Quality of sleep in patients with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease [PD] is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder causing motor and non-motor symptoms. The latter are common and include autonomic dysfunction, cognitive impairment, and sleep difficulties. Many of the non-motor aspects of PD such as sleep disturbance are more common and significantly affect the day-to-day activities of patients and their quality of life. The most important aim of this study was to evaluate the sleep quality in patients with PD. This case-control study was performed on patients with PD referred to the Neurology Clinic of our teaching hospital in 2011. Thirty-four patients with PD and 34 healthy people as control group were enrolled in this study. Sleep quality of patients and control was evaluated by Parkinson's disease sleep scale [PDSS] questionnaire. PDSS is a reliable and valid tool to measure sleep disorders in PD. The mean total PDSS score in patient group was 55.29 [SD = 26.92] indicating moderate to severe sleep disturbances whereas, the mean total score in control group was 20.34 [SD = 10.65]. Difference between the two groups' mean scores was significant [P < 0.05]. Our study demonstrated that patients with PD experienced poorer nocturnal sleep quality than the control group

Low-dose cytosine arabinoside; disease free survival and overall survival in the elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia

The median age of the patients with acute myeloid leukemia [AML] is 65 years. Studies have revealed that the prognosis of the elderly patients [over 60 years] is not satisfying. The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival of AML patients being treated with Low-dose Cytosine arabinoside. In this cross-sectional study, 20 AML patients treated with Low-dose Cytosine arabinoside. Disease free survival and overall five-year survival ratios were identified. In this study there were 11 males [55%] and nine female [45%] with a mean age of 63.3 +/- 18.4 years. The median of disease free survival was 12.4 months and five-year survival was 1.7 years. Apparently disease-free survival and overall five-year survival in the AML patients being treated with Low-dose Cytosine arabinoside are similar to that of cases being treated with intense chemotherapy regimens