A Comparison of Two Simple Measures to Evaluate the Health Status of Asthmatics: The Asthma Bother Profile and the Airways Questionnaire 20

Simple and concise measures for health status are desirable in clinical practice. The Asthma Bother Profile (ABP), which consists of 23 items, has been developed to assess how much asthma bothers patients. The Airways Questionnaire 20 (AQ20) is a simple instrument which consists of 20 items. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the ABP and AQ20 evaluate the health status of patients with asthma. A total of 166 patients with chronic asthma (age: 48 ± 16 yr, 77 males) completed pulmonary function testing, measurement of airway hyperresponsiveness, dyspnea rating, assessments of their anxiety and depression (HADS; Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and assessments of their health status. The health status was assessed using the ABP, AQ20, the short-form 36 health survey questionnaire (SF-36), the Living With Asthma Questionnaire (LWAQ) and the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ). The Japanese version of the ABP included only 15 'bother' items out of the original 23 items due to cultural differences. The scores on the ABP were widely distributed, whereas the scores on the AQ20 were skewed towards the milder end of the scale. The ABP had a strong correlation with the Avoidance and Distress constructs on the LWAQ, and Anxiety and Depression on the HADS (Rs = 0.56 ∼ 0.79), and its strongest correlation with the General Health (Rs = - 0.64) scale among the 8 subscales on the SF-36. The AQ20 had a less significant correlation with the LWAQ, AQLQ, and SF-36 than the ABP. The ABP and AQ20 were short and simple to complete, and both measures could easily be used in clinical practice. The ABP can evaluate patients more specifically with respect to distress and bother than the AQ20.     

conference report: Mental health and intellectual disability: an international perspective

The present paper reports on the inaugural meeting of the Mental Health Special Interest Research Group (SIRG) of the International Association for the Scientific study of Intellectual disability which was held at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK, in March 1998. The meeting was organized in conjunction with the Ninth Annual SIRG on ageing and intellectual disability. Representatives from North America, several European and Scandinavian countries, Australia, and Israel attended. Two broad themes had been determined prior to the meeting: ‘Improving the detection of mental health problems’ and ‘Research strategies for identifying risk factors for mental health problems’. In the presentations and subsequent discussions, it was apparent that there were extrenely diverse perspectives both across and within the different countries represented. Not only were individuals' experiences very different, but most strikingly, the theoretical frameworks were very diverse. This was partly a function of there being understandable differences in perspectives across disciplines, but at its most marked, there were fundamental differences in the way both intellectual disability and mental health were conceptualized.     

Experimental and theoretical models of flow during forced expiration: pressure and pressure history dependence of flow rate

Flow characteristics have been studied in elastic mono- and bialveolar lung models made from tubes and balloons in series. Flow rate variation is explained on the basis of two successive limiting factors governed by the mutual interaction of tube mechanical properties and flow characteristics, i.e. wave-speed and viscous limitations induced by the tube collapse. A numerical model of flow in an elastic monoalveolar structure has been developed. It is generally admitted that a remarkable feature of forced expiration is that the flow rate is ‘effort independent’ for approximately the lower 80 per cent of vital capacity. The present results, which describe a continuous process, suggest that the flow rate depends mostly on the external pressure and pressure history. between the 15th August 1987 and the 31st August 1988, and at other periods to him at INSERM U. 296, Faculté de Médecine, 8 av Gl Sarrail, 94010 Creteil Cedex, France.     

Design of a multichannel solid-state recorder and its application to temperature measurement

The development of a multichannel unconstrained memory system for monitoring physiological information is described. The system comprises a portable recorder, worn by the subject, to detect and store data in memory and a readout unit for transferring the data to a microcomputer. Using the microcomputer, the physiological data are displayed, retrieved and analysed. The portable recorder consists of a memory control unit, an instrumentation unit, an LCD timer and batteries. In the memory-control unit the data are transferred to EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory), which is a nonvolatile memory. This memory, removed from the protable recorder, can be delivered to the laboratory and its contents analysed without interrupting the field experiment. In connection with the instrumentation unit, an 8-channel skin thermometer was designed and tested. It was accurate to within ±0.08°C compared with a standard thermometer.     

Skin vascular response in the hand during sinusoidal exercise in physically trained subjects

The effect of physical training on the cutaneous vascular response during transient exercise load is unclear. We determined the phase response and amplitude response of cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC) in the hand during sinusoidal exercise in endurance exercise-trained and untrained subjects. Subjects exercised on a cycle ergometer with a sinusoidal load for 32 min. The load variation ranged from 10% [23 (1) W in the trained group, 19 (1) W in the untrained group] to 60% [137 (4) W, 114 (6) W] of peak O₂ uptake, and five different time periods (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 min) were selected. Skin blood flow in the dorsal hand and palm were monitored by laser-Doppler flowmetry. CVC was evaluated from the ratio of blood flow to mean arterial pressure. During sinusoidal exercise, the amplitude of CVC was smaller in the dorsal hand than palm for shorter periods (1, 2, and 4 min) (P<0.05). The phase lag of CVC was smaller in the dorsal hand than palm for longer periods (8 and 16 min) (P<0.05). The amplitude response did not differ significantly between the two groups. The phase lag of CVC in the dorsal hand (P<0.05) and palm (P=0.06) was larger in the trained group than untrained group. These findings suggest that glabrous and nonglabrous skin vascular responses in the hand differ during transient exercise load, and physically trained subjects show a slower vascular response in the two skin areas to exercise stimulation than do untrained subjects.     

Exercise improves biomarkers of health and stress in animals fed ad libitum

Voluntary and forced exercise decrease morbidity and mortality in laboratory animals. Caloric restriction has similar effects on health and unique benefits on life span. Nonetheless, in most experiments, animals do not have access to physical activity and are fed ad libitum (AL). We hypothesized that with regular access to either unlimited running wheel exercise (EX) or limited physical activity (PA), key biomarkers of health would be enhanced enough to counter some consequences of a sedentary AL lifestyle. This 16-month study compared body weight, tumor number and size, tissue lesions, oxidative stress, and reactive stress in (1) sedentary animals with no access to physical activity (SED); (2) animals with access to hour-long, twice weekly activity in a large box (PA); and (3) animals with access every other day to a running wheel (EX). At the end of the study, EX body weight was 8-9% lower than PA and SED. In addition, EX had no kidney lesions versus 50% in PA and SED, and had smaller tumor size (10+/-2 vs. 14+/-4 and 30+/-4 mm). Exhaustive exercise lowered glutathione/oxidized glutathione ratio in EX and PA, but in SED, the ratio was depressed even in resting animals. In all treatments, prolactin (PRL) levels were lower in resting animals than in acutely exercised animals. In conclusion, EX had the most favorable health biomarkers while SED had the least. PA did not confer gross health benefits different than the SED group, but was biochemically more similar to EX animals.     

Silver staining of selected mitoses by physical development

A silver staining method using light-insensitive physical developer for electron microscopic study of selected mitoses is described. The G-banded mitoses are stained with silver by a physical development process that preserves the original G-banding pattern. Transferring the light microscopically selected mitoses to grids provides an examination by optional high resolution in an electron microscope. The physical developer makes the staining standardizable and reproducible, and the intensity of the staining can be controlled by varying the time of development.