Psihološki i socijalni aspekti radne sredine i biokemijski parametri u medicinskih sestara

Sixty-four female district nurses between the ages of 25 and 60 in the greater Stockholm area were subjects in a longitudinal study of psychosocial work environment and biochemical serum parameters. Each participant filled out questionnaires and had blood drawn on four different occasions at three-month intervals during one year. The rating on the fourth occasion showed psychosocial work environment to have deteriorated - social climate and authority over decisions were significantly inferior to those on previous occasions. These changes were accompanied by small but significant elevations of serum cholesterol, calcium and triglycerides. Another pattern was also observed which was probably due to increased health habit awareness - a progressive decrease in glycated haemoglobin and gamma glutamyl transferase. No significant interactions were observed with age or smoking habits - old and young subjects did not differ in their change patterns over time, nor did smokers in respect to non-smokers.Longitudinalna istraživanje odnosa psihološko-socijalnih aspekata radne sredine i biokemijskih parametara provedeno je među područnim patronažnim medicinskim sestrama u širem gradskom području Stockholma. Ispitanice su bile 64 patronažne medicinske sestre starosti između 25 i 60 godina, koje su četiri puta u razmacima od tri mjeseca, unutar jedne godine popunile upitnike i dale uzorke krvi. Prema njihovim ocjenama pri četvrtom ispitivanju psihološko-socialni aspekti radne sredine pogoršali su se - društvena klima i odgovornost pri odlučivanju bile su značajno nepovoljnije nego li pri prethodnim ispitivanjima. Promjene u radnoj sredini bile su popraćene malim ali značajnim porastom koncentracije kolesterola, kalcija i triglicerida u serumu. Primijećeno je i progresivno smanjenje glikoliziranog hemoglobina i gama glutamil transferaze do kojeg je vjerojatno došlo zahvaljujući povećanoj· svjesnosti ispitanica o zdravstvenim navikama. Nisu primijećene interakcije između ovih biokemijskih parametara i dobi i navike pušenja - u promjenama registriranima tijekom istraživanja nije bilo razlika između starijih i mladih ispitanica kao ni između pušačica i nepušačica

Adaptogenic and nootropic activities of aqueous extract of Vitis vinifera (grape seed): an experimental study in rat model

BACKGROUND: The aerial parts of Vitis vinifera (common grape or European grape) have been widely used in Ayurveda to treat a variety of common and stress related disorders. In the present investigation, the seed extract of V. vinifera was evaluated for antistress activity in normal and stress induced rats. Furthermore, the extract was studied for nootropic activity in rats and in-vitro antioxidant potential to correlate its antistress activity. METHODS: For the evaluation of antistress activity, groups of rats (n = 6) were subjected to forced swim stress one hour after daily treatment of V. vinifera extract. Urinary vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and ascorbic acid were selected as non-invasive biomarkers to assess the antistress activity. The 24 h urinary excretion of vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and ascorbic acid were determined by spectrophotometric methods in all groups under normal and stressed conditions. The nootropic activity of the extract as determined from acquisition, retention and retrieval in rats was studied by conditioned avoidance response using Cook's pole climbing apparatus. The in vitro antioxidant activity was determined based on the ability of V. vinifera to scavenge hydroxyl radicals. RESULTS: Daily administration of V. vinifera at doses of 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg body weight one hour prior to induction of stress inhibited the stress induced urinary biochemical changes in a dose dependent manner. However, no change in the urinary excretion of VMA and ascorbic acid was observed in normal animals at all the doses studied. The cognition, as determined by the acquisition, retention and recovery in rats was observed to be dose dependent. The extract also produced significant inhibition of hydroxyl radicals in comparison to ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner. CONCLUSION: The present study provides scientific support for the antistress (adaptogenic), antioxidant and nootropic activities of V. vinifera seed extract and substantiate the traditional claims for the usage of grape fruits and seeds in stress induced disorders

Effect of Age on Flow-Rate, Protein and Electrolyte Composition of Stimulated Whole Saliva in Healthy, Non-Smoking Women

As relatively little is known about the effect of age on salivary electrolytes we studied the composition of saliva as function of age to provide reference values for healthy non-smoking women. All non-medicated and non-smoking 30-59-year-old subjects (n=255) selected from among 1030 women participating in a screening program formed the material of the present study. Salivary calcium, inorganic phosphate, magnesium, sodium, potassium, protein and flow-rate of stimulated whole saliva were measured. We found age-related changes in salivary calcium and phosphate concentrations (p=0.001 and p=0.004, respectively, one-way ANOVA). Peak values occurred at around 50-54 years of age. Age had no effect on flow-rate, magnesium, sodium, potassium or proteins. The concentration of sodium correlated positively, while phosphate, potassium, magnesium and protein correlated negatively with the salivary flow-rate. Calcium was the only electrolyte which had no association with flow-rate. Our study provides reference values for salivary electrolytes of 30-59-year-old women

Blood ammonia levels in liver cirrhosis: a clue for the presence of portosystemic collateral veins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Portal hypertension leads to the formation of portosystemic collateral veins in liver cirrhosis. The resulting shunting is responsible for the development of portosystemic encephalopathy. Although ammonia plays a certain role in determining portosystemic encephalopathy, the venous ammonia level has not been found to correlate with the presence or severity of this entity. So, it has become partially obsolete. Realizing the need for non-invasive markers mirroring the presence of esophageal varices in order to reduce the number of endoscopy screening, we came back to determine whether there was a correlation between blood ammonia concentrations and the detection of portosystemic collateral veins, also evaluating splenomegaly, hypersplenism (thrombocytopenia) and the severity of liver cirrhosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One hundred and fifty three consecutive patients with hepatic cirrhosis of various etiologies were recruited to participate in endoscopic and ultrasonography screening for the presence of portosystemic collaterals mostly esophageal varices, but also portal hypertensive gastropathy and large spontaneous shunts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on Child-Pugh classification, the median level of blood ammonia was 45 mcM/L in 64 patients belonging to class A, 66 mcM/L in 66 patients of class B and 108 mcM/L in 23 patients of class C respectively (p < 0.001).</p> <p>The grade of esophageal varices was concordant with venous ammonia levels (rho 0.43, p < 0.001). The best area under the curve was given by ammonia concentrations, i, e., 0.78, when comparing areas of ammonia levels, platelet count and spleen longitudinal diameter at ultrasonography. Ammonia levels predicted hepatic decompensation and ascites presence (Odds Ratio 1.018, p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Identifying cirrhotic patients with high blood ammonia concentrations could be clinically useful, as high levels would lead to suspicion of being in presence of collaterals, in clinical practice of esophageal varices, and pinpoint those patients requiring closer follow-up and endoscopic screening.</p

Machine learning for genetic prediction of psychiatric disorders: a systematic review

Machine learning methods have been employed to make predictions in psychiatry from genotypes, with the potential to bring improved prediction of outcomes in psychiatric genetics; however, their current performance is unclear. We aim to systematically review machine learning methods for predicting psychiatric disorders from genetics alone and evaluate their discrimination, bias and implementation. Medline, PsycInfo, Web of Science and Scopus were searched for terms relating to genetics, psychiatric disorders and machine learning, including neural networks, random forests, support vector machines and boosting, on 10 September 2019. Following PRISMA guidelines, articles were screened for inclusion independently by two authors, extracted, and assessed for risk of bias. Overall, 63 full texts were assessed from a pool of 652 abstracts. Data were extracted for 77 models of schizophrenia, bipolar, autism or anorexia across 13 studies. Performance of machine learning methods was highly varied (0.48–0.95 AUC) and differed between schizophrenia (0.54–0.95 AUC), bipolar (0.48–0.65 AUC), autism (0.52–0.81 AUC) and anorexia (0.62–0.69 AUC). This is likely due to the high risk of bias identified in the study designs and analysis for reported results. Choices for predictor selection, hyperparameter search and validation methodology, and viewing of the test set during training were common causes of high risk of bias in analysis. Key steps in model development and validation were frequently not performed or unreported. Comparison of discrimination across studies was constrained by heterogeneity of predictors, outcome and measurement, in addition to sample overlap within and across studies. Given widespread high risk of bias and the small number of studies identified, it is important to ensure established analysis methods are adopted. We emphasise best practices in methodology and reporting for improving future studies