1. Changes in blood pressure during the normal menstrual cycle are not well documented, and previous studies have given conflicting results. 2. Thirty normotensive women and ten mildly hypertensive women measured their blood pressure at home each morning for 6 weeks, under standardized conditions, using a UA-751 semi-automatic sphygmomanometer. All had normal menstrual cycles and subjects entered the study at difference phases of the cycle. 3. Blood pressure was higher at the onset of menstruation than at most other phases of the cycle (systolic blood pressure, P < 0.05; diastolic blood pressure, P < 0.001). Adjusted diastolic blood pressure was higher in the follicular than in the luteal phase (mean difference 1.23 mmHg, P < 0.001). Similarly, blood pressure was lower during days 17–26 than during the remainder of the cycle (adjusted mean difference in systolic blood pressure −0.65 mmHg, P = 0.07; adjusted mean difference in diastolic blood pressure − 1.19 mmHg, P < 0.001). 4. Similar patterns were seen in normotensive and hypertensive subjects, and changes in plasma 17β-oestradiol and progesterone concentrations were also similar in the two groups.

Individual tooth surfaces have vastly different susceptibilities to caries and this susceptibility also varies over time. The aim of this study was to develop a method of grouping tooth surfaces into a caries susceptibility classification based on their survival experience. The data used in the study were from a 3–year caries clinical trial. The definition of survival time was taken to be the time from the start of the trial to when a surface is recorded as decayed or filled. Cluster analysis was used to divide the tooth surfaces into groups in such a way that surfaces in the same group have similar survival time distributions. The 13 groups identified were ordered from 1 to 13 starting with the group with the shortest survival time, i.e. the occlusal surfaces of the four first molars. Approximately 80% of symmetrical pairs of tooth surfaces were in the same group. The groups obtained using cluster analysis were compared to groups defined using dental/anatomical criteria. It is concluded that the cluster analysis method developed for grouping the tooth surfaces cn provide a useful descriptive measure of caries susceptibility which can be applied to data from any longitudinal study of caries.

The decline in caries prevalence, the increases in the level of fluoride exposure, and the lack of placebo control subjects have complicated caries clinical trials in recent times. There has been a substantial increase in the numbers of subjects required for the detection of statistically significant differences between dental products, and hence, the cost of these trials has grown enormously. This study uses a new statistical approach to the analysis of the data from these trials with the ultimate aim of providing a more sensitive method of analysis. The new approach uses survival analysis, where the outcome measure is the survival time of an individual tooth surface. It exploits recent developments in the analysis of clustered survival data where survival times within the same cluster or subject are correlated. To illustrate, the new method of analysis was used for the North Wales, UK, caries clinical trial. It is concluded that survival analysis uses most of the data available in a caries clinical trial, an outcome measure that is easily understood and may lead to a more sensitive method of analysis.

Subnormal tHcy concentrations in male patients, the absence of a sex difference, and the positive association with age indicate that homocysteine metabolism differs between type 1 diabetic patients and control subjects. Homocysteine is unlikely to be of pathogenic significance in patients, particularly male subjects, with early microvascular disease and/or neuropathy.