Comparison of Disfluent and Ungrammatical Speech of Preadolescents with and without ASD

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - This paper analyses disfluencies and ungrammatical expressions in the speech of 11–13-year-old Finnish-speaking boys with ASD...     

The relationship of glucose tolerance to sleep disorders and daytime sleepiness

The purpose of the study was to find out if snoring, sleep apnea and daytime sleepiness are independent indices of obesity related to type two diabetes (T2D), and whether depression is independently associated with features of sleep apnea. A population-based cohort study was conducted among 593 subjects (245 men and 348 women) born in 1935 and living in Oulu in 1996-1998. Glucose status was determined with a standard 2h oral glucose tolerance test, and sleeping disorders were recorded on the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) and in a questionnaire of five questions about sleeping and snoring. Depression was measured by the Zung self-rated depression scale. Insulin sensitivity was measured by quantitative insulin sensitivity check index. Habitual snoring was more common in diabetic subjects than in subjects with impaired glucose regulation (IGR) or normal glucose tolerance (NGT). All sleep disorders associated with neck circumference, waist circumference and body mass index (BMI). There was also a relationship between impaired insulin sensitivity and habitual snoring in bivariate analysis. In multiple logistic regression analysis, depression associated independently with daytime sleepiness (OR 3.00, 95% CI 1.40-6.46). Type 2 diabetes (T2D) (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.04-3.57) and smoking (OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.00-2.84) associated independently with habitual snoring. BMI (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.09-1.34) and male gender (OR 2.61, 95% CI 1.05-6.72) associated independently with sleep apnea. In a multiple regression model, BMI, neck circumference and habitual snoring associated independently with T2D. Habitual snoring was associated with T2D and impaired insulin sensitivity. Daytime sleepiness seemed to be linked with depression but not with using sleep medication, IGR and T2D.     

Polymorphisms of POR, SULT2A1 and HSD11B1 in children with premature adrenarche

Premature adrenarche (PA) refers to an earlier than normal increase in adrenocortical androgen production. The pathogenesis of PA remains largely unknown. We hypothesized that common polymorphisms at P450 oxidoreductase (POR), steroid sulfotransferase (SULT2A1), or 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (HSD11B1) genes could contribute to the polygenic pathogenesis of PA. We performed a case–control study on the polymorphisms rs1057868 at POR, rs182420 at SULT2A1, and rs12086634 at HSD11B1. The study cohort comprised 73 prepubertal children with PA (defined by clinical signs) and 97 age- and gender-matched healthy controls from a Finnish Caucasian population. Genotype distributions and clinical and metabolic phenotypes were determined. The genotype distributions of the polymorphisms were similar between the study groups. No variant was associated with alterations in serum adrenal steroid concentrations. The minor C variant at SULT2A1 was associated with higher serum sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) concentrations (T/T, n = 64 vs T/C&;C/C, n = 33; mean 94 vs 116 nmol/L; P = .001) and a trend for lower dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate/dehydroepiandrosterone ratios in the controls (P = .06), and with higher plasma total cholesterol concentrations in the PA subjects (T/T, n = 42 vs T/C&;C/C, n = 31; 4.0 vs 4.6 mmol/L; P < .001). The minor G variant at HSD11B1 was associated with lower plasma triglyceride concentration in the controls (T/T, n = 65 vs T/G&;G/G, n = 32; 0.61 vs 0.49 mmol/L; P = .013). Common polymorphisms at POR, SULT2A1 or HSD11B1 were not associated with PA in a Finnish Caucasian population.     

Association between liver insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors

Abstract. Vangipurapu J, Stan?áková A, Kuulasmaa T, Soininen P, Kangas AJ, Ala‐Korpela M, Kuusisto J, Laakso M (University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio; University of Oulu and Biocenter Oulu, Oulu, Finland). Association between liver insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors. J Intern Med 2012; 272: 402–408. Objectives. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between indices of liver insulin resistance (IR) and whole‐body insulin sensitivity and different cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Design and subjects. A total of 8750 nondiabetic men (age 57.2 ± 7.1 years, body mass index 26.8 ± 3.8 kg m^?2) were included in this study from the population‐based cross‐sectional Metabolic Syndrome In Men (METSIM) cohort. Liver IR index and Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI) were used as markers of liver IR and whole‐body insulin sensitivity, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the associations between these indices and various CVD risk factors. Results. Total cholesterol (r = ?0.088 vs. r = 0.020; P < 0.0019), high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein (CRP) (r = 0.284 vs. r = ?0.219; P < 0.0019) and total triglycerides (r = 0.507 vs. r = ?0.477; P < 0.05) were more highly correlated with liver IR index than with Matsuda ISI. By contrast, Matsuda ISI was nominally more highly correlated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure (r = ?0.234 and r = ?0.275 vs. r = 0.202 and r = 0.239, respectively) compared to liver IR index. Furthermore, the variance explained by liver IR index was larger than that explained by Matsuda ISI for the majority of CVD risk factors measured. Conclusions. Liver IR index correlated more strongly than Matsuda ISI with levels of total cholesterol, CRP and triglycerides. Therefore, liver IR might be a significant indicator of CVD risk amongst men.     

Lipoprotein subclass profiles in individuals with varying degrees of glucose tolerance: a population‐based study of 9399 Finnish men

Abstract. Wang J, Stan?áková A, Soininen P, Kangas AJ, Paananen J, Kuusisto J, Ala‐Korpela M, Laakso M (University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio; Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu; University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio; and Clinical Research Center, University of Oulu, Oulu; Finland). Lipoprotein subclass profiles in individuals with varying degrees of glucose tolerance: a population‐based study of 9399 Finnish men. J Intern Med 2012; doi: 10.1111/j.1365‐2796.2012.02562.x. Objectives. We investigated serum concentrations of lipoprotein subclass particles and their lipid components determined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a population‐based study. Design and methods. A total of 9399 Finnish men were included in the study: 3034 men with normal fasting glucose and normal glucose tolerance; 4345 with isolated impaired fasting glucose (IFG); 312 with isolated impaired glucose tolerance (IGT); 1058 with both IFG and IGT; and 650 with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (New DM). Lipoprotein subclasses included chylomicrons (CM) and largest VLDL particles, other VLDL particles (five subclasses), intermediate‐density lipoprotein (IDL), LDL (three subclasses) and HDL (four subclasses). The phospholipid, triglyceride (TG), cholesterol, free cholesterol and cholesterol ester levels of the lipoprotein particles were measured. Results. Abnormal glucose tolerance (especially IGT and New DM) was significantly associated with increased concentrations of VLDL subclass particles and their components (with the exception of very small VLDL particles). After further adjustment for total TGs and HDL cholesterol, increased lipid concentrations in the CM/largest VLDL particles and in most of the other VLDL particles remained significant in individuals with isolated IGT, IFG+IGT and New DM. There was a consistent trend towards a decrease in large and an increase in small HDL particle concentrations in individuals with hyperglycaemia even after adjustment for serum total TGs and HDL cholesterol. Conclusions. Abnormal glucose tolerance modifies the concentrations of lipoprotein subclass particles and their lipid components in the circulation and is also related to compositional changes in these particles.     

Ten-year natural course of habitual snoring and restless legs syndrome in a population aged 61–63?years at the baseline

Purpose

We investigated the prevalence, natural course, and associated risk factors of habitual snoring (HS) and restless legs syndrome (RLS) over a period of 10?years among an aging population from their early sixties to their seventies.

Methods

A population-based follow-up study among all persons born in 1935 and living in the city of Oulu in northern Finland was conducted. In this study, we examined subjects who had participated in two subsequent surveys conducted in 1996?C1998 and 2007?C2008. The data were gathered by questionnaires, as well as by laboratory and clinical measurements.

Results

Altogether 457 (55%) of the 838 eligible subjects participated in both surveys. The prevalence of both RLS and HS decreased during the 10?years from 21% to 15% and from 26% to 19%, respectively. Half of those who snored in 1996?C1998 stopped snoring in 10?years time, and half of those who suffered from restless legs at least three times per week in 1996?C1998 suffered from this syndrome never or less than once a week in 2007?C2008. The 10-year incidence of new cases of both HS and RLS was 7%. Male gender predicted best the incidence of new HS in 10?years, while the Zung sum score as a marker of depressive symptoms and waist circumference predicted RLS.

Conclusions

Overall, the prevalence of both HS and RLS seems to diminish during aging. The causes behind this still remain unknown and should be investigated with more sophisticated methods.     

Ungrammatical utterances and disfluent speech as causes of comprehension problems in interactions of preadolescents with high functioning autism

This study describes the role of ungrammatical utterances and disfluent speech in the creation of comprehension problems between the participants in group therapy sessions of preadolescents with autism. The speech of the autistic preadolescents included frequent disfluencies and morpho-syntactic problems, such as wrong case endings, ambiguous pronominal references, grammatically incoherent syntactic structures and inaccurate tenses, which caused problems of comprehension. Three different interactional trajectories occurred when solving the potential problems of comprehension following the morpho-syntactically disfluent turns. First, the disfluent turn sometimes led to a clarification request by a co-participant, either a therapist or another participant with ASD. The preadolescents with ASD showed interactional skilfulness in requesting clarification when faced with comprehension problems. Second, in contrast, other occurrences included one or several self-repairs by the speaker with ASD. In these cases, the other group participants either did not react or they encouraged the speaker to continue using discourse particles. If the self-repairing disfluencies led to a persisting problem of comprehension, the therapists sometimes intervened and resolved the problem. However, direct interventions by the therapists were infrequent because the participants with ASD were mostly able to resolve the comprehension problems by themselves. Third, some disfluent and/or grammatically incorrect turns were not treated as problematic by the co-participants nor by the speaker himself.

Abbreviations: ADE: Adessive; ALL: Allative; CLI: clitic; GEN: Genitive; INE: Inessive; NOM: Nominative; PER: person; PL: plural; PRT: particle; SG: singular     

Sustained elevation of extracellular dopamine causes motor dysfunction and selective degeneration of striatal GABAergic neurons

Dopamine is believed to contribute to the degeneration of dopamine-containing neurons in the brain. However, whether dopamine affects the survival of other neuronal populations has remained unclear. Here we document that mice with persistently elevated extracellular dopamine, resulting from inactivation of the dopamine transporter gene, sporadically develop severe symptoms of dyskinesia concomitant with apoptotic death of striatal dopamine-responsive gamma-aminobutyric acidergic neurons. Chronic inhibition of dopamine synthesis prevents the appearance of motor dysfunction. The neuronal death is associated with overactivation of dopaminergic signaling as evidenced by the robust up-regulation of striatal DeltaFosB, cyclin-dependent kinase 5, and p35. Moreover, hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein, a phenomenon associated with the activation of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 in several neurodegenerative disorders, is observed in symptomatic mice. These findings provide in vivo evidence that, in addition to its proposed role in the degeneration of dopamine neurons, dopamine can also contribute to the selective death of its target neurons via a previously unappreciated mechanism.     

Correlation between salivary and serum melatonin: dependence on serum melatonin levels

Saliva and serum samples were collected from eight healthy volunteers every two hours during a 26-hour period. Melatonin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay after chloroform extraction using radioiodinated melatonin as a tracer. Five of the subjects had high serum melatonin levels at night (peak levels higher than 75 pg/ml); in three subjects the highest serum melatonin concentration was 20-40 pg/ml. All subjects had low levels (less than 10 pg/ml) during the day. The correlations between salivary and serum levels were calculated. The regression line y = 0.33x + 3.7 pg/ml, r = 0.95, P less than 0.001, was obtained for all detectable value pairs (n = 73). The regression and correlation coefficients were almost equal for the peak values of melatonin and during the rising and descending phases of the secretion patterns. However, no significant correlation was found between low daytime salivary and serum concentrations when calculated separately. In the five high-secretors the melatonin levels in saliva reflected reliably the changes in serum, but in the three low-secretors the correlation between salivary and serum melatonin was not significant. The proportion of melatonin found in saliva decreased with increasing serum melatonin levels. Circadian rhythm parameters were estimated by single cosinor analysis. The acrophases did not differ significantly within a subject in the concomitant measurements of serum and salivary melatonin. The measurements of salivary melatonin levels seem valid for studies on melatonin rhythms, but the melatonin concentrations measured in saliva do not always consistently reflect the absolute concentrations in blood.     

Mortality from amyloidosis and renal diseases in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 500 men and 500 women, aged 40 years and over, together with a control population matched by age and sex, were observed over a 10 year period. The overall mortality was significantly higher in both men and women with rheumatoid arthritis than in the controls due to an excess mortality from infections and cardiovascular and renal diseases. During the follow up 31 patients with RA (12 male, 19 female) and one male control subject died from amyloidosis and 42 RA patients (19 male, 23 female) and one male control from renal diseases. The most important causes of renal deaths were chronic nephritis and renal infections.