Catheter-directed thrombolysis and endovascular stent placement is a safe and effective treatment for SVC syndrome.

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OSA severity and presence of self-reported hypertension are associated with poor auditory verbal memory and executive function in older adults.

Use of interactive voice response (IVR) technology to monitor cognitive functioning in cognitively normal (CN), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and mild dementia (MD) participants was examined using 107 community-dwelling participants, 65 to 88 years old. Baseline Clinical Dementia Ratings identified 36 participants as CN, 37 with MCI, and 34 as MD. Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) and Mini-Mental State Examinations were administered during clinic visits at weeks 0, 8, 16, and 24. IVR cognitive testing was completed at each visit and from participants' homes at weeks 4, 12, and 20. Study partners provided dementia symptoms severity ratings via IVR. The assessment system received 719 participant and 723 partner calls. All calls initiated by CN participants, 99.2% by MCI participants, and 87.3% by MD participants were completed. Telephonic Remote Evaluation of Neuropsychological Deficit tasks showed significant performance differences between participant groups, good reliability, and convergent validity with Mini-Mental State Examinations and ADAS-Cog measures. Automated cognitive testing calls took about 18 minutes to complete, and informant calls took approximately 4 minutes. IVR informant data were convergent with the ADAS-Noncog measure. Computer-automated assessments of cognitive functioning via IVR provided reliable, valid data. Such assessments might benefit routine clinical care and large-scale, longitudinal research in the future, but will require additional research over longer periods.

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The norm of reciprocity is a widely accepted social rule that requires us to retum favors to those who do something nice for us. We conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that the obligation to retum favors diminishes as the amount of time between the initial favor and the opportunity to reciprocate grows. Participants in the first experiment were given an opportunity to retum a favor either 5 min or 1 week after receiving a free soft drink from a confederate. Participants in the 5-min condition agreed to the confederate's request to deliver an envelope across campus more often than control group participants receiving only the request. However, participants in the 1-week condition showed no significant reciprocity effect. Participants in the second experiment indicated in hjfpothetical scenarios that they would be less likely to retum a favor as the length of time since the favor increased. We interpret the findings to mean that the norm of reciprocity does not mandate an open-ended obligation to retum a favor. Rather, the social rule requires only that we retum acts of kindness within a reasonable period of time.Among the most prevalent of the social rules governing our daily interactions is the tendency to reciprocate acts of kindness, that is, the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960). In accordance with the reciprocity norm, we return favors to those who have helped us in the past and we feel obligated to send birthday and wedding gifts to those who send us gifts on our birthday and wedding day. When one team of researchers sent Christmas cards to people they had never met, a large number of the recipients responded by mailing back Christmas cards, sometimes Requests for reprints should be sent to

This is the first study to examine the impact of comorbid PTSD and MetS on cognition. The results suggest that MetS is associated with poorer verbal learning and executive functioning independent of PTSD. We discuss the necessity of monitoring cerebrovascular risk factors and providing early behavioral and/or pharmaceutical interventions to lessen the risk of cognitive decline in older age.

No abstract