Effects of moderate alcohol consumption and hypobaric hypoxia: implications for passengers' sleep, oxygen saturation and heart rate on long-haul flights.

Background: Passengers on long-haul flights frequently consume alcohol. Inflight sleep exacerbates the fall in blood oxygen saturation (SpO) caused by the decreased oxygen partial pressure in the cabin. We investigated the combined influence of alcohol and hypobaric hypoxia on sleep, SpO and heart rate.

Sleep-Induced Hypoxia under Flight Conditions: Implications and Countermeasures for Long-Haul Flight Crews and Passengers.

Purpose: Recuperation during sleep on board of commercial long-haul flights is a safety issue of utmost importance for flight crews working extended duty periods. We intended to explore how sleep and blood oxygenation (in wake versus sleep) are affected by the conditions in an airliner at cruising altitude.

Methods: Healthy participants' sleep was compared between 4-h sleep opportunities in the sleep laboratory (n = 23; sleep lab, ie, 53 m above sea level) and in an altitude chamber (n = 20; flight level, ie, 753 hPa, corresponding to 2438 m above sea level).

Hepatitis E Seroprevalence and Genotyping in a Cohort of Wild Boars in Southern Germany and Eastern Alsace.

In the last few years it has been realized that the hepatitis E virus (HEV) is endemic in most industrialized countries and that it is a zoonotic disease. Potential reservoirs for HEV have been identified to be wild boars and deers, but HEV has also been found in domestic pigs and other animals. Due to the probable spread of the virus via contaminated food or contact to infected animals, HEV antibodies are present in more than 16% of the German adult population and rates are increasing with age.

Ribavirin treatment of acute and chronic hepatitis E: a single-centre experience.

Background: The role of ribavirin for treatment of severe acute or chronic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is not well defined.

Aims: To investigate the applicability and efficacy of ribavirin therapy in acute and chronic HEV infections within a large single-centre cohort.

Materials & Methods: Clinical courses of forty-four German HEV-infected individuals were analysed.

Chronic hepatitis E virus infection in a patient with leukemia and elevated transaminases: a case report.

Introduction: Acute hepatitis E virus infection may cause mild, self-limiting hepatitis, either as epidemic outbreaks or sporadic cases, the latter of which have been reported in industrialized countries. Chronic infections are uncommon and have been reported in immunosuppressed patients, patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection, and patients with hematological malignancies.

Case Presentation: A 46-year-old Caucasian man was admitted to the gastroenterology clinic with a history of increasing transaminases, persistent exhaustion, and occasional right-side abdominal pain over the course of a 6-month period.

The effect of sudden depressurization on pilots at cruising altitude.

The standard flight level for commercial airliners is ∼12 km (40 kft; air pressure: ∼ 200 hPa), the maximum certification altitude of modern airliners may be as high as 43-45 kft. Loss of structural integrity of an airplane may result in sudden depressurization of the cabin potentially leading to hypoxia with loss of consciousness of the pilots. Specialized breathing masks supply the pilots with oxygen.

Effects of nocturnal aircraft noise on cognitive performance in the following morning: dose-response relationships in laboratory and field.

Objective: Nocturnal aircraft noise disturbs sleep and impairs recuperation. We investigated in laboratory and field studies whether noise-induced sleep fragmentation is associated with performance impairments in a psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) and a memory search task.

Methods: In the laboratory, 112 participants were exposed to aircraft noise during 9 consecutive nights.

Prevalence of parvovirus B19 and human bocavirus DNA in the heart of patients with no evidence of dilated cardiomyopathy or myocarditis.

Background: Although the DNA of parvovirus B19 (B19V) is frequently detected in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy or myocarditis, whether the parvovirus causes disease is questionable, since even in healthy individuals the virus persists in various tissues. The same question applies to human bocavirus (HBoV). We have determined the prevalence and quantity of B19V and HBoV DNA in heart tissue of patients who were not experiencing virus-related heart diseases and analyzed whether the seroprevalence corresponded to DNA prevalence in the heart.

Lack of association of genetic variants in the LRP8 gene with familial and sporadic myocardial infarction.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI) have a genetic basis, but the precise genetic underpinning remains controversial. Recently, an association of the LRP8 R952Q polymorphism (rs5174) with familial premature CAD/MI was reported. We analysed rs5174 (or the perfect proxy rs5177) in 1,210 patients with familial MI and 1,015 controls from the German MI Family study, in 1,926 familial CAD (1,377 with MI) patients and 2,938 controls from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) MI/CAD cohort, in 346 CAD patients and 351 controls from the AtheroGene study and in 295 men with incident CAD and 301 controls from the Prospective Epidemiological Study of MI study and found no evidence for association in any of the populations studied.

Performance impairment during four days partial sleep deprivation compared with the acute effects of alcohol and hypoxia.

Objective: Subjects were exposed to cumulated partial sleep deprivation (psd), alcohol intake and hypoxia in a sequential design to examine the impact on neurobehavioral performance.

Methods: Sixteen healthy male volunteers were enrolled in this study and were exposed in turn, after adaptation and baseline measurements, to one day of periods of hypoxia, one day of alcohol intake and one day for recovering (with 8h time in bed TIB). Subsequently the exposition of those conditions is that the subjects spent 5h night restriction daily for four consecutive days, followed by two recovery days.

ABC A-subclass proteins: gatekeepers of cellular phospho- and sphingolipid transport.

During the past years, available evidence suggests that members of a novel family of structurally highly related multispan proteins, designated ABC A-subclass transporters, exert critical functions in the control of cellular lipid transport processes. Loss-of-function scenarios, thus far, have revealed pivotal roles of individual ABC A-transporters in specialized lipid secretory pathways of the cell including HDL biogenesis (ABCA1), lung surfactant production (ABCA3), retinal integrity (ABCA4/ABCR) and skin lipid barrier formation (ABCA12). Although the specific transporter activities of many members of this novel protein family have not yet been established in detail, available evidence indicates that ABC A-subclass transporters function as key components of highly specialized cellular phospho- and sphingolipid export machineries in major physiologic systems.

Chronobiotic effects of the melatonin agonist LY 156735 following a simulated 9h time shift: results of a placebo-controlled trial.

Introduction: The melatonin agonist LY 156735 (LY) is a new investigational drug under development to treat circadian rhythm disorders. The present study assessed the efficacy of LY to alleviate the symptoms of shift lag and to enhance readaptation of desynchronized circadian rhythms to a new time zone.

Subjects And Methods: Eight healthy male volunteers of age 25-35 yr participated in three identical trials of 13d duration in a temporal isolation unit separated by washout intervals.