Tag: pubmed

Physiol Meas. 2021 Feb 25. doi: 10.1088/1361-6579/abe9ff. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The human skeletal muscle responds immediately under electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), and there be an immediate physiological response in human skeletal muscle. Response muscle areas of human calf muscles under electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) have been detected by frequency difference electrical impedance tomography (fd-EIT).

APPROACH: The experimental protocol consists of four parts: pre-training (pre), training (tra), post-training (post), and relaxation (relax) parts. The relaxation part has three types of relaxation conditions which are massage relaxation (MR), cold pack relaxation (CR) and hot pack relaxation (HR).

MAIN RESULTS: From the experimental results, conductivity distribution images σp (p means protocol = pre, tra, post, or relax) are clearly reconstructed by fd-EIT as response muscle areas, which are called M1 response area composed of gastrocnemius muscle and M2 response area composed of tibialis anterior muscle, extensor digitorum longus muscle, and peroneus longus muscle. Paired samples t-test was conducted to elucidate the statistical significance of spatial-mean conductivities <σp>M1 and <σp>M2 in M1 and M2 with reference of conventional extracellular water ratio ꞵp by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA).

SIGNIFICANCE: From the t-test results, <σp>M1 and <σp>M2 have good correlations with ꞵp. In the post-training part, the <σpost> and ꞵpost were significantly higher than those in the pre-training part (n = 24, p < 0.001). The relax-pre difference ratios of spatial-mean conductivity Δ<σrelax-pre> and the relax-pre difference ratios of extracellular water ratio Δꞵrelax-pre in both MR and CR were lower; on the contrary, the Δ<σrelax-pre> and Δꞵrelax-pre in HR were significantly higher than those in post-pre difference ratios of spatial-mean conductivity Δ<σpost-pre> (n = 8, p < 0.05). The reason for changes in <σp>M1 and <σp>M2 is caused by the changes in muscle extracellular volumes. In conclusion, fd-EIT satisfactorily evaluates the effectiveness of human calf muscles under EMS.

PMID:33631732 | DOI:10.1088/1361-6579/abe9ff

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2021 Feb 22;213:112074. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112074. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Synthetic musks (SMs) have drawn worldwide attention, as they are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic to many organisms. There is not enough information on the bioaccumulation and trophodynamic behavior of SMs in freshwater food webs to reliably understand the associated ecological risks. In this study, the concentrations of six SM congeners in fifteen aquatic species from Lake Chaohu, China, was investigated. The total concentrations of the six SMs ranged from 0.29 to 59.7 ng/g dry weight (median, 4.41) in fish muscle tissue and in the whole body tissues of small fish species and shrimps. Galaxolide (HHCB) and tonalide (AHTN) were the predominant congeners, accounting for 65.0% and 28.5% of the total SM concentration, respectively. On the whole, the total concentrations of SMs in livers and gills were 0.18-32.8 and 0.84-254 times higher than those in muscle tissues in fish species, respectively. In the food web of Lake Chaohu, cashmeran (DPMI) and HHCB showed a trend towards trophic magnification, and AHTN tended to show trophic dilution, but these trends were not statistically significant. This suggested that the trophic transfer of these chemicals through the food web was strongly influenced by many factors, including tissue-specific distribution within individuals at higher trophic levels. More investigation into the trophic transfer of SMs in aquatic ecosystems and the factors influencing uptake is needed.

PMID:33631637 | DOI:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112074

J Neurol Sci. 2021 Jan 7;422:117310. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2021.117310. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To assess the value of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology in early diagnosis of patients with tuberculous meningitis (TBM).

METHODS: 56 patients with clinically suspected TBM who came to Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital from February 2, 2018 to August 2, 2018 were prospectively included, and the clinical diagnosis and treatment outcomes were followed up. NGS was performed for the cerebrospinal fluid specimens submitted for test on the BGISEQ-100 platform of Tianjin Huada Gene Research Institute and the obtained pathogen sequences were compared with the pathogen data to get the final results. The NGS results were positive for detecting the unique matching sequence of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) complex and negative for no unique matching sequence. Patients confirmed with TBM should have at least one of the following four items: cerebrospinal fluid MTB culture positive, smear positive, Xpert MTB/RIF test positive, or MTB nucleic acid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test positive; clinically diagnosed patients were those with clinically suspected TBM and effective anti-tuberculosis treatment; non-TBM patients were those with other pathogenic basis or clinical exclusion of TBM. The sensitivity and specificity of NGS in early diagnosis of TBM were analyzed.

RESULTS: 22 patients were confirmed with TBM, of which 13 were positive for Xpert MTB/RIF test, 6 were positive for cerebrospinal fluid MTB culture, 5 were positive for MTB nucleic acid PCR test, 12 patients were clinically diagnosed with TBM, and there were 16 cases of non-TBM patients. Among confirmed and clinically diagnosed patients, 20 cases of MTB complex were detected by NGS technology, with a sensitivity of 58.8% (20/34) and specificity of 100% (16/16). Among confirmed patients, the sensitivity of NGS was 63.6% (14/22). Of the 50 specimens that were simultaneously subjected to traditional methods, Xpert MTB/RIF test and NGS, the specificity of the three methods was 100% (16/16) based on clinical diagnosis, and the sensitivity was 29.4% (10/34), 38.2% (13/34), and 58.8% (20/34) respectively. The difference of sensitivity between the first two detection methods and NGS was statistically significant (McNemar test, p = 0.013, x² = 5.786 and p = 0.065, x² = 3.273). The sensitivity of traditional methods combined with NGS was as high as 82.4% (28/34).

CONCLUSIONS: NGS technology could rapidly detect the MTB complex in cerebrospinal fluid with significant sensitivity and specificity, which could be used as an early diagnosis index of TBM. NGS combined with MTB culture could increase the detection rate.

PMID:33631643 | DOI:10.1016/j.jns.2021.117310

J Psychiatr Res. 2021 Feb 13;136:296-305. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.02.008. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study explored the behavioural responses and anxiety symptoms of the general adult population in Japan during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.

METHODS: A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between 12th and May 13, 2020. Quota sampling was used to attain equal gender and age distributions representative of the Japanese population.

RESULTS: A total of 4127 complete responses were analysed. Higher educational level (B = 0.045, p = 0.002) and household income (B = 0.04, p = 0.009) were associated with a higher increase in preventive measures when comparing before and after the state of emergency was declared. The highest reported social anxiety was a feeling of fear (65.6%), followed by embarrassment (43.8%), keeping infection a secret (41.3%), avoidance (41.3%), and stigma (25.5%). A total of 86.1% of the respondents reported moderate to severe anxiety. The partial least square-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) revealed that being female has the greatest effect (B = 0.246, p < 0.0001) on higher current preventive measures, followed by social anxiety (B = 0.119; p = 0.001) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scores (B = 0.153; p < 0.001). Perceived susceptibility (B = 0.033, p = 0.020), knowing someone who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 (B = 0.097, p < 0.001), higher income (B = 0.079, p < 0.001) and educational level (B = 0.045; p = 0.004) all had a small but significant effect on influencing levels of preventive measures.

CONCLUSIONS: A moderate level of preventive practices found in this study indicates the need to encourage behavioural change to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The provision of mental health services is warranted as anxiety symptoms are prevalent.

PMID:33631655 | DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.02.008

Health Place. 2021 Feb 22;68:102529. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102529. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

In the 1930s United States, urban neighborhoods were graded on their desirability for investment (often based on race), a process known as “redlining.” This study examined how historical redlining relates to current disparities in an important health determinant: tobacco retailer density. Analyses were conducted for thirteen Ohio cities using negative binomial models that accounted for retailer spatial dependence and controlled for present-day sociodemographic characteristics. Findings indicated that as grades increased from “Best” to “Still Desirable” to “Definitely Declining” and “Hazardous,” retailer density increased monotonically. These results highlight the persisting impacts of redlining and how disparities, once intentionally created, can be perpetuated over time.

PMID:33631601 | DOI:10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102529

Psychiatry Res. 2021 Feb 15;298:113807. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113807. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

As a biopsychosocial marker of aging, subjective age (i.e., the age individuals feel regardless of their actual age) was related to many health issues in the elderly. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether subjective age is associated with subsequent cognition and dementia risk in middle-aged and older adults. Samples were drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Participants reported their subjective ages at the baseline (2004/2005), and their cognitive functions were measured after 10 years (2014/2015). Newly diagnosed dementias were recorded between 2006/2007 to 2014/2015. Overall, 6,475 adults aged 50 years or older were included in the current analyses. The relationship between subjective age reported at baseline and cognition assessed ten years later was modeled using multiple linear regression models. Compared to participants who reported a younger subjective age, those who reported an older subjective age were more likely to have poorer cognition after ten years (β = -0.705, P = .002 for memory, β = -1.567, P = .001 for executive function). A Cox proportional hazard regression model suggested that older subjective age was an independent risk factor for incident dementia (HR = 1.737, 95% CI =1.060-2.848). Other than chronological age, subjective age could also be considered as an important predictor for the development of cognitive dysfunction.

PMID:33631534 | DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113807

Eur J Cancer. 2021 Feb 22;147:84-94. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2021.01.014. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM OF THE STUDY: Benefit from temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy in the treatment of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wild-type glioblastoma is essentially limited to patients with O⁶-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter-methylated tumours. Recent studies suggested that telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter hotspot mutations may have an impact on the prognostic role of the MGMT status in patients with glioblastoma.

METHODS: MGMT promoter methylation and TERT promoter mutation status were retrospectively assessed in a prospective cohort of patients with IDH-wild-type glioblastoma of the German Glioma Network (GGN) (n = 298) and an independent retrospective cohort from Düsseldorf, Germany, and Zurich, Switzerland (n = 302).

RESULTS: In the GGN cohort, but not in the Düsseldorf/Zurich cohort, TERT promoter mutation was moderately associated with inferior outcomes in patients with MGMT promoter-unmethylated tumours (hazard ratio 1.74; 95% confidence interval: 1.07-2.82; p = 0.026). TERT promoter mutations were not associated with better outcomes in patients with MGMT promoter-methylated tumours in either cohort. The two different TERT promoter hotspot mutations (C228T and C250T) were not linked to distinct outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of two independent cohorts of patients with glioblastoma did not confirm previous data, suggesting that TERT promoter mutations confer an enhanced benefit from TMZ in patients with MGMT promoter-methylated glioblastoma. Thus, diagnostic testing for TERT promoter mutations may not be required for prediction of TMZ sensitivity in patients with IDH-wild-type glioblastoma.

PMID:33631540 | DOI:10.1016/j.ejca.2021.01.014

Acta Psychol (Amst). 2021 Feb 22;215:103274. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103274. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Regarding the effects of joint action on visual memory, previous research has focused on the memory of a single object that a participant and their co-actor attended together (i.e., a shared situation), while the literature on memory has demonstrated that spatial regularity composed of multiple objects can also be learned. We aimed to examine whether the visuospatial regularity of the co-actor’s attended objects could be strongly encoded. We repeatedly presented the same configuration of two targets and two sets of distractors in different colors (i.e., blue and red) to participants. In Experiment 1, pairs of participants simultaneously searched for the same target in the joint group while individual participants searched for the target alone in the single group. As a result, greater facilitation in reaction time was observed in earlier epochs in the joint group, reinforced by the learning of visuospatial regularity, compared to the single group. Experiment 2 examined whether the co-actor’s attended context could be strongly encoded although two persons simultaneously searched for different targets (i.e., parallel situation) such that one searched for the blue target and the other for the red target. The results showed no evidence regarding participants’ learning visuospatial regularity of the co-actor’s attended objects, indicating that co-actor’s learning information cannot be shared in this situation. This study revealed that facilitation of visuospatial learning in joint action would require two individuals to attend to the same objects when they perform the task.

PMID:33631557 | DOI:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103274

Brain Stimul. 2021 Feb 22;14(2):389-390. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2021.01.019. Online ahead of print.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:33631486 | DOI:10.1016/j.brs.2021.01.019

Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2021 Feb 8;203:106549. doi: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2021.106549. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease and the second most common neurological disease in the world, which usually affects people mainly in later years of life. Cognitive impairments and depressive symptoms are important symptoms in these patients that are associated with a poor prognosis. The study will focus on the original data regarding the cognitive impairments and depressive symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease and control group.

METHODS: In a case-control study, a total of 100 Parkinson’s patients who were hospitalized in Rouhani Hospital and 200 non-Parkinson’s people (control group) from Amirkola Health and aging project (AHAP) Marras et al., Babol, Iran were enrolled between September 2019 to February 2020. Data were collected by simple random sampling. Data were collected using a four-part questionnaire, including demographic characteristics, Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Modified Hoehn and Yahr staging Scale (MHYSS), Mini-M ental State Examination (MMSE) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). P-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant RESULTS: A total of 300 persons were enrolled in the study. The mean age of Parkinson’s patients and non-Parkinson’s people was 70.34 ± 7.76 and 70.87 ± 7.59 years, respectively. The mean MMSE score in Parkinson’s and non-Parkinson’s people was 24.80 ± 4.53 and 25.40 ± 3.1, respectively (p = 0.182). The mean GDS score in Parkinson’s and non-Parkinson’s people was 7.06 ± 4.06 and 4.31 ± 3.47, respectively (p = 0.001). There was a statistically significant relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive impairments with disease severity (p = 0.022 and p = 0.012, respectively). In addition, variables, such as age and the education level were associated with cognitive impairments (p = 0.001 and p = 0.021, respectively), but these variables were not significantly associated with depressive symptoms (p = 0.843 and p = 0.411, respectively). There was a significant relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s patients and the control group (p = 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive impairments and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with an increase in the severity of Parkinson’s disease, and also, depressive symptoms in Parkinson’s patients was associated with an increase in cognitive impairments.

PMID:33631508 | DOI:10.1016/j.clineuro.2021.106549