No abstract available.
Depression* ; Immune System* ; Psychoneuroimmunology* ; Schizophrenia*

OBJECTIVES: Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is effective in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), but the major limitation of CPAP may be poor compliance. The aims of the study were to investigate the compliance and side effects of CPAP, and to evaluate the efficacy of CPAP in patients with OSAS. METHODS: This study enrolled 106 patients with OSAS who took the CPAP treatment. The severity of daytime sleepiness was measured using Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and sleep quality and depressive symptoms were assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), respectively. RESULTS: During 29 months of the study period, 41.5% of patients were using CPAP and 38.7% of patients stopped using it. Compared to non-compliant patients, compliant patients had a higher PSQI score and obstructive apnea index. Among non-compliant patients, 51.2% of them stopped using CPAP within 1months. 85.7% of non-compliant patients were discomforted by the CPAP, but much more nasopharyngeal symptoms were reported in the compliant group. ESS (p<0.01), PSQI (p<0.01) and BMI (p<0.01) were reduced significantly after CPAP treatment but not BDI (p=0.86). CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that CPAP can reduce the daytime sleepiness, nocturnal sleep disturbance, and body mass index. To increase the compliance of CPAP, we suggested that some education and support is needed at the early stage of the CPAP treatment.
Apnea ; Body Mass Index ; Compliance* ; Continuous Positive Airway Pressure ; Depression ; Education ; Humans ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive*

No abstract available.
Benzodiazepines* ; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid* ; Receptors, GABA-A*

No abstract available.
Radiculopathy*

Because the postmortem changes rapidly distort values of many constituents in the body fluids, the determination of postmortem chemical changes and relation among body fluids is very important in medicolegal community. A laboratory result is not useful if appropriate data for comparison are lacking. The aim of this paper is to determine the reference ranges and the postmortem changes for chemical constituents in postmortem specimen. We examined 17 clinical laboratory parameters in cadaveric blood and vitreous humor obtained from 51 autopsy cases. The mean, standard error, standard deviation and confidence interval of all measured constituents were shown in Table 2 & Figure 1. The postmortem blood level of amylase, phosporus, LDH, ALT, AST and CPK are very higher than those of antemortem blood. The postmortem vitreous level of total bilirubin, triglyceride, GGT, alkaline phosphatase, albumin, total protein and cholesterol are very low and is not reliable. The ratio of vitreous/blood in calcium, BUN, creatine and uric acid are 0.74, 0.68, 0.29 and 0.23 in decreasing orders(Table 3,4). For the medical examiner or pathologist, routine chemical examinations of the vitreous humor can provide evidence of abnormality not apparent in gross or microscopic examination of the tissue. A more extensive study will be required, using a larger number of subjects, to establish the full range of variability.
Alkaline Phosphatase ; Amylases ; Autopsy ; Bilirubin ; Body Fluids ; Cadaver ; Calcium ; Cholesterol ; Confidence Intervals ; Coroners and Medical Examiners ; Creatine ; Humans ; Postmortem Changes ; Reference Values ; Triglycerides ; Uric Acid ; Vitreous Body

No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Metallothionein*

A multiple regression analysis using ordinary least square (OLS) is frequently used for the projection of healt expenditure as well as for the identification of factors affecting health care costs. Data for the analysis often have mixed characteristics of time series and cross section. Parameters as a result of OLS estimation, in this case, are no longer the best linear unbiased estimators (BLUE) because the data do not satisfy basic assumptions of regression analysis. The study theoretically examined statistical problems induced when OLS estimation was applied with the time series cross section data. Then both the OLS regression and time series cross section regression (TSCS regression) were applied to the same empirical data. Finally, the difference in parameters between the two estimations were explained through residual analysis.
Health Care Costs ; Health Expenditures*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Spouses*

Fifty-one consecutive 186 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage were treated from the day of admission with nimodipine which was given first as an IV infusion at 30ug/kg/hr for 1 week and then orally in a dose of 360mg/day for 2 weeks and compared with 135 patients which were treated without nimodipine for the past 2 years. A comparision based on clinical and radiological variables influencing both the coruse and the outcome of the disease showed no significant difference between the nimodipine treated group and the control group except the delayed timing of surgery in the control group. There was no significant difference in the outcome between the nimodipine treated patients and the patients treated without nimodipine, however in Hung & Hess grade IV patients nimodipine treatment was associated with a significantly better outcome. Nimodipine treatment reduced the occurrence of delayed ischemic deficts(DID) in grade III, IV patients. Significant improvement in the outcome occurred in the nimodipine treated patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage of large amount(Fisher classification III).
Aneurysm* ; Classification ; Humans ; Intracranial Aneurysm ; Nimodipine* ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage*