Perceived Spouse Responses to Pain: The Level of Agreement in Couple Dyads and the Role of Catastrophizing, Marital Satisfaction, and Depression

The primary objective of this study was to examine whether individuals with chronic pain (“participants”) and their spouses agree on perceptions of solicitous, distracting, and punishing spouse responses to pain. The second aim was to examine the role of participant catastrophizing (a negative mental set about pain), participant and spouse marital satisfaction, and participant and spouse depression in participant perceptions of spouse responses, spouse perceptions of their responses, and agreement between participants and spouses. Individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain and their spouses (N=108 couples) completed questionnaire packets. Examination of overall group averages (participants vs. spouses) indicated little or no differences between participant and spouse ratings. Examination of individual agreement in participant and spouse ratings indicated substantial disagreement. The proposed moderators predicted both participant and spouse perceptions and jointly made minor contributions to dyad agreement. Although neither participant nor spouse perceptions of spouse responses are necessarily a reflection of actual behavior, the lack of agreement in this study suggests it may not be valid to use only patient perceptions in research related to spouse responses.     

A paper screening test to assess genetic taste sensitivity to 6-n-propylthiouracil

The purpose of this study was to develop a quantifiable method to fix 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) onto filter paper disks and to test the validity of the method relative to the three-solution test, previously developed in this laboratory. Filter paper disks were impregnated with 50 mmol/l PROP or 1.0 mol/l NaCl then dried. The concentration of PROP per disk was determined to be 0.280 mg+/-2.2% (CV) by ethanol extraction. Subjects were studied in two groups (n=62 per group). All subjects were initially classified by the three-solution test and then were independently classified by the paper disk test. In the paper disk test, group means for PROP (+/-95% confidence interval) were calculated and used to establish numerical cutoff scores for taster group classification. Cutoff scores for Group 1 were used to classify subjects in Group 2, verifying that the cutoffs were applicable to another subject group. The percentage of nontasters, medium tasters, and supertasters identified by paper disk was 27%, 42%, and 31%, respectively, which is consistent with expected frequencies in the population. For Group 1, the agreement between the two classification methods ranged from 86% to 94% across taster groups. For Group 2, the agreement ranged from 83% to 100%. The contingency coefficient (P) of the degree of association between the two classification methods was high (P=0.77 and P=0.74 for Groups 1 and 2, respectively; P< or =.001). These results demonstrate that the paper disk method is a reliable screening tool for assessing sensitivity to PROP that has numerous applications in basic and applied research.     

Relationship of glucose regulation to changes in weight: a systematic review and guide to future research

Although weight gain and obesity are risk factors for poor glucose regulation, the relationship, if any, of glucose regulation to changes in weight is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of research examining the relationship of glucose regulation to changes in weight in human‐based studies and to provide guidelines for future research in this area. We searched electronic databases and reference sections of relevant articles, including both diabetic and non‐diabetic populations, to locate all the literature published before February 2010, and then conducted a systematic review across studies to compare the research designs and findings. The 22 studies meeting our criteria for review generally supported the relationship of glucose regulation to changes in weight. Three studies reported that poor glucose regulation is associated with weight gain; 12 studies concluded that poor glucose regulation is associated with weight loss; 5 showed complex relationships depending on age, sex, or race/ethnicity; and 2 suggested no relationship. The diverse findings may imply that the direction (negative or positive) of the relationship may depend on specific conditions. More research focused on different subpopulations may provide more definitive information supplemental to the current preliminary findings. Recommendations regarding future research in this particular area are provided in the discussion. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mixture models of serum iron measures in population screening for hemochromatosis and iron overload

Homozygosity for the C282Y mutation of the hemochromatosis gene on chromosome 6p (HFE) is a common genetic trait that increases susceptibility to iron overload. The authors describe and apply methodology developed for the analysis of phenotypic and genotypic data from 46,136 non-Hispanic Caucasians, a subset of the multi-ethnic cohort enrolled in the Hemochromatosis and Iron Overload Screening (HEIRS) Study. For analysis of the distribution of transferrin saturation (TS), mixtures of normal distributions were considered and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm was applied for parameter estimation. Maximized log-likelihoods were compared, and significance was assessed by resampling. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values from the modeled subpopulations were compared with the actual observed genotypes for C282Y and H63D mutations in the HFE gene. A strong association between HFE genotype and TS subpopulations was found in these data collected from different geographic regions, confirming the external validity of the statistical approach when applied to population-based data. It was concluded that mixture modeling of phenotypic data may provide a clinical guide for screening with gender-specific thresholds to identify potential samples for genetic testing.     

Mycoplasma pneumoniae Induces Chronic Respiratory Infection, Airway Hyperreactivity, and Pulmonary Inflammation: a Murine Model of Infection-Associated Chronic Reactive Airway Disease

Because chronic Mycoplasma pneumoniae respiratory infection is hypothesized to play a role in asthma, the potential of M. pneumoniae to establish chronic respiratory infection with associated pulmonary disease was investigated in a murine model. BALB/c mice were intranasally inoculated once with M. pneumoniae and examined at 109, 150, 245, 368, and 530 days postinoculation. M. pneumoniae was detected in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid by culture or PCR in 70 and 22% of mice at 109 and 530 days postinoculation, respectively. Lung histopathology was normal up to 368 days postinoculation. At 530 days, however, 78% of the mice inoculated with M. pneumoniae demonstrated abnormal histopathology characterized by peribronchial and perivascular mononuclear infiltrates. A mean histopathologic score (HPS) at 530 days of 5.1 was significantly greater (P < 0.01) than that for controls (HPS score of 0). Serum anti-M. pneumoniae immunoglobulin G was detectable in all of the mice inoculated with M. pneumoniae and was inversely correlated with HPS (r = -0.95, P = 0.01) at 530 days postinoculation. Unrestrained whole-body plethysmography measurement of enhanced pause revealed significantly elevated airway methacholine reactivity in M. pneumoniae-inoculated mice compared with that in controls at 245 days (P = 0.03) and increased airway obstruction at 530 days (P = 0.01). Murine M. pneumoniae respiratory infection can lead to chronic pulmonary disease characterized by airway hyperreactivity, airway obstruction, and histologic inflammation.     

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma associated with IgM paraprotein

We studied the clinicopathologic, immunophenotypic, and cytogenetic features of 26 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) associated with serum IgM paraprotein. The study group (16 men; 10 women; median age, 64 years; range, 40-82 years) represents approximately 2.5% of CLL/SLL cases at our institution. The paraprotein level ranged from 1 to 14 g/L (median, 4 g/L). Neoplasms in bone marrow were composed of small round lymphocytes arranged in nodular (n = 6), diffuse (n = 5), interstitial (n = 5), or mixed (n = 10) patterns. All cases were positive for monotypic surface immunoglobulin light chain, IgM/IgD, CD5, CD19, CD20, and CD23. CD11c (14/20 [70%]), CD79b (11/19 [58%]), FMC-7 (11/26 [42%]), CD22 (8/20 [40%]), and ZAP-70 (6/19 [32%]) were expressed in subsets of cases. Of 17 bone marrow specimens assessed by conventional cytogenetics, 6 were abnormal and 11 were diploid. The overall survival of this group (median follow-up, 24 months) was not significantly different from that for an age-, sex-and stage-matched group of 52 CLL/SLL patients without IgM paraprotein (P = .60). We conclude that CLL/SLL cases with serum IgM paraprotein are similar to other CLL/SLL cases in their clinicopathologic and immunophenotypic features.