon catheter and extraamniotic corticosteroids reduces the time interval from induction of labor to delivery. This may indicate a possible role for corticosteroids in the parturition process.     

Caring for the older patient, Part II: Age-related anatomic and physiologic changes and pathologies

This is the second article of a four-part series on gerontology and its applications to the care of elderly patients in nuclear medicine. This article reviews anatomic and physiologic changes and pathology associated with aging. It also discusses tailoring nuclear medicine procedures according to patients' needs and conditions, as well as adopting changes within the nuclear medicine department to better serve older patients. Upon completion of this article, the reader should be able to: (a) describe normal age-related anatomic and physiologic changes that are observed in older patients; (b) identify common age-related disorders; (c) discuss considerations in tailoring nuclear medicine procedures for older patients; and (d) identify changes in the nuclear medicine facility that would better accommodate older patients.     

Experimental studies on substituted copper phthalocyanine Langmuir-Blodgett films

Using the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique, novel copper bis(3-hydroxypropyloxy-hexaisopentyloxy)phthalocyanine molecules were deposited on quartz substrates. It is argued on the basis of pressure-area isotherms that films are deposited as monolayers. Optical absorption spectroscopy suggests that the deposited films were uniform. A.c. measurements were performed on LB films in a planar configuration at different temperatures. The power-law dependence of the conductivity on frequency is explained in terms of electronic conduction through hopping over a coulombic barrier 0.66 eV high. The Debye relaxation time is estimated to be of the order 811 µs at room temperature.