Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

The Molecular And Mechanical Mechanisms Of The Age-Associated Increase In The Severity Of Experimental Ventilator Induced Lung Injury, Joseph Ames Herbert

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Background

The majority of patients requiring mechanical ventilation are over the age of 65 and advanced age is known to increase the severity of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) and mortality. However, the mechanisms which predispose aging ventilator patients to increased mortality rates are not fully understood.

Pulmonary edema is a hallmark of VILI and the severity of edema increases with age. Ventilation with conservative fluid management decreases mortality rates in acute respiratory distress (ARDS) patients, but has not been investigated in VILI. We hypothesized that age-associated increases in pulmonary edema promote age-related increases in ventilator-associated mortality. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) …

The Effects Of Parkinson's On Fixational Stability, Erin L. Mallahan

Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive, neurological movement disorder. The stability of eye movements in PD is not well understood but many patients report difficulty doing tasks that require stabilized fixation and gaze. The ability to stabilize an image on the retina is critical is acquiring visual information. The purpose of this study was to compare the stability of fixational eye movements of PD patients to those of age-matched controls. Eye movements during simple fixation tasks were recorded from 66 subjects (ages 52 to 84), and 36 age-matched controls (ages 58-85). The absolute velocity of the fixational eye movements were …