Sleep disorders and multiple sclerosis: a clinical and polysomnography study.

Background: Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) report sleep disturbances (SD) and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) more frequently than the general population. Our objectives were to evaluate SD and EDS in MS patients and to test the reliability of subjective sleep questionnaires.

Methods: Demographic and clinical characteristics of unselected consecutive patients with MS were collected.

Short sleep in young adults: Insomnia or sleep debt? Prevalence and clinical description of short sleep in a representative sample of 1004 young adults from France.

Background: Increasing evidence suggests an association between short sleep with adverse health outcomes: obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. But there are few or no data on "who these short sleepers are" in the general population.

Objectives: To describe short sleepers and the associated sleep disorders in young adults.

Restless legs syndrome and pregnancy: follow-up of pregnant women before and after delivery.

Aims: To describe the frequency of restless legs syndrome (RLS) in a French population of randomly selected women during their third trimester of pregnancy and its evolution up to 3 months after delivery and to identify potential factors associated with the improvement of RLS after delivery.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Results: 186 pregnant women living in a French town were included.

Restless legs syndrome and pregnancy: a questionnaire study in the Poitiers District, France.

Aims: To perform a large and detailed epidemiologic study on restless legs syndrome (RLS) during pregnancy in a European country.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was distributed by the medical staff in different outpatient waiting rooms (obstetrics and gynecology department of the university hospital, obstetrics and gynecology department of a private clinic, private midwives, private obstetrician-gynecologists, radiological centers before fetal ultrasound examination and general practitioners) in a French town and its surrounding area (200,000 inhabitants): A woman was considered affected if she met the International RLS Study Group criteria for RLS diagnosis.

[Physiology of normal sleep].

Normal sleep of a young adult is composed of around 4 to 6 cycles of 90 minutes each. Two states of sleep have been established, REM sleep and Non REM sleep. REM sleep is mainly characterized by a complete atonia which creates a physiological paralysis.

Functional brain imaging by EEG graph-matching.

Our goal is to image the brain activation and function by the mean of electroencephalogram signals. The work's originality is that we build a data structure, a graph, that sums up the brain activity in the spatial, temporal and frequency domain. This graph is formed from the information included in the EEG time-frequency map.

Simultaneous central nervous system distribution and pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modelling of the electroencephalogram effect of norfloxacin administered at a convulsant dose in rats.

The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of norfloxacin blood-brain barrier (BBB) transport to its delayed electroencephalogram (EEG) effect in rats. Norfloxacin was injected as a bolus dose of 150 mg kg(-1). Blood samples were collected for total norfloxacin plasma concentration measurements.

Norfloxacin-induced electroencephalogram alteration and seizures in rats are not triggered by enhanced levels of intracerebral glutamate.

Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of the electroencephalogram (EEG) effect was combined with intracerebral glutamate determinations using microdialysis for rats receiving norfloxacin intravenously (150 mg/kg of body weight). The EEG effect (accompanied by tremors and seizures) was consistently observed without glutamate level modifications. Therefore, norfloxacin-inducted seizures are not triggered by intracerebral glutamate level enhancement.

Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of the electroencephalogram effect of norfloxacin in rats.

A previously developed pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) modeling approach was used to investigate the epileptogenic activity of norfloxacin as a representative antibiotic with concentration-dependent antimicrobial activity. Rats received an intravenous infusion of norfloxacin at a rate of 5 mg kg of body weight(-1) min(-1) over 30 min. Blood samples were collected for drug assay, and an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded during infusion and postinfusion.

Stroke and sleep apnoea: cause or consequence?

The relationships between obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) and stroke are still under discussion, but increasing evidence demonstrates that the OSAS is an independent risk factor for stroke. However, in rare cases, OSAS could be a consequence of strokes, especially if located in the brainstem. Many recent studies have found a 70 to 95% frequency of OSAS (defined by an apnoea/hypopnoea index >10) in patients with acute stroke.