A correlative cross sectional study on Manas Prakriti and psychological parameters among young females

Background: Several scientific studies have documented the relationship among personality types, psychological traits and disorders. Manasika Prakṛiti, described in Ayurveda, is based on the three qualities of mind i.e Satva, Raja and Tama which determine the three Manasika Prakṛiti, namely, Satvika, Rajasika, and Tamasika . Among these, Satvika individuals are less prone for psychological disorders than Tamasika and Rajasika type. Few studies have been conducted on relationship of psychological parameters and Manas Prakriti, Thus it requires a large sample survey specifically in Indian population to make conclusive statements. Aim and Objective: To find an association between Manasika Prakriti and Psychological parameter i.e Stress, depression and anxiety among healthy females. Methods: A total 450 healthy females (180 Satvika, 145 Rajasika and 125 Tamasika Prakriti) were selected from different department of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Assessment of Manasika Prakriti was done by using Manas Prakriti assessment inventory(MPAI) developed by Aftab A et.,al, 2018 and psychological parameters i.e stress, depression and anxiety were assessed by using Stress Scale, Beck depressions inventory II(BDI II) and Sinha’s anxiety scale. Result: Significant difference was found in between Manasika Prakriti and Psychological parameters i.e. stress, depression and anxiety at the faculty level(p<0.001). In all the faculty Satvika Prakriti females having very low level of stress and anxiety(63.4%, 34.4%) and minimal level of depression(76.6%) while few Rajasika Prakriti females having mild level of depression(47.6%) and severe level of anxiety(53.8%).Tamasika Prakriti females were having higher chances of severe level of stress, depression and anxiety as compared to other Prakriti.

Integrative parameter of platelet aggregation in intensive care of COVID-19 patients

Objective. To conduct a comparative analysis of changes in platelet aggregation parameters in COVID-19 patients which are related to anticoagulant therapy and to determine the effectiveness of the integrative parameter of platelet aggregation.Materials and methods. 34 patients with confirmed COVID-19 (group 1) were included into the study. To compare the obtained results, healthy females were included into group 2 (n = 30). The following parameters of aggregation were determined: degree, time, rate and area of aggregation (until its maximum degree).Results. The area of aggregation is the best among all the parameters of platelet aggregation to diagnose COVID-19 in patients according to the Hosmer-Lemeshow test: with an ADP inducer — 0.3 μg/ml (Chi-square = 9.481, p = 0.303); ADP — 1.25 μg/ml (Chi square = 12.577, p = 0.127); ADP — 2.5 μg/ml (Chi-square = 6.226, p = 0.622); adrenaline — 2.5 μM (Chi-square = 7.367, p = 0.498); adrenaline — 5 μM (Chi-square = 6.824, p = 0.556).Conclusion. The area of aggregation is an informative integrative parameter that allows to quantify the degree of aggregation in the treatment of hypercoagulation syndrome in COVID-19 patients.

Molecular Investigation of Association Among Common IL-6 Polymorphism with Cytomegalovirus(CMV) Infection and Recurrent Miscarriage in Iranian Women

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is described as two or more spontaneous abortions. Until now, although various factors such as genetic, endocrinology, anatomy, immunology, and microbiology have been distinguished that affect abortions, the precise basic etiology in up to 50% of RPL cases are not determined. Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and host genetic background, like IL-6 SNP polymorphisms play important roles in RPL etiology. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate relationship among single nucleotide polymorphisms (-634C/G and -174 G/C) in the IL-6 gene with CMV infection and risk of RPL for early detection and treatment of RPL. Materials and methods: This case-control study was carried on 80 Iranian females with RPL and 80 healthy females as control group. The extraction of DNA from samples and detection of CMV and IL6 SNPs were determined by Tetra ARMS-PCR. Finally, the statistical analysis for detection CMV and two polymorphisms roles in RPL were analyzed by Epi Info TM software by X2 test. Results: Our results indicated an increased rate of CMV infection in RPL group (44%) versus the control group (25.45%). Also, the prevalence of IL-6 -634C/G genotype among RPL patients with CMV infection was 80%, while the frequency of this genotype among RPL patients without CMV infection was 50%. Furthermore, no substantial relation was found between IL-6 -174 G/C genotypes and RPL (P ≤0.0001). BesidesConclusion: This study not only indicated a significant role of CMV in RPL, but also showed CMV association with allele G in IL6 -634 among Iranian women. In addition, suggested the use of CMV and IL-6 -634 GG genotypes in RPL as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in Iranian population.

An Evaluation of Hot Water Intake and Relief from Menstrual Cramps among Healthy Females - A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Primary dysmenorrhea is menstrual pain that very women undergo during her menstrual phase. It may vary in its frequency and duration in each and every woman. Many home remedies have been followed by females to combat these menstrual cramps. One such treatment is intake of hot water for three days during the menstrual phase Objective: To aim of the study is to observe the changes experienced by female who consume hot water regularly during menstruation Methods: The study was conducted in 100 female subjects with regular cycles of menstruation. The participants were administered with a self developed questionnaire consisting of 16 questions relating to the menstrual cramps and the remedies they chose and their regularity of hot water intake and the relief they obtained. The responses were collected using google forms. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis and chi square test was used to analyze the data. Results: The study observed that female subjects experienced better results after regular hot water intake during menstruation. It relieves menstrual cramps and improves mental health. Conclusion: The present study concluded that the majority of the population had a regular habit of taking hot water and experienced improvement and relief from menstrual cramps.

Design of a Novel Wearable System for Foot Clearance Estimation

Trip-related falls are one of the major causes of injury among seniors in Canada and can be attributable to an inadequate Minimum Toe Clearance (MTC). Currently, motion capture systems are the gold standard for measuring MTC; however, they are expensive and have a restricted operating area. In this paper, a novel wearable system is proposed that can estimate different foot clearance parameters accurately using only two Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors located at the toe and heel of the shoe. A small-scale preliminary study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of foot clearance estimation using the proposed wearable system. We recruited ten young, healthy females to walk at three self-selected speeds (normal, slow, and fast) while wearing the system. Our data analysis showed an average correlation coefficient of 0.94, 0.94, 0.92 for the normal, slow, and fast speed, respectively, when comparing the ToF signals with motion capture. The ANOVA analysis confirmed these results further by revealing no statistically significant differences between the ToF signals and motion capture data for most of the gait parameters after applying the newly proposed foot angle and offset compensation. In addition, the proposed system can measure the MTC with an average Mean Error (ME) of −0.08 ± 3.69 mm, −0.12 ± 4.25 mm, and −0.10 ± 6.57 mm for normal, slow, and fast walking speeds, respectively. The proposed affordable wearable system has the potential to perform real-time MTC estimation and contribute to future work focused on minimizing tripping risks.

Plasma Exosomes of Patients with Breast and Ovarian Tumors Contain an Inactive 20S Proteasome

Exosomes are directly involved in governing of physiological and pathological conditions of an organism through the transfer of information from producing to receiving cells. It can be assumed that exosomes are one of the key players of tumor dissemination since they are very stable and small enough to penetrate from various tissues into biological fluids and then back, thus interacting with tissue target cells. We evaluated the enzymatic activity and the level of 20S proteasome in tissue and exosomes of healthy females (n = 39) and patients with ovarian (n = 50) and breast (n = 108) tumors to reveal the critical role of exosomal cargo in the mediation of different types of metastases. Exosomes from plasma and ascites were isolated and characterized in according to International Society for Extracellular Vesicles guidelines. The level of 20S proteasome in tissue and exosomes was determined using Western blot analysis. Chymotrypsin- and caspase-like (ChTL and CL, respectively) peptidase activities of the proteasomes were determined using fluorogenic Suc-LLVY-AMC and Cbz-LLG-AMC substrates, respectively. We observed increased levels of 20S proteasome in ovarian cancer tissue and luminal B subtype breast cancer tissue as well as in plasma exosomes from cancer patients. Moreover, the level of the 20S proteasome in plasma exosomes and ascites exosomes in patients with ovarian tumors is comparable and higher in ovarian cancer patients with low volume ascites than in patients with moderate and high-volume ascites. We also found increased ChTL and CL activities in breast cancer and ovarian cancer tissues, as well as in peritoneal metastases in ovarian cancer, while proteasomal activity in exosomes from plasma of healthy females and all patients, as well as from ascites of ovarian tumor patients were lower than detection limit of assay. Thus, regardless of the type of tumor metastasis (lymphogenous or peritoneal), the exosomes of cancer patients were characterized by an increased level of 20S proteasome, which do not exhibit enzymatic activity.

Types of vaginal microbiomes in PCOS affected females

To evaluate and analyze the microbiomes component of the vagina in females with polycystic ovarian syndrome PCOS, and compare it with that of healthy females. A case- control study included 120 participants, 60 had been diagnosed as having PCOS according to the Rotterdam Criteria for diagnosis of PCOS and the other 60 are healthy females visiting the outpatient private clinics in Hay Aljameaa/ Al-Harthya in Baghdad from October 2020 till march 2021 for different medical problems, statistical analysis was done by using the SPSS computer application for statistical analysis. Both study groups had L. crispatus in their vagina, while for L. jensonii 93.33% of control group have this microbiota while only 66.66% of PCOS group have it, L. gasseri presents in the vagina of 80% of controls and only 38.33% of PCOS. S. aureus in 41.66% of PCOS group and only 3.33% of control group, S. epidermidis presents in 25% of PCOS females while it not presents in control group. Str. Pyogenes presents in 36.67% of PCOS group and absent in control group (p&#60; 0.0001), Str. Agalactiae presents in 26.67% of PCOS group and 1.67% of control group. Bacteroides presents in 30% of PCOS cases and only in 1.67% of controls (p&#60; 0.0001). For other types of vaginal microbiota e.g. Gardnerella vaginalis we found that it presents in high percentage of PCOS group 66.67% and absent in females of control group, Prevotella spp presents in 55% of PCOS group and only 3.33% of control group, Mobiluncus spp and Fusobacterium spp were absent in both study groups. For candida species, C. albicans presents in 30% and 6.67% of vagina of PCOS and control group respectively. There is large diversity in the vaginal microbiota with disruption to normal flora in PCOS affected patients so We need further studies to evaluate the relationship between the microbiota and different PCOS symptoms.

Association of plasma DNA integrity and long fragment ALU247 in the diagnosis of epithelial ovarian cancer

DNA Integrity index (DNA Int) and cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) represent promising biomarkers for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) detection. Tumor necrosis produces DNA fractions of different sizes, which contrasts apoptosis in normal tissue that releases smaller and more regular DNA fragments. Using ALU gene primers in quantitative PCR, the amplified cf-DNA is supposed to be either short fragments of 115 bp (ALU 115) or long fragments of 247 bp (ALU 247). ALU levels and DNA Int were determined in the plasma of 30 EOC patients, 30 benign cysts, and 15 healthy individuals. The mean values of DNA Int, ALU115, and ALU247 were elevated in malignant patients (0.51±0.09, 3.93 ng/ul ±1.93, 2.35 ng/ul ±1.1) respectively in comparison to healthy females (0.37±0.05; p < 0.001, 2.56 ng/ul ±0.9; p=0.027, 1.26±0.44; p< 0.01). A significant increase was shown in the mean values of DNA Int and ALU247 of EOC patients compared to those with benign cysts (0.4±0.06, p <0.001; 1.69±0.66, p =0.008) respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) for EOC versus healthy females achieved 0.913 (DNA Int), 0.696 (ALU115), and 0.809 (ALU247) with sensitivities and specificities were (86.7% and 93.3%) for DNA Int, (63.3% and 86.7%) for ALU115 and (76.7% and 86.7%) for ALU247 respectively. Furthermore, comparing patients with EOC versus those with benign cysts gave AUC of 0.834 (DNA Int), 0.564 (ALU115), and 0.681 (ALU247) with sensitivities and specificities were (80% and 80%) for DNA Int, (63.3% and 60%) for ALU115 and (60% and 80%) for ALU247 respectively. Higher DNA Int and plasma ALU247 could help in the assessment of EOC, and their measurements seem to have clinical value in diagnosis.