In order to effectively study the population experiencing insomnia, it is important to identify reliable and valid tools to measure sleep that can be administered in the home setting. The purpose of this study was to assess psychometric properties for the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (CPSQI) in community-dwelling adults with primary insomnia. The CPSQI had an overall reliability coefficient of 0.82 -0.83 for all subjects. "Subjective sleep quality" was the component most highly correlated with the global score. Overall, the CPSQI showed acceptable test-retest reliability over a 14- to 21-day interval with a coefficient of 0.85 for all subjects and 0.77 for primary insomniacs. The two contrasting groups had significantly different global and component scores. A CPSQI of greater than 5 yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 98 and 55% in primary insomniacs vs. controls. A CPSQI of greater than 6 resulted in a sensitivity and specificity of 90 and 67%. Results suggest that the CPSQI is a psychometrically sound measure of sleep quality and disturbance for patients with primary insomnia. It may not be an effective screening tool because of its low specificity, but it can be a sensitive, reliable, and valid outcome assessment tool for use in community-based studies of primary insomnia.

Sovitj Pou, after receiving his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Oregon, became a postdoctoral fellow with Gerald Rosen at Duke University. Thereafter, he joined the faculty in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He is an Assistant Professor in the Medical Biotechnology Institute. His current research interests center on the synthesis of isotope-labeled spin traps. Pei Tsai was educated at the University of Oregon, where she received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry. She is a postdoctoral fellow with Gerald Rosen, developing spin traps for the in vivo in situ detection of free radicals, including nitric oxide, in animal models. Gerald Rosen, after receiving his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Clarkson University and spending three years of postdoctoral training in pharmacology, joined the Department of Pharmacology, Duke University, where he spent most of his academic career. In 1988, he became Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, until 1993, when he returned to full-time research, conducting experiments on the in vivo identification of biologically generated free radicals such as nitric oxide using spin trapping/EPR spectroscopy. He is currently Isaac E. Emerson Professor of pharmacology.

Assessment of preoperative pressure pain tolerance is significantly correlated with the level of postoperative pain. Pain tolerance assessment after fentanyl was administered and fentanyl sensitivity predicted the dose of analgesics used in the first 24 h after surgery. The algometer is thus a simple, useful tool for predicting postoperative pain and analgesic consumption.

Lower heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events and mortality, although the extent of the association is uncertain. We performed a meta-analysis of cohort studies to elucidate the association between HRV and the risk of all-cause death or cardiovascular events in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) during a follow-up of at least 1 year. We searched four databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) and extracted the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) from eligible studies. We included 28 cohort studies involving 3,094 participants in the meta-analysis. Results revealed that lower HRV was associated with a higher risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular events; the pooled HRs were 2.12 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.64, 2.75]) and 1.46 (95% CI [1.19, 1.77]), respectively. In subgroup analyses, the pooled HR of all-cause death was significant for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) but not for those with heart failure. The pooled HR for cardiovascular events was significant for the subgroup of patients with AMI and acute coronary syndrome but not for those with coronary artery disease and heart failure. Additionally, both time and frequency domains of HRV were significantly associated with risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular events in patients with CVD.