Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy Improves Heterogeneity of R-R intervals in a Patient with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with the occurrence of various kinds of bradyarrhythmia and tachyarrhythmia. The activation of the autonomic nerve system is an important causative factor of the pathogenesis of the arrhythmia in OSA patients. Previous studies have shown that the R-R interval is an effective parameter for evaluating autonomic nerve activities.

Epidemiological and clinical study of sporadic acute hepatitis E caused by indigenous strains of hepatitis E virus in Japan compared with acute hepatitis A.

Background: We compared acute hepatitis E (AH-E) and acute hepatitis A (AH-A) to investigate the epidemiology, clinical features, and prognosis of AH-E caused by an indigenous hepatitis E virus (HEV) in Japan.

Methods: We enrolled 58 patients diagnosed with AH-A or AH-E (32 men and 26 women; age, 20-72 years) from December 1997 to October 2002. Phylogenetic analysis of the partial 412-nucleotide sequence of open reading frame (ORF) 2 was performed in patients with AH-E.