BACKGROUND Antiretroviral treatment programs in sub-Saharan African countries are highly affected by LTF. Tracking patients lost to follow-up and understanding their status is essential to maintain program quality and to develop targeted interventions to prevent LTF. We aimed to determine the outcome and factors associated with LTF. METHOD A lost to follow-up community tracking survey was con...

Hypoxic episodes can evoke a prolonged augmentation of inspiratory motor output called long-term facilitation (LTF). Hypoglossal (XII) LTF has been assumed to represent increased tongue protrudor muscle activation and pharyngeal airway dilation. However, recent studies indicate that tongue protrudor and retractor muscles are coactivated during inspiration, a behavior that promotes upper airway ...

Reflexes from the carotid body have been implicated in cardiorespiratory disorders associated with chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH). To investigate whether CIH causes functional and/or structural plasticity in the carotid body, rats were subjected to 10 days of recurrent hypoxia or normoxia. Acute exposures to 10 episodes of hypoxia evoked long-term facilitation (LTF) of carotid body sensory ...

Repeated electrical or hypoxic stimulation of peripheral chemoreceptors has been shown to cause a persistent poststimulus increase in respiratory motoneuron activity, termed long-term facilitation (LTF). LTF after episodic hypoxia has been demonstrated most consistently in anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, artificially ventilated rats. Evidence for LTF in spontaneously breathing animals and...

We tested the hypothesis that exposure to neonatal intermittent hypoxia (n-IH) in rat pups alters central integrative processes following acute and intermittent peripheral chemoreceptor activation in adults. Newborn male rats were exposed to n-IH or normoxia for 10 consecutive days after birth. We then used both awake and anesthetized 3- to 4-mo-old rats to record ventilation, blood pressure, a...

Our study was designed to determine if central nervous system (CNS) serotonin is required for the induction of ventilatory long-term facilitation (LTF) in intact, spontaneously breathing mice. Nineteen tryptophan hydroxylase 2-deficient (Tph2(-/-)) mice, devoid of serotonin in the CNS, and their wild-type counterparts (Tph2(+/+)) were exposed to intermittent hypoxia each day for 10 consecutive ...

We tested the hypothesis that blockade of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and non-NMDA receptors on medullary lateral tegmental field (LTF) neurons would reduce the sympathoexcitatory responses elicited by electrical stimulation of vagal, trigeminal, and sciatic afferents, posterior hypothalamus, and midbrain periaqueductal gray as well as by activation of arterial chemoreceptors with intravenous N...

We hypothesized that the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) active drugs ketanserin and 5-carboxamidotryptamine (5-CT) would modulate time-dependent hypoxic phrenic and hypoglossal responses, including 1) short-term hypoxic response, 2) posthypoxia frequency decline (PHFD), and 3) long-term facilitation (LTF) of respiratory motor output. Phrenic and hypoglossal nerve activities were recorded in urethan...

INTRODUCTION Decentralization of HIV care for children has been recommended to improve paediatric outcomes by making antiretroviral treatment (ART) more accessible. We documented outcomes of children transferred after initiating ART at a large tertiary hospital in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. METHODS Electronic medical records for all children 0-15 years initiating ART at Dora Nginza Hos...

BACKGROUND A common problem faced by prosthodontists is achieving adequate retention and stability in the mandibular dentures. Recording the lateral throat form (LTF) correctly can aid in the retention and stability. Till date, Neil's classification has been considered as the gold standard in measuring the depth of the LTF. This is a subjective classification and varies among different operator...