Reflection: Angel Gringras

https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/legacy1968/1005/thumbnail.jp

Melatonin in the treatment of sleeplessness in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities: a randomised controlled trial

Objective To assess the effectiveness and safety of melatonin in treating severe sleep problems in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Design 12 week double masked randomised placebo controlled phase III trial. Setting 19 hospitals across England and Wales. Participants 146 children aged 3 years to 15 years 8 months were randomised. They had a range of neurological and developmental disorders and a severe sleep problem that had not responded to a standardised sleep behaviour advice booklet provided to parents four to six weeks before randomisation. A sleep problem was defined as the child not falling asleep within one hour of lights out or having less than six hours' continuous sleep. Interventions Immediate release melatonin or matching placebo capsules administered 45 minutes before the child's bedtime for a period of 12 weeks. All children started with a 0.5 mg capsule, which was increased through 2 mg, 6 mg, and 12 mg depending on their response to treatment. Main outcome measures Total sleep time at night after 12 weeks adjusted for baseline recorded in sleep diaries completed by the parent. Secondary outcomes included sleep onset latency, assessments of child behaviour, family functioning, and adverse events. Sleep was measured with diaries and actigraphy. Results Melatonin increased total sleep time by 22.4 minutes (95% confidence interval 0.5 to 44.3 minutes) measured by sleep diaries (n=110) and 13.3 (-15.5 to 42.2) measured by actigraphy (n=59). Melatonin reduced sleep onset latency measured by sleep diaries (-37.5 minutes, -55.3 to -19.7 minutes) and actigraphy (-45.3 minutes, -68.8 to -21.9 minutes) and was most effective for children with the longest sleep latency (P=0.009). Melatonin was associated with earlier waking times than placebo (29.9 minutes, 13.6 to 46.3 minutes). Child behaviour and family functioning outcomes showed some improvement and favoured use of melatonin. Adverse events were mild and similar between the two groups. Conclusions Children gained little additional sleep on melatonin; though they fell asleep significantly faster, waking times became earlier. Child behaviour and family functioning outcomes did not significantly improve. Melatonin was tolerable over this three month period. Comparisons with slow release melatonin preparations or melatonin analogues are required

Dendritic glycopolymers based on dendritic polyamine scaffolds: view on their synthetic approaches, characteristics and potential for biomedical applications

In this review we highlight the potential for biomedical applications of dendritic glycopolymers based on polyamine scaffolds. The complex interplay of the molecular characteristics of the dendritic architectures and their specific interactions with various (bio)molecules are elucidated with various examples. A special role of the individual sugar units attached to the dendritic scaffolds and their density is identified, which govern ionic and H-bond interactions, and biological targeting, but to a large extent are also responsible for the significantly reduced toxicity of the dendritic glycopolymers compared to their polyamine scaffolds. Thus, the application of dendritic glycopolymers in drug delivery systems for gene transfection but also as therapeutics in neurodegenerative diseases has great promisePublikacja w ramach programu Royal Society of Chemistry "Gold for Gold" 2014 finansowanego przez Uniwersytet Łódzk

05/19/1948 Letter from Comité des aciens de l\u27Université Laval

Letter from R. Gringas, M. D., Provisional Secretary to the Comité des aciens de l\u27Université Laval, Québec, to Louis-Philippe Gagné.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/fac-lpg-letters-1948-01-06/1048/thumbnail.jp

Prediction of Asphaltene Deposition Conditions: A Revisit of ASIST Methodology by Using Fully Immersed Quartz Crystal Sensor

COMInternational audienc

Glucocorticosteroid suppression of .alpha.1-fetoprotein synthesis in developing rat liver. Evidence for selective gene repression at the transcriptional level

International audienc

Cardiorespiratory sleep studies at home: Experience in research and clinical cohorts

Objective: To evaluate the success rates of home cardiorespiratory polygraphy in children under investigation for sleep-disordered breathing and parent perspectives on equipment use at home.Design: Prospective observational study.Setting: Sheffield, Evelina London and Southampton Children’s Hospitals.Patients: Data are reported for 194 research participants with Down syndrome, aged 0.5–5.9 years across the three centres and 61 clinical patients aged 0.4–19.5 years from one centre, all of whom had home cardiorespiratory polygraphy including respiratory movements, nasal pressure flow, pulse oximetry, body position and motion.Main outcome measures: Percentage of home cardiorespiratory studies successfully acquiring ≥4 hours of artefact-free data at the first attempt. Parental report of ease of use of equipment and preparedness to repeat home diagnostics in the future.Results: 143/194 (74%; 95% CI 67% to 79%) of research participants and 50/61 (82%; 95% CI 71% to 90%) of clinical patients had successful home cardiorespiratory polygraphy at the first attempt. Some children required multiple attempts to achieve a successful study. Overall, this equated to 1.3 studies per research participant and 1.2 studies per clinical child. The median artefact-free sleep time for successful research studies was 515 min (range 261–673) and for clinical studies 442 min (range 291–583). 84% of research and 87% of clinical parents expressed willingness to repeat home cardiorespiratory polygraphy in the future. 67% of research parents found the equipment ‘easy or okay’ to use, while 64% of clinical parents reported it as ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’.Conclusions: Home cardiorespiratory polygraphy offers an acceptable approach to the assessment of sleep-disordered breathing in children