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Linguistic guidelines for the design of sentences for speech audiometry with children are described, and new lists of test sentences which are based on such guidelines--the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Sentence Lists for Children--are introduced. Audiometric data relating to the use of the new lists are presented and discussed.

Background and PurposeThere have been few communitybased studies of long-term prognosis after acute stroke. This study aims to provide precise estimates of the absolute and relative risks of stroke recurrence in an unselected cohort of patients with a first-ever stroke.Methods Six hundred seventy-five patients were registered in a community-based stroke register (the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project) and prospectively followed for up to 6.5 years. Their relative risk of recurrent stroke was calculated using age-and sex-specific incidence rates for first stroke in Oxfordshire.Results One hundred eighty recurrent episodes of stroke were identified, of which 135 were first recurrences. Given survival, the actuarial risk of suffering a recurrence was 30% (95% confidence interval, 20% to 39%) by 5 years, about nine

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Background and Purpose: There have been relatively few community-based studies of long-term prognosis after acute stroke. This study aimed to provide precise estimates of the absolute and relative risks of dying in an unselected cohort of patients with a first-ever stroke.

Patients with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) can present as isolated lacunar infarction or with diffuse white matter changes, with the imaging appearance of leukoaraiosis. Endothelial dysfunction, which can lead to breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, impaired cerebral autoregulation and prothrombotic changes, is believed to be important in mediating disease. Circulating levels of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM1), thrombomodulin (TM), tissue factor (TF) and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) are markers of endothelial activation and damage, and may provide insights into disease pathogenesis or differences between phenotypes. We therefore measured these markers in a prospective series of patients with lacunar stroke. One hundred and ten white Caucasian patients with previous lacunar stroke and 50 community control subjects were studied. Markers of endothelial function were measured on venous blood samples. Patients were classified on brain imaging into two groups: isolated lacunar infarction (n = 47) and ischaemic leukoaraiosis, defined as a clinical lacunar stroke and leukoaraiosis on brain imaging (n = 63). The number of lacunes and severity of leukoaraiosis were also scored on MRI. ICAM1, TM and TFPI were elevated in cerebral SVD subjects compared with controls (P