Comprehensive directed breathing retraining improves exertional dyspnea for men with spirometry within normal limits.

Objective: To compare the effects of comprehensive directed breathing retraining with traditional diaphragmatic breathing on male smokers with exertional dyspnea but normal spirometry.

Design: This is a prospective randomized clinical trial in an exercise laboratory at a university hospital. Twenty-four nonmedicated exertional dyspnea subjects were randomly assigned to experimental (comprehensive directed breathing) and control (traditional diaphragmatic breathing) groups.

Early markers of airways inflammation and occupational asthma: rationale, study design and follow-up rates among bakery, pastry and hairdressing apprentices.

Background: Occupational asthma is a common type of asthma caused by a specific agent in the workplace. The basic alteration of occupational asthma is airways inflammation. Although most patients with occupational asthma are mature adults, there is evidence that airways inflammation starts soon after inception of exposure, including during apprenticeship.

Impaired neuromotor functions in hospital laboratory workers exposed to low levels of organic solvents.

Solvents are ubiquitous in industrial societies in a wide range of processes, and long-term exposure to these organic compounds may impair neuromotor functions such as equilibrium function. However, there is limited knowledge of effects on posture and gaze control after organic solvent exposures below workplace threshold limit values. The aim of this study was to evaluate the consequences of low-level co-exposure to organic solvents on balance and gaze control in hospital laboratory workers.

Habitual loud snoring. A study of prevalence and associations in 850 middle-aged French males.

Background: Most studies on habitual snoring have focused on its prevalence. However, from the clinical point of view, the intensity of snoring is of upmost importance, as it suggests the existence of sleep apnoeas.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of loud snoring using a standard questionnaire and to evaluate the anthropometric and sleep characteristic differences between loud and light snorers in a sample of middle-aged males.

Long-term exposure to solvents impairs vigilance and postural control in serigraphy workers.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of solvent exposure (mainly aromatic hydrocarbons) on central regulation of vigilance and postural control, particularly in occasional difficult situations that provide sensorial conflicts.

Methods: Twenty-two workers occupationally exposed to solvents for an average of approximately 6 years and 21 controls were compared by the use of a questionnaire on their state of vigilance and quality of sleep and on performance measurements of postural control under six different sensorimotor conditions. Their current median exposure levels to aromatic hydrocarbons was 80.

Reliability of the Wisconsin Sleep Questionnaire: a French contribution to international validation.

We evaluated the reliability of a French version of the Wisconsin Sleep Questionnaire designed to investigate snoring, obstructive apnoeas, and sleeping problems. The assessment of reliability included the study of internal consistency and the 3 months repeatability of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was first completed at a Center of Preventive Medicine by a random sample of 122 subjects from the community.

Who are the "occasional" snorers?

Study Objectives: To assess the prevalence of occasional snoring in a group of middle-aged men, and to compare anthropometric variables and prevalence of sleep-related symptoms of subjects who occasionally snore with those of other snoring categories.

Design: A field survey of a sample of middle-aged men in France.

Participants: Male employees of a local university and subjects from the community attending a preventive medicine center.

Nocturnal worsening of asthma and sleep-disordered breathing.

Asthma has a tendency, to destabilize and get worse at night, probably due to a nocturnal increase in airiway inflammation and bronchial responsiveness. Nocturnal airway narrowing in asthma is often associated with sleep disorders, such as episodes of nocturnal and early morning awakening, difficulty in maintaining sleep, and day time sleepiness. On the other hand, an association has been documented between nocturnal sleep-disordered breathing and asthma.