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PubMed2006

Changes and factors influencing health-related quality of life after hysterectomy in premenopausal women with benign gynecologic conditions.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: A hysterectomy affects a woman's health. This study was performed to identify the factors that affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL) before and after hysterectomy in premenopausal women. METHODS: This prospective follow-up study recruited 38 women (age range, 33-52 years) who underwent abdominal hysterectomy for nonmalignant causes. SF-36 and self-rated health status were used to assess HRQoL before and after hysterectomy. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, nonparametric tests and the generalized estimating equation method for modeling the repeatedly measured responses. RESULTS: Patients' attitudes toward hysterectomy and subsequent sexual activity were influenced by the surgery. All patients showed significant improvements in the physical component summary (PCS) of SF-36 (mean, 42.1-51.0), but there was no significant difference in the mental component summary (MCS). The significant improvements were found from the five repeated measurements of the self-rated health status (mean, 6.0-7.3). Hemoglobin level was the most important predictor of HRQoL before surgery. Women in employment, with more years of education and previous blood transfusion had high MCS scores after surgery. CONCLUSION: The overall self-rated health status and PCS showed significant improvements after hysterectomy. Having had a blood transfusion, being educated and employed were positively associated with MCS score after surgery. These findings are vital for preoperative counseling for women undergoing hysterectomy.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Thoracoscopic lobectomy for benign disease--a single centre study on 64 cases.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic lung infection is the main indication for lobectomy in benign pulmonary disease and may be technically demanding due to inflammatory changes such as adhesions, lymph node enlargement and neovascularization. The role of the thoracoscopic operation in these indications is yet ill-defined. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the results of patients who underwent thoracoscopic lobectomy (TL) between 1992 and June 1999 and compared this study group with patients who underwent open lobectomy (OL), all for benign disease. Data were not normally distributed, therefore, the median and range is given and nonparametric statistical analysis was applied. RESULTS: A total of 117 lobectomies for benign disease (64 TL) were analyzed. Indications included bronchiectasis (36 TL; 18 OL), chronic infections (13 TL; eight OL), tuberculosis (five TL; 15 OL), emphysema (five TL; one OL), AV-malformations (two TL; one OL), severe haemoptysis (four OL), and others (three TL; six OL). Twelve conversions to thoracotomy were necessary due to severe adhesions. One patient in the open lobectomy group died within 30 days postoperative. Drainage time was 5.0 (1-32) days in TL and 6.0 (3-21) days in OL, hospital stay was 8.5 (4-41) days and 10.0 (5-52) days, respectively. Blood loss was 0 (0-2000) ml in TL and 300 (0-6000) ml in OL. Operation time for thoracoscopic lobectomies significantly decreased from 2.5 (1-6) h for cases between 1992 and 1997 (n=49) to 1.5 (0.5-2.5) h for recent cases (n=15) (P<0.01). In addition, a trend towards less blood loss was noted (100 (0-2000) ml vs. 0 (0-400) ml; P=0.06). Drainage time and hospital stay did not differ significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Thoracoscopic lobectomy in chronic inflammatory disease can be performed safely in selected patients, especially with bronchiectasis. Conversion rate to thoracotomy is low. Operation time with this approach declined significantly over time.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

The role of the esophagus in dental erosion.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to measure lower esophageal sphincter pressure, sphincter length, and esophageal motility in patients with dental erosion and compare the results with measurements made in patients without gastroesophageal reflux or dental erosion. STUDY DESIGN: Lower esophageal sphincter length and esophageal motility were measured in 39 patients (age range, 15-74 years) with dental erosion through use of static esophageal pressure monitoring; the data were compared with those from 10 control subjects (age range, 26-46 years) with nonparametric statistical tests. RESULTS: Median lower esophageal sphincter pressure was 9 mmHg (range, 0-26 mmHg) in the patients with erosion and 9.5 mmHg (range, 0 -14 mmHg) in the controls; there was no statistically significant difference between the two subject groups. Similarly, there was no statistically significant difference in esophageal length between the subject groups. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups (P =.01) in the measurement of esophageal motility; the median value was 8% (range, 0% to 100%) in the patients with erosion and 0% (range, 0% to 18%) in the controls. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that esophageal motility in patients with dental erosion is more likely to be associated with low amplitude changes than with sphincter pressure alone. Poor esophageal motility may therefore be a risk factor in regurgitation erosion.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Precision and accuracy of commercial laboratories' ability to classify positive and/or negative allergen-specific IgE results.

BACKGROUND: Accurate and reliable evaluation of the presence or absence of allergen-specific IgE is important in the differential diagnosis of allergic disease. A variety of different commercial tests are available for this purpose. There are few data available to judge how the results of these different tests compare with one another in everyday use. OBJECTIVE: To examine prospectively the extent of comparability among specific IgE results from different laboratories. METHODS: Six diagnostic laboratories employing five different methods to assay specific IgE were selected. Aliquots from 26 serum samples that contained variable levels of IgE specific to 17 common aeroallergens were sent in triplicate to each study laboratory during a 6-week time period. Results were reported numerically and by class scores and then compared by examining their concordance using Kendall's W nonparametric statistical test. In addition, cut-off values were compared by a best agreement analysis using reported results. Reproducibility was determined using precision profiles based upon the coefficient of variation among triplicates for each allergen across the range of reported results. RESULTS: In all, 7,813 tests were analyzed. Concordance among different assays in commercial use with one exception was not good. This was particularly true around the cut-off region where most assays demonstrated high imprecision. The Pharmacia CAP System used by two different laboratories demonstrated highly comparable results with good precision. Some assays were reproducible but not accurate. Others were neither reproducible nor accurate. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that not all commercial laboratories/assays for specific IgE provide reproducible and accurate data. Significant potential for misdiagnosis was detected for some reported results. Methods were identified that do give sensitive, accurate, and reproducible results.

Allergens↗

PubMed2002

Bone loss in primary biliary cirrhosis: absence of association with severity of liver disease.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to measure the lumbar bone mineral density in women with primary biliary cirrhosis and to evaluate whether bone mineral density was related to the liver disease, hormonal status and corticosteroid use in these women. METHODS: Bone mineral density of the lumbar spine (L2-L4) was assessed by dual emission X-ray absorptiometry in 40 women with primary biliary cirrhosis. Hormonal, bone and liver status were compared with bone mineral density and analyzed by nonparametric statistical tests. RESULTS: Bone loss was evidenced in women with primary biliary cirrhosis compared with control age-matched women (Z-score: -0.9 SD), 32.5% had osteoporosis and 32.5% had osteopenia. The main risk factor of bone loss was the hormonal status: T-score was -1 SD in premenopausal women, -1.1 SD in postmenopausal women receiving an hormonal replacementtherapy and - 2.7SD in postmenopausal untreated women. There was no statistically significant relationship between bone mineral density and biological and histological liver characteristics. CONCLUSION: Primary biliary cirrhosis-associated bone loss was significantly related to postmenopausal estrogen deficiency, and efficiently prevented by hormonal replacement therapy. Interestingly, the severity of primary biliary cirrhosis was not a determinant factor for bone loss in these women.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗

PubMed1998

The inverted multilayer perceptron as a consistency measuring device in neuroanatomical image analysis.

This protocol describes the use of optical imaging and artificial neural networks to analyze the complex patterns of transsynaptic transfer of WGA-HRP from olfactory bulbar axon terminals to olfactory tubercle projection neurons. This constitutes a unique application of neural networks to pattern recognition in a neuroanatomical tract-tracing study. Furthermore, the type of neural network used in this study, i.e., the inverted multilayer perceptron, possesses a novel construction that suits it for measuring consistency in data clusters. In the experiment described, the perceptron functioned as a consistency measuring device that revealed nonlinear relationships between the site of bulbar injection and the degree of regional labeling in the olfactory tubercle. Nonparametric statistical tests were used concurrently to validate the results of this previously untested form of the multilayer perceptron.

Animals↗

PubMed2001

Article use in Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment.

The current study analysed article use in Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment who are learning English as a second language. The surface hypothesis account of specific language impairment was evaluated in relation to the use of articles in these children. Language samples were obtained from 15 Spanish-speaking children with language impairment and 15 with normal language, ages 5;0 to 7;1, matched by age, gender, and school. The percentage of article errors was tested between groups with a nonparametric analysis and an analysis of covariance with mean length of terminable unit as the covariate. Results revealed significant differences between groups on percent of article errors with and without MLTU as the covariate. Nonparametric statistics on percent of article error types indicated that most errors consisted of omissions and gender agreement substitutions. As predicted by the Surface Hypothesis, article errors were likely to occur in unstressed definite articles, suggesting that perceptual and prosodic processes have some impact on children's production of articles.

Child↗

PubMed2002

Medical burden, cerebrovascular disease, and cognitive impairment in geriatric depression: modeling the relationships with the CART analysis.

Herein, the background information reflecting roles of medical burden, cerebrovascular disease and risk factors, and cognitive impairment in geriatric depression are reviewed. The authors then propose a nonparametric statistical approach to the data analysis of multiple putative causal variables for late-life depression, the Classification and Regression Tree Analysis. This analysis presents a useful approach to modeling nonlinear relationships and interactions among variables measuring physical and mental health, as well as magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive measures in depressed elderly. This method uncovers the existing interactions among multiple predictor variables, and provide thresholds for each variable, at which its predictive power becomes statistically significant. It presents a "hierarchy" of the predictors in a form of a decision tree by finding the best combination of predictors of an outcome. The authors present two models based on demographic variables, measures of vascular and nonvascular medical burden, neuroimaging indices, the Mini-Mental State Examination score, and neuropsychological test scores of 81 elderly depressed subjects. Cognitive tests of verbal fluency and executive function are identified as the best predictors of depression, followed by the frontal lobe volume and Mini-Mental State Examination. The authors observed that an interaction between frontal lobe volume, total lesion volume, and medical burden was predictive of depression.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Retrospective analysis of an experimental high-throughput screening data set by recursive partitioning.

With the emergence of combinatorial chemistry, whether based on parallel, mixture, solution, or solid phase chemistry, it is now possible to generate large numbers of diverse or focused compound libraries. In this paper we aim to demonstrate that it is possible to design targeted libraries by applying nonparametric statistical methods, recursive partitioning in particular, to large data sets containing thousands of compounds and their associated biological data. Moreover, when applied to an experimental high-throughput screening (HTS) data set, our data strongly suggest that this method can improve the hit rate of our primary screens (about 4- to 5-fold) while increasing screening efficiency: less than one-fifth of the complete selection needs to be screened in order to identify about 75% of all actives present.

Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques↗

PubMed2001

Recovery of fish communities in the Finniss River, northern Australia, following remediation of the Rum Jungle uranium/copper mine site.

The Finniss River in the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia has received acid rock drainage (ARD) contaminants from the Rum Jungle uranium/copper mine site over more than four decades. Annual-cycle loads of Cu, Zn, Mn, and sulfate, calculated from daily water and flow measurements, have been determined both prior to and following mine-site remediation, that began in the early 1980s. The effects of varying contaminant loads on the relative abundances of seven fish species, sampled by enmeshing nets during dry seasons, were determined by nonmetric multidimensional scaling (nMDS), in combination with cluster-analysis and other nonparametric statistical techniques. These analyses showed that (i) prior to remediation, the impacted region of the Finniss River in 1974 had significantly dissimilar (P < 0.001) and more heterogeneous fish communities, generally characterized by reduced diversity and abundance, compared to sites unexposed to elevated contaminant water concentrations and (ii) postremediation, recovery in fish communities from the impacted region was indicated because they were not significantly dissimilar from those sampled at contemporary (P = 0.16) unimpacted sites, that were also similar to preremedial unimpacted sites. Even though considerable contaminant loads are still being delivered to the impacted region of the Finniss River over the annual cycle, the recovery in fish diversity and abundances is consistent with (a) reductions of in situ contaminant water concentrations at the time of fish sampling, (b) reductions in annual-cycle contaminant loads of sulfate, Cu, Zn, and Mn by factors of 3-7, (c) greatly reduced frequencies of occurrence and magnitude of elevated contaminant water concentrations over the annual cycle, that was most pronounced for Cu, and (d) the absence of extensive fish-kills during the first-flushes of contaminants into the Finniss river proper at the beginning of the wet season, that were observed prior to remediation. As such, the results indicate that there has been ecological benefit to the Finniss River attributable to remedial works undertaken at the Rum Jungle mine site. Recovery in abundances of these fishes may also be due to their time-dependent evolution of tolerance to mine-waste contaminants over their long period of exposure.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Surface tension effect on transmembrane channel stability in a model membrane.

The effect of surface tension on the lipid bilayer membrane is a question that has drawn considerable research effort. This interest has been driven both by the desire to determine the surface tension effects on the lipid bilayer and from the suggestion that adding finite surface tension to a small membrane system may provide more realistic lipid properties in molecular dynamics simulations. Here, the effect of surface tension on a palmitololelylphosphatidylcholine (POPC) bilayer membrane containing a four-helix transmembrane alamethicin peptide bundle is investigated. Simulations of 10 ns were undertaken for two different ensembles, NPT and NP(z)gammaT with a surface tension, gamma, of 20 mN m(-1) per interface, which is near the pore-forming region. The significance of differences between the tension-free and surface tension simulations was determined using nonparametric statistical analysis on replicate simulations with different initial conditions. The results suggest that, when the membrane is under surface tension, the peptide helical structure is perturbed from that in the tension-free state but that the bundle conformation is more stable than that in the tension-free state, with hydrogen bonding playing an important stabilizing role. Surface tension counteracts the influence of the transmembrane helix bundle on nearby lipid order, making the lipid order more uniform throughout the membrane in the tension state. Conversely, the lipid mobility was less uniform in the tension state, with lipids far from the bundle being significantly more mobile than those near the bundle. One general implication of the results is that surface tension can affect the membrane nonuniformly, in that the properties of lipids near the peptide are different from those further away.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2000

Expression of the skin-homing receptor in peripheral blood lymphocytes from subjects with nonimmediate cutaneous allergic drug reactions.

BACKGROUND: In nonimmediate cutaneous reactions to drugs, the skin is the organ most frequently involved, and T cells may play a relevant role. T cells related to skin immune responses express the cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen (CLA), the skin-homing receptor. METHODS: We studied the expression of the CLA in peripheral blood T cells from nine subjects with exanthematous reactions induced by beta-lactams (4), phenytoin (2), propyphenazone (1), spiramycin plus metronidazol (1), and captopril plus tiazide (1). The cutaneous symptoms appeared at least 6 h after drug intake. CLA expression was evaluated by flow cytometry at the time of the reaction (T1) and 1 month later (T2). HLA-DR activation marker expression was also evaluated at T1. In four patients, it was necessary to readminister the culprit drug to establish a causal relationship, and sequential estimation of the markers was performed. Two control groups were included: healthy controls and subjects exposed to the culprit drugs with good tolerance. Values were compared by nonparametric statistics. RESULTS: The expression of circulating CLA + T cells at T1 was increased compared to healthy controls (median = 20.4 vs 9.4) (P < 0.001), and the patients also expressed increased levels of HLA-DR (median = 3.8) (P < 0.005). Comparison between T1 and T2 (median = 11.2) also showed differences in levels of CLA+ T cells (P < 0.01). The patients re-exposed to the culprit drug showed an increase followed by a decrease of circulating CLA+ T cells (P < 0.05) and CLA+ HLA-DR+ (P < 0.05) paralleling the symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the immunologic nature of delayed skin reactions to drugs, and suggest that these CLA+ T cells parallel the disease evolution and may participate in the pathophysiologic mechanisms.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

An evaluation of the putative human mammary tumour retrovirus associated with peripheral blood monocytes.

The primary aims of this study were purification and molecular cloning of a putative retrovirus designated human mammary tumour virus (HMTV). However, our preliminary unpublished data of negative reverse transcriptase (RT) activity in ostensibly 'infected' cells led us to re-examine the evidence for this virus; namely multinucleate giant cell (MNGC) formation and RT activity in cultured blood monocytes from breast cancer patients versus benign breast tumour and normal control subjects. MNGCs from by fusion of monocytes and we estimated the total number of cell fusions which had occurred after 10 days of culture in vitro by counting cells with two, three, four and five or more nuclei (n) and by measuring the density of adherent mononuclear cells for each subject studied. We found no clear-cut difference in MNGC formation between the three subject groups. Moreover, a substantial number of cultures, encompassing the three groups, showed far more MNGCs per 10(5) monocytes than previously reported. Various parametric and nonparametric statistical analyses were performed on the multinucleate cell data and only one parametric test, which utilised the density of monolayers as a co-variate, showed a statistically significant difference at the 5% level between the breast cancer and the normal subject groups. We observed marked subject-to-subject variation in multinucleate cell formation and we suggest that the evidence for a difference between the breast cancer and the normal groups is marginal. Further, MNGC formation by breast cancer monocytes may not be attributed to the presence of a retrovirus since 5'-Azacytidine (AZA), an agent known to stimulate replication of latent retroviruses showed no effect on the MNGC formation. In addition, culture supernatants from the three groups were assayed for RT activity and no test sample gave a significant signal above background. Preliminary transmission electron microscopy analysis failed to identify viral particles in MNGCs.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Burden of support for partners of persons with spinal cord injuries.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. OBJECTIVES: (1) To describe the support given to persons with spinal cord injuries (SCI) by their partners, (2) to describe the perceived burden of support by partners and (3) to examine predictors of perceived burden of support. SETTING: The Netherlands. METHODS: All members of the Dutch patients organisation DON (N = 1004) and their caregivers, if applicable, were invited. Physical disability of the person with SCI was measured using the Barthel Index (BI). A number of secondary conditions, other practical problems and psychosocial problems were recorded. Partner support was described using a list of ADL-support, other practical support and emotional support. Burden of support was measured by a six-item measure (Cronbach's alpha 0.92), Nonparametric descriptive statistics and correlations were used. Linear regression was used to identify predictors of caregiver burden. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 461 persons with SCI. Of 265 couples, patient as well as partner data were available. Mean age of the partners was 49.4 years (SD 12.2) and 69.8% were women. Mean BI of the persons with SCI was 12.3 (SD 4.7) on a 0-20 scale and 60.4% were seriously disabled (BI < 15). Most partners provided various kinds of support. ADL-support and other practical support were given much more often by partners of persons with serious disability, but less difference was seen regarding emotional support. Professional (paid) support was obtained by 45.3% of all couples. Perceived burden of support was high in 24.8% of partners of persons with serious disabilities against 3.9% of partners of persons with minor disabilities. Significant predictors of caregiver burden were (in order of importance) the amount of ADL support given, psychological problems of the patient, partner age, partner gender, BI score and time after injury (total explained variance 47%). CONCLUSION: A substantial proportion of partners of persons with SCI suffer from serious burden of support. Prevention of caregiver burnout should be part of the lifelong care for persons with SCI.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2000

Modification of general practitioner prescribing of antibiotics by use of a therapeutics adviser (academic detailer).

AIMS: This was a pilot study of the use of a clinical pharmacist as a therapeutics adviser (academic detailer) to modify antibiotic prescribing by general practitioners. METHODS: Following a visit by the adviser (March-May), 112 general practitioners were recruited and randomised to control or active groups. A panel of experts prepared a best practice chart of recommended drugs for upper and lower respiratory tract infections, otitis media and urinary tract infections. The adviser made a 10-15 min visit to each prescriber in the active group (June-July), gave them the chart and discussed its recommendations briefly. Doctors in the control group were not visited nor given the chart. Prescription numbers for all prescribers were obtained from the Commonwealth Health Insurance Commission for the pre(March-May) and postdetailing (August-September) periods using a three month lag time for data collection. Data for total numbers of prescriptions and for selected individual antibiotics used in these two periods were analysed using nonparametric statistics. RESULTS: Prescribing patterns were similar for the control and active groups in the predetailing period. For both groups, there were significant (P<0.03) increases (45% for control and 40% for active) in total number of antibiotic prescriptions in the post compared with the predetailing period. This trend was anticipated on the basis of the winter seasonal increase in respiratory infections. In line with the chart recommendations for first-line treatment, doctors in the active group prescribed significantly more amoxycillin (P<0.02) and doxycycline (P<0.001) in the post vs predetailing periods. By contrast, doctors in the control group prescribed significantly more cefaclor (P<0.03) and roxithromycin (P<0.03), drugs that were not recommended. The total cost of antibiotics prescribed by doctors in the control group increased by 48% ($37 150) from the preto postdetailing periods. In the same time period, the costs for the active group increased by only 35% ($21 020). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the academic detailing process was successful in modifying prescribing patterns and that it also decreased prescription numbers and costs. Application of the scheme on a nationwide basis could not only improve prescriber choice of the most appropriate antibiotic but also result in a significant saving of health care dollars.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

PubMed1999

Scanning electron microscope study on the efficacy of root canal wall debridement of hand versus Lightspeed instrumentation.

AIM: The aim of this in vitro study was to compare the efficacy of root canal wall debridement following hand versus LightSpeed instrumentation. METHODOLOGY: Twenty recently extracted single-rooted teeth were paired and randomly placed into two treatment groups of 10 teeth each. In group 1, a step-back instrumentation without initial coronal flaring with stainless steel Hedstroem files was used; group 2 was instrumented with Ni-Ti LightSpeed instruments. Both groups had the same irrigation regimen: 2.5% NaOCl and a 15% EDTA solution. The teeth were then decoronated and each root split longitudinally into two halves to be examined using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The presence of superficial debris and smear layer was evaluated by a standardized grading system, and the resulting scores submitted to nonparametric statistics. RESULTS: Under the conditions of this study, the removal of superficial debris was generally excellent with both canal preparation techniques. Both techniques resulted in variable presence of residual smear layer, with a canal wall covered by smear layer as the predominant characteristic. Generally, the amount of smear layer was greater in the apical than in the middle third of the root, however, this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.005) only in hand-instrumented teeth. The use of LightSpeed instruments was associated with significantly more (P < 0.05) smear layer presence in the middle region of the root when compared with hand instrumentation. In addition, less smear layer was present in the apical region following LightSpeed instrumentation than stainless steel hand files, but this difference was not statistically significant. Differences in debridement between the two halves of the same root were more evident with LightSpeed than manual instrumentation, however, there was no statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: It may be inferred that the choice between hand and LightSpeed instrumentation should be based on factors other than the amount of root canal debridement, which does not vary significantly according to the instruments used.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Swedish nursing students' attitudes to and awareness of research and development within nursing.

BACKGROUND: Nurses' attitudes towards research have been illuminated in many studies. However, there is still a need for more knowledge about the attitudes and awareness of undergraduate nursing students. AIMS: To investigate Swedish undergraduate nursing students' attitudes towards and awareness of research and development within nursing, and to illuminate factors that may have an impact on their attitudes and awareness. METHODS: A questionnaire consisting of three parts: demographic data, attitude scale, and research awareness was used. Parametric and nonparametric statistics were used. Two hundred and one students participated in the study and the response rate was 77%. Cronbach's alpha test on the seven factors was between 0.52 and 0.80. RESULTS: Most of the students had positive attitudes towards nursing research. More than half (60%) of the students expected to make use of nursing research sometime in the future and about 25% had never read any of the scientific nursing journals. The majority (77%) of the students were acquainted with at least one Swedish researcher, but few had attended a doctoral dissertation. Students with an interest in some particular development or research area in nursing were significantly more positive and expected to make use of nursing research more frequently. Other variables that were found to have some impact upon attitudes were gender, age and additional academic studies. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing students had an overall positive attitude towards nursing research and their interest in a particular development or research area was the most important variable for their attitudes and expected use of nursing research in the future. Therefore, it would seem to be important to encourage the students' interest in specific development/research areas of nursing during their education. In spite of the nursing students' positive attitudes to nursing research, the study demonstrates the theory-practice gap is still present to some degree.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Fetal learning: a prospective randomized controlled study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether prenatal exposure to a music stimulus alters fetal behavior and whether this continues into the newborn period. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A prospective randomized control trial was conducted using an exposure learning model in 20 normal term pregnancies. Music was played to ten fetuses via a headphone on the maternal abdomen. Ten controls had the headphone without sound. All fetal studies took place within 72 h prior to elective delivery. All 20 newborns were exposed to the same music on days 3-5. Computerized assessment of fetal heart rate and activity was documented and neonatal behavioral states were recorded. Nonparametric statistical analysis was used. RESULTS: For the first hour of study, exposed fetuses had higher mean heart rates (FHR) and spent more time exhibiting high FHR variation compared to unexposed fetuses, but neither of these differences was statistically significant. However, by the fourth hour the exposed fetuses not only demonstrated these two features but also exhibited more state transitions (P = 0.01) and higher FHR variation (P = 0.04) compared to unexposed fetuses. These effects were carried over into the neonatal period with prenatally exposed newborns manifesting more state transitions (P = 0.01) and spending a higher proportion of time in awake states (P = 0.05) when exposed to the same music stimulus. CONCLUSION: Prenatal music exposure alters the fetal behavioral state and is carried forward to the newborn period. This suggests that a simple form of fetal programming or learning has occurred.

Embryonic and Fetal Development↗