Search results for "Function"
showing 10 items of 14432 documents
Neuronal and Behavioral Correlates of Health Anxiety: Results of an Illness-Related Emotional Stroop Task
2011
<b><i>Background:</i></b> Health anxiety (HA) is defined as the objectively unfounded fear or conviction of suffering from a severe illness. Predominant attention allocation to illness-related information is regarded as a central process in the development and maintenance of HA, yet little is known about the neuronal correlates of this attentional bias. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> An emotional Stroop task with body symptom, illness, and neutral words was employed to elicit emotional interference in healthy participants with high (HA+, n = 12) and low (HA–, n = 12) HA during functional magnetic resonance imaging. <b><i>Results:</i>…
Rosuvastatin Prevents Conduit Artery Endothelial Dysfunction Induced by Ischemia and Reperfusion by a Cyclooxygenase-2–Dependent Mechanism
2010
ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to determine whether single-dose rosuvastatin (40 mg) protects against ischemia and reperfusion (IR)–induced endothelial dysfunction in humans and whether this effect is cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 dependent.BackgroundAnimal studies have demonstrated that rosuvastatin can limit damage and improve recovery after IR.MethodsIn a double-blind, parallel design, 20 volunteers were randomized to a single dose of oral rosuvastatin (40 mg) or placebo. Twenty-four hours later, endothelium-dependent, flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the radial artery was measured before and after IR (15 min of upper arm ischemia followed by 15 min of reperfusion). In a separate protoc…
Inhibition of nitric oxide activity by arginine analogs in human renal arteries
2001
Abstract Background: Plasma levels of endogenous guanidine compounds are increased in various pathologic conditions, including chronic renal failure. In the present study we tested the effects of some of these compounds on basal and stimulated nitric oxide activity in human renal arteries. Methods: Rings from human renal arteries were obtained from 22 patients undergoing nephrectomy. The rings were suspended in organ baths for isometric recording of tension. We then studied the effects of N G -monomethyl- l -arginine (L-NMMA), N G , N G -dimethyl- l -arginine (asymmetrical dimethylarginine [ADMA]), aminoguanidine (AG), and methylguanidine (MG) on artery rings under basal and stimulated cond…
Design and validation of a neuroprosthesis for the treatment of upper limb tremor.
2013
Pathological tremor is the most prevalent movement disorder. In spite of the existence of various treatments for it, tremor poses a functional problem to a large proportion of patients. This paper presents the design and implementation of a novel neuroprosthesis for tremor management. The paper starts by reviewing a series of design criteria that were established after analyzing users needs and the expected functionality of the system. Then, it summarizes the design of the neuroprosthesis, which was built to meet the criteria defined previously. Experimental results with a representative group of 12 patients show that the neuroprosthesis provided significant (p <; 0.001) and systematic trem…
Illness‐related intrusive thoughts and illness anxiety disorder
2020
Introduction Intrusive thoughts about health threats (illness-ITs) are a potential cognitive risk factor for the development and maintenance of illness anxiety disorder (IAD). This study analyzes the dimensionality of illness-ITs from normalcy to psychopathology, and it evaluates whether the appraisals instigated by the Its mediate between these thoughts and IAD symptoms. Methods Two groups of individuals participated in the study and completed the Illness Intrusive Thoughts Inventory and the Whiteley Index. The first group was composed of 446 non-clinical community participants. Of them, 264 individuals (68.6% women; Mage = 30.03 [SD = 13.83]) reported having experienced an upsetting illne…
Effects of Fractionated Plasma Separation and Adsorption on Survival in Patients With Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure
2012
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Fractionated plasma separation and adsorption (FPSA) is an extracorporeal procedure that supports liver function by removing endogenous toxins that cause complications from acute-on-chronic liver failure (AOCLF). We performed a randomized trial to investigate survival of patients with AOCLF treated with FPSA. METHODS: Patients with AOCLF were randomly assigned to groups given a combination of FPSA and standard medical therapy (SMT) (FPSA group, n = 77) or only SMT (SMT group, n = 68). The Prometheus liver support system was used to provide 8 to 11 rounds of FPSA (minimum of 4 hours each) for 3 weeks. Primary end points were survival probabilities at days 28 and 90, irresp…
Rifle-balancing in precision shooting:behavioral aspects and psychophysiological implication
2007
This study investigated sharpshooters' strategies to control their rifle stability during the aiming period. Six elite and six pre-elite shooters completed a simulated realistic shooting task (laser rifle), and their performance was evaluated from behavioral and psychophysiological perspectives. The analysis of the rifle's barrel movement, indexing the shooter's behavioral performance, supported the view that rifle-balancing is an essential determinant of superior shooting performance. The psychophysiological data, i.e. the brain slow potentials, suggested that the shooters applied different rifle-hold strategies; the elite shooters concentrated primarily on achieving a stable rifle positio…
Influence of social cognition as a mediator between cognitive reserve and psychosocial functioning in patients with first episode psychosis
2019
This work was supported by the Carlos III Institute of Health and European Fund for Regional Development (PI08/1213, PI11/01977, PI14/01900, PI08/01026, PI11/02831, PI14/01621, PI08/1161, PI16/00359, PI16/01164, PI18/00805), the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research (BIOEF), the Secretaria d´Universitats I Recerca del Departament d´Economia I Coneixement (2017 SGR 1365), and R&D activities in Biomedicine, Madrid Regional Government and Structural Funds of the European Union (S2017/BMD-3740 (AGES-CM 2-CM)).
Dopamine in amygdala gates limbic processing of aversive stimuli in humans
2008
Dopamine is known to contribute to the amygdala-mediated aversive response, where increased dopamine release can augment amygdala function. Combining fMRI and PET imaging techniques, Kienast et al. present findings that suggest a functional link between anxiety temperament, dopamine storage capacity and emotional processing in the amygdala. Dopamine is released under stress and modulates processing of aversive stimuli. We found that dopamine storage capacity in human amygdala, measured with 6-[18F]fluoro-L-DOPA positron emission tomography, was positively correlated with functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygen level–dependent signal changes in amygdala and dorsal anterior cingula…
Net influx of plasma 6-[18F]fluoro-L-DOPA (FDOPA) to the ventral striatum correlates with prefrontal processing of affective stimuli.
2006
Dopaminergic neurotransmission in the ventral and dorsal striatum interact with central processing of rewarding and reward-indicating stimuli, and may affect frontocortical-striatal-thalamic circuits regulating goal-directed behaviour. Thirteen healthy male volunteers were investigated with multimodal imaging, using the radioligand 6-[ 18 F]fluoro-L-DOPA (FDOPA) for positron emission tomography (PET) measurements of dopamine synthesis capacity, and also functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a cognitive activation paradigm. We calculated the correlation between FDOPA net blood-brain influx (K app in ; ml/g/min) in the ventral and associative dorsal striatum and BOLD signal changes …