BACKGROUND Osteoporosis is one of the systemic features of COPD. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of osteoporosis in a sample of COPD out-patients, and investigate the correlation between T-score (a comparison of the patient's bone mineral density to that of a healthy 30-year-old of the same sex and ethnicity) and several factors suggested to be associated with osteoporosis. METHODS In...

In order to investigate the merit of high field strength for BOLD-contrast-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, multishot gradient-echo fMRI experiments during motor cortex activation were performed on 1.5- and 4.0-T scanners with equivalent hardware, on the same volunteers. In these studies, artifactual vascular enhancement related to inflow effects was minimized, and la...

INTRODUCTION Lack of specific monitoring protocols hinders the knowledge of the impact of late prematurity on delayed psychomotor development. The objective of this study is to evaluate this at 48 months and compare it with those born at term. POPULATION AND METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 90 late preterm (PT) and 89 term (AT) healthy children at 48 months, assessed by t...

Results 44 subjects from 42 families (22 men), mean age of 42 years were included. KBIT-2 Composite IQ score was 98.4 ± 12.4, (95% CI (confidence interval) 94.5-102.3) which is within the average range of 90-109. 27 % of patients scored below average (less than 90) and 15% scored above average (greater than 109), not a significant imbalance (sign test p=0.33). Nonverbal IQ scores show no differ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of a short, highly structured parent based language intervention group programme for 2-year-old children with specific expressive language delay (SELD, without deficits in receptive language). METHODS 61 children with SELD (mean age 24.7 months, SD 0.9) were selected between October 2003 and February 2006 ...

INTRODUCTION Few studies have documented the value of mentoring for medical students, and research has been limited to more subjective (e.g., job satisfaction, perceived career preparation) rather than objective outcomes. This study examined whether having a mentor is associated with match outcome (where a student matched based on their rank order list [ROL]). METHODS We sent a survey link to...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Competent renal dietitians are crucial for better patient compliance and clinical outcomes, specifically in critical settings. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate an evidence-based course in renal dietetics for dietitians working in health care systems where dietetic specialization is absent. SUBJECTS/METHODS Fifteen licensed dietitians working with hemodial...

The benefits of sensitivity-encoded (SENSE) echo-planar imaging (EPI) for functional MRI (fMRI) based on blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast were quantitatively investigated at 1.5 T. For experiments with 3.4 x 3.4 x 4.0 mm(3) resolution, SENSE allowed the single-shot EPI image acquisition duration to be shortened from 24.1 to 12.4 ms, resulting in a reduced sensitivity to geometric di...

PURPOSE For measuring symptoms of fecal incontinence, summary scoring systems are widely used, but rigorous psychometric validation or assessment of such systems in terms of patients' subjective perception has rarely been done to date. This study was designed to assess the correlation between each severity measure and patients' subjective perception or clinicians' clinical assessment. We attemp...