The birth and development of clinical physiology in Finland

The specialty of clinical physiology was established in Finland about 20 years later than in Sweden. In the early 1960s, six physicians working mainly in preclinical departments of physiology were certified as specialists in clinical physiology. Many of the first specialists working in hospitals received specialist training in Sweden. The first hospital laboratories of clinical physiology were established in Tampere Central Hospital and Turku University Hospital in 1968. Thereafter, laboratories of clinical physiology were also established in Helsinki University Hospital and in Kuopio University Hospital and later also in most central hospitals. After clinical physiology laboratories were set up in hospitals and the number of specialists increased, the specialty gradually had more impact in clinical work. In the 1999 reform, nuclear medicine, which had previously been a subspecialty, was combined with clinical physiology. Arto Uusitalo was nominated the first professor of clinical physiology in Tampere University in 1984. The first professor in Helsinki University was Anssi Sovijarvi (1994), in Kuopio University Esko Lansimies (1998), and in Turku University Jaakko Hartiala (2003). Today, at four universities professors of clinical physiology and nuclear medicine lead research and medical education in this specialty. The hospital laboratories have modern equipment, which promotes multidisciplinary research with clinicians in fruitful collaboration. The Finnish Society of Clinical Physiology was founded in 1975. Today, it has about 160 members, about half of whom are specialists in the field. On its 40th anniversary, the Society decided to publish the history of clinical physiology in Finland.Peer reviewe

Combining supervised and unsupervised named entity recognition to detect psychosocial risk factors in occupational health checks

Introduction: In occupational health checks the information about psychosocial risk factors, which influence work ability, is documented in free text. Early detection of psychosocial risk factors helps occupational health care to choose the right and targeted interventions to maintain work capacity. In this study the aim was to evaluate if we can automate the recognition of these psychosocial risk factors in occupational health check electronic records with natural language processing (NLP). Materials and methods: We compared supervised and unsupervised named entity recognition (NER) to detect psychosocial risk factors from health checks’ documentation. Occupational health nurses have done these records. Results: Both methods found over 60% of psychosocial risk factors from the records. However, the combination of BERT-NER (supervised NER) and QExp (query expansion/paraphrasing) seems to be more suitable. In both methods the most (correct) risk factors were found in the work environment and equipment category. Conclusion: This study showed that it was possible to detect risk factors automatically from free-text documentation of health checks. It is possible to develop a text mining tool to automate the detection of psychosocial risk factors at an early stage</p

The birth and development of clinical physiology in Finland

The specialty of clinical physiology was established in Finland about 20 years later than in Sweden. In the early 1960s, six physicians working mainly in preclinical departments of physiology were certified as specialists in clinical physiology. Many of the first specialists working in hospitals received specialist training in Sweden. The first hospital laboratories of clinical physiology were established in Tampere Central Hospital and Turku University Hospital in 1968. Thereafter, laboratories of clinical physiology were also established in Helsinki University Hospital and in Kuopio University Hospital and later also in most central hospitals. After clinical physiology laboratories were set up in hospitals and the number of specialists increased, the specialty gradually had more impact in clinical work. In the 1999 reform, nuclear medicine, which had previously been a subspecialty, was combined with clinical physiology. Arto Uusitalo was nominated the first professor of clinical physiology in Tampere University in 1984. The first professor in Helsinki University was Anssi Sovijarvi (1994), in Kuopio University Esko Lansimies (1998), and in Turku University Jaakko Hartiala (2003). Today, at four universities professors of clinical physiology and nuclear medicine lead research and medical education in this specialty. The hospital laboratories have modern equipment, which promotes multidisciplinary research with clinicians in fruitful collaboration. The Finnish Society of Clinical Physiology was founded in 1975. Today, it has about 160 members, about half of whom are specialists in the field. On its 40th anniversary, the Society decided to publish the history of clinical physiology in Finland

Circulating N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide and cardiac function in response to acute systemic hypoxia in healthy humans

Background: As it remains unclear whether hypoxia of cardiomyocytes could trigger the release of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in humans, we investigated whether breathing normobaric hypoxic gas mixture increases the circulating NT-proBNP in healthy male subjects.Methods: Ten healthy young men (age 29 ± 5 yrs, BMI 24.7 ± 2.8 kg/m2) breathed normobaric hypoxic gas mixture (11% O2/89% N2) for one hour. Venous blood samples were obtained immediately before, during, and 2 and 24 hours after hypoxic exposure. Cardiac function and flow velocity profile in the middle left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) were measured by Doppler echocardiography.Results: Arterial oxygen saturation decreased steadily from baseline value of 99 ± 1% after the initiation hypoxia challenge and reached steady-state level of 73 ± 6% within 20-30 minutes. Cardiac output increased from 6.0 ± 1.2 to 8.1 ± 1.6 L/min and ejection fraction from 67 ± 4% to 75 ± 6% (both p < 0.001). Peak diastolic flow velocity in the LAD increased from 0.16 ± 0.04 to 0.28 ± 0.07 m/s, while its diameter remained unchanged. In the whole study group, NT-proBNP was similar to baseline (60 ± 32 pmol/ml) at all time points. However, at 24 h, concentration of NT-proBNP was higher (34 ± 18%) in five subjects and lower (17 ± 17%), p = 0.002 between the groups) in f

Effects of cognac on coronary flow reserve and plasma antioxidant status in healthy young men

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The cardioprotective effects of certain alcoholic beverages are partly related to their polyphenol content, which may improve the vasodilatory reactivity of arteries. Effect of cognac on coronary circulation, however, remains unknown. The purpose of this randomized controlled cross-over study was to determine whether moderate doses of cognac improve coronary reactivity as assessed with cold pressor testing (CPT) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) measument.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Study group consisted of 23 subjects. Coronary flow velocity and epicardial diameter was assessed using transthoracic echocardiography at rest, during CPT and adenosine infusion-derived CFR measurements before drinking, after a moderate (1.2 ± 0.1 dl) and an escalating high dose (total amount 2.4 ± 0.3 dl) of cognac. To explore the bioavailability of antioxidants, the antioxidant contents of cognac was measured and the absorption from the digestive tract was verified by plasma antioxidant capacity determination.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Serum alcohol levels increased to 1.2 ± 0.2‰ and plasma antioxidant capacity from 301 ± 43.9 μmol/l to 320 ± 25.0 μmol/l by 7.6 ± 11.8%, (p = 0.01) after high doses of cognac. There was no significant change in flow velocity during CPT after cognac ingestion compared to control day. CFR was 4.4 ± 0.8, 4.1 ± 0.9 (p = NS), and 4.5 ± 1.2 (p = NS) before drinking and after moderate and high doses on cognac day, and 4.5 ± 1.4, and 4.0 ± 1.2 (p = NS) on control day.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Cognac increased plasma antioxidant capacity, but it had no effect on coronary circulation in healthy young men.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>NCT00330213</p