OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether degree of inflammatory activity in multiple sclerosis, expressed by frequency of gadolinium enhancement, has prognostic value for development of hypointense lesions on T1-weighted spin-echo magnetic resonance images, a putative marker of tissue destruction. DESIGN Cohort design with long-term follow-up. Thirty-eight patients with multiple sclerosis who in the pas...

BACKGROUND Despite several polysomnographic studies on periodic leg movements (PLM) in healthy sleep, data on the prevalence and characteristics of periodic arm movements (PAM) in normal subjects are lacking. We aimed to investigate PAM and their association with PLM during wakefulness and sleep in healthy subjects. METHODS Ninety-one participants underwent video-polysomnography according to ...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine otolaryngology residents' quality of life and sleepiness. METHODS An electronic survey was distributed to otolaryngology residents in the United States in October 2014 and May 2015. The survey included questions from the Physician Well-Being Index (PWBI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Data were analyzed using standard descriptive and frequency ana...

Pharmaceutical substances and their residues are increasingly present in the environment. Therefore, attempts at their removal are made by using different processes. Increasingly important among these processes are those modeled on natural phenomena which occur in wetland ecosystems, called technical scale constructed wetlands. Microbial degradation is an important process in these constructed ...

BACKGROUND The factors associated with lateral curve flexibility in degenerative scoliosis have not been well documented. Disc degeneration could result in significant change in stiffness and range of motion in lateral bending films. The osteophytes could be commonly observed in degenerative spine but the relationship between osteophyte formation and curve flexibility remains controversial. The...

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of two commercial strip tests and laboratory titration to detect saliva buffer capacity. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Sixty-four patients were examined. Stimulated saliva was collected and buffer capacity was determined with two different chair-side strip tests in addition to immediate transportation to the laboratory to check the buffer...

patients and methods this cross-sectional study included a total of 120 adult predialysis ckd patients. forty patients were allocated in each predialysis ckd group of stages 3, 4, and 5. serum ctnt and hs-crp, plasma nt-probnp, and single spot urine albumin creatinine ratio (acr) were measured. ultrasonographic examination of carotid artery was done with 7.5 mhz linear probe in b mode ultrasono...

PURPOSE To evaluate the magnitude of refractive astigmatism after congenital cataract surgery and to define its correlation with patient age. METHODS The authors retrospectively reviewed the charts of all pediatric patients who underwent congenital cataract extraction with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation through a 3.0-mm clear corneal incision from 1998 to 2003, and had no suture removal ...

An open problem for Distributed Information Retrieval is how to represent large document repositories (known as resources) efficiently. To facilitate resource selection, estimated descriptions of each resource are required, especially when faced with non-cooperative distributed environments[1]. Accurate and efficient Resource description estimation is required as this can have an affect on reso...