A Study to Assess Changes in Cortisol Level and Heart Rate Variability between Fixed Duty and Shift Duty Health Care Providers in a Tertiary Care Hospital- A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Increased demand of service 24 hours around the clock has divided the workers into 2 domains as “Fixed duty” and “Shift duty”. Personals associated with shift duty are increasing in numbers day by day. Shift duty or more specifically night duty is associated with increased stress which results in high morbidity and decrease in work efficiency. Cortisol hormone and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) are useful parameters to determine the effects of stress. Aim: To find any change in cortisol levels, HRV, Athens score among the fixed duty and shift duty healthcare providers. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional comparative study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital at Kolkata between July, 15th to Sept, 15th 2021. Predesigned and pretested questionnaire was made and ethical clearance was taken from institutional IEC. Then after taking consent total 120 (60 fixed duty and 60 shift duty) healthcare providers were recruited for the study. Subjects of the study filled up a questionnaire {including Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS)}. After applying exclusion criteria (any cardiovascular, neurological, psychological, sleep disorder) 120 health individuals were taken five minutes short-term HRV (time and frequency domain) recording in supine posture and 4 PM blood sample (for cortisol) were obtained from the participants which was further analysed in Chemiluminescence Immunoassay (CLI). Data was analysed in SPSS version 20.0. Statistical tests like student t-test, Cron bach’s alpha and chi-square tests were applied significant p<0.05 (95% CI). Results: After analysis, shift duty workers showed a significant (p6) than fixed duty workers. Blood test showed that shift duty workers had significantly high evening cortisol level than fixed duty workers (p= 0.036). The time domain of HRV showed that the parameters like Standard Deviation all NN interval (SDNN) (p=0.001), Mean HR (p=0.037), RMSSD (p <0.001), NN50 (p=0.006), pNN50 (p=0.002) were significantly different in the two groups. Whereas the frequency domain of HRV showed that HF power was lower and LF power (p=0.002), LF/HF ratio (p <0.001) were significantly higher in shift duty workers. Conclusion: The study showed that shift duty workers had comparatively higher stress levels resulting in significantly high sympathetic drive and increased risk of insomnia. This can be associated with morbidity and ill health in the shifting duty workers

Thiol Modified Chitosan Self-Assembled Monolayer Platform for Nucleic Acid Biosensor

A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of thiol modified chitosan (SH-CHIT), with thioglycolic acid (TGA) as a modifier to bestow thiol groups, has been prepared onto gold (Au)-coated glass plates for fabrication of the nucleic acid biosensor. The chemical modification of CHIT via TGA has been evidenced by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) studies, and the biocompatibility studies reveal that CHIT retains its biocompatible nature after chemical modification. The electrochemical studies conducted onto SH-CHIT/Au electrode reveal that thiol modification in CHIT amino end enhances the electrochemical behavior indicating that it may be attributed to delocalization of electrons in CHIT skeleton that participates in the resonance process. The carboxyl group modified end of DNA probe has been immobilized onto SH-CHIT/Au electrode using N-ethyl-N'-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) chemistry for detection of complementary, one-base mismatch and non-complementary sequence using electrochemical and optical studies for Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection. It has been found that DNA-SH-CHIT/Au bioelectrode can specifically detect 0.01 mu M of target DNA concentration with sensitivity of 1.69 x 10(-6) A mu M-1

Facile synthesis of 2-dimensional transparent graphene flakes for nucleic acid detection

We report on the synthesis of 2-dimensional transparent graphene flakes (GF; 2.2 mu m x 50 mu m), onto indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass plates, by electrochemical exfoliation of graphite rods using in situ intercalation of potassium ions. Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, are used to probe the formation of graphene structures, revealing the generation of GF. Synthesized GF are employed as DNA immobilization platform for genosensor design for Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection. This GF based biosensing electrode exhibits high sensitivity, fast response and wide detection range etc. These findings are important for cost-effective strategy for the production of GF for application to advanced biosensors, and to understand graphene-based biosensing mechanism specifically for nucleic acid detection

Biosensors for pathogen detection: A smart approach towards clinical diagnosis

The present review concerns the recent developments of nucleic acid biosensors for detection of the human pathogens as infectious diseases management at an early stage is currently of prime interest so as to circumvent the delay in diagnosis, side effects of drugs and unnecessary health hazards. The advantages of biosensors over existing detection methodologies and the role of various immobilization matrices used for fabrication of nucleic acid sensors are discussed. Besides this, efforts have been made to discuss the various techniques used for biosensor construction, the analytical performance of these biodevices for the bacterial and viral pathogens for their applications to medical diagnosis.close0