A retrospective study on improvements in nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder following treatment for co-morbid sleep-disordered breathing.

Objective: To assess the impact of treatment for co-morbid sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) on patients with nightmares and post-traumatic stress.

Methods: Twenty-three chronic nightmare sufferers (15 with post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD) who also suffered co-morbid SDB (obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, n=16; upper airway resistance syndrome, UARS, n=7) completed a telephone interview, on average, 21 months after having been offered treatment for SDB at a university sleep disorders clinic.

Results: At follow-up, 14 reported maintaining treatment (Treatment Group) and 9 reported discontinuing treatment (No-Treatment Group).

The role of circulating cells in the healing of vascular prostheses.

Purpose: Cells covering the flow surface of vascular prostheses are derived in part from endothelium of adjacent native artery and from capillaries that extend through the pores of the graft. This study is designed to determine whether these endothelial-like cells can also originate from circulating blood cells and if so to identify them with protein markers.

Methods: Pledgets of vascular graft material were suspended within the aortas of dogs with metal stents that isolated the pledgets from the aortic wall.

A collagen coated vascular prosthesis.

A woven, double velour Dacron vascular graft was made nonporous by coating it with a layer of collagen prepared from fresh, young calf skin. Grafts were implanted in the thoracic aorta of 24 mongrel dogs and were examined at intervals up to 180 days. The grafts did not require preclotting or special preparation before being implanted.

A new woven double velour vascular prosthesis.

A new woven double velour vascular prosthesis designed to minimize intraoperative blood loss was implanted in 24 animals. Grafts were examined at 3 to 12 month intervals for healing and were compared to woven non-velour grafts implanted in 13 control animals. At 12 months, the velour grafts were 93 to 98% covered with neointima while the control grafts were only 86% covered with neointima.

Thin alveolar epithelial partitions across connective tissue gaps in the alveolar wall of the human lung: ultrastructural observations.

We describe sharply localized attenuated areas in the alveolar walls of 17 of 25 human specimens. In these areas the connective tissue scaffolding of the alveolar septum was interrupted, and the thickness of the alveolar wall was reduced to that of a single or double layer of alveolar epithelium, devoid of basal laminae. Serial sections proved that most such gaps were bridged by a thin partition of intact epithelium continuous with Type I cells at the borders of the gap.