Serum free fatty acid levels in PCOS patients treated with glucophage, magnesium oxide and spironolactone.

To assess the effect of glucophage, magnesium oxide and spironolactone in altering free fatty acids (FFAs), 36 PCOS women were randomly divided into three groups. Group 1 (n = 14) was treated with 500 mg glucophage po bid, group 2 (n = 10) was treated with 400 mg magnesium oxide po bid and group 3 (n = 12) was treated with 50 mg spironolactone po bid for 12 weeks. A glucose tolerance test with 75 g glucose load was performed before and after treatment, collecting blood at 0, 1 and 2 h for insulin, glucose, FFA and aldosterone.

Norethindrone acetate in the medical management of adenomyosis.

The role of norethindrone acetate (NA) in the management of adenomyosis was evaluated with a retrospective chart review of 28 premenopausal women between 27-49 years of age presenting with moderate to severe pelvic pain and bleeding. Bleeding and dysmenorrhea scores were analyzed using paired T-tests. There was significant improvement of both dysmenorrhea and bleeding after treatment.

Localized transmeningeal muscimol prevents neocortical seizures in rats and nonhuman primates: therapeutic implications.

Purpose: To determine whether muscimol delivered epidurally or into the subarachnoid space can prevent and/or terminate acetylcholine (Ach)-induced focal neocortical seizures at concentrations not affecting behavior and background electroencephalography (EEG) activity.

Methods: Rats (n = 12) and squirrel monkeys (n = 3) were chronically implanted with an epidural or subarachnoid drug delivery device, respectively, over the right frontal/parietal cortex, with adjacent EEG electrodes. Recordings were performed in behaving rats and chaired monkeys.

Evaluation of sleep apnea in a sample of black patients.

Objectives: Few minority patients with sleep apnea have been evaluated or treated. This study ascertained adherence rate to referrals for sleep apnea evaluation by primary care physicians in a community-based sample of black patients; it also examined baseline characteristics likely to influence adherence rates.

Methods: A retrospective chart audit was conducted at a hospital-based sleep clinic.

Admission hyperglycemia and length of hospital stay in patients with diabetes and heart failure: a prospective cohort study.

The authors assessed the relationship between glycemia and length of hospital stay (LOS) in a prospective cohort study of patients with diabetes mellitus and heart failure (HF). Of 212 patients with acute HF exacerbation, 119 (56%) also had diabetes. The mean age of the cohort was 63+/-0.

Symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea in a Caribbean sample.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent sleep disorder that disproportionately affects blacks. While clinical and epidemiologic data indicate intraethnic differences in several medical diseases, little is known about whether OSA symptoms differ within the black ethnic group. We estimated the rate of OSA symptoms in a community-based sample of Caribbean-born black men and women.

Perisaccadic parietal and occipital gamma power in light and in complete darkness.

Our objective was to determine perisaccadic gamma range oscillations in the EEG during voluntary saccades in humans. We evaluated occipital perisaccadic gamma activity both in the presence and absence of visual input, when the observer was blindfolded. We quantified gamma power in the time periods before, during, and after horizontal saccades.

Sleep duration among black and white Americans: results of the National Health Interview Survey.

Introduction: Epidemiologic studies have shown the importance of habitual sleep duration as an index of health and mortality risks. However, little has been done to ascertain ethnic differences in sleep duration in a national sample. This study compares sleep duration in a sample of black and white participants in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

Vascular compliance in women with polycystic ovary syndrome and healthy women.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), one of the most common endocrine disorders in women of reproductive age, has been associated with the cardiometabolic syndrome and increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. Large (C1) and small (C2) vessel compliance and fasting lipids were measured in 45 healthy women and 36 women with PCOS. There were no differences in vacular compliance (C1, C2) between the 2 groups.

Sexually dimorphic recruitment of spinal opioid analgesic pathways by the spinal application of morphine.

Current evidence for sex-based nociception and antinociception, largely confined to behavioral measures of pain sensitivity, chronic pain syndromes, and analgesic efficacy, provides little mechanistic insights into biological substrates causally associated with sexual dimorphic pain experience. Spinal cord has been shown to be a central nervous system region in which regulation of opioid antinociceptive substrates manifest sexual dimorphism. This site was therefore chosen to explore whether or not differential mechanisms underlie comparable spinal opioid antinociception in male and female rodents.

Transmeningeal delivery of GABA to control neocortical seizures in rats.

Transmeningeal drug delivery, using an implanted hybrid neuroprosthesis, has been proposed as a novel therapy for intractable focal epilepsy. As part of a systematic effort to identify the optimal compounds and protocols for such a therapy, this study aimed to determine whether transmeningeal gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) delivery can terminate and/or prevent neocortical seizures in rats. Rats were chronically implanted with an epidural cup and an adjacent EEG electrode in the right parietal cortex.

Alcohol consumption and blood pressure in the adult US population: assessment of gender-related effects.

Objective: Our objective was to assess the gender-related effects of alcohol consumption on blood pressure (BP) in a representative sample of the adult US population.

Methods: We examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2000. The effects of various risk factors for hypertension on BP were examined with analysis of covariance statistics.

Sex-/ovarian steroid-dependent release of endomorphin 2 from spinal cord.

Mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists have been shown to be more potent analgesics in male than female rodents. Regulation of spinal MOR-coupled antinociception by 17beta-estradiol (estrogen, E2) and progesterone (P) is also sexually dimorphic; pregnancy levels of E2/P activate MOR-coupled analgesic pathways in male but not female rats. We hypothesized that the sexual dimorphic characteristics of MOR-coupled antinociception reflects sexual dimorphism in the regulation of the release from spinal cord of the endogenous MOR agonist, endomorphin 2 (EM2).

Epidural pentobarbital delivery can prevent locally induced neocortical seizures in rats: the prospect of transmeningeal pharmacotherapy for intractable focal epilepsy.

Purpose: To determine whether epidural pentobarbital (PB) delivery can prevent and/or terminate neocortical seizures induced by locally administered acetylcholine (Ach) in freely moving rats.

Methods: Rats were implanted permanently with an epidural cup placed over the right parietal cortex with intact dura mater. Epidural screw-electrodes, secured to the cup, recorded local neocortical EEG activity.

PNC-28, a p53-derived peptide that is cytotoxic to cancer cells, blocks pancreatic cancer cell growth in vivo.

PNC-28 is a p53 peptide from its mdm-2-binding domain (residues 17-26), which contains the penetratin sequence enabling cell penetration on its carboxyl terminal end. We have found that this peptide induces necrosis, but not apoptosis, of a variety of human tumor cell lines, including several with homozygous deletion of p53, and a ras-transformed rat acinar pancreatic carcinoma cell line, BMRPA1. Tuc3.

Conjugate eye movements and gamma power modulation of the EEG in persistent vegetative state.

Background: Power in the gamma band EEG increases during saccades in normal subjects.

Objective: To develop a potential method to quantify signs of cortical responsiveness in persistent vegetative state (PVS) we quantified gamma range EEG in association with conjugate slow ballistic eye movements (SBEM).

Methods: The EEG and the simultaneous electro-oculogram were recorded in 14 (8F/6M) PVS patients.

Phospholipase Cbeta1 modulates pain sensitivity, opioid antinociception and opioid tolerance formation.

Phospholipase C (PLC) activity has been implicated in multiple opioid-induced sequelae. The relevance of PLC-linked pathways to opioid actions is isoform-specific. Chronic morphine augments PLCbeta1 signaling while diminishing that of PLCbeta3.

Further evaluation of plasma sphingomyelin levels as a risk factor for coronary artery disease.

Background: Sphingomyelin (SM) is the major phospholipid in cell membranes and in lipoproteins. In human plasma, SM is mainly found in atherogenic lipoproteins; thus, high levels of SM may promote atherogenesis.

Methods: We investigated in a median follow up of 6.

Serum sphingomyelin levels are related to the clearance of postprandial remnant-like particles.

It is known that sphingomyelin (SM) content is higher in apolipoprotein B-containing particles (BLps) than in high density lipoproteins and that BLp levels, including chylomicrons and their remnant particles, are positively related to atherosclerosis. To evaluate the relationship between serum SM and postprandial remnant particle levels, we determined SM, triglyceride (TG), and cholesterol levels in serum and in remnant-like particles (RLPs) before and 3, 5, 7, and 10 h after a high-fat meal in 31 healthy subjects. We found that serum SM, like serum TG, was increased to its maximum 3 h after fat loading and then gradually decreased to basal levels after 10 h.

Control of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with diabetes and hypertension at urban academic medical centers.

Objective: There are national mandates to reduce blood pressure (BP) to <130/85 mmHg, LDL cholesterol to <100 mg/dl, and HbA(1c) to <7% and to institute aspirin therapy in patients with diabetes. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of patients in urban institutions with diabetes and hypertension who meet these treatment goals.

Research Design And Methods: Using American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines, we evaluated the control of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in 1,372 patients receiving medical care at two major urban medical centers in Brooklyn and Detroit.