Capnography for Assessing Nocturnal Hypoventilation and Predicting Compliance with Subsequent Noninvasive Ventilation in Patients with ALS

BACKGROUND: Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) suffer from hypoventilation, which can easily worsen during sleep. This study evaluated the efficacy of capnography monitoring in patients with ALS for assessing nocturnal hypoventilation and predicting good compliance with subsequent noninvasive ventilation (NIV) treatment. METHODS: Nocturnal monitoring and brief wake screening by capnography/pulse oximetry, functional scores, and other respiratory signs were assessed in 26 patients with ALS. Twenty-one of these patients were treated with NIV and had their treatment compliance evaluated. RESULTS: Nocturnal capnography values were reliable and strongly correlated with the patients' respiratory symptoms (R(2) = 0.211-0.305, p = 0.004-0.021). The duration of nocturnal hypercapnea obtained by capnography exhibited a significant predictive power for good compliance with subsequent NIV treatment, with an area-under-the-curve value of 0.846 (p = 0.018). In contrast, no significant predictive values for nocturnal pulse oximetry or functional scores for nocturnal hypoventilation were found. Brief waking supine capnography was also useful as a screening tool before routine nocturnal capnography monitoring. CONCLUSION: Capnography is an efficient tool for assessing nocturnal hypoventilation and predicting good compliance with subsequent NIV treatment of ALS patients, and may prove useful as an adjunctive tool for assessing the need for NIV treatment in these patients

Observation of a narrow charmonium-like state in exclusive B+ -> K+ pi+pi- J/psi decays

We report the observation of a narrow charmonium-like state produced in the exclusive decay process B+ -> K+ pi+pi- J/psi. This state, which decays into pi+pi- J/psi, has a mass of 3872.0+-0.6(stat)+-0.5(syst) MeV, a value that is very near the M_D + M_D* mass threshold. The results are based on an analysis of 152M B-Bbar events collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance in the Belle detector at the KEKB collider. The statistical significance of the signal is in excess of 10 sigma.Comment: 10 pages 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the Branching Fraction for B->eta' K and Search for B->eta'pi+

We report measurements for two-body charmless B decays with an eta' meson in the final state. Using 11.1X10^6 BBbar pairs collected with the Belle detector, we find BF(B^+ ->eta'K^+)=(79^+12_-11 +-9)x10^-6 and BF(B^0 -> eta'K^0)=(55^+19_-16 +-8)x10^-6, where the first and second errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. No signal is observed in the mode B^+ -> eta' pi^+, and we set a 90% confidence level upper limit of BF(B^+-> eta'pi^+) eta'K^+- decays is investigated and a limit at 90% confidence level of -0.20<Acp<0.32 is obtained.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Evidence for B0->pi0pi0

We report evidence for the decay B0->pi0pi0. The analysis is based on a data sample of 152million BBbar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4s) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- storage ring. We find 25.6+9.3/-8.4(stat)+1.6/-1.4(syst) B0->pi0pi0 signal events with a significance of 3.4 standard deviations. We measure the branching fraction to be (1.7+-0.6(stat)+-0.2(syst))*10^{-6}.Comment: Submitted to PR

Observation of Cabibbo-suppressed and W-exchange Lambda_c^+ baryon decays

We present measurements of the Cabibbo-suppressed decays Lambda_c^+ --> Lambda0 K+ and Lambda_c^+ --> Sigma0 K+ (both first observations), Lambda_c^+ --> Sigma+ K+ pi- (seen with large statistics for the first time), Lambda_c^+ --> p K+ K- and Lambda_c^+ --> p phi (measured with improved accuracy). Improved branching ratio measurements for the decays Lambda_c^+ --> Sigma+ K+ K- and Lambda_c^+ --> Sigma+ phi, which are attributed to W-exchange diagrams, are shown. We also present the first evidence for Lambda_c^+ --> Xi(1690)^0 K+ and set an upper limit on the non-resonant decay Lambda_c^+ --> Sigma+ K+ K-. This analysis was performed using 32.6 fb^{-1} of data collected by the Belle detector at the asymmetric e+ e- collider KEKB.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett. B. v2: A small correction to the Authorlist was made. An earlier version of this analysis was released as BELLE-CONF-0130, hep-ex/010800

Observation of B→K∗ℓ+ℓ−B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-

We report the first observation of the flavor-changing neutral current decay $B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-$ and an improved measurement of the decay $B \to K \ell^+ \ell^-$, where $\ell$ represents an electron or a muon, with a data sample of 140 fb${}^{-1}$ accumulated at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at KEKB. The results for the branching fractions are ${\cal B}(B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-)=(11.5^{+2.6}_{-2.4} \pm 0.8 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-7}$ and ${\cal B}(B \to K \ell^+ \ell^-)=(4.8^{+1.0}_{-0.9} \pm 0.3 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-7}$, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic and the third is from model dependence.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR

Mesurement of the B0 - anti-B0 Mixing Parameter Delta m_d using Semileptonic B0 Decays

We present a measurement of the B^0-B^0bar mixing parameter Delta m_d using neutral B meson pairs in a 29.1 fb^{-1} data sample collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. We exclusively reconstruct one neutral B meson in the semileptonic B^0 \to D^{*-}\ell^+\nu decay mode and identify the flavor of the accompanying B meson from its decay products. From the distribution of the time intervals between the two flavor-tagged B meson decay points, we obtain Delta m_d = (0.494 +- 0.012 +- 0.015) ps^{-1}, where the first error is statistical and the second error is systematic.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 89, 251803 (2002

Measurements of Branching Fractions and Decay Amplitudes in B-> J/\psi K^* decays

The branching fractions and the decay amplitudes of B -> J/psi K^* decays are measured in a 29.4/fb data sample collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB electron-positron collider. The decay amplitudes of helicity states of the J/psi K^* system are determined from the full angular distribution of the final state particles in the transversity basis. The branching fractions are measured to be (1.29\pm0.05\pm0.13) \times 10^{-3} for neutral mesons and (1.28\pm0.07\pm0.14) \times 10^{-3} for charged mesons. The measured longitudinal and transverse (perpendicular to the transversity plane) amplitudes are |A_0|^2 = 0.62\pm0.02\pm0.03 and |A_{\perp}|^2 = 0.19\pm0.02\pm0.03, respectively. The value of |A_{\perp}|^2 shows that the CP even component dominates in the B^0 \to J/\psi K^{*0}(K_S\pi^0) decay.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Observation of the eta_c(2S) in exclusive B-->K KsK-pi+ decays

We report the observation of a narrow peak in the KsK-pi+ invariant mass distribution in a sample of exclusive B-->K KsK-pi+ decays collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric energy e+e- collider. The measured mass of the peak is M=3654+-6(stat)+-8(syst) MeV/c^2 and we place a 90% confidence level upper limit on the width of Gamma<55 MeV/c^2. The properties agree with heavy-quark potential model expectations for the eta_c(2S), the n=2 singlet S charmonium state.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Charmless Hadronic Two-Body B Meson Decays

We report the results of a study of two-body B meson decays to the complete set of K pi, pi pi, and K K final states. The study is performed on a data sample of 31.7 +/- 0.3 million B B-bar events recorded on the Upsilon(4S) resonance by the Belle experiment at KEKB. We observe significant signals in all K pi final states and in the pi+ pi- and pi+ pi0 final states. We set limits on the pi0 pi0 and K K final states. A search is performed for partial-rate asymmetries between conjugate states for flavor-specific final states.Comment: Submitted to PR