'Call fast, Call 911': a direct mail campaign to reduce patient delay in acute myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVES: A 10-month direct mail campaign was implemented to increase use of emergency medical services via 911 calls and to reduce prehospital delay for individuals experiencing acute myocardial infarction symptoms. METHODS: This prospective, randomized, controlled trial involved three intervention groups (receiving brochures with informational, emotional, or social messages) and a control group. RESULTS: Intervention effects were not observed except for individuals who had a history of acute myocardial infarction and who were discharged with a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction; their 911 use was meaningfully higher in each intervention group than in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The mailings affected only the individuals at greatest risk.

Higher plasma IGF-1 levels are associated with increased delta sleep in healthy older men.

BACKGROUND: Sleep quality declines with age, with less time in deep or slow wave sleep (SWS) and reduced amplitude of the delta waves that characterize it. Age-related declines also occur in lean body mass, growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). These changes in sleep quality and anabolic status may be related, as administration of GH or growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) can enhance SWS and decrease awakenings in young men. Here we examine the relationship between plasma IGF levels and delta sleep quality in older men. METHODS: The sleep EEG of 30 healthy elderly men (64 +/- 6 yrs; range 50-75) was recorded on the second of 2 consecutive nights. Plasma samples were drawn within 3 weeks of EEG recording, and IGF levels were assayed by RIA after acid extraction. RESULTS: IGF explained 28% (semi-partial correlation coefficient r = .53; p = .003) of the variance in average delta energy per epoch of SWS, after age-related variance was removed. Higher IGF was associated with higher average delta energy. Similar results were obtained for total delta energy during SWS (r = .37, p = .04) 4nd time spent in SWS (r = .42, p = .02). Other measures of sleep quality (e.g., wakefulness, REM sleep) were not correlated with IGF. The IGF delta relationship was minimally influenced by moderator variables such as thyroxine (T3, T4), and/or body mass index (BMI). CONCLUSION: We conclude that age-adjusted IGF levels in healthy senior men co-vary significantly with SWS and the delta energy that characterizes it.

C STAGE, automated sleep scoring: development and comparison with human sleep scoring for healthy older men and women.

Using the sleep records of 200 men and women (age 55-85 years), we have developed a human-assisted computer scoring system, C STAGE. The system can have many applications, including quantitative electroencephalographic (EEG) analysis during specific stages of sleep. C STAGE classifies sleep/wake stages using power spectral analysis and other techniques applied to one channel of EEG data. Here we report comparability data between C STAGE- and human-rated sleep-stage scoring using Rechtschaffen and Kales criteria for 70 normal subjects (a subset of the 200). Because the method was developed using these subjects, we also report comparability data for an independent validation sample of 45 normal older men and women. For waking measures, sleep stages 3 and 4, and total sleep time, C STAGE yielded ratings comparable with the human rater (r = 0.73-0.91; p < 0.001). For sleep stages 1 and 2 and REM sleep, C STAGE correlated less well with human ratings (r = 0.59-0.81; p < 0.001). Overall, these correlations compare well with other currently available computer stage-scoring methods. Epoch-by-epoch comparisons in the validation sample revealed a mean proportion of agreement of 0.74 and a mean Kappa coefficient of 0.57, indicating the two methods provide reasonable agreement on an epoch-by-epoch basis. We conclude that C STAGE is a valid sleep/waking scoring system for healthy older adults.