Predictive clinical factors for penetration and aspiration in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Do the current swallow-specific subquestions of neurological diagnostic tools reflect the objective swallowing function in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients or are clinical factors superior to predict critical aspiration?

Methods: In a cross-sectional, observational study a total of 119 Parkinson outpatients were examined clinically and by flexible-endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES). Self-reported dysphagia by subquestions of the MDS-UPDRS and NMS questionnaire and history of subjective aspiration signs were collected.

Key Results: Nearly, all PD patients showed deglutition abnormalities in FEES (113/119) while only 12%-27% of them reported swallowing problems in the swallow-specific subquestions of neurological standard diagnostic tools (MDS-UPDRS and NMS-Quest), and the answers were heterogeneous and poorly reproducible.

ACUDIN - ACUpuncture and laser acupuncture for treatment of DIabetic peripheral Neuropathy: a randomized, placebo-controlled, partially double-blinded trial.

Background: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is the most common complication of diabetes mellitus with significant clinical sequelae that can affect a patient's quality of life. Metabolic and microvascular factors are responsible for nerve damage, causing loss of nerve function, numbness, painful sensory symptoms, and muscle weakness. Therapy is limited to anti-convulsant or anti-depressant drugs for neuropathic pain and paresthesia.

Drooling is no early sign of dysphagia in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Dysphagia is frequent and clinically highly relevant in Parkinson's disease (PD). For a rational dysphagia screening predictors are required. Previous investigations suggested that drooling correlates with dysphagia and may serve as its early sign.

Systematic Comparison of IgM and IgG ABO Antibody Titers by Using Tube and Gel Card Techniques and its Relevance for ABO-Incompatible Kidney Transplantation.

Background: Although the determination of the ABO antibody titers is necessary for the decision-making in ABOincompatible (ABOi) kidney transplantations, various methods for the determination of the ABO antibody titers are being used. However, the absence of uniform standards makes their comparability far more difficult. Two of the most commonly used methods are the tube method and the gel card method.

Critical Dysphagia is Common in Parkinson Disease and Occurs Even in Early Stages: A Prospective Cohort Study.

To assess the prevalence of dysphagia and its typical findings in unselected "real-world" Parkinson patients using an objective gold-standard method. This was a prospective, controlled, cross-sectional study conducted in 119 consecutive Parkinson patients of all stages independent of subjective dysphagia. Patients and 32 controls were clinically and endoscopically examined by flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) to evaluate the deglutition with regard to three consistencies (water, biscuit, and bread).

Immediate Pain Relief in Adhesive Capsulitis by Acupuncture-A Randomized Controlled Double-Blinded Study.

Objective: Primary adhesive capsulitis (AC), or frozen shoulder, is an insidious and idiopathic disease. Severe pain is predominant in the first two of the three stages of the condition, which can last up to 21 months.

Design, Setting, And Subjects: Sixty volunteers with primary AC were randomly assigned to acupuncture with press tack needles compared with press tack placebos in a patient- and observer-blinded placebo-controlled study.

Impact of spinal cord compression from intradural and epidural spinal tumors on perioperative symptoms-implications for surgical decision making.

Spinal cord or cauda equina compression (SCC) is an increasing challenge in clinical oncology due to a higher prevalence of long-term cancer survivors. Our aim was to determine the clinical relevance of SCC regarding patient outcome depending on different tumor entities and their anatomical localization (extradural/intradural/intramedullary). We retrospectively analyzed 230 patients surgically treated for SCC.

Practical barriers and ethical challenges in genetic data sharing.

The underlying ethos of dbGaP is that access to these data by secondary data analysts facilitates advancement of science. NIH has required that genome-wide association study data be deposited in the Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) since 2003. In 2013, a proposed updated policy extended this requirement to next-generation sequencing data.

PedMerge: merging pedigrees to facilitate family-based genetic statistical analyses.

Summary: PedMerge allows users to accurately and efficiently merge separately ascertained pedigrees that belong to the same extended family. In addition to validation checks of pedigree structure, the software provides files in LINKAGE or PEDSYS format that easily allow to be used by a variety of genetic statistical software packages including LINKAGE, SOLAR, SLINK or can be further manipulated with Mega2.

Availability: http://sites.

Relationships between plasma adiponectin and body fat distribution, insulin sensitivity, and plasma lipoproteins in Alaskan Yup'ik Eskimos: the Center for Alaska Native Health Research study.

Adiponectin, a protein secreted by adipose tissue, has antiatherogenic, anti-inflammatory, and insulin-sensitizing actions. We examined the relationship between plasma adiponectin and adiposity, insulin resistance, plasma lipids, glucose, leptin, and anthropometric measurements in 316 adult men and 353 adult women Yup'ik Eskimos in Southwest Alaska. Adiponectin concentration was negatively associated with body mass index, percentage of body fat, sum of skin folds, waist circumference, triglycerides, insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR]), fasting insulin, and leptin in both men and women, and also with glucose in women.

Metabolic syndrome in Yup'ik Eskimos: the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) Study.

Objective: This study investigated the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its defining components among Yup'ik Eskimos.

Research Methods And Procedures: A cross-sectional study design that included 710 adult Yup'ik Eskimos >or=18 years of age residing in 8 communities in Southwest Alaska. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was determined using the recently updated Adult Treatment Panel III criteria.

The Center for Alaska Native Health Research Study: a community-based participatory research study of obesity and chronic disease-related protective and risk factors.

Objectives: To describe the background, approach and general results of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) study.

Study Design: This was a cross-sectional Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) study with one tribal group to assess risk and protection for obesity and the risk factors related to chronic disease, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Methods: A combination of biological, genetic, nutritional and psychosocial measurements were taken on 922 Alaska Native participants in ten communities in Southwestern Alaska.

Building a community-based participatory research center to investigate obesity and diabetes in Alaska Natives.

The Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) is a community-based participatory research project aimed at understanding current risk factors for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in Alaska Natives living in Southwest Alaska. We utilize a multidisciplinary approach that includes assessment of genetic, nutritional and behavioral risk factors and their interrelationships with one another in the overall development of disease. The design of the CANHR project involved community participation in the development, implementation and interpretation of research results.

Do middle school students really have fixed images of elders?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether combinations of characteristics, abstracted from drawings of elders made by middle school students, grouped together to form cohesive perceptions, or stereotypes, of human aging.

Methods: We abstracted 49 characteristics from drawings of elders made by 1,944 students at two middle schools in San Antonio, Texas, at the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year. Correlational and factor analyses were used to determine if there was an underlying structure or grouping to the characteristics.

The Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND): design and methods.

Background: The Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND) is a multicenter study designed to identify genetic determinants of diabetic nephropathy. It is conducted in eight U.S.

Sentence completion to assess children's views about aging.

Purpose: Sentence completion exercises require students to give open-ended responses to prompts. The first purpose of this article is to describe the method of sentence completion to assess middle-school children's attitudes and beliefs about aging. The second purpose is to describe the patterns of characteristics that children associate with aging.

Incorporating the Contextual Assessment Approach to regimens used in genetic family studies.

Purpose: To develop a procedure that enhances enrollment and addresses ethical issues associated with participation in genetic family studies.

Methods: The Contextual Assessment Approach (CAA) was standardized to the recruitment procedures in the Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND) study at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Structured interviews with the CAA questionnaire (CAA-Q) were conducted with 50 low-income Mexican-American probands.

Risk perceptions among patients and their relatives regarding prostate cancer and its heredity.

We performed a qualitative study to examine how prostate cancer (PC) patients and their spouses and relatives take into account family history when considering susceptibility to PC. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and content analyzed.

Genetic fieldwork for hereditary prostate cancer studies.

The success of a genetic family study depends on the recruitment of a sufficient number of unaffected family members. We present our experiences from interviews performed in two family studies, a genetic family study of prostate cancer (PC) and a medical, anthropological, qualitative study. In the genetic family study, 949 PC patients were contacted, and 29% responded.

The Positively Aging teaching materials improve middle school students' images of older people.

Purpose: The Positively Aging program is an innovative set of interdisciplinary teaching materials that uses examples from geriatrics and gerontology to teach sixth through eighth grade curricular elements. The purpose of this study was to determine if use of the Positively Aging teaching materials by regular classroom teachers could change middle school students' images of elders.

Design And Methods: At the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year, students at two San Antonio, Texas, middle schools were asked to draw a typical older person.

Characterization of a family with dominant hypophosphatasia.

A kindred with dominant hypophosphatasia resulting from an alanine to threonine substitution at position 99 of the alkaline phosphatase protein is described. The clinical findings of individual members of the kindred were assessed by oral and physical examinations, or from the descriptions of multiple family members. The proband displayed enamel hypoplasia and premature loss of fully rooted primary anterior teeth, which were shown by histological examination to lack cementum.

Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrates incomplete myelination in 18q- syndrome: evidence for myelin basic protein haploinsufficiency.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MRI relaxometry were used to investigate disturbed brain myelination in 18q- syndrome, a disorder characterized by mental retardation, dysmorphic features, and growth failure. T1-weighted and dual spin-echo T2-weighted MR images were obtained, and T1 and T2 parametric image maps were created for 20 patients and 12 controls. MRI demonstrated abnormal brain white matter in all patients.

Preferential loss of the paternal alleles in the 18q- syndrome.

Individuals with the 18q- syndrome have variable deletions from the long arm of chromosome 18. They also exhibit a highly variable phenotype. To correlate genotype with phenotype accurately, extensive molecular and phenotypic analyses are needed on each affected individual.

Reassignment of the 92-kDa type IV collagenase gene (CLG4B) to human chromosome 20.

The collagenase type IV B gene (CLG4B) was previously mapped to human chromosome 16 by hybridization of a cDNA probe to DNAs from a somatic cell hybrid panel. We have relocalized CLG4B to chromosome 20 based on three different lines of evidence: screening a somatic cell hybrid mapping panel, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and linkage analysis using a newly identified polymorphism.

Two statistical tests for meiotic breakpoint analysis.

Meiotic breakpoint analysis (BPA), a statistical method for ordering genetic markers, is increasing in importance as a method for building genetic maps of human chromosomes. Although BPA does not provide estimates of genetic distances between markers, it efficiently locates new markers on already defined dense maps, when likelihood analysis becomes cumbersome or the sample size is small. However, until now no assessments of statistical significance have been available for evaluating the possibility that the results of a BPA were produced by chance.