Comparison of factors associated with drooling between intractable neuromuscular disease and cerebral palsy.

Drooling represents a common and noteworthy symptom in patients with intractable neuromuscular disease (IND) and cerebral palsy (CP) and can lead to poor quality of life (QOL) and higher incidence of death due to aspiration of saliva. Identifying the factors affecting drooling is crucial to improving QOL and improving the poor prognosis of patients with IND and CP. This study sought to assess the prevalence of drooling and to elucidate the associated factors, drugs, and differences between patients with IND and CP. We included hospitalized patients with IND and CP. Among the 269 patients, 69 of 162 patients with IND (42.6%) and 75 of 107 patients with CP (70.1%) exhibited drooling. Drooling in IND was significantly higher in patients with tube feeding and those who had a previous stroke than in patients with potential oral intake and those having no history of stroke. In individuals with CP, drooling was significantly negatively associated with age. Taltirelin in patients with IND had a significant positive association with drooling, and antipsychotics and centrally acting muscle relaxants in those with CP had a significant negative association with drooling. Our results suggest that the factors associated with frequent drooling differ between IND and CP cases, and patients who should be screened for drooling are those with decreased swallowing function, those with IND who have had a previous stroke, and young patients with CP. Moreover, clinicians should consider the impact of drugs on drooling in IND and CP cases.

Effects of green tea gargling on the prevention of influenza infection in high school students: a randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND: The anti-influenza virus activity of green tea catechins has been demonstrated in experimental studies, but clinical evidence has been inconclusive. School-aged children play an important role in the infection and spread of influenza in the form of school-based outbreaks. Preventing influenza infection among students is essential for reducing the frequency of epidemics and pandemics. As a non-pharmaceutical intervention against infection, gargling is also commonly performed in Asian countries but has not yet been extensively studied. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A randomized, open label, 2-group parallel study of 757 high school students (15 to 17 years of age) was conducted for 90 days during the influenza epidemic season from December 1st, 2011 to February 28th, 2012, in 6 high schools in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The green tea gargling group gargled 3 times a day with bottled green tea, and the water gargling group did the same with tap water. The water group was restricted from gargling with green tea. The primary outcome measure was the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza using immunochromatographic assay for antigen detection. 757 participants were enrolled and 747 participants completed the study (384 in the green tea group and 363 in the water group). Multivariate logistic regression indicated no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza between the green tea group (19 participants; 4.9%) and the water group (25 participants; 6.9%) (adjusted OR, 0.69; 95%CI, 0.37 to 1.28; P = 0.24). The main limitation of the study is the adherence rate among high school students was lower than expected. CONCLUSIONS: Among high school students, gargling with green tea three times a day was not significantly more efficacious than gargling with water for the prevention of influenza infection. In order to adequately assess the effectiveness of such gargling, additional large-scale randomized studies are needed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01225770.