The Effects of Occupational Stress on Quality of Life and Associated Factors among Hospital Nurses in Iran

Nurses deal with many crises at work. It is obvious that being exposed to stress for long, results in severe physical and mental complications and affects individual is welfare. This study was aimed at determining the quality of life (QOL) of nurses and whether there is any relation between occupational stress and QOL. This analytical-descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in University hospitals of Zanjan, Iran. 241 nurses were sampled using proportional to size stratified method. The data were collected by means of Iranian version of the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and a questionnaire on demographic information and work factors. Occupational stress was measured by Toft Gray and Anderson’s tool. The questionnaires were filled by nurses themselves and the data were analyzed by Spearman’s Correlation test, Kruskal-Wallis and one-way ANOVA and Enter-method Regression with SPSS 16.0 software. The results showed a high level of occupational stress among nurses, which adversely affected their quality of life. According to the results QOL of male and female nurses differ with men having a higher QOL and less occupational stress. 2 work factors, satisfaction and others positive attitude towards nursing, affected all dimensions of QOL and occupational stress. There was no significant correlation between QOL or occupational stress and factors like position, shift, ward, experience, time off, overtime hours, interest in desertion and education. According to harmful effects of occupational stress on nurses, cognitive-behavioral interventions, learning coping strategies are proposed

Association Between Psychological Stress and Stimulation of Inflammatory Responses in Periodontal Disease

Objective: Based on the evidence regarding the relationship between inflammatory processes and stress responses, the present study investigated the association between psychological stress and elevation of inflammatory mediators related to periodontal disease in adult patients.Materials and Methods: The study consisted of 50 patients including 25 patients with chronic periodontitis and 25 cases with aggressive periodontitis. Twenty-five healthy subjects without any evidence of periodontal disorder were also randomly selected as the control group. The clinical parameters including plaque index (PI), bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PPD) and clinical attachment loss (CAL) were recorded and GCF samples were collected for analysis of GCF contents of IL-6 and IL-1β levels. The Kettle stress questionnaire was also used to determine stress severity.Results: IL-1β was significantly higher, but IL-6 was only slightly higher(marginal p-value=0.058)The median score of stress was higher in aggressive periodontitis than the chronic disorder and also in the two periodontal disease groups than the healthy subjects. Among studied clinical parameters, CAL and PPD were positively correlated with the GCF IL-1β level. No significant correlations were found between clinical parameters and GCF IL-6 level. There were strong positive relationships between stress severity and in both aggressive and chronic periodontitis; however stress did not influence GCF contents of IL-6.Conclusion: Psychological stress has a pivotal role in the stimulation of inflammatory processes via IL-1β increase in aggressive and chronic periodontitis

Peripheral blood transcriptome profiling enables monitoring disease progression in dystrophic mice and patients

Abstract DMD is a rare disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and premature death. Therapy development is delayed by difficulties to monitor efficacy non‐invasively in clinical trials. In this study, we used RNA‐sequencing to describe the pathophysiological changes in skeletal muscle of 3 dystrophic mouse models. We show how dystrophic changes in muscle are reflected in blood by analyzing paired muscle and blood samples. Analysis of repeated blood measurements followed the dystrophic signature at five equally spaced time points over a period of seven months. Treatment with two antisense drugs harboring different levels of dystrophin recovery identified genes associated with safety and efficacy. Evaluation of the blood gene expression in a cohort of DMD patients enabled the comparison between preclinical models and patients, and the identification of genes associated with physical performance, treatment with corticosteroids and body measures. The presented results provide evidence that blood RNA‐sequencing can serve as a tool to evaluate disease progression in dystrophic mice and patients, as well as to monitor response to (dystrophin‐restoring) therapies in preclinical drug development and in clinical trials

A 24‐week, phase IIa, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study of ziritaxestat in early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis

ObjectiveWe undertook this study to explore the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of ziritaxestat, a selective autotaxin inhibitor, in patients with early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc). MethodsNOVESA was a 24-week, multicenter, phase IIa, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Adults with dcSSc were randomized to oral ziritaxestat 600 mg once daily or matching placebo. The primary efficacy end point was change from baseline in modified Rodnan skin score (MRSS) at week 24. Secondary end points assessed safety and tolerability; other end points included assessment of skin and blood biomarkers. Patients in NOVESA could enter a 104-week open-label extension (OLE). ResultsPatients were randomized to ziritaxestat (n = 21) or placebo (n = 12). Reduction in MRSS was significantly greater in the ziritaxestat group versus the placebo group (-8.9 versus -6.0 units, respectively; P = 0.0411). Placebo patients switching to ziritaxestat in the OLE showed similar reductions in MRSS to those observed for ziritaxestat patients in the parent study. Ziritaxestat was well tolerated; the most frequent treatment-related treatment-emergent adverse events were headache and diarrhea. Circulating lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) C18:2 was significantly reduced, demonstrating ziritaxestat target engagement, and levels of fibrosis biomarkers were reduced in the blood. No differentially expressed genes were identified in skin biopsies. Significant changes in 109 genes were identified in blood samples. ConclusionZiritaxestat resulted in significantly greater reduction in MRSS at week 24 than placebo; no new safety signals emerged. Biomarker analysis suggests ziritaxestat may reduce fibrosis. Modulation of the autotaxin/LPA pathway could improve skin involvement in patients with dcSSc. A plain language summary is provided in the Supplementary Material, available on the Arthritis & Rheumatology website at

A 24-Week, Phase IIa, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study of Ziritaxestat in Early Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis (NOVESA)

OBJECTIVE: NOVESA explored the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of ziritaxestat, a selective autotaxin inhibitor, in patients with early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc). METHODS: NOVESA was a 24-week, Phase IIa, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Adults with dcSSc were randomized to oral ziritaxestat 600 mg once daily or matching placebo. The primary efficacy endpoint was change from baseline in modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) at Week 24. Secondary endpoints assessed safety and tolerability; other endpoints included assessment of skin and blood biomarkers. Patients in NOVESA could enter a 104-week open-label extension (OLE). RESULTS: Patients were randomized to ziritaxestat (n = 21) or placebo (n = 12). Reduction in mRSS was significantly greater in the ziritaxestat versus placebo group (-8.9 vs. -6.0 units; P = 0.0411). Placebo patients switching to ziritaxestat in the OLE showed similar reductions in mRSS to those observed for ziritaxestat patients in the parent study. Ziritaxestat was well tolerated; the most frequent treatment-related treatment-emergent adverse events were headache and diarrhea. Circulating lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) C18:2 was significantly reduced, demonstrating ziritaxestat target engagement; levels of fibrosis biomarkers were reduced in the blood. No differentially expressed genes were identified in skin biopsies. Significant changes in 109 genes were identified in blood samples. CONCLUSION: Ziritaxestat resulted in significantly greater reductions in mRSS at Week 24 than placebo; no new safety signals emerged. Biomarker analysis suggests ziritaxestat may reduce fibrosis. Modulation of the autotaxin/LPA pathway could improve skin involvement in patients with dcSSc. A plain language summary is available in the Supplement

Simultaneous Enrichment Analysis of all Possible Gene-sets: Unifying Self-Contained and Competitive Methods

Studying sets of genomic features is increasingly popular in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics since analyzing at set level not only creates a natural connection to biological knowledge but also offers more statistical power. Currently, there are two gene-set testing approaches, self-contained and competitive, both of which have their advantages and disadvantages, but neither offers the final solution. We introduce simultaneous enrichment analysis (SEA), a new approach for analysis of feature sets in genomics and other omics based on a new unified null hypothesis, which includes the self-contained and competitive null hypotheses as special cases. We employ closed testing using Simes tests to test this new hypothesis. For every feature set, the proportion of active features is estimated, and a confidence bound is provided. Also, for every unified null hypotheses, a P-value is calculated, which is adjusted for family-wise error rate. SEA does not need to assume that the features are independent. Moreover, users are allowed to choose the feature set(s) of interest after observing the data. We develop a novel pipeline and apply it on RNA-seq data of dystrophin-deficient mdx mice, showcasing the flexibility of the method. Finally, the power properties of the method are evaluated through simulation studies.Development and application of statistical models for medical scientific researc