The Predictive Roles of Self-efficacy, Illness Perception, and Social Support in Self-care of Patients With Heart Failure

Background: As a chronic disease, heart failure (HF) is a growing problem that not only impacts patients but also their family members and friends. Self-care is the main part of HF treatment. Despite the significance of determining variables involved in self-care, the relationships of self-efficacy, illness perception, and social support with self-care and the predictive roles of these variables in the treatment of HF have not been investigated. Objectives: The present study was aimed at exploring the predictive roles of self-efficacy, illness perception, and social support in self-care of patients with heart failure. Methods: In this predictive correlation study, 149 patients with HF were selected through convenience sampling from Tabriz Research Treatment Centre of Heart in 2016. To collect data, a demographic information questionnaire, self-care behaviour scale, general self-efficacy (GSE), brief illness perception questionnaire (Brief-IPQ), and social support scale were used. To analyse data, SPSS software version 16, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple stepwise regression analyses were employed. Results: Out of 149 subjects, 102 (68%) participants were male, and 47 (32%) of them were female. The mean and standard deviation of samples’ age were (64.40±10.32) ranging from 37 to 88 years. Most of participants were married (82%). The mean scores were as follows: Self-care (40.66±13.16), self-efficacy (45.81±22.03), illness perception (56.05±18.24), and social support (49.09±6.74). Data analysis demonstrated significant correlations between illness perception and self-care (p<0.001, r=0.649), self-efficacy and self-care (p<0.001, r=-0.678), social support and self-care (p<0.001, r=-0.518), and age and self-care (p<0.001, r=-0.506). The standardized coefficient of illness perception was (β=0.274), social support was (β=-0.237), self-efficacy was (β=-0.230), and age was (β=-0.211). In addition, 56% of self-care variance is explained by age, social support, self-efficacy, and illness perception. Conclusion: All of the investigated variables were found to have a predictive role in self-care. Illness perception was recognized as the most effective factor in predicting self-care. Hence, illness perception can be used to explain 27% of self-care ability of patients with HF

Pimecrolimus cream in repigmentation of vitiligo

Background: Vitiligo is a chronic disease that mostly affects children and young adults. Nowadays many treatment options are available; however, most of them have limited efficacy and in most cases would result in undesirable complications. Objective: To determine the extent of repigmentation according to the location of the lesions after applying topical cream pimecrolimus 1 in vitiligo patients. Materials and Methods: Thirty consecutive patients with vitiligo lesions affecting less than 20 of body surface area without any previous history of spontaneous repigmentation were treated with pimecrolimus cream 1 twice daily for 12 weeks. The extent of repigmentation in vitiligo lesions was determined in each patient after 6 and 12 weeks. Results: Moderate to excellent response (repigmentation >26) was observed in 6.6 and 25.9 of vitiligo lesions 6 and 12 weeks after treatment, respectively. More responsive lesions were located on the trunk, face and elbow (85.7, 75 and 70). Conclusion: Pimecrolimus cream 1 results in repigmentation in vitiligo in different extents according to the location of the lesion; however, to clearly prove its efficacy as monotherapy or in combination with other available treatment options, double-blind placebo-controlled studies are essential. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG

Application of sebomics for the analysis of residual skin surface components to detect potential biomarkers of type-1 diabetes mellitus

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Metabolic imbalance in chronic diseases such as type-1 diabetes may lead to detectable perturbations in the molecular composition of residual skin surface components (RSSC). This study compared the accumulation rate and the composition of RSSC in type-1 diabetic patients with those in matched controls in order to identify potential biomarkers of the disease. Samples of RSSC were collected from the foreheads of type-1 diabetic (n = 55) and non-diabetic (n = 58) volunteers. Samples were subsequently analysed to identify individual components (sebomic analysis). There was no significant difference in the rate of accumulation of RSSC between type-1 diabetics and controls. In terms of molecular composition, 171 RSSC components were common to both groups, 27 were more common in non-diabetics and 18 were more common in type-1 diabetic patients. Statistically significant (P < 0.05) differences between diabetic and non-diabetic volunteers were observed in the recovered amounts of one diacylglyceride (m/z 594), six triacylglycerides (m/z 726-860) and six free fatty acids (m/z 271-345). These findings indicate that sebomic analysis can identify differences in the molecular composition of RSSC components between type-1 diabetic and non-diabetic individuals. Further work is required to determine the practical utility and identity of these potential biomarkers.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Somatic mosaicism and common genetic variation contribute to the risk of very-early-onset inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract: Very-early-onset inflammatory bowel disease (VEO-IBD) is a heterogeneous phenotype associated with a spectrum of rare Mendelian disorders. Here, we perform whole-exome-sequencing and genome-wide genotyping in 145 patients (median age-at-diagnosis of 3.5 years), in whom no Mendelian disorders were clinically suspected. In five patients we detect a primary immunodeficiency or enteropathy, with clinical consequences (XIAP, CYBA, SH2D1A, PCSK1). We also present a case study of a VEO-IBD patient with a mosaic de novo, pathogenic allele in CYBB. The mutation is present in ~70% of phagocytes and sufficient to result in defective bacterial handling but not life-threatening infections. Finally, we show that VEO-IBD patients have, on average, higher IBD polygenic risk scores than population controls (99 patients and 18,780 controls; P < 4 × 10−10), and replicate this finding in an independent cohort of VEO-IBD cases and controls (117 patients and 2,603 controls; P < 5 × 10−10). This discovery indicates that a polygenic component operates in VEO-IBD pathogenesis

Report of two cases of tuberculos Gumma

Tuberculos Gumma is one of the various clinical manifestations of cutaneous TB that is characterized by non tender, undolent subcutaneous nodules which progressively involve the skin and take the appearance of an ulcer. In this article, we present two young patients, affected with tuberculos gumma. One of them, presented with multiple abcesses on the face and extremities, associated with pulmonary involvement and arthritis of the left wrist. The other one had just one subcutaneous nodule on the face, with positive familial history of pulmonary TB and tuberculos lymphadenitis in her two brothers. Both patients were cured with anti TB treatment

Three familial cases of Pasini variant of dominant dystrophic epidermolysis

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is the term applied to a group of disorders whose common primary feature is the formation of blisters following trivial trauma. Hereditary EB comprises 3 major classes: simplex, junctional and dystrophic, and includes more than 23 phenotypes. The albopapuloid pasini variant of dominant dystrophic EB is characterized by a distinctive clinical appearance. In this article, we report this disease in three members of a family (father and two sons)

PACHYDERMODACTYLY : REPORT OF TWO CASES

&amp;nbsp;Pachydermodactyfy is a rare, benign mostly asymptomatic digital fibromatosis, characterized by swelling on the back and sides of proximal phalanges and (or) proximal interphaiangeal joints. It occurs predominantly in young males although a few women including a familial case were recently described. A history of repeated trauma is sometimes available, but the etiology remains unknown. We report two cases one of which had a history of repeated trauma (rubbing) to the involved area