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Long-Term Treatment Of Hemifacial Spasm With Type A Botulinum Toxin, Yu-Ching Llin

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Hemifacial spasm is a rare movement disorder. It is characterized by recurrent, involuntary tonic or clonic contraction of the muscles innervated by unilateral facial nerve. It may affect patient’s vision and has great cosmetic or psychological impacts. Oral drugs including anticonvulsants, baclofen and benzodiazepines often have little effect. Surgery has potentially serious complications. After numerous clinical studies, botulinum toxin is now recommended as the primary treatment of choice for most hemifacial spasm cases.The purpose of this study is to retrospectively evaluate the dose, effect and side effects of long-term treatment of hemifacial spasm with type A botulinum toxin. Between November …

Ankylosing Spondylitis Complicating With Spinal Epidural Hematoma: A Casereport, Hui-Lin Lin, Yen-Ho Wang, Huey-Wen Liang, Chi-Kai Chang

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory disease that most commonly affects vertebral and pelvic joints. It is characterized by ossification of all spinal ligaments, articular joints, and intervertebral discs in association with osteoporosis of the vertebral bodies, thus, rendering the spine prone to trauma, which, even if minimal, may cause serious neurologic complications.Spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) is a rare clinical condition. Etiologically, it may be traumatic or nontraumatic. Spontaneous SEHs occur more frequently than traumatic SEHs. Although rare, posttraumatic SEH occurs frequently in patients with AS. We report the case of a 71-year-old male patient who suffered from AS for …

Anti-Myelin-Associated Glycoprotein Antibody Neuropathy: A Casereport, Hsin-I Wu, Cheng-Liang Chou, Shun-Ping Cheng, Tcho-Jen Liu, Rai-Chi Chan

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Polyneuropathy is common in the field of rehabilitation medicine. Its symptoms include sensory impairment in the distal limbs, ataxia, tremor, and pinch weakness. Electrophysiology will show multiple neuropathies with distal involvement first. Sensory nerve impairment usually appears earlier than motor nerve impairment. In severe cases, muscle atrophy can also be seen.Due to the multiple etiologies of polyneuropathy, the treatments vary. We report a rare case of anti-MAG neuropathy. The patient is a 88-year-old retired veteran, who complained of bilateral lower leg weakness and numbness in the distal part of all limbs. He visited the neurology OPD and was diagnosed with …

Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing In Patients With Transmyocardial Laser Revascularization, Chen-Liang Chou, Po-Jung Pan, Wen-Tung Yang, Su-Ying Hung, Tcho-Jen Liu, Shian-Ting Lai, Li-Yun Kuo

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

For patients with symptomatic end-stage coronary artery disease, who have had a poor response to percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting, transmyocardial revascularization (TMR) seems to be an alternative to relieve disabling ischemic symptoms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate, by cardiopulmonary exercise testing, the cardiopulmonary capacity after TMR.Ten patients were enrolled in the study. None of them showed significant exacerbation in pulmonary function after TMR. Their average aerobic capacity was about 5MET5; a lower anaerobic threshold and high functional aerobic impairment revealed an insufficient cardiopulmonary capacity. The result of testing showed 1 normal(10%),5 abnormal(50%) …

Clinical Effects Of Botulinum Toxin On Spasticity Management In Children With Cerebral Palsy, En-Shiuan Wu, Chia-Ling Chen, Alice M.K. Wong, Ching-Kai Wong, Jun-Xiao Chen, Shin-Ming Lo

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Botulinum toxin type A (BTA) has treated spasticity in cerebral palsy (CP) in recent years. This study investigated both the clinical effects and gait improvements of BTA on spasticity management in children with CP.Twenty-nine children with spastic CP (2-10 years old) were recruited into this study. All subjects received complete clinical assessments, video recording and functional assessments before and 1-3 months after BTA treatment. A questionnaire was employed for the evaluation of parents’ subjective satisfaction. Clinical assessments included muscle tone and joint range of motion (ROM) of bilateral lower limbs. ROMs, including dynamic (R1) and static (R2), were measured by …

Public Health Abstracts 2004

Florida Public Health Review

No abstract provided.

Isolating Adult Psychological Correlates Of Witnessing Parental Violence: Findings From A Predominantly Latina Sample, Corrie A. Davies, David Dilillo, Isaac G. Martinez

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examined the relationship between childhood exposure to parental violence and adult psychological functioning in a sample of predominantly Mexican American participants. Questionnaires assessing childhood maltreatment, family environment, and current psychological symptomatology were completed by 142 female undergraduates. Findings revealed that witnessing parental violence in childhood was associated with depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, and trauma symptoms in adulthood, even after controlling for child physical and sexual abuse. However, in subsequent analyses, also controlling for levels of nonphysical family conflict, previous associations between exposure to parental violence and adult symptomatology were reduced, such that trauma-related symptoms remained the sole outcome …

Parental Beliefs Regarding Developmental Benefits Of Childhood Injuries, Terri Lewis, David Dilillo, Lizette Peterson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective: To assess parental beliefs that minor childhood injuries play a beneficial role in the development of young children.
Methods: Mothers and fathers of 159 children, ages 15 to 40 months, completed the Injury Attitudes Questionnaire (IAQ), designed to assess parental beliefs that children "learn from" and "toughen up" as a result of experiencing minor injuries.
Results: A main effect for parent gender was found such that fathers endorsed stronger beliefs than did mothers regarding the developmental benefits of injuries.
Conclusions: The accuracy of these beliefs as well as their relevance to parental injury-prevention behaviors is discussed.

Understanding Perpetrators Of Nonphysical Sexual Coercion: Characteristics Of Those Who Cross The Line, Sarah Degue, David Dilillo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Sexual coercion is defined here as a form of male sexual misconduct in which nonphysical tactics (e.g., verbal pressure) are utilized to gain sexual contact with an unwilling female partner. This study compares the risk characteristics of sexually coercive (n = 81) and nonoffending college males (n = 223) across several domains. Results revealed that sexual coercers differed from nonoffenders in that they more often subscribed to rape myths, viewed interpersonal violence as more acceptable, reported greater hostility toward females, and perceived male-female relationships as more inherently adversarial. In addition, compared to nonoffenders, sexually coercive males showed stronger indicators of …

A Meta-Analytic Review Of The Effects Of High Stress On Eyewitness Memory, Kenneth A. Deffenbacher, Brian H. Bornstein, Steven D. Penrod, E. Kiernan Mcgorty

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In the past 30 years researchers have examined the impact of heightened stress on the fidelity of eyewitness memory. Meta-analyses were conducted on 27 independent tests of the effects of heightened stress on eyewitness identification of the perpetrator or target person and separately on 36 tests of eyewitness recall of details associated with the crime. There was considerable support for the hypothesis that high levels of stress negatively impact both types of eyewitness memory. Meta-analytic Z-scores, whether unweighted or weighted by sample size, ranged from -5.40 to -6.44 (high stress condition–low stress condition). The overall effect sizes were -.31 for …

Retinol Improves Bovine Embryonic Development In Vitro, Tracy Livingston, Dawn Eberhardt, J. Lannett Edwards, James Godkin

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Large Animal Clinical Sciences

Abstract

Retinoids are recognized as important regulators of vertebrate development, cell differentiation, and tissue function. Previous studies, performed both in vivo and in vitro, indicate that retinoids influence several reproductive events, including follicular development, oocyte maturation and early embryonic development. The present study evaluated in vitro effects of retinol addition to media containing maturing bovine oocytes and developing embryos in both a low oxygen atmosphere (7%) and under atmospheric oxygen conditions (20%). In the first experiment, abbatoir collected bovine oocytes were matured in the presence or absence of varying concentrations of retinol. After a 22–24 hour maturation period the oocytes …

Public Health, Primary Care, And Privatization

Florida Public Health Review

No abstract provided.

Acetylcholine: Ii. Nicotinic Receptors, Joyce Besheer, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The nicotinic cholinergic system has been widely implicated in mediating learning and/or memory processes in human and nonhuman animals. This chapter highlights various areas of basic research in which stimulation or blockade of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) has been shown to affect an animals performance in a variety of tasks thought to measure learning and memory. For example, under certain conditions, stimulation of nAChRs by nicotine (or other nAChRs agonists) can enhance working memory of primates as measured in a delayed matching-to-sample task. Attentional processes are also improved in rats as indexed by a five-choice serial reaction time task. Further, …

Interdependent Assembly Of Specific Regulatory Lipids And Membrane Fusion Proteins Into The Vertex Ring Domain Of Docked Vacuoles, Rutilio A. Fratti, Youngsoo Jun, Alexey J. Merz, Nathan Margolis, William Wickner

Dartmouth Scholarship

Membrane microdomains are assembled by lipid partitioning (e.g., rafts) or by protein-protein interactions (e.g., coated vesicles). During docking, yeast vacuoles assemble "vertex" ring-shaped microdomains around the periphery of their apposed membranes. Vertices are selectively enriched in the Rab GTPase Ypt7p, the homotypic fusion and vacuole protein sorting complex (HOPS)-VpsC Rab effector complex, SNAREs, and actin. Membrane fusion initiates at vertex microdomains. We now find that the "regulatory lipids" ergosterol, diacylglycerol and 3- and 4-phosphoinositides accumulate at vertices in a mutually interdependent manner. Regulatory lipids are also required for the vertex enrichment of SNAREs, Ypt7p, and HOPS. Conversely, SNAREs and actin …

Role Of Macrophage Apoptosis In Atherosclerosis., June Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The presence of apoptotic cells in atherosclerotic lesions has been broadly reported in the past ten years. The majority of these apoptotic cells are macrophages. However, the pathogenic role of macrophage apoptosis in the development of atherosclerosis remains to be elucidated. Elevated expression of Bax, one of the pivotal pro-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family, has been found in human atherosclerotic plaques. Activation of Bax also occurs in free cholesterol-loaded and oxysterol treated mouse macrophages. In this study, we evaluated the influence of Bax deficiency on apoptosis in macrophage-like P388D1 cells by using small interfering RNA (siRNA) to suppress Bax …

Degradation Of 23s Rrna In Azithromycin-Treated Ribonuclease Mutants Of Escherichia Coli., Jessica A. Silvers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Azithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic, specifically binds to the 50S ribosomal subunit of bacterial ribosomes and inhibits translation. Azithromycin also prevents 50S ribosomal subunit assembly by binding to a 50S ribosomal subunit precursor particle. When exposed to azithromycin, several ribonucleases in wild-type Escherichia coli cells degrade antibiotic-bound 50S precursor particles. Presumably, cells expressing one or more mutated ribonucleases will degrade the antibiotic-bound precursor less efficiently, resulting in increased sensitivity to the antibiotic. To test this, eight ribonucleaseûdeficient strains of Escherichia coli were grown in the presence or absence of azithromycin. Cell viability, growth rates, and protein synthesis rates were measured. Degradation …

Dose-Dependent Effects Of Salmon Calcitonin On Bone Turnover In Ovariectomized Rats., Beatrice H. Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, osteoporosis results in about 1.5 million annual fractures, costing approximately $15 billion. Calcitonin is safe and effective in slowing osteoporotic bone loss, but its effect is transient. The current studies were designed to explore the dose-dependent effects of salmon calcitonin on bone turnover in ovariectomized rats and to determine if the decrease in therapeutic effectiveness of calcitonin demonstrated over time with higher doses is due to oversuppression of bone turnover. Doses of 5, 15, & 50 IU/kg BW/day of calcitonin were compared to placebo in 12-week-old ovariectomized and sham-ovariectomized Sprague-Dawley rats for 24 weeks. The spinal …

Dietary Carbohydrates And Breast Cancer Risk: A Prospective Study Of The Roles Of Overall Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load, Stephanie A. Navarro Silvera, Meera Jain, Geoffrey R. Howe, Anthony B. Miller, Thomas E. Rohan

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

We examined breast cancer risk in association with overall glycemic index (GI), glycemic load (GL), and dietary carbohydrate and sugar intake in a prospective cohort of 49,613 Canadian women enrolled in the National Breast Screening Study who completed a self‐administered food frequency questionnaire between 1980 and 1985. Linkages to national mortality and cancer databases yielded data on deaths and cancer incidence, with follow‐up ending between 1998 and 2000. During a mean follow‐up of 16.6 years, we observed 1,461 incident breast cancer cases. GI, GL, total carbohydrate and total sugar intake were not associated with breast cancer risk in the total …

Dietary Carbohydrates And Breast Cancer Risk: A Prospective Study Of The Roles Of Overall Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load, Stephanie A. Navarro Silvera, Meera Jain, Geoffrey R. Howe, Anthony B. Miller, Thomas E. Rohan

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

We examined breast cancer risk in association with an overall glycemic index (GI), glycemic load (GL), and dietary carbohydrate and sugar intake in a prospective cohort of 49,613 Canadian women enrolled in the National Breast Screening Study who completed a self-administered food frequency questionnaire between 1980 and 1985. Linkages to national mortality and cancer databases yielded data on deaths and cancer incidence, with follow-up ending between 1998 and 2000. During a mean follow-up of 16.6 years, we observed 1,461 incident breast cancer cases. GI, GL, total carbohydrate, and total sugar intake were not associated with breast cancer risk in the …

Access To Care: A Hospice Model Of Access To Care For The Homeless, Mary Ann Bridget Kinney

Theses and Graduate Projects

Access to Hospice for the terminally ill patient is a monumental problem for the disenfranchised person. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) in Washington D.C. there is an estimate of 3.5 million people who experience homelessness in a year (2003). The homeless face many health care service gaps including the vital service of end- of- life nursing care, which allows for death with dignity. The following paper will discuss the author's experience with the homeless, the need of access to Hospice Care for the homeless, and a review of literature regarding access to Hospice for the homeless. …

Expression Of Inwardly Rectifying Potassium Channels (Girks) And Beta-Adrenergic Regulation Of Breast Cancer Cell Lines, Howard K. Plummer, Qiang Yu, Yavuz Cakir, Hildegard M. Schuller

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- General Biology

Background

Previous research has indicated that at various organ sites there is a subset of adenocarcinomas that is regulated by beta-adrenergic and arachidonic acid-mediated signal transduction pathways. We wished to determine if this regulation exists in breast adenocarcinomas. Expression of mRNA that encodes a G-protein coupled inwardly rectifying potassium channel (GIRK1) has been shown in tissue samples from approximately 40% of primary human breast cancers. Previously, GIRK channels have been associated with beta-adrenergic signaling.

Methods

Breast cancer cell lines were screened for GIRK channels by RT-PCR. Cell cultures of breast cancer cells were treated with beta-adrenergic agonists and antagonists, and …

Estimating Percentile-Specific Causal Effects: A Case Study Of Micronutrient Supplementation, Birth Weight, And Infant Mortality, Francesca Dominici, Scott L. Zeger, Giovanni Parmigiani, Joanne Katz, Parul Christian

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

In developing countries, higher infant mortality is partially caused by poor maternal and fetal nutrition. Clinical trials of micronutrient supplementation are aimed at reducing the risk of infant mortality by increasing birth weight. Because infant mortality is greatest among the low birth weight infants (LBW) (• 2500 grams), an effective intervention may need to increase the birth weight among the smallest babies. Although it has been demonstrated that supplementation increases the birth weight in a trial conducted in Nepal, there is inconclusive evidence that the supplementation improves their survival. It has been hypothesized that a potential benefit of the treatment …

A Hybrid Newton-Type Method For The Linear Regression In Case-Cohort Studies, Menggang Yu, Bin Nan

The University of Michigan Department of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Case-cohort designs are increasingly commonly used in large epidemiological cohort studies. Nan, Yu, and Kalbeisch (2004) provided the asymptotic results for censored linear regression models in case-cohort studies. In this article, we consider computational aspects of their proposed rank based estimating methods. We show that the rank based discontinuous estimating functions for case-cohort studies are monotone, a property established for cohort data in the literature, when generalized Gehan type of weights are used. Though the estimating problem can be formulated to a linear programming problem as that for cohort data, due to its easily uncontrollable large scale even for a …

Nursing Students' Self-Efficacy And Attitude: Examining The Influence Ofthe Omaha System In Nurse Managed Centers, Cherie Mooy

Master's Projects

Self-efficacy, or confidence, as an outcome behavior has been identified as influencing nursing job satisfaction and retention. Clinical learning environments and teaching strategies that build and support perceived self-efficacy are critical aspects of preparing new nurses for their entry and continuing role as professional nurses in today's information-intensive data-management healthcare environment. The purpose of this pre-test post-test study is to measure, using the C-scale (Grundy, 1992), nursing students' self-efficacy to perform patient assessment in Nurse Managed Centers (NMC) after one semester of using the Omaha System documentation framework. Nursing students' attitudes of preparation for using Standardized Nursing Languages (SNL) in …

Haplotype Analysis Of Common Variants In The Brca1 Gene And Risk Of Sporadic Breast Cancer, David G. Cox, Peter Kraft, Susan E. Hankinson, David J. Hunter

Susan E. Hankinson

Introduction Truncation mutations in the BRCA1 gene cause a substantial increase in risk of breast cancer. However, these mutations are rare in the general population and account for little of the overall incidence of sporadic breast cancer. Method We used whole-gene resequencing data to select haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms, and examined the association between common haplotypes of BRCA1 and breast cancer in a nested case-control study in the Nurses' Health Study (1323 cases and 1910 controls). Results One haplotype was associated with a slight increase in risk (odds ratio 1.18, 95% confidence interval 1.02–1.37). A significant interaction (P = …

Animal Health Matters, David H. Zeman

Animal Health MATTERS Newsletter

Head/Director's Message [Page] 1- ADRDL invited to join the NAHLN Diagnostic News [Page] 1- Bovine genital trichomoniasis in western SD [Page] 2- Testing milk for mastitis at ADRDL [Page] 2- Poultry biosecurity [Page] 2- Veterinary poultry specialists sought Research News [Page] 2- VSD/ADRDL professor receives grant to establish research center Extension News [Page] 3- Are white tail deer a threat for spreading BVDV in cattle? [Page] 3- Liver copper concentration in calves [Page] 4- Calendar of events [Page] 4- Holiday hours

Public Health Nursing Acceptance Of The 5 A’S Protocol For Prenatal Smoking Cessation, Jihong Liu

Faculty Publications

Oregon’s efforts in tobacco cessation have historically focused on the general population and have depended on quit line services as the primary intervention. The Oregon Smoke Free Mothers and Babies Program (SFMB) was developed in 2002 to focus on public health nurses and prenatal care providers who work with high risk pregnant women. It seeks to increase smoking cessation among low income and other high risk pregnant women by disseminating the U.S. Public Health Service best practices, the 5 A’s (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange) tobacco brief intervention protocol, to public health nurses and prenatal care providers. Interventions included teaching …

Investigation Of The Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor Gene And Cholesterol As A Risk Factor For Migraine, R. Curtain, R. Lea, S. Quinlan, C. Bellis, L. Tajouri, R. Hughes, J. Macmillan, L. Griffiths

Lotti Tajouri

The Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor (LDLR) gene is a cell surface receptor that plays an important role in cholesterol homeostasis. We investigated the (TA)n polymorphism in exon 18 of the LDLR gene on chromosome 19p13.2 performing an association analysis in 244 typical migraine-affected patients, 151 suffering from migraine with aura (MA), 96 with migraine without aura (MO) and 244 unaffected controls. The populations consisted of Caucasians only, and controls were age- and sex-matched. The results showed no significant difference between groups for allele frequency distributions of the (TA)n polymorphism even after separation of the migraine-affected individuals into subgroups of MA and …

Ranking Usrds Provider-Specific Smrs From 1998-2001, Rongheng Lin, Thomas A. Louis, Susan M. Paddock, Greg Ridgeway

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

Provider profiling (ranking, "league tables") is prevalent in health services research. Similarly, comparing educational institutions and identifying differentially expressed genes depend on ranking. Effective ranking procedures must be structured by a hierarchical (Bayesian) model and guided by a ranking-specific loss function, however even optimal methods can perform poorly and estimates must be accompanied by uncertainty assessments. We use the 1998-2001 Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) data from United States Renal Data System (USRDS) as a platform to identify issues and approaches. Our analyses extend Liu et al. (2004) by combining evidence over multiple years via an AR(1) model; by considering estimates …

The Kidney-Specific Wnk1 Isoform Is Induced By Aldosterone And Stimulates Epithelial Sodium Channel-Mediated Na+ Transport, Anikó Naray-Fejes-Toth, Peter M. Snyder, Géza Fejes-Toth

Dartmouth Scholarship

WNK1 belongs to a unique family of Ser/Thr kinases that have been implicated in the control of blood pressure. Intronic deletions in the WNK1 gene result in its overexpression and lead to pseudohypoaldosteronism type II, a disease with salt-sensitive hypertension and hyperkalemia. How overexpression of WNK1 leads to Na⁺ retention and hypertension is not entirely clear. Similarly, there is no information on the hormonal regulation of expression of WNK kinases. There are two main WNK1 transcripts expressed in the kidney: the originally described “long” WNK1 and a shorter transcript that is specifically expressed in the kidney (KS-WNK1). The goal …