Lewy bodies and parkinsonism in families with parkin mutations.

Previous work has established that compound mutations and homozygous loss of function of the parkin gene cause early-onset, autosomal recessive parkinsonism. Classically, this disease has been associated with loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta and locus ceruleus, without Lewy body pathology. We have sequenced the parkin gene of 38 patients with early-onset Parkinson's disease (<41 years).

Physical activity in Dublin children aged 7-9 years.

Objectives: To investigate the amount of regular activity and time spent in sedentary occupations in children aged 7--9 years. Sex differences in levels of activity and time and facilities for physical education at school were also examined.

Methods: A 10% sample of Dublin National Schools were selected.

Type and timing of mothers' victimization: effects on mothers and children.

Objectives: There is mounting concern about how mothers' own victimization experiences affect their children. This study examines the effects of mothers' victimization on their own mental health and parenting and on their children's behavior, development, and health. The effects of both timing and type of victimization are assessed.

Recertification of respiratory therapists' intubation skills one year after initial training: an analysis of skill retention and retraining.

Allied health personnel and nonanesthesiologist physicians often undergo training in tracheal intubation but then may actually use the skill relatively infrequently. This study assessed retention of skills one year after initial training and identified specific areas of knowledge critical to successful performance of intubation. Eleven respiratory therapists on the staff of a 253-bed hospital, each of whom had been trained one year previously in airway management, were evaluated.

Sleep apnea in adults with traumatic brain injury: a preliminary investigation.

Objective: To determine the occurrence and nature of sleep-related breathing disorders in adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design: Prospective, observational, consecutive sample enrollment of subjects admitted for rehabilitation after TBI.

Setting: Inpatient rehabilitation and subacute rehabilitation units of a tertiary care university medical system.

Assessment of clinical partner violence screening tools.

Objective: To compare the Women's Experience with Battering Scale (WEB) with the Index of Spouse Abuse-Physical Scale (ISA-P) as screening tools to identify intimate partner violence (IPV).

Methods: We conducted a large cross-sectional survey of women age 18 to 65 attending one of two family practice clinics from 1997 to 1998. All women completed both the WEB and the ISA-P and a telephone interview.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 phenotypically resembling parkinson disease in a black family.

Background: Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), also known as spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), can present with parkinsonism. However, classically, atypical features, including pyramidal and cerebellar signs, peripheral neuropathy, and/or anterior horn cell dysfunction, are also seen. Levodopa responsiveness is unusual in this disorder.

Sensitization of neuronal cells to oxidative stress with mutated human alpha-synuclein.

Linkage of alpha-synuclein (alpha-SN) mutations to familial Parkinson's disease (PD) and presence of alpha-SN as a major constituent of Lewy body in both sporadic and familial PD implicate alpha-SN abnormality in PD pathogenesis. Here we demonstrate that overexpression of wild-type or mutant alpha-SN does not cause any deleterious effect on the growth or continued propagation of transfected human cells, but overproduction of mutant alpha-SN heightens their sensitivity to menadione-induced oxidative injury. Such enhanced vulnerability is more pronounced in neuronal transfectants than in their nonneuronal counterparts and is associated with increased production of reactive oxygen species.

Sleep apnea syndrome in chronic spinal cord injury: associated factors and treatment.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of sleep apnea in a sample of persons with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) of varying injury levels and degrees of impairment.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Inpatient SCI rehabilitation unit.

Peripheral cues and involvement level: influences on acceptance of a mammography message.

The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) suggests that some communication elements are processed differently depending on a receiver's involvement with the message topic. We hypothesized that women with high levels of breast cancer involvement would be more influenced by a mammography message's arguments than by the message's peripheral cues and, conversely, that women with low levels of involvement would be more influenced by a mammography message's peripheral cues than by the message's arguments. We exposed 89 low-income African American women aged 40 to 65 years to two repetitions of a mammography promotion public service announcement embedded as a commercial within a television talk show.

Economic impact of hospital closure on small rural counties, 1984 to 1988: demonstration of a comparative analysis approach.

Hospital closure in a rural community may affect the locale's economic prospects as well as the health of its residents. Studies of economic effects have primarily relied on modeling techniques rather than observation of actual change. This study demonstrates the use of a comparative analysis approach for estimating the economic effects of hospital closure on small rural counties.

The effects of race, socioeconomic status, and household structure on injury mortality in children and young adults.

Objectives: Injuries are the leading killer of young persons in the United States, yet significant gaps in our understanding of this cause of death remain. By examining the independent influences of race, education, income, household structure, and residential location on injury mortality in young persons, this study addresses these gaps.

Method: Using data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, survival analysis is used to examine the injury mortality risk faced by 0 to 17 year olds over a nine-year follow-up period.

National school teachers' knowledge of asthma and its management.

Asthma is the most common chronic medical condition that school teachers may encounter among their pupils. However management of asthma in schools and the role school teachers adopt in this condition has only recently been explored. The aim of this study was to determine teachers' knowledge of asthma and its management.

Relationship between number of sexual intercourse partners and selected health risk behaviors among public high school adolescents.

Purpose: To examine the relationship between number of sexual partners and selected health risk behaviors in a statewide sample of public high school students.

Methods: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey was used to secure usable sexual risk-taking, substance use, and violence/aggression data from 3805 respondents. Because simple polychotomous logistic regression analysis revealed a significant Race x Gender interaction, subsequent multivariate models were constructed separately for each race-gender group.

Metallic ureteric stents: early experience.

Objective: To report our experience with metallic self-expanding stents in the palliative care of patients with ureteric obstruction caused by advanced pelvic malignancy.

Patients And Methods: Seven patients (five men and two women, mean age 72.8 years, range 58-88) with ureteric obstruction caused by advanced pelvic malignancy were evaluated.

Self-expanding metal stents in the management of colorectal carcinoma--a preliminary report.

Aims: The role of diagnostic imaging in colorectal carcinoma is in the initial diagnosis, staging and detection of complications of the disease. Seven cases of colorectal carcinoma are presented where expandable metallic stents were placed for the management of stenosing lesions in patients with advanced metastatic disease or with serious medical complications which prevented immediate surgery.

Results: Seven patients (five male, two female) with an age range of 51-76 years had expandable metallic stents placed over a 9-month period.

Selective arterial embolization in the treatment of arterial priapism.

Arterial or 'high-flow' priapism is a rare complication of penile or perineal trauma. The case is reported of a patient with a more than 2-week history of priapism who was successfully treated by selective arterial embolization, with maintenance of potency.

The ecology of race and socioeconomic distress: infant and working-age mortality in Chicago.

We examine the effects of education, unemployment, and racial segregation on age-, sex-, and race-specific mortality rates in racially defined Chicago community areas from 1989 to 1991. Community socioeconomic factors account for large observed areal variations in infant and working-age mortality, but especially working-age mortality for the black population. For black men, the mortality consequences of living in economically distressed communities are quite severe.

Cause-specific mortality among older African-Americans: correlates and consequences of age misreporting.

This paper examines the quality of age reporting on death certificates of elderly African-Americans by major causes of death. We utilize a sample of death certificates linked to early census records and to Social Security Administration records to establish a "true" age at death. We then examine the patterns, predictors, and consequences of age misreporting for major causes of death.

Expandable metal stent application in obstructing carcinoma of the proximal colon: report of a case.

Purpose: The increased mortality of emergency vs. elective colonic surgery applies equally to the right and left colon. Recent interest has surrounded the application of expandable metal stenting in acute obstruction but has been confined to the left colon.

Retrograde balloon dilatation for pelviureteric junction obstruction: long-term follow-up.

The results of 10 years' experience of treating pelviureteric junction (PUJ) obstruction by balloon dilatation are reviewed, and recommendations about the suitability of the technique for individual patients are made based on the patient's history and a preoperative DTPA renogram. Of 76 patients, 32 (42%) had no further symptoms after balloon dilatation. Six (8% continued to have mild loin pain only.

Factors associated with weight change among clients of a residential weight control program indicating binge and nonbinge traits.

The long-term effects of a 12- and 26-day residential weight control program on weight change were determined in 187 men and women, 1 to 5 years after treatment. Subjects completed a paper/pencil questionnaire assessing current diet, weight control techniques, exercise behaviors, behavior modification techniques, binge eating, and dieting behavior. General linear modeling was used to investigate the association between behaviors maintained posttreatment and current weight among subjects who demonstrated behaviors indicative of binge traits (BT) and nonbinge traits (NBT).

Blood pressure in Hispanic women: the role of diet, acculturation, and physical activity.

The role of diet, acculturation, and physical activity on systolic and diastolic blood pressure was examined among 1,420 Mexican American, 388 Cuban American, and 542 Puerto Rican women who responded to the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected in 1982-4. Dietary intake measures included sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, fiber, ethanol, and total kilocalories as estimated from 24-hour recall data. Serum sodium/potassium ratio was included as a measure of metabolic function.