INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONCURRENT APPLICATION OF CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM ELECTRICAL TRANQUILIZATION AND PEPTIDE BIOREGULATOR CORTEXIN IN IMPROVEMENT OF THE HUMAN STATOKINETIC STABILITY

The paper deals with effectiveness of 2-wk electrical tranquilization of the central nervous system (CNS ET) combined with peptide bioregulator cortexin in improvement of the statokinetic stability. Statokinetic loads were modeled using the standard test of continuous Coriolis accelerations accumulation (CCAT). Cortexin was applied intranasally twice a day at the dose of 5 mg. It was shown that CNS ET together with cortex extends the CCAT tolerance and alleviates sensory, autonomic and somatic components of statokinetic reactions. Tolerance time was the longest immediately after the course; over 3 months tolerance returned gradually to initial length.

Easy and effective test to evaluate tear-film stability for self-diagnosis of dry eye syndrome: blinking tolerance time (BTT)

Background The tear film breakup time (tBUT) is a clinical evaluation of evaporative dry eye disease assessed by instilling topical fluorescein into the eyes. In the present study, we introduce a new diagnostic test, blinking tolerance time (BTT), for self-evaluation of tear-film stability. We compared the results with the tBUT and validated the BTT test for self-assessment of tear film instability. Methods This was a prospective controlled study involving 212 eyes of 106 participants 20–79 years of age. A total of 114 eyes of 57 dry eye patients and 98 eyes of 49 healthy subjects were included in the study. All patients and subjects were administered the following tests to diagnose dry eye disease: Ocular Surface Disease Index, BTT, tBUT, slit-lamp examination, corneal stain score, and Schirmer I test (without anesthesia). Patients and subjects were instructed not to blink for as long possible after reset blinking. The time interval between the reset blink and the next blink was measured. The mean of 3 tBUT values in both the right and left eyes was defined as tBUTBE. Correlations between the BTT and tBUTBE were also evaluated. To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the BTT and tBUT tests, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to obtain a cutoff score, and the sensitivities of the tests against the specificity at all possible thresholds were plotted. Results Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed a significant weakly positive correlation between BTT and tBUTBE (r = 0.447; p = 0.000). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the tBUT was 0.679 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.575–0.765) and the ICC of the BTT was 0.904 (95% CI: 0.867–0.932). The area under the ROC curve did not significantly differ between the tBUTBE (0.678) and BTT (0.628, p = 0.641). When the cutoff value of the BTT test was set to 8.1 s, the sensitivity was 63.3% and the specificity was 56.1%. Conclusion The BTT test is a simple, inexpensive, and effective method for self-diagnosing dry eye that can also be used in the clinical setting.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of placebo-controlled invasive interventions for the management of chronic stable angina

Background The benefits of invasive therapies for chronic stable angina are in large part supported by open label studies comparing invasive procedures to medical therapy alone. Placebo effects are frequently unaccounted for as control arms rarely receive placebo (sham) interventions. This review pools studies comparing invasive therapies for chronic stable angina to placebo interventions and aims to measure the true effects of different invasive interventions. Methods We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of double blinded randomized placebo-controlled trials of invasive therapies for the management of chronic stable angina. The outcomes of interest were change in exercise tolerance time, change in Canadian cardiovascular society angina grade and rate of post-procedural complications including myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality. Results Six randomized placebo-controlled trials were included, with a total of 742 participants. Median follow-up ranged from 6 weeks to 16 months. Contrary to data reported in individual studies, pooled analysis favored invasive therapies over placebo procedures: exercise tolerance time was higher (standard mean difference (SMD) 35.2 seconds [4.4- 66.0]), angina scores were more likely to improve by ≥1 class (Odds Ratio (OR) 2.16 [1.05- 4.46]) and by ≥2 classes (OR 1.76 [1.13- 2.74]). There was no difference in post-procedural myocardial infarction (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 2.91 [0.61–13.93]) and all-cause mortality (IRR 0.39 [0.35–4.27]). Conclusions This meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials for chronic stable angina found a beneficial effect from invasive therapies. This favorable effect has not been seen in individual studies. Our findings suggest that sample sizes should be adjusted upwards in placebo-controlled studies to detect true treatment effects independent of the placebo effect. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

Easy and effective test to evaluate tear-film stability for self-diagnosis of dry eye syndrome: Blinking tolerance time (BTT)

Background: The tear film breakup time (tBUT) is a clinical evaluation of evaporative dry eye disease assessed by instilling topical fluorescein into the eyes. In the present study, we introduce a new diagnostic test, blinking tolerance time (BTT), for self-evaluation of tear-film stability. We compared the results with the tBUT and validated the BTT test for self-assessment of tear film instability.Methods: This was a prospective controlled study involving 212 eyes of 106 participants 20–79 years of age. A total of 114 eyes of 57 dry eye patients and 98 eyes of 49 healthy subjects were included in the study. All patients and subjects were administered the following tests to diagnose dry eye disease: Ocular Surface Disease Index, BTT, tBUT, slit-lamp examination, corneal stain score, and Schirmer I test (without anesthesia). Patients and subjects were instructed not to blink for as long possible after reset blinking. The time interval between the reset blink and the next blink was measured. The mean of 3 tBUT values in both the right and left eyes was defined as tBUTBE. Correlations between the BTT and tBUTBE were also evaluated. To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the BTT and tBUT tests, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to obtain a cutoff score, and the sensitivities of the tests against the specificity at all possible thresholds were plotted.Results: Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed a significant weakly positive correlation between BTT and tBUTBE (r = 0.447; p=0.000). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the tBUT was 0.679 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.575–0.765) and the ICC of the BTT was 0.904 (95% CI: 0.867–0.932). The area under the ROC curve did not significantly differ between the tBUTBE (0.678) and BTT (0.628, p=0.641). When the cutoff value of the BTT test was set to 8.1 s, the sensitivity was 63.3% and the specificity was 56.1%.Conclusion: The BTT test is a simple, inexpensive, and effective method for self-diagnosing dry eye that can also be used in the clinical setting.

An easy and effective test to evaluate tear film stability as a self diagnosis of dry eye syndrome: Blinking tolerance time (BTT)

Background: To introduce a new diagnostic test, blinking tolerance time (BTT) to evaluate tear film stability. We will compare it with tear break-up time (tBUT) and validate the value of the BTT as a new self-diagnostic tool for assessing tear film instability.Methods: This was a prospective controlled study involving 212 eyes of 106 participants aged 20–79 years. One hundred fourteen eyes of 57 dry eye patients and 98 eyes of 49 healthy subjects were included in the study. All patients and subjects were administered the following diagnostic tests of dry eye disease: Ocular Surface Disease Index, BTT, tBUT, slit lamp examination, corneal stain score, and Schirmer I test (without anesthesia). Patients and subjects were instructed to not to blinking as possible as he or she can after reset blinking. Examiner measure the time interval between reset blinking and next blinking. tBUTou was defined as the mean of the average of three tBUT values in the right and left eyes. Correlations between BTT and tBUTou were also evaluated. To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the BTT and tBUT, ROC curves were generated to obtain a cutoff score, and the sensitivities of the tests against the specificity at all possible thresholds were plotted.Results: Spearman’s correlation analysis showed a statistically significant, weakly positive correlation between BTT and tBUTOU (r = 0.447; p=0.000). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the tBUT was 0.679 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.575–0.765) and the ICC of the BTT was 0.904 (95% CI: 0.867–0.932). The AUC of the tBUTOU was 0.678 and that of the BTT was 0.628. There was no statistically significant difference between these two AUC values (p=0.641). When the cutoff value of BTT was set to 8.1 sec, the sensitivity of the BTT was 63.3% and the specificity was 56.1%.Conclusion: As a simple and new self-diagnostic diagnosis of dry eye, BTT has diagnostic value in clinical practice. The BTT test has a unique advantage in that it can be used for self-diagnostic diagnosis of dry eye. The BTT test can also be widely used in the clinical setting because it is an inexpensive and simple procedure.