Transcription factor Meis1b regulates craniofacial morphogenesis in zebrafish.

Background: Meis family of transcription factors operates in Pbx-Meis-Hox regulatory network controlling development of various tissues including eye, limbs, heart, hindbrain or craniofacial skeletal elements originating from the neural crest. Although studies in mouse provide abundant information about Meis factors function in embryogenesis, little is known about their role in zebrafish.

Results: We generated zebrafish lines carrying null mutations in meis1a, meis1b, meis2a, and meis2b genes.

Evaluation of Fine and Ultrafine Particles Proportion in Airborne Dust in an Industrial Area.

The health impacts of suspended particulate matter (SPM) are significantly associated with size-the smaller the aerosol particles, the stronger the biological effect. Quantitative evaluation of fine and ultrafine particles (FP and UFP) is, therefore, an integral part of ongoing epidemiological studies. The mass concentrations of SPM fractions (especially PM, PM, PM) were measured in an industrial area using cascade personal samplers and a gravimetric method, and their mass ratio was determined.

Somatosensory evoked potentials in the term newborn.

Median nerve somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded from surface electrodes in 40 healthy term infants (range 36.5-43 weeks postmenstrual age). Electrical stimulation at 5 Hz was used, averaging the response to several runs of 1024 stimuli to each median nerve, bandpass 10-3000 Hz, sweeptime 100 msec.

Stapedius reflex decay test in diagnosis of myasthenia gravis (MG).

Stapedius reflex decay test (SRDT) was attempted in 30 patients with suspected myasthenia gravis (MG). In 43% of the sample measurement of the decay was not possible because of an audiologic abnormality, reflex threshold too high for safe testing or absence of the reflex with no obvious cause. A control group of 24 normal subjects showed a large variance and thus only a decay, after 5 minutes of stimulation, greater than 50% of the original value was considered abnormal.

Common peroneal nerve dysfunction after high tibial osteotomy.

We assessed 16 patients before and after high tibial osteotomy by electrophysiological recordings, creatine phosphokinase levels, radiographs and intracompartmental pressure monitoring. We found mild electrophysiological abnormalities pre-operatively in 12 of the 16 patients, but postoperatively these had deteriorated in 11 of the 14 patients studied. Creatine phosphokinase levels, compartment pressure and radiological deformity were not predictive of the development of postoperative common peroneal nerve palsy.

Transient hypoxemia during sleep in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is not a sleep apnea syndrome.

We measured ear oxygen saturation (SaO2), chest wall movement, and oronasal air flow, and took electroencephalographic tracings during nocturnal sleep in 20 healthy subjects and 20 similarly aged patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), none of whom was obese. Thirteen of the patients with COPD were persistently hypoxemic and hypercapnic when awake ("blue and bloated", Type B); the remaining 7 maintained relatively normal arterial gas tensions when awake despite equally severe airways obstruction ("pink and puffing", Type A). Hypoxemic episodes (HE) (SaO2 falls of greater than 10%) occurred during sleep in all the blue bloaters but in only 3 of 7 pink puffers and 3 of 20 normal subjects.

Sleep apnoea in acute bronchiolitis.

Three- to 4-hour polygraphic sleep studies were carried out in 16 infants aged between 1 and 6 months during and after recovery from acute bronchiolitis. During bronchiolitis 35% of total sleep time was active sleep compared with 31% after recovery. Respiration rate was increased during bronchiolitis and was higher in active sleep and quiet sleep irrespective of the stage of the illness.

Irregular breathing and hypoxaemia during sleep in chronic stable asthma.

Breathing patterns, ear oxygen saturation (SaO2), and EEG sleep-stage throughout an undisturbed night's sleep were compared in ten adult stable asthmatics and ten age-matched healthy subjects. The two groups slept equally long (5.0-7.

Night sleep of patients with chronic ventilatory failure and age matched controls: number and duration of the EEG episodes of intervening wakefulness and drowsiness.

Characteristics of the episodes of wakefulness and drowsiness (stage 0 + 1) intervening in a night of electrophysiologically monitored sleep were compared in a homogeneous group of 13 patients (mean age 57 years) with severe hypoxic chronic bronchitis and emphysema (blue and bloated variety) and 8 age matched control subjects. The total amounts of stage 0 + 1 accumulated over one night (preceded by one night of adaptation) were high in both groups (28% in the patients, 22% in the control subjects). A significant difference was found in the number of brief arousals (episodes of stage 0 + 1 lasting for less than 1 min), which averaged 10/h of sleep in the patients, and 6/h of sleep in the control subjects (p less than 0.

The effects of long-term oxygen therapy on the EEG in patients with chronic stable ventilatory failure.

A homogeneous sample of 14 patients with advanced chronic bronchitis and emphysema complicated by secondary polycythaemia and pulmonary hypertension was examined. Eight patients who were receiving long-term oxygen therapy (LTO2) for 15-20 h in the 24 h day showed a significantly faster, that is more normal, frequency of the dominant EEG activity and a higher level of arterial oxygenation when breathing air than six similar patients not receiving LTO2. Acute administration of oxygen (2 1/min) for 15 min did not change the EEG pattern in either group of patients.

Transient hypoxaemia during sleep in chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Arterial oxygenation, breathing pattern, and electroencephalogram were studied during sleep in patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema and in healthy subjects. All of the 10 "blue and bloated" patients had episodes of transient hypoxaemia lasting 1--100 min, when their oxygen saturation fell by more than 10%, whereas such desaturation did not occur in 2 "pink and puffing" patients or in 4 healthy subjects. Hypoxaemic episodes usually occurred during the rapid-eye-movement stage of sleep.

Viloxazine, sleep, and subjective feelings.

The sleep of eight volunteers (mean age 55) was recorded electrophysiologically while viloxazine 200 mg was taken daily for 3 weeks, preceded and followed by a week of matching blanks. The volunteers also made ratings of their feelings on visual analogue scales. Another 15 volunteers (mean age 34) took viloxazine 300 mg daily for 3 weeks, preceded and followed by 3 weeks of matching blanks, and they also made daily ratings of feelings.

Smooth pursuit eye movements of schizophrenics and normal people under stress.

Eye movements while watching an oscillating pendulum were recorded in 24 chronic schizophrenies and 24 matched normal controls. As others have reported previously, abnormal tracking movements were significantly commoner in the schizophrenics. However, in a series of experiments with normal subjects it was found that conditions designed to distract attention, or to produce declining arousal and attention, produced abnormal tracking movements indistinguishable from those observed in schizophrenics.

Nitrazepam: lastingly effective but trouble on withdrawal.

The sleep of 10 volunteers with an average age of 57 years was recorded electrophysiologically before, during, and after nitrazepam 5 mg nightly for 10 weeks. Sleep was longer and less broken on the drug and no tolerance was obvious after two months' use. Withdrawal of the drug, however, caused sleep to be temporarily worse than before the drug had been taken.

Do placebos alter sleep?

Deliberate suggestion that an inert capsule was a sleeping pill was found not to influence subjective ratings of sleep quality or anxiety or the electrophysiologically recorded features of sleep in 10 volunteers aged 41-62 years.

Duration of EEG sleep stages in different types of disturbed night sleep.

The duration of each episode of any one electrophysiological sleep stage or any episode of intervening wakefulness was determined in three kinds of disturbed sleep, namely, in naturally impaired sleep of late middle-aged, normal people, in sleep after caffeine administration, and in sleep after hypnotic drug withdrawal. When compared with the sleep of young people, the sleep of late middle-aged subjects was characterized by an increase in longer episodes of intervening wakefulness plus drowsiness, and by a decrease in longer episodes of sleep stages 3 + 4 and REM. The sleep after caffeine, compared with the baseline sleep, contained an increased proportion of longer episodes of intervening wakefulness plus drowsiness but no significant change in the episode duration of any of the sleep stages.

The number and duration of the episodes of the various EEG stages of sleep in young and older people.

Episodes of any one electrophysiological sleep stage and of intervening wakefulness were examined as to their numbers and durations in sleep of ten young normal subjects (mean age 22) and in significantly more disturbed sleep of fourteen late middle age normal people (mean age 55). No significant difference between the two age groups was found for any of the stages in the mean number of episodes taken from 4 nights. For any of the stages, the individual numbers of episodes accumulated over the 4 nights varied in a wide range and showed significant consistency with similar data obtained in another set of 4 nights.