Body composition in male elite athletes, comparison of bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to compare body composition results from bioelectrical spectroscopy (BIS) with results from dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in a population of male elite athletes. Body composition was assessed using DXA (Lunar Prodigy, GE Lunar Corp., Madison, USA) and BIS (Hydra 4200, Xitron Technologies Inc, San Diego, California, USA) at the same occasion. Agreement between methods was assessed using paired t-tests and agreement-plots.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty-three male elite athletes (soccer and ice hockey) were included in the study. The results showed that BIS underestimates the proportion of fat mass by 4.6% points in the ice hockey players. In soccer players the BIS resulted in a lower mean fat mass by 1.1% points. Agreement between the methods at the individual level was highly variable.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Body composition results assessed by BIS in elite athletes should be interpreted with caution, especially in individual subjects. BIS may present values of fat mass that is either higher or lower than fat mass assessed by DXA, independent of true fat content of the individual.</p

Imaging-guided chest biopsies: techniques and clinical results

Background This article aims to comprehensively describe indications, contraindications, technical aspects, diagnostic accuracy and complications of percutaneous lung biopsy. Methods Imaging-guided biopsy currently represents one of the predominant methods for obtaining tissue specimens in patients with lung nodules; in many cases treatment protocols are based on histological information; thus, biopsy is frequently performed, when technically feasible, or in case other techniques (such as bronchoscopy with lavage) are inconclusive. Results Although a coaxial system is suitable in any case, two categories of needles can be used: fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) and core-needle biopsy (CNB), with the latter demonstrated to have a slightly higher overall sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Conclusion Percutaneous lung biopsy is a safe procedure even though a few complications are possible: pneumothorax, pulmonary haemorrhage and haemoptysis are common complications, while air embolism and seeding are rare, but potentially fatal complications

Health-related physical fitness of adolescents and young adults with myelomeningocele

To assess components of health-related physical fitness in adolescents and young adults with myelomeningocele (MMC), and to study relations between aerobic capacity and other health-related physical fitness components. This cross-sectional study included 50 adolescents and young adults with MMC, aged 16–30 years (25 males). Aerobic capacity was quantified by measuring peak oxygen uptake (peakVO2) during a maximal exercise test on a cycle or arm ergometer depending on the main mode of ambulation. Muscle strength of upper and lower extremity muscles was assessed using a hand-held dynamometer. Regarding flexibility, we assessed mobility of hip, knee and ankle joints. Body composition was assessed by measuring thickness of four skin-folds. Relations were studied using linear regression analyses. Average peakVO2 was 1.48 ± 0.52 l/min, 61% of the participants had subnormal muscle strength, 61% had mobility restrictions in at least one joint and average sum of four skin-folds was 74.8 ± 38.8 mm. PeakVO2 was significantly related to gender, ambulatory status and muscle strength, explaining 55% of its variance. Adolescents and young adults with MMC have poor health-related physical fitness. Gender and ambulatory status are important determinants of peakVO2. In addition, we found a small, but significant relationship between peakVO2 and muscle strength

Plasma Metabolomic Profiles Reflective of Glucose Homeostasis in Non-Diabetic and Type 2 Diabetic Obese African-American Women

Insulin resistance progressing to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is marked by a broad perturbation of macronutrient intermediary metabolism. Understanding the biochemical networks that underlie metabolic homeostasis and how they associate with insulin action will help unravel diabetes etiology and should foster discovery of new biomarkers of disease risk and severity. We examined differences in plasma concentrations of >350 metabolites in fasted obese T2DM vs. obese non-diabetic African-American women, and utilized principal components analysis to identify 158 metabolite components that strongly correlated with fasting HbA1c over a broad range of the latter (r = −0.631; p<0.0001). In addition to many unidentified small molecules, specific metabolites that were increased significantly in T2DM subjects included certain amino acids and their derivatives (i.e., leucine, 2-ketoisocaproate, valine, cystine, histidine), 2-hydroxybutanoate, long-chain fatty acids, and carbohydrate derivatives. Leucine and valine concentrations rose with increasing HbA1c, and significantly correlated with plasma acetylcarnitine concentrations. It is hypothesized that this reflects a close link between abnormalities in glucose homeostasis, amino acid catabolism, and efficiency of fuel combustion in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. It is speculated that a mechanism for potential TCA cycle inefficiency concurrent with insulin resistance is “anaplerotic stress” emanating from reduced amino acid-derived carbon flux to TCA cycle intermediates, which if coupled to perturbation in cataplerosis would lead to net reduction in TCA cycle capacity relative to fuel delivery

Palatal development of preterm and low birthweight infants compared to term infants – What do we know? Part 1: The palate of the term newborn

BACKGROUND: The evidence on prematurity as 'a priori' a risk for palatal disturbances that increase the need for orthodontic or orthognathic treatment is still weak. Further well-designed clinical studies are needed. The objective of this review is to provide a fundamental analysis of methodologies, confounding factors, and outcomes of studies on palatal development. One focus of this review is the analysis of studies on the palate of the term newborn, since knowing what is 'normal' is a precondition of being able to assess abnormalities. METHODS: A search profile based on Cochrane search strategies applied to 10 medical databases was used to identify existing studies. Articles, mainly those published before 1960, were identified from hand searches in textbooks, encyclopedias, reference lists and bibliographies. Sources in English, German, and French of more than a century were included. Data for term infants were recalculated if particular information about weight, length, or maturity was given. The extracted values, especially those from non-English paper sources, were provided unfiltered for comparison. RESULTS: The search strategy yielded 182 articles, of which 155 articles remained for final analysis. Morphology of the term newborn's palate was of great interest in the first half of the last century. Two general methodologies were used to assess palatal morphology: visual and metrical descriptions. Most of the studies on term infants suffer from lack of reliability tests. The groove system was recognized as the distinctive feature of the infant palate. The shape of the palate of the term infant may vary considerably, both visually and metrically. Gender, race, mode of delivery, and nasal deformities were identified as causes contributing to altered palatal morphology. Until today, anatomical features of the newborn's palate are subject to a non-uniform nomenclature. CONCLUSION: Today's knowledge of a newborn's 'normal' palatal morphology is based on non-standardized and limited methodologies for measuring a three-dimensional shape. This shortcoming increases bias and is the reason for contradictory research results, especially if pathologic conditions like syndromes or prematurity are involved. Adequate measurement techniques are needed and the 'normal palatal morphology' should be defined prior to new clinical studies on palatal development

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion