Associations of Abdominal Muscle Area and Radiodensity with Adiponectin and Leptin: The Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

ObjectiveThis study examined the associations of muscle area and radiodensity with adiponectin and leptin.MethodsA total of 1,944 participants who enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis underwent computed tomography to quantify body composition and measurements of adiponectin, leptin, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and resistin.ResultsThe mean age and BMI of participants were 64.7 years and 28.1 kg/m2 and 49% were female. With adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, inflammatory biomarkers, physical activity, and sedentary behavior, a 1-SD increment in total abdominal, stability, and locomotor muscle area was associated with a 19%, 17%, and 12% lower adiponectin level, respectively (P < 0.01 for all) but not leptin (P > 0.05). Muscle radiodensity was more robustly associated with adiponectin and leptin in the multivariable linear regression models. That is, with full adjustment for all covariates, a 1-SD increment in total abdominal, stability, and locomotor muscle radiodensity was associated with a 31%, 31%, and 18% lower adiponectin level (P < 0.01 for all) and a 6.7%, 4.6%, and 8.1% higher leptin level (P < 0.05 for all), respectively.ConclusionsThe data suggest that increases in muscle area and radiodensity may have positive impacts on chronic inflammation and, in turn, reduce the risk of cardiometabolic disease

Use of non‐pharmacological strategies for pain relief in addiction treatment patients with chronic pain

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138296/1/ajad12600_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138296/2/ajad12600.pd

Access to Care, Reporting Behaviors, and Quality of Athletic Training Service Interactions for Reserve Officers\u27 Training Corps cadets

Purpose: Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) programs prepare student-civilians to become leaders through strenuous physical and leadership training. Unlike their student-athlete counterparts who have direct access to athletic training services, ROTC cadets may or may not have a healthcare provider available. The purpose of this study was to examine the access to care and reporting behaviors of ROTC cadets with a secondary aim exploring the quality of healthcare service interactions relative to patient-centered care. Methods: An online survey assessed access to care using a self-report tool on the type of medical providers available to the ROTC cadets (n=132, age=20±3 y) dispersed between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, and their illness/injury history and reporting behaviors. The participants who sought care for an injury/illness also completed the Consultation and Relational Empathy tool to measure the level of patient-centered care by the healthcare provider with follow-up analysis using the Consultation Care Measure tool for all athletic training service interactions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: ROTC cadets reported access to 2±1 healthcare providers including a designated civilian physician (26.5%), athletic trainer (23.5%), and ROTC peer first responder (14.4%). However, 50.8% of respondents stated they were unsure what healthcare providers were available. In total, 22.7% of cadets reported being injured and 26.5% reported being sick/ill while participating in ROTC activities. Of those who stated they had sustained an injury during ROTC, 59.9% seldomly or never reported their injury. The ROTC cadets who sought healthcare expressed they were satisfied with their injury (35.96±10.60) and illness (35.48±13.10) treatment from a patient-centered viewpoint. Conclusions: The ROTC cadets reported a general unfamiliarity with the healthcare providers available to them. Despite the reporting behaviors, the cadets reported being satisfied with the care they received

Intergenerational education mobility and depressive symptoms in a population of Mexican origin

Low educational attainment has been associated with depression among Latinos. However, few studies have collected intergenerational data to assess mental health effects of educational mobility across generations

Development and implementation of an Internet-based survivorship care program for cancer survivors treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

The Internet provides a widely accessible modality for meeting survivorship care needs of cancer survivors. In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of an Internet site designed as a base from which to conduct a randomized controlled trial to meet psycho-educational needs of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) survivors

Docetaxel-Loaded PLGA Nanoparticles Improve Efficacy in Taxane-Resistant Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Novel treatment strategies, including nanomedicine, are needed for improving management of triple-negative breast cancer. Patients with triple-negative breast cancer, when considered as a group, have a worse outcome after chemotherapy than patients with breast cancers of other subtypes, a finding that reflects the intrinsically adverse prognosis associated with the disease. The aim of this study was to improve the efficacy of docetaxel by incorporation into a novel nanoparticle platform for the treatment of taxane-resistant triple-negative breast cancer. Rod-shaped nanoparticles encapsulating docetaxel were fabricated using an imprint lithography based technique referred to as Particle Replication in Nonwetting Templates (PRINT). These rod-shaped PLGA-docetaxel nanoparticles were tested in the C3(1)-T-antigen (C3Tag) genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) of breast cancer that represents the basal-like subtype of triple-negative breast cancer and is resistant to therapeutics from the taxane family. Thi..

The role of spirituality in treatment of patients and work of health care workers

Duhovnost kao specifična dimenzija čovjekove osobnosti u medicini je prepoznata tek u posljednjih dvadesetak godina kao važan čimbenik u procesu izlječenja i odnosa zdravstveni djelatnik – bolesnik. U tu su svrhu provedena brojna istraživanja među pacijentima glede njihova religioznog svjetonazora i vjerničke duhovnosti kako bi se proniknulo što dublje i stekle što sveobuhvatnije spoznaje o utjecaju vjere i duhovnosti na ljudsko zdravlje. Kolika je važnost duhovnosti u suvremenoj medicini, posebice psihologiji, svjedoči i činjenica što su mnoge svjetske akademske institucije uvrstile duhovnost u programe redovite izobrazbe zdravstvenih djelatnika. Djelovanje zdravstvenog osoblja temelji se na kvalitetnom međuljudskom odnosu prema bolesnicima o kojima skrbe. Ovaj je odnos obilježen “povjerenjem” čovjeka koji je pogođen bolešću, ali se uzda u “savjest” i stručnost liječnika koji ga liječi i medicinske sestre koja ga njeguje. Ovaj se interpersonalni odnos temelji na pretpostavci da bolesnik nije samo “klinički slučaj”. Odnos, dakle, mora biti mnogo dublji, cjelovitiji, jer nije bolesno samo njegovo tijelo, nego je bolest zahvatila cijelu osobu, sa svim njezinim duševnim i duhovnim komponentama. Upravo zato zdravstveno osoblje treba biti osposobljeno prepoznati i procijeniti duhovne potrebe pacijenta. Dužnost je zdravstvenog djelatnika stvoriti ozračje međusobnog poštovanja kako bi stekao povjerenje bolesnika koji će potom očitovati svoje tegobe i osjećaje pa i duhovne potrebe. Zdravstveni djelatnik treba biti čuvar i služitelj ljudskoga života, što pretpostavlja integralni pristup fenomenu zdravlja i bolesti. Bez obzira na osobno vjersko uvjerenje ili svjetonazor zdravstveni je djelatnik pozvan u svom profesionalnom odnosu prema bolesniku poštivati i zagovarati temeljne moralne vrijednosti: dostojanstvo ljudske osobe i nepovrjedivost ljudskoga života na svim razinama: tjelesnoj, emocionalnoj, društvenoj i duhovnoj. Za liječenje bolesti, dakle, prijeko je potrebno uzeti u obzir ne samo tjelesne, psihološke i društvene, nego i duhovne čimbenike.Spirituality as a specific dimension of human personality has been recognized in medicine not earlier than the last twenty years as an important factor in the healing process and the relationship between the health care worker and patient. For this purpose numerous researches have been carried out among the patients with regard to their religious worldview and spirituality in order to gain a deep and comprehensive understanding of the influence of religion and spirituality on human health. The importance of spirituality in contemporary medicine, especially in psychology, can be seen in the fact that numerous academic institutions in the world have included spirituality in the educational programmes for health care professionals. The activities of health care workers are founded on a good quality relationship to the patients they care for. This relationship is marked by the confidence of the person affected by a disease who believes in the doctor’s conscience and expertise and the nurse’s care. This interpersonal relationship is based on the assumption that the patient is not just a clinical case. Therefore, the relationship should be much deeper and more comprehensive, because not only his body is ill but illness has affected the whole person with his/her mental and spiritual components. That is why health care workers should be qualified to recognize and assess the spiritual needs of the patient. It is the duty of health care workers to create an atmosphere of mutual respect in order to gain the trust of patients who will then manifest their problems and feelings as well as their spiritual needs. The health worker should be a guardian and minister of human life which implies an integral approach to the phenomenon of health and disease. Regardless of personal religious belief or worldview, a health care worker is called in his professional relationship to the patient to respect and advocate the fundamental moral values: human dignity and inviolability of human life at all levels: physical, emotional, social and spiritual. Therefore, in the treatment of diseases it is necessary to take into account not only physical, psychological and social factors, but spiritual factors as well

Growth characteristics in individuals with osteogenesis imperfecta in North America: results from a multicenter study.

PurposeOsteogenesis imperfecta (OI) predisposes people to recurrent fractures, bone deformities, and short stature. There is a lack of large-scale systematic studies that have investigated growth parameters in OI.MethodsUsing data from the Linked Clinical Research Centers, we compared height, growth velocity, weight, and body mass index (BMI) in 552 individuals with OI. Height, weight, and BMI were plotted on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention normative curves.ResultsIn children, the median z-scores for height in OI types I, III, and IV were -0.66, -6.91, and -2.79, respectively. Growth velocity was diminished in OI types III and IV. The median z-score for weight in children with OI type III was -4.55. The median z-scores for BMI in children with OI types I, III, and IV were 0.10, 0.91, and 0.67, respectively. Generalized linear model analyses demonstrated that the height z-score was positively correlated with the severity of the OI subtype (P < 0.001), age, bisphosphonate use, and rodding (P < 0.05).ConclusionFrom the largest cohort of individuals with OI, we provide median values for height, weight, and BMI z-scores that can aid the evaluation of overall growth in the clinic setting. This study is an important first step in the generation of OI-specific growth curves