Search results for "ARTICLES"
showing 10 items of 9626 documents
Sleep apnea and its role in transportation safety
2017
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a main cause of excessive daytime sleepiness and increases the risk for driving accidents, which can be normalized by treatment with continuous positive airway pressure ventilation. Since it is estimated that OSA is not diagnosed in about 80% of cases, recognition of patients at risk for driving accidents is a problem from both medical and societal points of view. Strategies to screen and identify subjects at high risk for driving accidents are under study in order to improve safety on the road, especially for commercial drivers, who show a high prevalence of OSA.
“Song of Life”: Results of a multicenter randomized trial on the effects of biographical music therapy in palliative care
2021
Background: Awareness for the importance of psychological and spiritual needs in patients with terminal diseases has increased in recent years, but randomized trials on the effects of psychosocial interventions are still rare. Aim: To investigate the efficacy of the “Song of Life” music therapy intervention regarding the emotional and psycho-spiritual dimensions of quality of life. Design: Patients were randomly assigned to either “Song of Life” or a relaxation intervention. “Song of Life” is a novel three-session music therapy intervention working with a biographically meaningful song. Primary outcome was the improvement in psychological quality of life. Secondary outcomes included spiritu…
IRS-2 deficiency impairs NMDA receptor-dependent long-term potentiation
2011
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.-- et al.
Obesity, Body Fat Distribution, and Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents
2001
Obesity is a common disease with an ever-increasing prevalence and usually with late-onset consequences. If acquired during childhood, it tracks into adult life to some extent, and since the relationship between obesity and hypertension is well established in adults, obese children appear to be at particularly high risk of becoming hypertensive adults. In the authors' study, obese children seemed to have significantly higher casual and ambulatory blood pressure than nonobese children, except for nighttime diastolic blood pressure. The health effects of obesity may depend on the anatomic distribution of body fat, which in turn may be a better indicator of endocrinologic imbalance, environmen…
Depression mediates physical activity readiness and physical activity in patients with heart failure.
2021
Aims Although physical activity (PA) and exercise are essential for patients with heart failure (HF), adherence to the recommended guidelines is low. Not much is known about the mediating effect of HF patients mental state with their readiness for PA and reported activity levels. The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediatory effect of depression on PA readiness (physical limitation and psychological readiness) and self-reported PA in patients with HF. Methods and results In this cross-sectional study, 163 New York Heart Association Class I and II HF patients, during their clinic visit, reported on their physical limitation (PAR-Q) and psychological readiness [self-efficacy (ESES…
Inter-relationship between platelet-derived microparticles and oxidative stress in patients with venous thromboembolism
2020
Background: Hypercoagulative conditions play a key role in venous thromboembolism (VTE). Inflammation is currently linked to VTE, but the potential role of circulating microparticles and oxidative stress (OxS) must be elucidated. The aim of this study was to evaluate platelet-derived microparticles and surrogate OxS biomarkers in patients diagnosed with VTE through a case&ndash
The Use of NFP When Pregnancy Is Contraindicated?
2020
The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has declared the moral liceity of hysterectomy when certain medical criteria are met but does not exclude other options, “for example, recourse to infertile periods or total abstinence.” Consequently, there may be couples who prefer to use natural family planning (NFP) methods. We shall refer to these in this article. The efficacy of NFP methods is determined by knowing the day of ovulation. To that end, three parameters are used: the presence and consistency of cervical mucus, measurement of the basal body temperature, and the determination of particular hormones in urine. Of the NFP methods used, the so-called sympto-thermal method se…
Septic cardiomyopathy: evidence for a reduced force-generating capacity of human atrial myocardium in acute infective endocarditis
2017
AbstractBackground:This study analyzes the myocardial force-generating capacity in infective endocarditis (IE) using an experimental model of isolated human atrial myocardium. In vivo, it is difficult to decide whether or not alterations in myocardial contractile behavior are due to secondary effects associated with infection such as an altered heart rate, alterations of preload and afterload resulting from valvular defects, and altered humoral processes. Our in vitro model using isolated human myocardium, in contrast, guarantees exactly defined experimental conditions with respect to preload, afterload, and contraction frequency, thus not only preventing confounding by in vivo determinants…
Serum markers for early detection of patients with mesenteric ischemia after cardiac surgery
2018
AbstractObjectiveMesenteric ischemia (MESI) is a rare but often fatal complication in patients after cardiac surgery. Non-specific clinical symptoms and lack of specific laboratory parameters complicate the diagnosis. We evaluated potential serum markers for MESI in cardiac surgery patients.MethodsBetween March and October 2012, serial serum samples of 567 elective cardiac surgery patients were collected 1, 24, and 48 h after the operation, and concentrations of potential markers for MESI [α-glutathione-S-transferase (αGST), intestinal fatty-acid-binding protein (iFABP), and D-lactate] were measured retrospectively. In patients requiring laparotomy, blood samples obtained 72, 48, 24, and 12…
Can you blame cold feet on Epac (and Rap1A)? Focus on “Cyclic AMP-Rap1A signaling activates RhoA to induce α2C-adrenoceptor translocation to the cell…
2012
Intracellular signaling by the second messenger cyclic AMP (cAMP) activates the Ras-related small GTPase Rap1 through the guanine exchange factor Epac. This activation leads to effector protein interactions, activation, and biological responses in the vasculature, including vasorelaxation. In vascular smooth muscle cells derived from human dermal arterioles (microVSM), Rap1 selectively regulates expression of G protein-coupled α2C-adrenoceptors (α2C-ARs) through JNK-c-jun nuclear signaling. The α2C-ARs are generally retained in the trans-Golgi compartment and mobilize to the cell surface and elicit vasoconstriction in response to cellular stress. The present study used human microVSM to exa…