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PubMedDate not supplied

Renal MR angiography: a comprehensive approach.

Renal artery MR angiography has now emerged as a safe, accurate approach to renal arteriography. A comprehensive examination, including both three-dimensional (3D) dynamic gadolinium-enhanced and 3D phase contrast MRA techniques, allows evaluation of both the aorta-renal and splanchnic arterial anatomy as well as the hemodynamic significance of any stenoses identified. The 3D gadolinium-enhanced MRA technique produces a contrast arteriogram but without risks of iodinated contrast or ionizing radiation. The 3D phase contrast technique is a flow-based technique, which may show dephasing in the presence of hemodynamically significant stenoses. A comprehensive examination should also include T1- and T2-weighted imaging for the assessment of potential neoplastic masses and the ubiquitous renal cysts. Through trial and error over the course of over a thousand examinations, this comprehensive approach to the MR evaluation of renal vascular pathology has emerged.

Computer Systems↗

PubMed1994

Comprehension and imitation of syntax following early hemisphere damage.

Twenty-five children with early left (LL = 16) or right (RL = 9) hemisphere damage and 25 age-matched controls were tested on their comprehension and imitation of complex coordinate, passive, and relative clause structures using a matched experimental design. The predominant deficit exhibited by left-injured children was one of significantly impaired imitation coupled with relatively preserved comprehension. For RL subjects the deficit was less pronounced in either comprehension or imitation. Manipulation of surface and configurational features of sentence structure revealed task differences in the pattern of correct performance; however, error strategies observed across the two methodologies were shown to converge in a number of critical ways, as well as to replicate those previously obtained with adult aphasics. The results are interpreted as consistent with an early and continuous left hemisphere specialization for expressive syntax.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Impaired comprehension of raising-to-subject constructions in Parkinson's disease.

This paper describes an experiment which shows that roughly half of nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have impaired comprehension of subject-to-subject and object-to-subject raising constructions (e.g., Susan seems to Bill to be tall and Susan is hard for Bill to catch), but have normal comprehension of the counterpart constructions (e.g., It seems to Bill that Susan is tall and It's hard for Bill to catch Susan). Several possible explanations for this pattern of performance are considered, including a parsing disorder, a syntactic-semantic linking disorder, a reduction of working memory capacity, slowed speed of syntactic processing, and difficulty with the experimental task. Although some of these explanations are arguably more plausible than others, the exact nature of the comprehension impairment remains unclear.

Aged↗

PubMed1999

Prosody, linguistic demands, and auditory comprehension in aphasia.

Prosody plays a clear role in the auditory comprehension of narratives by aphasic listeners. Previous research, however, has pointed to questions regarding variables which increase task complexity (e.g., memory, reading level) and the influence of the severity of aphasia. This study examined the role of the severity of aphasia and linguistic complexity in narrative comprehension by aphasic listeners. Findings indicate that while all subject groups improved their auditory comprehension when emphasis was present, people with severe aphasia improved significantly more, but only in a low linguistic complexity condition. However, subjects had additional opportunity for improved performance in both low and high linguistic complexity conditions. These results pose additional questions about perceived task difficulty (and performance) and resource allocation strategies.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

The existence of comprehension patterns in Broca's aphasia.

Berndt and Caramazza (1999) claim that Grodzinsky, Piñango, Zurif, and Drai (1999) were able to show a canonical-noncanonical difference (e.g., actives vs. passives) in the comprehension of Broca's aphasic patients only because of a patient selection bias. We show that the canonical-noncanonical comprehension pattern exists apart from any such bias, and that this pattern bears importantly on our understanding of the neuroanatomical organization of comprehension capacity at the sentence level.

Aphasia, Broca↗

PubMed2000

Patterns of comprehension and production of nouns and verbs in agrammatism: implications for lexical organization.

This study examined the relationship between verb retrieval and verb-argument-structure properties in seven agrammatic aphasic patients using tasks requiring access to the verb's lexicon for both comprehension- and productionlike processes. Results showed intact comprehension of both nouns and verbs and noun naming, but impaired naming of verbs. Subjects also demonstrated near-normal performance on a grammaticality judgment task involving verb-argument-structure violations but were impaired in categorizing verbs by type (based on number of obligatory arguments). In both naming and categorization conditions, a hierarchy of verb difficulty emerged. Subjects were more accurate in naming/categorizing one-place verbs than two-place verbs and more accurate in naming/categorizing two-place verbs than three-place verbs. The pattern of selective impairment in lexical access/retrieval supports the hypothesis that one dimension of normal lexical organization is by form class. The results also suggest that no necessary relationship exists between production difficulties and comprehension of nouns/verbs in agrammatism. Further, the performance pattern noted supports the claim that verb-argument-structure properties, an important component of the verb lexicon, influence verb production at the single-word and at the sentence level. Subjects' performance on different tasks suggests that the locus of breakdown in the verb-retrieval processes for productionlike tasks may be in accessing information at the lemma level of representation as per Bock's model (1995) of sentence production.

Aphasia, Broca↗

PubMed2000

Structural prominence hypothesis and Chinese aphasic sentence comprehension.

The Structural Prominence Hypothesis (SPH) proposed in Friederici and Gorrell (1998) has been claimed to find support from cross-linguistic data and to be empirically superior to linear strategies. In this article we evaluate the SPH against data of thematic-role-reversal comprehension of Chinese aphasics using Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. We focus on the comprehension of Chinese relativized constructions for the reason that linear position and structural prominence diverge in these structures. The two types of strategies thus make different predictions about thematic reversal comprehension with respect to these structures. An examination of the performance patterns of Chinese aphasics from three different studies (Su & Law, 1993; Law & Leung, 1998a, 1998b) reveals a tendency on the part of the patients to make use of heuristics that takes into consideration the linear order of lexical NPs, not their structural prominence. Furthermore, their strategy does not necessarily make reference to verb position.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Comprehension and storage of four serially presented radio news stories by mild aphasic subjects.

The present study investigated aphasic subjects' ability to comprehend and store serially presented discourse. Sixteen mild aphasic subjects, eight age-matched normals, and eight younger normals listened to four serially presented radio news stories and a single radio news story. Half of the aphasic subjects performed as well as age-matched normals in a single-news-story comprehension task. However, they demonstrated a drastic deterioration in performance when asked to listen to a series of four news stories. Age-matched normals, and aphasic subjects, to a lesser extent, showed an impairment in the comprehension and storage of the news story heard last in a series of four news stories. These results were discussed in terms of the comprehension and storage resources of working memory.

Aphasia↗

PubMed2001

Poor reading comprehension despite fast word decoding in children with hydrocephalus.

Children with hydrocephalus decode words better than they understand what they read. We tested whether children with hydrocephalus (from myelomeningocele or aqueduct stenosis) (1) decode words slowly, (2) use decoding processes similar to those of neurologically intact peers, and (3) comprehend poorly to the extent that they are slow decoders. We compared speed of word decoding in 33 children with hydrocephalus and 33 controls matched on a pairwise basis for age, grade, and word decoding accuracy. The children with hydrocephalus were as fast as controls in reading words, but, unlike controls, they did not demonstrate an effect of spelling-sound regularity. Further, decoding speed did not contribute to reading comprehension beyond word decoding accuracy. The reading comprehension deficits of good decoders with hydrocephalus are not related to early-stage processing deficits in word recognition speed. Likely origins of comprehension failure in this group are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Assessing working memory and language comprehension in Alzheimer's disease.

Studies of language impairments in patients with Alzheimer's disease have often assumed that impairments in linguistic working memory underlie comprehension deficits. Assessment of this hypothesis has been hindered both by vagueness of key terms such as "working memory" and by limitations of available working memory tasks, in that many such tasks either seem to have little relationship to language comprehension or are too confusing or difficult for Alzheimer's patients. Four experiments investigated the usefulness of digit ordering, a new task assessing linguistic working memory and/or language processing skill, in normal adults and patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. The digit ordering task was shown to be strongly correlated with the degree of dementia in Alzheimer's patients. The task correlated with measures of language processing on which patients and normal controls performed differently. The results are interpreted as indicating that linguistic representations, linguistic processing, and linguistic working memory are intertwined, such that a deficit of one (e.g., working memory) cannot be said to "cause" a deficit in the other. The implications of this approach are explored in terms of task demands in comprehension and memory measures, and interpretation of previous results in the literature.

Aged↗

PubMed1999

Review and Process Effects of Spontaneous Note-Taking on Text Comprehension.

This study examines how quantitative and qualitative differences in spontaneously taken notes are related to text comprehension in combination with reviewing or not reviewing previously made notes. High school graduates (N = 226) were allowed to take notes in any way they desired while reading a philosophical text. Approximately half the participants were told that they could review their notes during writing tasks designed to measure the ability to define, compare, and evaluate text content. The other half of the participants answered the subsequent questions without their notes. The process of taking notes was rated on the basis of note quality and quantity. The results revealed significant review and process effects in spontaneous note-taking. Reviewing the notes during essay-writing generally resulted in good performance in an exam calling for deep-level text comprehension. However, this review effect was mainly limited to detailed learning instead of making one's own inferences. Results pertaining to note quality indicated that the participants who summarized the content of the text resulted in better performance in all tasks in comparison with those who produced notes following the text order or verbatim notes. The amount of note-taking was also positively related to text comprehension. The discussion focuses upon the situational appropriateness of note-taking effects that pose challenges to educators. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

The Effects of Adjunct Questions and Feedback on Improving the Reading Comprehension Skills of Learning-Disabled Adolescents.

Adjunct question research has typically focused on the effects of adjunct questions on improving the learning of college students. This study investigated the effects of inserted and massed postquestions (inference, main idea, and detail), with and without feedback, on improving the comprehension skills of adolescents labeled as reading disabled. Students practiced using adjunct questions for 6 weeks. The results suggested that inserted questions (and to a lesser extent massed postquestions) were beneficial in improving the comprehension of texts that did not contain adjunct questions. Specifically, the results indicated that (a) inserted questions were more effective than massed postquestions or no questions, (b) massed postquestions were more effective than no questions, and (c) the effects of inserted questions on comprehension increased over the time of treatment. The beneficial effects of feedback were limited to inference and main idea questions. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

The benefits of comprehensive surgical staging in the management of early-stage epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: The management of understaged patients with apparent clinically early ovarian cancer is difficult. Options include offering chemotherapy based on histopathologic factors or reoperation to obtain the necessary information needed to assign an accurate surgical stage. This study aims to compare these two approaches and to define the role of staging surgery in this common patient population. METHODS: Retrospective chart reviews were carried out at the Universities of Manitoba and Saskatchewan over the period 1975 to 1999. Demographic data and surgical findings were abstracted and entered into a computerized database for analysis. Patients not having surgical staging procedures were offered platinum-based chemotherapy based on high tumor grades, dense adhesions, and presence of surface excrescences or large necrotic areas. Patients with surgically proven stage I disease were treated with no further therapy regardless of histopathologic factors. Descriptive statistics are used to summarize the data. Logistic and Cox regression models are used to identify significant predicting factors for recurrences and progression-free intervals. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-eight patients presented with tumor macroscopically confined to the ovary at the time of laparotomy. The median age at presentation is 56.5 (18-90). The histology distribution was serous tumor in 28.3%, mucinous in 26.1%, endometrioid in 23.2%, clear cell in 14.5%, anaplastic in 2.2%, and mixed types in 5.8%. The grade distribution was 47.1% grade 1, 27.5% Grade 2, and 25.4% Grade 3. Sixty-eight percent of the patients had a comprehensive surgical staging procedure initially. Thirty-six percent of these patients were found to have extraovarian metastases and were subsequently treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. Forty-three percent of those not having staging laparotomy were offered chemotherapy based on high risk factors only. At a median follow-up of 58 months. 77% of patients remained disease-free and 23% had recurrent disease. Of 60 patients with surgically proven stage I treated expectantly, 6 (10%) recurred, whereas of 25 unstaged patients treated expectantly due to lack of risk factors 7 (28%) recurred (P = 0.036). In patients treated expectantly, a significant survival advantage was noted in the staged group. Logistic regression showed age (OR 1.032, P = 0.043), high grade (OR 4.16, P = 0.003), and lack of a proper staging surgery (OR 2.62, P = 0.032) to be important factors predicting recurrence. In terms of progression-free interval, only age (OR 1.027, P = 0.048) and tumor grade (OR 3.62, P = 0.05) are significant predictors. CONCLUSION: Absence of surgical pathologic high-risk factors is inferior to comprehensive staging laparotomy findings in guiding recommendations for subsequent adjuvant therapy. Patients who have not been properly staged stand a significant risk of recurrent disease despite more frequent use of chemotherapy. All clinically early-stage ovarian cancer patients should be considered for comprehensive staging surgery prior to further treatment recommendations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Children's integration of speech and pointing gestures in comprehension.

We examined 4- and 9-year-old's referential comprehension when given pointing gestures and spoken labels, in two types of contextually ambiguous situations. In one situation, speech/gesture discordance was produced in conditions where labels for one of four objects being referred to sounded either alike, or different from each other. In the other, the contextual set contained the same two objects, and ambiguity was produced by factorially combining speech on a continuum ranging between /bcl/ and /dcl/ with a pointing gesture from a continuum ranging between an unambiguous point to a ball and to a doll. Results showed that the speech modality had a far greater influence on word comprehension than gestures. Second, the influence of gestures was greater for the older children. Mathematical models of speech-gesture understanding were tested against the data. Selection models assume that one dimension of information is used on a given trial, and that the selection of a modality depends on the ambiguity of information encoded on the dominant dimension. The Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception (FLMP) assumes that both modalities are evaluated independently of one another and then integrated to achieve comprehension. The results from both age groups were best described by the assumptions of the FLMP. Results are related to general claims about perceptual development during childhood concerning the quality of representations formed and dimensional selectivity of visual-spoken language.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed2002

The role of action knowledge in the comprehension of artefacts--a PET study.

Activation of the left ventral premotor cortex (PMv) has in previous imaging studies been associated with the processing of visually presented artefacts. It has been suggested that this activation reflects processing of action knowledge and that action knowledge contributes to the comprehension of artefacts. The purpose of the present study was to test whether activation of the left PMv is common for all tasks involving the comprehension of artefacts or whether it is task specific. This was done by comparing performance and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) associated with two categorization tasks and two naming tasks divided by category (natural objects vs artefacts). The left PMv (BA 6/44) was more activated by the categorization task for artefacts than by the categorization task for natural objects and the naming task for artefacts. However, the left PMv was not associated with the contrast between the naming task for artefacts and the naming task for natural objects nor with the processing of artefacts in general. If the PMv does mediate action knowledge, these results suggest that action knowledge does not contribute directly to the comprehension of artefacts but may support the categorization of artefacts. The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to category-specific recognition impairments for artefacts.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Perspectives on teaching comprehensive school health.

This paper seeks to give some perspective to health education teaching as it has developed over a period of time. First, I review the source of our modern comprehensive sequential curriculum design--just to remind us of its roots. Following that, I describe current developments in teaching, highlighting some examples of widely used curricula and sources of other teaching aids for health. Finally, I review some relevant findings from a recent evaluation of comprehensive health education in U.S. public schools to show us where we are today and to help answer the questions: "Is comprehensive school health education worthwhile?"

Adolescent↗

PubMed1975

[Diagnosis of language-understanding deficit in aphasia. Methodological considerations and composition of a test for discourse comprehension (author's transl)].

The investigation of language comprehension in aphasics has usually been concerned only with the word and sentence levels. It has not been considered that language in the normal communicative situation has the character of discourse. Furthermore, language understanding should be conceived of as comprising different processes of comprehension which can be selectively affected in aphasia. It was therefore necessary to compose a test for text comprehension. In this test the patient is read a short text and then required to choose that picture from a multiple-choice set which is most appropriate to the story. Texts and pictures were developed according to the linguistic parameters: agent/experiencer, action, situation, metaphorical comment. With the tasks kept uniform this test allows not only quantitative but also qualitative statistical evaluation. Preliminary results show that the test reveals qualitative differences between subtypes of aphasia.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Working-memory capacity and reading comprehension in young and older adults.

This study investigates the role of working-memory capacity in reading comprehension in young and older subjects. A task yielding separate measures for processing and storage components was used to assess working-memory capacity. A French version of the Nelson-Denny test was administered as a measure of abilities that underlie reading comprehension. In the working-memory task, recall performances were lower in older subjects. Nevertheless, the intercorrelations suggested that the age-related impairment was probably linked to the processing component. Mean scores on the reading-comprehension test did not differ between groups. However, scores were correlated with processing time on the working-memory task in younger subjects, but with storage capacity in older subjects.

Adult↗