Search results for "Case"
showing 10 items of 3855 documents
Nonlinear coupling is absent in acute myocardial patients but not healthy subjects.
2008
We investigated whether autonomic nervous system imbalance imposed by pharmacological blockades and associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is manifested as modifications of the nonlinear interactions in heart rate variability signal using a statistically based bispectrum method. The statistically based bispectrum method is an ideal approach for identifying nonlinear couplings in a system and overcomes the previous limitation of determining in an ad hoc way the presence of such interactions. Using the improved bispectrum method, we found significant nonlinear interactions in healthy young subjects, which were abolished by the administration of atropine but were still present afte…
Cerebellar patients demonstrate preserved implicit knowledge of association strengths in musical sequences
2006
Recent findings suggest the involvement of the cerebellum in perceptual and cognitive tasks. Our study investigated whether cerebellar patients show musical priming based on implicit knowledge of tonal-harmonic music. Participants performed speeded phoneme identification on sung target chords, which were either related or less-related to prime contexts in terms of the tonal-harmonic system. As groups, both cerebellar patients and age-matched controls showed facilitated processing for related targets, as previously observed for healthy young adults. The outcome suggests that an intact cerebellum is not mandatory for accessing implicit knowledge stored in long-term memory and for its influenc…
Amusic does not mean unmusical: Beat perception and synchronization ability despite pitch deafness
2013
Pitch deafness, the most commonly known form of congenital amusia, refers to a severe deficit in musical pitch processing (i.e., melody discrimination and recognition) that can leave time processing--including rhythm, metre, and "feeling the beat"--preserved. In Experiment 1, we show that by presenting musical excerpts in nonpitched drum timbres, rather than pitched piano tones, amusics show normal metre recognition. Experiment 2 reveals that body movement influences amusics' interpretation of the beat of an ambiguous drum rhythm. Experiment 3 and a subsequent exploratory study show an ability to synchronize movement to the beat of popular dance music and potential for improvement when give…
Declarative verbal memory impairments in middle-aged women who are caregivers of offspring with autism spectrum disorders: The role of negative affec…
2015
Caring for offspring diagnosed with a chronic psychological disorder such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is used in research as a model of chronic stress. This chronic stress has been reported to have deleterious effects on caregivers' cognition, particularly in verbal declarative memory. Moreover, such cognitive decline may be mediated by testosterone (T) levels and negative affect, understood as depressive mood together with high anxiety and anger. This study aimed to compare declarative memory function in middle-aged women who were caregivers for individuals with ASD (n = 24; mean age = 45) and female controls (n = 22; mean age = 45), using a standardised memory test (Rey's Auditory V…
Ranking the impact of human health disorders on gut metabolism: Systemic lupus erythematosus and obesity as study cases
2015
Multiple factors have been shown to alter intestinal microbial diversity. It remains to be seen, however, how multiple collective pressures impact the activity in the gut environment and which, if any, is positioned as a dominant driving factor determining the final metabolic outcomes. Here, we describe the results of a metabolome-wide scan of gut microbiota in 18 subjects with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 17 healthy control subjects and demonstrate a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between the two groups. Healthy controls could be categorized (p < 0.05) based on their body mass index (BMI), whereas individuals with SLE could not. We discuss the prevalence of SLE c…
Subcutaneous and omental fat expression of adiponectin and leptin in women with polycystic ovary syndrome
2007
Objective To assess message expression of adiponectin and leptin in visceral and SC fat in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and in control women. Design Prospective clinical trial. Setting Academic medical centers in Mexico City, Mexico and New York, New York. Patient(s) Women with PCOS and control women. Intervention(s) Surgical biopsies of visceral (omental) and subcutaneous (SC) adipose tissue, fasting blood samples, and ultrasound measurements of visceral and SC fat. Main Outcome Measure(s) Messenger RNA assessment of adiponectin and leptin in adipose tissue samples; serum measurements of adiponectin, leptin, glucose, insulin, and hormone levels; measurements of fat quantity …
Increased thioredoxin levels are related to insulin resistance in familial combined hyperlipidaemia
2015
BACKGROUND Thioredoxins (TRX) are major cellular protein disulphide reductases that are critical for redox regulation. Oxidative stress and inflammation play promoting roles in the genesis and progression of atherosclerosis, but until now scarce data are available considering the influence of TRX activity in familial combined hyperlipidaemia (FCH). Since FCH is associated with high risk of cardiovascular disease, the objective of the present study was to assess oxidative stress status in FCH patients, and evaluate the influence of insulin resistance (IR). MATERIALS AND METHODS A cohort of 35 control subjects and 35 non-related FCH patients were included, all of them nondiabetic, normotensiv…
Low bcl-2 expression and increased spontaneous apoptosis in T-lymphocytes from newly-diagnosed IDDM patients.
1995
The bcl-2 gene product has been shown to regulate apoptotic cell death, and its dysregulation has been shown to induce several abnormalities in the immune system. No data exist regarding bcl-2 expression in autoimmune diseases, such as human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). We investigated bcl-2 protein expression by testing T lymphocytes from 15 newly-diagnosed (3 weeks) IDDM patients in comparison to 10 age-matched control subjects. The expression of bcl-2 on CD3+ lymphocyte subsets was investigated after membrane permeabilization by two- or three-colour immunofluorescence. When the percentage and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of bcl-2+/CD3+ cells from normal individuals an…
Hyperinsulinemia as a determinant of microalbuminuria in essential hypertension
1997
OBJECTIVE To analyze the relationship between insulinemia and urinary albumin excretion in a group of nonobese, young adult hypertensive patients, who had never been treated with antihypertensive drugs. PATIENTS AND METHODS Forty-nine patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitorings, urinary albumin excretion (UAE) measurements, and an oral glucose-tolerance test measuring glucose and insulin, were performed, and left ventricular mass was measured by echocardiography. Hypertensive patients were classified as normoalbuminuric when their UAE was < 30 mg/24 h (40 patients; mean UAE 13.4 +/- 7.0 mg/24 h), and as microalbuminuric…
Circulating Apelin is increased in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and is associated with better glycaemic control
2013
SummaryContext Apelin is an adipokine expressed in several tissues and it appears to be involved in energy metabolism. Objective The aim of this study was to determine serum apelin levels in a large cohort of patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and control subjects and to correlate the results with glycaemic control. Design and Participants One hundred and thirty patients with type 1 diabetes, 98 patients with type 2 diabetes and 162 controls were enrolled in the study. Apelin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Serum apelin levels were significantly higher in type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients than in controls (P < 0·0001). Serum apelin levels were high…