Changes in Heart Rate Variability in Patients with Spleen-Qi Deficiency Syndrome

Many functional diseases are related to dysautonomia, and heart rate variability has been used to assess dysautonomia. However, heart rate variability has not been studied in Spleen-Qi deficiency syndrome (SQDS). Healthy volunteers (n = 37) and patients with SQDS (n = 67), recruited from the Clinic of the State University of Ecatepec Valley were included in the study. Outcome measures were average heart rate, standard deviation of the normal-to-normal heartbeat intervals, low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) power, and the LF/HF ratio. Also, intestinal peristalsis, gastrointestinal symptoms (GSs), fatigue, and level of attention were measured. Standard deviation of the normal-to-normal heartbeat intervals (17 ± 2.3%) and HF (14 ± 3.1%) were lower in SQDS patients (17 ± 1.3%) than in healthy volunteers. SQDS patients had higher heart rate, LF power, LF/HF ratio, and fatigue scores (9.6 ± 1.12%, 16 ± 2.1%, 22 ± 3.8%, and 21 ± 4.1%). The fatigue correlated positively with the LF/HF ratio and negatively with HF power. The SQDS group had lower concentration performance (16.2 ± 1.9%) in the d2 test. The intestinal peristalsis showed a reduction (15 ± 1.3%) as compared with control. GS score and peristalsis correlated negatively with HF. Our results suggest that the pathology of SDQS could be associated with a low vagal tone which causes a decrease in peristalsis, increased fatigue, reduced attention, and appearance of GSs.     

Efecto de la estrategia de promoción de salud escolar Forma Joven

Objective

To evaluate the impact of the Youth Form Strategy (EFJ, Estrategia Forma Joven) on the attitudes and behaviours of students in the fourth year of compulsory secondary school in Seville, Spain.

Extracting MRS discriminant functional features of brain tumors

The current challenge in automatic brain tumor classification based on MRS is the improvement of the robustness of the classification models that explicitly account for the probable breach of the independent and identically distributed conditions in the MRS data points. To contribute to this purpose, a new algorithm for the extraction of discriminant MRS features of brain tumors based on a functional approach is presented. Functional data analysis based on region segmentation (RSFDA) is based on the functional data analysis formalism using nonuniformly distributed B splines according to spectral regions that are highly correlated. An exhaustive characterization of the method is presented in this work using controlled and real scenarios. The performance of RSFDA was compared with other widely used feature extraction methods. In all simulated conditions, RSFDA was proven to be stable with respect to the number of variables selected and with respect to the classification performance against noise and baseline artifacts. Furthermore, with real multicenter datasets classification, RSFDA and peak integration (PI) obtained better performance than the other feature extraction methods used for comparison. Other advantages of the method proposed are its usefulness in selecting the optimal number of features for classification and its simplified functional representation of the spectra, which contributes to highlight the discriminative regions of the MR spectrum for each classification task. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Silibinin Reduces the Impact of Obesity on Invasive Liver Cancer

Obesity is associated with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Obesity and metabolic abnormalities resulting in low-grade inflammation can increase the risk of developing NASH and HCC. NASH, a risk factor for HCC, is characterized by increased inflammation, lipid accumulation, and liver injury. Obesogenic proteins modulate signaling pathways that induce physiological changes including lipogenesis, ROS, and inflammation. Silibinin, a polyphenol in milk thistle seed, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have yet to determine whether silibinin can be used to dissect the obesity-cancer link to delay progression of liver cancer. Using an in vitro model, sera from obese (OB), overweight (OW), or normal weight (NW) males (based on BMI) were used to determine the efficacy of silibinin to reduce the pro-tumorigenic properties of obesity. HepG2 cells were exposed to OB, OW, NW ± silibinin and tested for growth, ROS, lipogenesis, MMP-9, invasion and protein expression. Silibinin suppressed obesity-induced growth, ROS, lipogenesis, MMP-9, and cell invasion. These physiological changes corresponded with decreased FASN, IL-6, IL-1B, and phosphorylated Erk. We describe the differential effect of sera from OB, OW, and NW males on characteristics relevant for liver cancer and the potential use of silibinin to mitigate these effects.