The effectiveness of aphasia-friendly principles for printed health education materials for people with aphasia following stroke

Background: Provision of health information to people with aphasia is inadequate. Current practice in providing printed health education materials to people with aphasia does not routinely take into consideration their language and associated reading difficulties. Aims: This study aimed to investigate if people with aphasia can comprehend health information contained in printed health education materials and if the application of aphasia-friendly principles is effective in assisting them to comprehend health information. It was hypothesised that participants with aphasia would comprehend significantly more information from aphasia-friendly materials than from existing materials. Other aims included investigating if the effectiveness of the aphasia-friendly principles is related to aphasia severity, if people with aphasia are more confident in responding to health information questions after they have read the aphasia-friendly material, if they prefer to read the aphasia-friendly brochures, and if they prefer to read the brochure type that resulted in the greatest increase in their knowledge. Methods & Procedures: Twelve participants with mild to moderately severe aphasia were matched according to their reading abilities. A pre and post experimental design was employed with repeated measures ANOVA (p

Ichthyotoxicity of Chattonella marina (Raphidophyceae) to damselfish (Acanthochromis polycanthus): the synergistic role of reactive oxygen species and free fatty acids

This investigation aimed to elucidate the relative roles of putative brevetoxins, reactive oxygen species and free fatty acids as the toxic principle of the raphidophyte Chattonella marina, using damselfish as the bioassay. Our investigations on Australian C. marina demonstrated an absence or only very low concentrations of brevetoxin-like compounds by radio-receptor binding assay and liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy techniques. Chattonella is unique in its ability to produce levels of reactive oxygen species 100 times higher than most other algal species. However, high levels of superoxide on their own were found not to cause fish mortalities. Lipid analysis revealed this raphidophyte to contain high concentrations of the polyunsaturated fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 18-23% of fatty acids), which has demonstrated toxic properties to marine organisms. Using damselfish as a model organism, we demonstrated that the free fatty acid (FFA) form of EPA produced a mortality and fish behavioural response similar to fish exposed to C. marina cells. This effect was not apparent when fish were exposed to other lipid fractions including a triglyceride containing fish oil, docosahexaenoate-enriched ethyl ester, or pure brevetoxin standards. The presence of superoxide together with low concentrations of EPA accelerated fish mortality rate threefold. We conclude that the enhancement of ichthyotoxicity of EPA in the presence of superoxide can account for the high C. marina fish killing potential. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.