Assessment of motor speech disorders online: A pilot study

We have conducted a preliminary validation of an Internet-based telehealth application for assessing motor speech disorders in adults with acquired neurological impairment. The videoconferencing module used NetMeeting software to provide realtime videoconferencing through a 128 kbit/s Internet link, as well as the transfer of store-and-forward video and audio data from the participant to the clinician. Ten participants with dysarthria following acquired brain injury were included in the study. An assessment of the overall severity of the speech disturbance was made for each participant face to face (FTF) and in the online environment, in addition, a 23-item version of the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment (FDA) (which measures motor speech function) and the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (ASSIDS) (which gives the percentage word and sentence intelligibility, words per minute and a rating of communication efficiency) were administered in both environments. There was a 90% level of agreement between the two assessment environments for the rating of overall severity of dysarthria. A 70-100% level of agreement was achieved for 17 (74%) of the 23 FDA variables. On the ASSIDS there was a significant difference between the FTF and online assessments only for percentage word intelligibility. These findings suggest that Internet-based assessment has potential as a reliable method for assessing motor speech disorders.

Autonomic dysfunction in unselected and untreated primary open angle glaucoma patients:A pilot study

Purpose: To investigate the presence of silent cardiac ischaemic episodes and the status of autonomic function in consecutive, newly diagnosed and untreated primary open-angle glaucoma patients. Methods: Twenty-four consecutively diagnosed glaucoma patients and 22 age-matched controls were subjected to ambulatory 24-h blood pressure (BP) and electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring by using Cardiotens-01 (Meditech Ltd). Based on the ECG recordings, heart rate variability (HRV) frequency domain parameters [low-frequency (LF), high-frequency (HF) and LF/HF ratio] were calculated and analysed in the two study groups. Results: Glaucoma patients demonstrated higher LF and LF/HF values than normal subjects for both the active period (p = 0.020 and 0.029) and the passive period (p = 0.044 and 0.049 respectively). HRV parameters were similar in patients and controls suffering from silent cardiac ischaemia (p > 0.05); however, glaucoma patients with normal ECG demonstrated higher LF and LF/HF values during the active period of the 24-h measurement period than control subjects characterized by the same cardiac activity (p = 0.010 and 0.021 respectively). Conclusion: Independent of a history and/or clinical signs of cardiovascular disease, glaucoma patients exhibit abnormal autonomic function. © 2007 The Authors.

The effectiveness of an innovative intervention aimed at reducing binge drinking among young people:results from a pilot study

Aims: To assess the effectiveness of a digital-story intervention (short videos made by young people) seeking to reduce the prevalence of young people's binge drinking in Caerphilly. Method: A quasi-experimental design was adopted with three intervention sites and one control site providing the sample (mainly aged 1415 years). Three rounds of self-completion questionnaires, completed prior (T1), immediately after (T2) and 6 months after the intervention (T3). Findings: A total of 1031 questionnaires completed across the three time-points. Two-factor ANOVAs revealed a positive effect on knowledge for the intervention sample. The intervention group results showed stable attitudes towards drinking at the three time-points whilst the control group showed increasing positive attitudes towards drunkenness over the same time period. Intentions towards drunkenness were higher in the control group than the intervention group at T2 (ControlT1 Mean 3.37, T2 Mean 3.90; interventionT1 Mean 3.26, T2 Mean 3.29). Intervention participants got drunk on fewer occasions in the last week (mean occasions last week 1.57) compared to control participants (mean occasions last week 2.00), with the difference approaching statistical significance (F 1.90, p 0.07). Conclusions: Promoting negative attitudes towards drunkenness, alongside a greater sense of control and potential regret about drunkenness are likely to be important factors when considering how to change people's intentions to drink. The study shows the potential to reduce the frequency of drinking behaviour when intentions are changed, and provides recommendations for future interventions of this nature. © 2010 Informa UK Ltd.

Ocular and systemic endothelial function in the off spring of diabetics:a pilot study

Purpose To investigate ocular and systemic correlates of endothelial function in the normoglycaemic offspring of Type 2 Diabetics (T2DM). Methods Healthy participants aged between 25-65 with (n=30) and without (n=39) a family history were recruited. Retinal vessel reactivity was assessed by using the Retinal Vessel Analyser (RVA, Imedos GmBH). In addition, systemic endothelial function was assessed by using the flow mediated dilation (FMD) technique. Results Parametric testing showed no significant differences in anthropometric, blood assay or ocular and systemic function between both groups (p>0.05). The average maximum dilation in the measured retinal artery correlated significantly with the maximum dilation of the measured brachial artery (p=0.002 R=0.55) in healthy controls; however, this was not true for subjects with family history of T2DM. Conclusion Subjects with family history of T2DM show possibly early signs of endothelial dysfunction that, in certain conditions, could contribute to the higher risk of this group of developing similar pathology to their parents.

Circadian gene variants and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes:a pilot study

Disruption of endogenous circadian rhythms has been shown to increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, suggesting that circadian genes might play a role in determining disease susceptibility. We present the results of a pilot study investigating the association between type 2 diabetes and selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in/near nine circadian genes. The variants were chosen based on their previously reported association with prostate cancer, a disease that has been suggested to have a genetic link with type 2 diabetes through a number of shared inherited risk determinants.