scholarly journals Chemotherapy-Related Differences in Cognitive Functioning and Their Biological Predictors in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1166
Author(s):  
Magdalena Bury-Kamińska ◽  
Aneta Szudy-Szczyrek ◽  
Aleksandra Nowaczyńska ◽  
Olga Jankowska-Łęcka ◽  
Marek Hus ◽  
...  

The paper presents a study on the changes in cognitive functioning in patients undergoing chemotherapy with diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM). The aim of the study was to answer the following two main research questions: Does the treatment stage differentiate the functioning of cognitive processes in patients with diagnosed MM and to what extent? Is it possible to treat biological factors (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, and BDNF) as predictors of patients’ cognitive functioning? The patients were examined twice, before the treatment and after 4–6 cycles of chemotherapy. Selected neuropsychological research methods as well as experimental and clinical trials were employed to diagnose the patients’ general cognitive state, attention, memory, and executive functions. The level of biological factors was assessed with the ELISA test. The results show that the patients’ cognitive functioning was worse before the treatment than during the cytostatic therapy. It was also possible to predict the cognitive state of patients suffering from multiple myeloma based on a selected biological parameter (neurotrophin BDNF).

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Bury

Abstract Introduction: The incidence rate of cancers emphasizes the necessity to investigate not only patients’ somatic ailments but also their psychosocial functioning as well as the need to raise the quality standards of cancer patients. The improvement of the quality of life is one of the major challenges of psycho-oncology, which is the science created in the interface of two disciplines: psychology and medicine. One of the important aspects of psycho-oncologists’ activity is the minimization of negative side-effects related to treatment, such as changes in patients’ cognitive functioning resulting from anti-cancer treatment. Objective: The aim of this work is to provide the reader with the knowledge concerning the phenomenon of chemobrain in a very special group of patients with hemato-oncologic tumour. Few researches related to this topic have confirmed the occurrence of cognitive deficits resulting from the cancer process, taken cytotoxic drugs, other forms of anti-cancer therapy and the activeness of biochemical compounds in patients with multiple myeloma. Methods: The author has done a literary review concerning the topic under study using the Google Scholar and EBSCO databases. The main part of this work consists of references to Polish and English research literature published after 2000. The review includes also classic works from the eighties and nineties of the 20th century. Results: The present work has been divided into several sections. The part devoted to explanation of the term chemobrain describes the evolution of its definition over the years. The second section - ‘Heterogeneity of the phenomenon - causes’ - underlines the influence of biochemical etiological factors, such as the impact of the activity of proinflammatory cytokines on the cognitive state of the patients suffering from tumour. Next part - ‘Chemobrain and multiple myeloma’ is devoted to the clinical characteristics of this cancer and to the descriptions of the selected methods of chemotherapy. The review of researches concerning the deteriorated cognitive functioning of patients with multiple myeloma in relation to the probable aetiology of this disease has been also presented. Conclusions: The review of Polish and English literature concerning the functioning of memory and attention processes in the patients suffering from multiple myeloma can serve as an inspiration for a search for objective biochemical factors conditioning the deterioration of cognitive processes of the patients undergoing anti-cancer treatment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (104) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadir Yıldız ◽  
Pınar Güzel ◽  
Fırat Çetinöz ◽  
Tolga Beşikçi

Background. In this research, we aimed to investigate the effects of outdoor camps on orienteering athletes. Methods. The study group consisted of 74 athletes (44 males and 30 females, aged 11.94 ± 1.32 years) who participated in Bolu outdoor camp on the 3 rd –13 th of August, 2015. Interview technique, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used as data collection tool and content analysis method was used for data analysis. Results. Demographic factors were interpreted after the analysis of the obtained data and three main research questions were discussed under the topics of the views of athletes about the concept of Orienteering which is an outdoor sport, themes and codes regarding the purpose of Orienteering by the students who participated in the outdoor camp, and themes and codes about the outcomes of Orienteering for the students who participated in outdoor camps. Conclusion. It is suggested that a policy must be developed within the Ministry of Youth and Sport and Sport Federations in order to disseminate more deliberate and more comprehensive outdoor education among young people and measures should be taken to provide extensive participation.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R Vago ◽  
Resh Gupta ◽  
Sara Lazar

One potential pathway by which mindfulness-based meditation improves health outcomes is through changes in cognitive functioning. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) was conducted with a focus on assessing the state of the evidence for effects on cognitive processes and associated assays. Here, we comment on confounding issues surrounding the reporting of these and related findings, including 1) criteria that appropriately define an MBI; 2) limitations of assays used to measure cognition; and 3) methodological quality of MBI trials and reporting of findings. Because these issues contribute to potentially distorted interpretations of existing data, we offer constructive means for interpretation and recommendations for moving the field of mindfulness research forward regarding the effects on cognition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jan-Baptist Belge ◽  
Linda Van Diermen ◽  
Bernard Sabbe ◽  
Manuel Morrens ◽  
Violette Coppens ◽  
...  

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> The neurobiological mechanisms underlying the acute cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remain poorly understood. Prior research has shown that proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, TNF-α, IL1-β, and IL-10 may interfere with cognitive functioning. Interestingly, immunomodulation is one of the proposed modes of action of ECT. This study investigates whether changes of peripheral levels of IL-6, TNF-α, IL1-β, and IL-10 are related to changes in cognitive functioning following ECT. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> In the week before and 1 week after an acute course of ECT, 62 patients suffering from depression underwent a neuropsychological evaluation to assess their processing speed using the Symbol Digit Substitution Test (SDST), verbal episodic memory using the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R), and their retrospective autobiographic memory using the Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) with the peripheral inflammatory markers being measured at the same 2 time points. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Patients improved drastically following ECT, while their main performance on both the HVLT-R and AMI declined and their SDST scores remained stable. The levels of IL-6 and IL1-β had both decreased, where the decrease in IL-6 was related to the decrease in HVLT-R scores. Higher baseline IL-10 levels were associated with a more limited decrease of the HVLT-R scores. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Our findings tentatively suggest that the effects of ECT on verbal episodic memory may be related to the treatment’s immunomodulatory properties, most notably due to decreased IL-6 levels. Moreover, baseline IL-10 appears to be a potential biomarker to predict the effects of ECT on verbal episodic memory. Whilst compelling, the results of this study should be interpreted with caution as, due to its exploratory nature, no correction for multiple comparisons was made. Further, a replication in larger cohorts is warranted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1373-1382
Author(s):  
Avril Thomson ◽  
Hilary Grierson

AbstractThe paper reports on a study that aims to gain an understanding of how senior engineering design students engage and attain throughout the various stages of the design process during a major design project. Following a literature review it sets out to answer 3 main research questionsQ1. Do students engage more with certain stages of the design process during major project work?;Q2. Do students attain better during certain phases of the design process during major project ?Q3. Is there a difference in this attainment between year groups of the same degree programme ?The methodology adopted employs an analysis of marks and an online questionnaire to collect data. Patterns and trends in how senior BEng and MEng Product Design Engineering students engage and attain within the design process are presented, identified and discussed and in turn used to inform reflection on the research questions set.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10360
Author(s):  
Hyun-Do Yun ◽  
Sun-Woong Kim ◽  
Wan-Shin Park ◽  
Sun-Woo Kim

The purpose of this study was to experimentally evaluate the effect of a hinged steel damping system on the shear behavior of a nonductile reinforced concrete frame with an opening. For the experimental test, a total of three full-scale reinforced concrete frame specimens were planned, based on the “no retrofitting” (NR) specimens with non-seismic details. The main research questions were whether the hinged steel damping system is reinforced and whether torsion springs are installed in the hinged steel damping system. From the results of the experiment, the hinged steel damping system (DR specimen) was found to be effective in seismic retrofitting, while isolating the opening of the reinforced concrete (RC) frame, and the torsion spring installed at the hinged connection (DSR specimen) was evaluated to be effective in controlling the amount of deformation of the upper and lower dampers. The strength, stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity of the DSR specimen were slightly improved compared to the DR specimen, and it was confirmed that stress redistribution was induced by the rotational stiffness of the torsion spring installed in the hinge connection between the upper and lower frames.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-67
Author(s):  
Lukasz Damurski ◽  
Jacek Pluta ◽  
Jerzy Ładysz ◽  
Magdalena Mayer-Wydra

Services originally developed as natural concentrations of human activity, reflecting the Christallerian hierarchy of central places. Today, those natural mechanisms are challenged by strong competition from online facilities. More and more services are offered by the internet and this affects the traditional ‘bricks-and-mortar' urban development. In this article, the main research problems of the inter-relatedness of real and virtual environments are defined in the context of urban neighbourhood service centres. The process of conversion from offline services into online ones is treated as a canvas for building a comprehensive research model for studying the development of the contemporary urban services sector in the local scale. Particular research questions and hypotheses are formulated and followed by a set of methods for further empirical research.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1768
Author(s):  
R. Nemec ◽  
A. Jahodova Berkova ◽  
S. Hubalovsky

This article describes the research results aimed at distance education during the Covid-19 pandemic and closing schools and its symmetry with the classical state in terms of time, difficulty, and the mental and physical condition of students. An important aspect is therefore to maintain the symmetry of attitudes to teaching in face-to-face form and distance form. In terms of the eight-year gymnasium in the Czech Republic, students’ attitudes to the teaching subject informatics were investigated. The main research questions in our study dealt with whether students felt equally balanced regarding the amount of tasks and time taken for home preparation during the Covid-19 outbreak compared with the time before the quarantine and their condition (both mental and physical) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The research was conducted using an anonymous questionnaire, which was answered by 110 out of 180 students. According to the results, it is evident that students felt that during the distance education, there are more tasks compared to face-to-face ones. Students also claimed to spend more time learning at distance education than at school. On the other hand, they agreed that the self-education schedule is suitable for them. In terms of the questionnaire, their condition (both mental and physical) was also evaluated, which was slightly above the average.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-12
Author(s):  
Anna Bargagliotti ◽  
Dorothea Herreiner ◽  
Jefrey A. Phillips

The April 2017 National Science Foundation-funded Breaking the Boundaries in STEM Education conference brought together Southern California science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) faculty to explore equity, problem-solving, and computing in an interdisciplinary manner. Two main research questions guided the overall scope of the conference: (1) What are the common threads across disciplines to approach the teaching and learning of skills that are relevant in STEM? (2) What are the challenges and barriers that need to be overcome in order to foster collaboration across disciplines to impact the teaching and learning of skills relevant in STEM? We describe the background of the conference and provide an overview of the questions addressed.


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