Home-based oral health program for adults with intellectual disabilities: An intervention study.

Background: Poor oral health is common in adults with intellectual disabilities leading to risk of mouth and lung infections. Yet, little is known about the benefits of preventative oral health programs.

Objective/hypothesis: This prospective longitudinal experimental mixed methods study evaluated the efficacy of an oral health program aimed at improving knowledge and behaviours in adults with intellectual disabilities living in supported housing.

PEGylated IL-10 (Pegilodecakin) Induces Systemic Immune Activation, CD8 T Cell Invigoration and Polyclonal T Cell Expansion in Cancer Patients.

Tumor-reactive T cell exhaustion prevents the success of immune therapies. Pegilodecakin activates intratumoral CD8 T cells in mice and induces objective tumor responses in patients. Here we report that pegilodecakin induces hallmarks of CD8 T cell immunity in cancer patients, including elevation of interferon-γ and GranzymeB, expansion and activation of intratumoral CD8 T cells, and proliferation and expansion of LAG-3 PD-1 CD8 T cells.

Effectiveness of home single-channel nasal pressure for sleep apnea diagnosis.

Introduction: Home single-channel nasal pressure (HNP) may be an alternative to polysomnography (PSG) for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) diagnosis, but no cost studies have yet been carried out. Automatic scoring is simpler but generally less effective than manual scoring.

Objectives: To determine the diagnostic efficacy and cost of both scorings (automatic and manual) compared with PSG, taking as a polysomnographic OSA diagnosis several apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) cutoff points.

CPAP effect on recurrent episodes in patients with sleep apnea and myocardial infarction.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is linked to increased cardiovascular risk, but the association between OSA and myocardial infarction (MI) remains controversial. Our objectives were to compare the frequency of OSA in patients with acute MI and in a population-based sample of control subjects, and to evaluate the impact of CPAP on recurrent MI and coronary revascularization.

Methods: Case-control study with a 6-year follow-up of the case cohort.

Exercise oxygen flow titration methods in COPD patients with respiratory failure.

We compare the adequacy of several titration procedures of oxygen flow in maintaining SpO(2) > 90% during the activities of daily life in patients with very severe COPD. Thirty-one very severe COPD patients undergoing oxygen-therapy were recruited. Three titration methods were randomly performed: (1) 6-min walking tests; (2) cycle-ergometer constant work-rate tests at a load equivalent to 12 ml/min/kg of oxygen uptake; (3) one single constant work-rate test at 40 W 12-h pulse-oximeter monitoring was performed on four consecutive days with the following oxygen flow during exercise: 1 l·min(-1) above the resting prescription (NOTT guidelines) and those established by the titration procedures.

Prognostic value of the objective measurement of daily physical activity in patients with COPD.

Background: Subjective measurement of physical activity using questionnaires has prognostic value in COPD. However, their lack of accuracy and large individual variability limit their use for evaluation on an individual basis. We evaluated the capacity of the objective measurement of daily physical activity in patients with COPD using accelerometers to estimate their prognostic value.

Severity-related differences in lung attenuation in men with COPD.

Background And Objectives: We compare the inspiratory and expiratory regional lung densities between different levels of COPD severity (as assessed by the GOLD scale and by the BODE index), and to assess the relationship between regional lung densities and functional lung parameters.

Patients And Methods: Fifty-five stable moderate-severe COPD men were selected. Functional evaluation included dyspnoea scale, blood gases, spirometry, plethysmography, diffusing capacity and six-minute walk test.

Daily physical activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is mainly associated with dynamic hyperinflation.

Rationale: Although the major limitation to exercise performance in patients with COPD is dynamic hyperinflation, little is known about its relation to daily physical activity.

Objectives: To analyze the contribution of dynamic hyperinflation, exercise tolerance, and airway oxidative stress to physical activity in patients with COPD.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, we included 110 patients with moderate to very severe COPD.

Monocytes from cystic fibrosis patients are locked in an LPS tolerance state: down-regulation of TREM-1 as putative underlying mechanism.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an inherited pleiotropic disease that results from abnormalities in the gene that codes for the chloride channel, Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR). CF patients are frequently colonized by several pathogens, but the mechanisms that allow colonization in spite of apparently functional immune systems are incompletely understood. In this paper we show that blood peripheral monocytes isolated from CF patients are found in an endotoxin tolerance state, yet this is not due to a deficient TLR activation.

The progressive effects of ageing on chemosensitivity in healthy subjects.

The aim of this study was to compare the central inspiratory drive (P(0.1)) response to hypoxia and hypercapnia between different age groups of elderly, nonsmoker, healthy subjects and young healthy controls. A random sample, proportionally stratified by age (65-69, 70-74, 75-79 and 80-84 yrs) from a sample of nonsmoker elderly subjects representative of a general population and 47 healthy subjects aged 20-40 were selected.

[Recording the daily physical activity of COPD patients with an accelerometer: An analysis of agreement and repeatability].

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the agreement between different measurements of mean daily physical activity taken over a week in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with an accelerometer and to analyze the medium-term repeatability of these measurements.

Patients And Methods: The study enrolled 12 healthy control subjects and 23 patients with stable COPD (mean [SD] forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1] of 45% [13%] of predicted and a ratio of FEV1 to forced vital capacity of 53% [13%]). Accelerometer output, measured in vector magnitude units, was recorded in a physical activity log for a 1-week period.

Exhaled nitric oxide and airway caliber during exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.

Data on the relationship between exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) and exhaled nitric oxide (NO) in adult patients with asthma are controversial. It is unclear whether endogenous NO may act as either a protective or stimulatory factor in the airway response to exercise or whether changes in exhaled NO simply reflect acute narrowing of the airway. The aim of this study was to assess the changes in the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FE(NO)) before and after exercise challenge in patients with asthma and to analyze the relationship between FE(NO) and airway obstruction.