252 research outputs found
Self-reported adherence and associated factors regarding antihypertensive medication in Seychelles
Introduction. Adherence to medication for asymptomatic disease is often low. We assessed factors associated with good adherence to medication for high blood pressure (HBP) in a country of the African region.
Methods. A population-based survey of adults aged 25-64 years (N=1240 and participation rate=73%). Information was available in knowledge attitude and practice, SES and other variables. One question assessed adherence. Good adherence to treatment was defined as answering "I forget very rarely" vs "I forget on 1-2 days in a week" or "I forget on 3 or more days in a week".
Results. In a univariate model adherence was strongly associated with belief that hypertension is a long-term disease (OR 2.6, p<0.001) and was negatively associated with concomitant use of traditional medicine (OR 0.36, p<0.005). The following variables tended to be associated with good adherence for HBP treatment: age, SES, BMI, belief that HBP is not symptomatic, going to government's clinics, medium stress level, controlled hypertension, taking statins. The following variables were not associated with good adherence for HBP treatment: education, higher BP, knowing people who had a stroke/MI, suffering from another chronic condition. In a multivariate model, pseudo R2 was 0.14.
Conclusion. We built a multidimensional model including a wide range of variable. This model only predicted 14% of adherence variability. Variables associated with good adherence were demographics or related to knowledge attitude and practice. The latter one is modifiable by different type of interventions
Trends in prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the Republic of Seychelles (African region) between 1989 and 2013 [Poster]
Background: Few data exist on secular trends of high blood pressure (HBP) detection and control in low and middle income countries, particularly in the African region. This study examines trends of HBP over 25 years based on 4 independent population surveys. In the Seychelles, heath care is free to all inhabitants within a national health system, inclusive all HBP medications.
Previous studies have shown a transition from traditional to cardiometabolic cardiovascular risk factors in Seychelles. Age adjusted cardiovascular disease mortality rates is high but decreasing over the last two decades
Unveiling electrotransformation of Moraxella catarrhalis as a process of natural transformation
The human respiratory tract pathogen Moraxella catarrhalis is a naturally competent microorganism. However, electrotransformation has long been used to introduce foreign DNA into this organism. This study demonstrated that electrotransformants obtained with linear or circular nonreplicating plasmid DNA originated exclusively from natural transformation processes taking place during the recovery phase after the application of current. Only replicating plasmid DNA could be introduced into M. catarrhalis by electrotransformation, in a type IV pilus-independent manner. Electrotransformation with homologous genomic DNA indicated that restriction of double-stranded DNA was independent of type III restriction-methylation systems. Nontransformability of M. catarrhalis by electrotransformation was observed using double- as well as single-stranded DNA. In addition, the study showed that natural competence is a very constant feature of M. catarrhali
Enhancement of the electronic contribution to the low temperature specific heat of Fe/Cr magnetic multilayer
We measured the low temperature specific heat of a sputtered
magnetic multilayer, as well as separate
thick Fe and Cr films. Magnetoresistance and magnetization
measurements on the multilayer demonstrated antiparallel coupling between the
Fe layers. Using microcalorimeters made in our group, we measured the specific
heat for and in magnetic fields up to for the multilayer. The
low temperature electronic specific heat coefficient of the multilayer in the
temperature range is . This is
significantly larger than that measured for the Fe or Cr films (5.4 and respectively). No magnetic field dependence of was
observed up to . These results can be explained by a softening of the
phonon modes observed in the same data and the presence of an Fe-Cr alloy phase
at the interfaces.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
Duration of adenosine-induced myocardial hyperemia - Insights from quantitative 13N-ammonia positron emission tomography myocardial perfusion imaging
AIMS
To assess the impact of adenosine on quantitative myocardial blood flow (MBF) in a rapid stress-rest protocol compared to a rest-stress protocol using 13N-ammonia positron emission tomography (PET) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) and to gain insights into the time dependency of such effects.
METHODS AND RESULTS
Quantitative MBF at rest (rMBF), during adenosine-induced stress (sMBF) and myocardial flow reserve (MFR) were obtained from 331 retrospectively identified patients who underwent 13N-ammonia PET-MPI for suspected chronic coronary syndrome and who all exhibited no perfusion defects. Of these, 146 (44.1%) underwent a rapid stress-rest protocol with a time interval (Δtstress-rest) of 20 ± 4 minutes between adenosine infusion offset and rest-imaging, as per clinical routine. The remaining 185 (55.9%) patients underwent a rest-stress protocol and served as the reference. Groups did not differ regarding demographics, risk factors, medication, left ventricular function, and calcium scores. rMBF was significantly higher in the stress-rest vs. the rest-stress group (0.80 [IQR 0.66-1.00] vs. 0.70 [0.58-0.83] ml·min-1·g-1, p < 0.001) and, as sMBF was identical between groups (2.52 [2.20-2.96] vs. 2.50 [1.96-3.11], p = 0.347), MFR was significantly lower in the stress-rest group (3.07 [2.43-3.88] vs. 3.50 [2.63-4.10], p < 0.001). There was a weak correlation between Δtstress-rest and rMBF (r = -0.259, p = 0.002) and between Δtstress-rest and MFR (r = 0.163, p = 0.049), and the proportion of patients with abnormally high rMBF was significantly decreasing with increasing Δtstress-rest.
CONCLUSIONS
Intravenously applied adenosine induces a long-lasting hyperemic effect on the myocardium. Consequently, rapid stress-rest protocols could lead to an overestimation of rMBF and an underestimation of MFR
Temperature Dependence of the Hyperfine Magnetic Field at Fe Sites in Ba-Doped BiFeO3 Thin Films Studied by Emission Mössbauer Spectroscopy
Emission 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy (eMS), following the implantation of radioactive 57Mn+ ions, has been used to study the temperature dependence of the hyperfine magnetic field at Fe sites in Ba-doped BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films. 57Mn β decays (t1/2 = 90 s) to the 14.4 keV Mössbauer state of 57Fe, thus allowing online eMS measurements at a selection of sample temperatures during Mn implantation. The eMS measurements were performed on two thin film BFO samples, 88 nm and 300 nm thick, and doped to 15% with Ba ions. The samples were prepared by pulsed laser deposition on SrTiO3 substrates. X-ray diffraction analyses of the samples showed that the films grew in a tetragonal distorted structure. The Mössbauer spectra of the two films, measured at absorber temperatures in the range 301 K–700 K, comprised a central pair of paramagnetic doublets and a magnetic sextet feature in the wings. The magnetic component was resolved into (i) a component attributed to hyperfine interactions at Fe3+ ions located in octahedral sites (Bhf); and (ii) to Fe3+ ions in implantation induced lattice defects, which were characterized by a distribution of the magnetic field BDistr. The hyperfine magnetic field at the Fe probes in the octahedral site has a room temperature value of Bhf = 44.5(9) T. At higher sample temperatures, the Bhf becomes much weaker, with the Fe3+ hyperfine magnetic contribution disappearing above 700 K. Simultaneous analysis of the Ba–BFO eMS spectra shows that the variation of the hyperfine field with temperature follows the Brillouin curve for S = 5/2.This work has received the financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through grants 05K16PGA, 05K22PGA, 05K16SI1, 05K19SI1 “eMIL” and “eMMA”; from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 654002 (ENSAR2) and 101057511 (EURO-LABS); from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Consolider—Ingenio Project CSD2009 0013 “IMAGINE” Spain, and Banco Santander-UCM, project PR87/19-22613; from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through projects P26830 and P31423, from the Icelandic University Research Fund; from the National Research Foundation (South Africa); and from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO/FEDER) for the Grant No. RTI2018-094683-B-C55 C55 and Basque Government Grant No. IT-1500-22
Down-Regulation of hsa-miR-10a in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia CD34+ Cells Increases USF2-Mediated Cell Growth
MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small noncoding,
single-stranded RNAs that inhibit gene expression at a
posttranscriptional level, whose abnormal expression
has been described in different tumors. The aim of our
study was to identify miRNAs potentially implicated
in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We detected an
abnormal miRNA expression profile in mononuclear and
CD34+ cells from patients with CML compared with
healthy controls. Of 157 miRNAs tested, hsa-miR-10a,
hsa-miR-150, and hsa-miR-151 were down-regulated,
whereas hsa-miR-96 was up-regulated in CML cells.
Down-regulation of hsa-miR-10a was not dependent
on BCR-ABL1 activity and contributed to the increased
cell growth of CML cells. We identified the upstream
stimulatory factor 2 (USF2) as a potential target of
hsa-miR-10a and showed that overexpression of USF2
also increases cell growth. The clinical relevance of
these findings was shown in a group of 85 newly
diagnosed patients with CML in which expression of
hsa-miR-10a was down-regulated in 71% of the patients,
whereas expression of USF2 was up-regulated in 60% of
the CML patients, with overexpression of USF2 being
significantly associated with decreased expression of
hsa-miR-10a (P = 0.004). Our results indicate that
down-regulation of hsa-miR-10a may increase USF2 and
contribute to the increase in cell proliferation of CML
implicating a miRNA in the abnormal behavior of CML
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