Waist-To-Hip Ratio Predicts Abnormal Overnight Oximetry in Men Independent of Body Mass Index.

Ambulatory overnight oximetry (OXI) has emerged as a cost-effective initial test for sleep disordered breathing. Obesity is closely associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA); however, whether body mass index (BMI) or waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) predicts abnormal overnight OXI remains unknown. We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of 393 men seen in the Executive Health Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota who underwent ambulatory overnight OXI ordered by preventive medicine physicians between January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2010.

Use of ambulatory overnight oximetry to investigate sleep apnea in a general internal medicine practice.

Objective: To examine how clinical factors and results from ambulatory overnight oximetry related to recommendations for further sleep evaluation in patients with clinically suspected obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Patients And Methods: We reviewed 100 medical records selected randomly from 375 consecutive patients for whom ambulatory overnight oximetry had been ordered by internists and completed between September 1, 2001, and May 1, 2002. We analyzed relationships among clinical Information, oximetry results, resultant recommendations, and patient follow-up data.

Increasing physician productivity using a physician extender: a study in an outpatient group practice at the Mayo Clinic.

Physician extenders (PE) can perform some tasks usually performed by a physician. Time recouped by physicians using a PE may increase physician productivity and physician professional satisfaction. A prospective study was completed using a PE in an outpatient general medical group practice setting to reduce physician indirect patient care, such as responding to patient telephone calls, refilling prescriptions, triage, and order entry.

Diminished heat-shock protein synthesis following mitogen stimulation of lymphocytes from aged donors.

Studies of the diminished mitogen-induced proliferative response of T lymphocytes from older subjects show that aging must result in some defect(s) in the intracellular events required for transition from the G0 or quiescent state through the prereplicative interval and into the first S phase of the cell cycle. This conclusion is supported by observations of diminished inducibility of the lymphokine IL-2 and its receptor during aging. The current study demonstrates that decreased proliferative response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) is also paralleled by decreased induction during the prereplicative interval of two of the most strongly enhanced proteins in mitogen-activated T cells: HSP90 and P73, which are also members of the heat-shock protein family.