scholarly journals Carotid intima medial thickness as a marker of atherosclerosis in ankylosing spondylitis

Author(s):  
Sarvagya Mishra ◽  
Abhishek Singhai ◽  
Praksah Joshi ◽  
Rajesh Kumar Jha

Background: Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory disorder of unknown cause that primarily affects the axial skeleton; peripheral joints and extraarticular structures are also frequently involved. The present study was planned to generate more data on this subject with the aim of measuring the CIMT in AS, as these patients are more prone to develop early atherosclerosis and develop early macro vascular complications like CAD.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study with a sample size of 60 patients. The study group included 30 patients with a known history or clinical features suggestive of AS. The control group included 30 normal adult subjects without any previous history. All subjects included in the study underwent detailed clinical history, analysis, physical examination and necessary investigations.Results: CIMT in the control group was 0.54±0.19 mm and in the AS group was 0.65±0.21 mm. The difference was found to be statistically significant (P<0.05), showing a higher CIMT in the AS group in comparison to the control group. The mean age in the control group was 30.43±6.14 years and in the AS group was 29.3±10.1 years. The difference was found to be statistically not significant (p>0.05), showing comparable age between the two groups. The age to CIMT showed positive correlation which was statistically significant (r=0.405, p=0.026).Conclusions: Results of this study showed that there is a higher prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis (20%) in AS patients as compared to controls as evidenced by a higher CIMT. Every effort should be made in order to control inflammation and traditional risk factors in this population, to avoid the consequences of accelerated atherogenesis.

Author(s):  
Norhayati Mohd Zain ◽  
Nur Anis Izzati Che Mut ◽  
Nur Fatin Ruslizam ◽  
Norhashimah Mohd Norsuddin ◽  
Siti Aishah Abdullah Suhaimi ◽  
...  

Anxiety was the barrier mostly chosen by women for not performing mammography examination. Music was perceived as an effective method in reducing these barriers. Thus, this study was done to investigate how music would influence anxiety level among women undergoing mammogram screening. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at randomly selected private hospitals around Klang Valley. The ’State-Trait Anxiety Inventory’ form was used to measure the level of anxiety. Respondents were categorized into two groups, which are control (no music) and experimental (with music) groups. Descriptive analysis was used to determine the anxiety level and T-test analysis were used to compare the anxiety level between both groups. A total of 60 respondents participated in this study in which 30 (50.0%) were in a control group and 30 (50.0%) were in the experimental group. Mean age of respondents were 53.5 (±12.7) years. The anxiety level is high in women who underwent mammography with no music (60.0%) as compared those with music (53.3%), although the difference is not significant (p>0.05). Music intervention has potential in reducing anxiety level during mammography examination.


2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 1017-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Rangel Torres ◽  
João Luiz Ellera Gomes

Background Glenohumeral internal rotation deficit, often diagnosed in players of overhead sports, has been associated with the development of secondary shoulder lesions. Hypothesis Asymptomatic players of different overhead sports will exhibit variable degrees of glenohumeral internal rotation deficit. Study Design Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods Fifty-four asymptomatic male volunteers (108 shoulders) divided into 3 groups (tennis players, swimmers, control group) underwent measurements of glenohumeral internal and external rotation using clinical examination with scapular stabilization. Measurements of dominant and nondominant shoulders were compared within and between groups. Glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD) was defined as the difference in internal rotation between the nondominant and dominant shoulders. Results In tennis players, mean GIRD was 23.9° ± 8.4° (P < .001); in swimmers, 12° ± 6.8° (P < .001); and in the control group, 4.9° ± 7.4° (P = .035). Dominant shoulders showed significant difference between all groups, and the difference in internal rotation of the dominant shoulder between the group of tennis players in comparison with the control group (27.6°, P < .001) was greater than the difference in internal rotation of the dominant shoulder found in the group of swimmers compared with the control group (17.9°, P < .001). Between tennis players and swimmers, the difference in internal rotation of the dominant shoulder was 9.7° (P = .002). Conclusion Dominant limbs showed less glenohumeral internal rotation than the nondominant limbs in all groups, with the deficit in the group of tennis players about twice the deficit found for swimmers. Mean difference between limbs in the control group was less than 5°, which is within normal parameters according to most studies. There were statistically significant differences between all groups when dominant shoulders were compared with each other, differences that were not compensated by external rotation gain. Tennis players had the least range of motion, followed by swimmers.


2008 ◽  
Vol 159 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Tagliafico ◽  
Eugenia Resmini ◽  
Raffaella Nizzo ◽  
Lorenzo E Derchi ◽  
Francesco Minuto ◽  
...  

ContextAcromegalic patients may complain of sensory disturbances in their hands. Cubital tunnel syndrome, the ulnar nerve neuropathy at the cubital tunnel (UCT), in acromegalic patients has never been reported.ObjectiveTo describe and assess the prevalence of UCT in acromegalic patients and the effects of 1 year of therapy on UCT.PatientsWe examined prospectively 37 acromegalic patients with no history of polyneuropathy, acute trauma at the elbow, no diabetes or hypothyroidism with clinical examination, nerve conduction studies (NCS), and high-resolution ultrasound (US). A control group was made by 50 volunteers. The local ethics committee approved the study and written informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.InterventionClinical history, physical examination, NCS, and US were used to diagnose UCT at the beginning of the study and after 1 year.ResultsIn 8 of 37 patients, a diagnosis of UCT was made at the beginning of the study reflecting a prevalence of 21%. After 1 year, 5 of 8 (62.5%) patients reported clinical and NCS improvements and evident US reduction of nerve cross-sectional area (CSA; 16.7±2.9 mm2 vs 12.2±3.1 mm2; P<0.001). In 3 of 8 (37.5%) patients, the UCT was unchanged. Ulnar nerve CSA was significantly increased in acromegalic patients with UCT (16.7±2.9 mm2 vs 11.1±2.3 mm2; P<0.047).ConclusionUlnar neuropathy could occur in acromegalic patients and can improve in 62% of cases with disease control. Due to the different management and therapeutic approach, it would be important to make differential diagnosis between cubital and carpal tunnel syndrome in acromegaly.


Author(s):  
Muharam Natadisastra ◽  
Valencia Yuwono ◽  
Ririn Febri ◽  
Asmarinah Asmarinah

Objective: To investigate the HOXA11 gene profile on endometriosispatients with infertility in Indonesia.Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in Dr. CiptoMangunkusumo Hospital from July 2015- June 2016. The subjectswere endometriosis patients with infertility who have beenconfirmed histopathological. The control group was taken fromnon-endometriosis and fertile patients. Eutopic endometriumsamples were taken and examined for the methylation of HOXA 11gene.Results: Both groups consist of six patients. The difference ofmethylation of HOXA 11 gene between those two groups isstatistically significant (p=0.03). There was hyper methylation inendometriosis group.Conclusion: There is a hyper methylation of HOXA 11 gene ineutopic endometrium of endometriosis patients with infertility.Thus, possibly can explain the poor endometrial receptivityin endometriosis patient and give a broad research area inepigenetic therapy of endometriosis.[Indones J Obstet Gynecol 2018; 6-2: 110-113]Keywords: endometriosis, epigenetic, HOXA 11, infertility,methylation


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 604-609
Author(s):  
Duygu Zorlu ◽  
Veysel Akca

Introduction: Sleep disturbances and anxiety are the first physical reflections observed in healthcare professionals. The aim was to reveal the sleep characteristics and moods of healthcare professionals during the pandemic for making improvements and provide support. Methods: This study is observational and cross-sectional study and was carried out in a training and research hospital in Kirsehir, Turkey. A total of 48 nurses, 25 doctors, 37 assistant health personnel, 12 security guards, and 25 medical secretaries were included, of which 147 were healthcare professionals and 50 were not healthcare professionals (control group). Three questionnaires were used; two to measure sleep, one to measure stress. The volunteer participants were administered face-to-face Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and Beck Stress Scale (BSS) simultaneously and scored individually. These scores were evaluated separately for demographic characteristics and their association with occupational groups. Results: A total of 197 people were included in the study, of which 147 were healthcare professionals, and 50 were not healthcare professionals (control group). The average age of the participants was 34.15 ± 9.18 years. The participants’ average PSQI (6.25 ± 3.24), ESS (7.46 ± 3.16), and BSS (11.26 ± 4.65) were calculated. The difference between the BSS (p < 0.01) and PSQI (p < 0.05) values of women and men was statistically significant. BSS and PSQI values were low in security guards. However, these values were high in nurses. The occupational experience of the participants in all three scales was not statistically significant. It was higher in the control group than the healthcare professional group. However, these differences between the groups were not statistically significant. Discussion and Conclusion: In the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no difference in sleep and anxiety characteristics between health workers and non-health workers and the most common group of healthcare professionals with anxiety, sleep disorders was nurses. Based on the results, women and nurses between the ages of 31-35 should be given priority in support of healthcare professionals.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José de Paula Barbosa Neto ◽  
Luiz Eduardo Fernandes Lima ◽  
Matheus Carvalho Vasconcelos ◽  
Luis Eduardo Reis Amaral ◽  
Lise Queiroz Lima Verde ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the presence of depressive symptoms in elderly people with glaucoma and other clinical and epidemiological factors that were associated to the presence depression.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at the Hospital de Olhos Leiria de Andrade, including volunteers aged 60 years or over. Individuals were separated into patients with glaucoma and patients without glaucoma. Volunteers responded a questionnaire, containing data from clinical history and the Geriatric Depression Scale – 15, and were submitted to a complete ophthalmological evaluation.Results: Overall, 42 patients in the glaucoma group and 40 patients in the non-glaucoma group were evaluated. The mean age among cases was 70.2 years, while in the control group it was 65.7 years. The evaluation of the Geriatric Depression Scale – 15 showed an average score of 4.21 and 3.82 in the case and control groups, respectively, with no statistical difference. However, the worsening of visual acuity was related to a greater number of depressive symptoms when comparing individuals with glaucoma. When analyzing the correlation between age, in both groups, and the number of depressive symptoms, there was no statistical significance.Conclusion: The presence of glaucoma was not associated with an increase in the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 score. However, the worsening in visual acuity was correlated to a greater number of depressive symptoms.


Author(s):  
Dr. I. Vijayapriya ◽  
Dr. Prakash. S ◽  
Dr. S. Hemadharshini

Background: Among different complications of diabetes, ddiabetic retinopathy is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. Increase in the frequency of lower serum magnesium levels have been reported among patients with diabetes. Materials and methods: A total of 120 subjects were included in this study and divided into 3 groups. The study groups consisted of 40 patients that are type 2 diabetes with retinopathy and 40 patients with type 2 diabetes without retinopathy and control group consisted of 40 healthy subjects respectively. Both cases and controls were subjected to estimation of biochemical parameters. Results: Among the study population, (80) 66.67% participants were cases and another (40) 33.33% participants were controls. Among the people who had mild NPDR, the median Mg was 1.90 (IQR 1.80, 2.00). It was 1.90 (1.70, 2.00), 1.75 (1.67, 1.92), 1.8 (1.69, 2.0) and 2.10 (1.90, 2.20) among people with DM retinopathy moderate NPDR, severe NPDR, Proliferative retinopathy and no retinopathy respectively. The difference in the Mg across DM retinopathy was statistically significant (P Value 0.008). The difference between the values among both the case and control groups for certain parameters such as SBP, FBG, PPBG, HbA1c, Magnesium, Urea, and Creatinine were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Serum magnesium levels were significantly lower in patients with diabetic retinopathy compared to diabetics without complications and control group. Keywords:  Diabetes mellitus, Diabetic retinopathy, Magnesium


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlene Silva Santos ◽  
Manoel Gomes de Araújo Neto ◽  
Ana Lourdes Avelar Nascimento ◽  
Glícia Lorainne Moreira Silva ◽  
Adriana Sousa Rêgo ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: Musicians may present musculoskeletal pain, weakness, numbness, and tingling due to repetitive exercises. Objective: To evaluate the severity index of musculoskeletal symptoms (MS) in keyboard players. Method: A cross-sectional study including volunteers of both sexes, aged between 18 and 40 years, who performed professionally for at least 2 years, played the keyboard for at least 3 hours a week, and did not present previous history of trauma or rheumatic, neurological, and systemic diseases. The MS and its severity index were evaluated using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire and the intensity was assessed on a scale of 4. The difference between the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain according to the anatomical region was analyzed using Fisher’s exact test. For all analyses, a significance level of 5% was adopted. This research was conducted after the ethics committee approval (No. 2,627,609). Results: Thirty-nine volunteers with discomfort were evaluated. Pain in the thoracic and lumbar spine in the last 12 months was most common (n = 27, 69.24%; p < 0.031), and in the last seven days, lumbar spine pain occurred in 12 (30.76%; p < 0.001). A severity index of 2 was the most frequent (n = 21, 54%). Conclusion: Keyboardists present with MS mainly in the vertebral column, and the severity of the symptoms is significant, suggesting the importance of prevention and treatment of MS before their onset.


QJM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 114 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghada Fathy Mohamed ◽  
Ahmed Abdel fattah Afify ◽  
Waleed Abdel hady Ahmed ◽  
Basant Alaa Eldin Elsayed Mohamed Elsayed Eid

Abstract Background Acne vulgaris is a multifactorial inflammatory skin disease of the pilosebaceous unit with complex pathogenesis. Calprotectin is a heterodimer of two calcium-binding proteins S100A8 and S100A9, which are members of the S100 protein family, and which play a role in various inflammatory processes, it is mainly present in the cytoplasm of neutrophils and expressed on the membrane of monocytes. Objective to assess the level of Calprotectin in blood and in tissue of AV patients and compare it with healthy controls. Beside correlate it with the degrees of severity of acne in order to further understand the role of Calprotectin in the pathogenesis of AV. Subjects and Methods This case-control study included 28 subjects who have AV, divided into four groups according to Global Acne Grading System: the first group included 7 patients with mild acne, the second group included 7 patients with moderate acne, the third group included 7 patients with severe acne, and the fourth group included 7 patients with very severe AV. In addition to a control group which included 28 apparently healthy individuals of matched age, sex and with no previous history of acne or active acne. All the patients were recruited from the outpatient clinic of Al Haud Al Marsoud hospital from September 2019 till January 2020. After taking the approval of research ethics committee (FMASU M S 22/2019) all subjects gave an informed consent to participate in this work. Results Our study showed that the increase in AV severity was not affected by the difference in gender, type of acne, nor disease duration. However, there was a significant correlation between plasma calprotectin level and AV severity. In addition to, There was a significant statistical correlation between the increase in the age of patients and the decrease in the severity of acne, which indicates that AV is more severe in younger patients than older ones. The correlation between the Plasma Calprotectin level in patients group and Tissue Calprotectin level in inflammatory lesions (papules) was non-significant. However, the correlation between the Plasma Calprotectin level in patients’ group and Tissue Calprotectin level in non-inflammatory lesions (comedones) was highly significant. Conclusion Plasma Calprotectin level showed significant relation with AV severity and presence of scar. The correlation between plasma Calprotectin level and tissue Calprotectin level in noninflammatory lesions (comedones) was highly significant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Tat'yana Raskina ◽  
O. Malyshenko ◽  
M. Pirigova ◽  
M. Letaeva ◽  
Yu. Averkieva

The study included 72 men with a reliable diagnosis of AS, mean age – 43,2±9,1 years. X-ray examination of the axial skeleton and peripheral joints was carried out, HLA-B27 was determined. Disease activity was assessed using the index ВАSDАI, functional disorders with the help of the BASFI index. BMD was determined by two-energy x-ray absorptiometry. The control group consisted of 74 healthy men, mean age – 46,7±0,9 years. Given the chronic nature and asymptomatic course of osteoporosis, the task of doctors working with this group of patients is an active search for osteoporosis using all available diagnostic techniques for the early detection of this condition and subsequent correction of the drug treatment.


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