Classifying insomnia in a clinically useful way.

Insomnia is a prevalent complaint that may arise from myriad causes. Therefore, patients who present for insomnia evaluation and treatment represent a rather heterogeneous group that merits a reliable and valid diagnostic system. This review article considers the general purposes of diagnostic classification per se and highlights the factors that influence the development of diagnostic nosologies.

Sleep in the laboratory and sleep at home II: comparisons of middle-aged insomnia sufferers and normal sleepers.

Study Objectives: The study compared adaptation responses and sleep pattern differences shown by normal sleepers and insomnia sufferers during lab (LPSG) and home (HPSG) polysomnography.

Design: A counter-balanced, matched-group design was used. Participants underwent 3 consecutive nocturnal LPSG's and 3 consecutive nocturnal PSG's in their homes (HPSG's).

The role of cpg sequences in the induction of anti-DNA antibodies.

To investigate the role of CpG sequences in anti-DNA induction, immunization experiments were performed in mice to assess the immunogenicity of native Escherichia coli (EC) and calf thymus (CT) in incomplete Freund's adjuvant. The effects of CpG sequences were further tested by comparing the adjuvant properties of a synthetic phosphorothioate oligonucleotide with a CpG motif to one with a GpC sequence. Both EC and CT DNA alone induced a limited anti-DNA response.

Anti-DNA and autoantibodies.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a prototypic autoimmune disease characterized by antinuclear antibodies (ANAs), including pathogenic specificities to DNA. As shown by recent research, ANA production is a genetically determined process in which self antigens drive B and T cells that have escaped the normal mechanisms of tolerance. Although antibodies can bind isolated protein or nucleic acid species, the in vivo driving antigens likely exist as complexes that have been released from apoptotic cells.

Nitric oxide synthase type 2 promoter polymorphisms, nitric oxide production, and disease severity in Tanzanian children with malaria.

Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in host resistance to infection with a variety of organisms. Two recent reports from Gabon and Gambia identified associations of malaria disease severity with the inducible NO synthase (NOS2) promoter G-954C and short allele (<11 repeats) pentanucleotide microsatellite polymorphisms, respectively. It was postulated that there would be a correlation of these polymorphisms with malaria disease severity and with measures of NO production in our cohort of Tanzanian children with malaria.

Blood mononuclear cell nitric oxide production and plasma cytokine levels in healthy gabonese children with prior mild or severe malaria.

Plasmodium falciparum malaria is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Factors that determine the development of mild versus severe malaria are not fully understood. Since host-derived nitric oxide (NO) has antiplasmodial properties, we measured NO production and NO synthase (NOS) activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy Gabonese children with a history of prior mild malaria (PMM) or prior severe malaria (PSM) caused by P.

Nitrosylation of blood hemoglobin and renal nonheme proteins in autoimmune MRL-lpr/lpr mice.

MRL-lpr/lpr mice spontaneously develop manifestations of autoimmunity including arthritis, vasculitis, and glomerulonephritis. The paramagnetic molecule nitric oxide has been implicated as an effector molecule in initiation and propagation of these inflammatory conditions. In this study, we utilized electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to directly detect nitrosylated protein complexes as products of nitric oxide in whole blood and in kidneys of MRL-lpr/lpr mice.

Malignant mesothelioma in women.

About 8% of our cases of mesothelioma occur in women, with a median age of 59 years. Our percentage is lower than other series reported in the literature because of the large number of occupationally exposed men referred to our laboratory. Tumor arose in the pleura in 86% of the women in our study, and the majority were epithelial.