Socioeconomic inequalities in quality of life and psychological outcomes among cardiac patients

Objectives:  The aim of this article is to explore socioeconomic inequalities in the psychological characteristics (psychological well-being, perceived mental health status) and perceived quality of life among cardiac patients. Methods:  A structured interview was conducted with 362 patients (32% women, mean age 56 ± 7.3 years) referred for coronary angiography. The GHQ-28 was used to measure psychological well-being, the SF-36 for perceived mental health status. Income and education indicated socioeconomic position. Logistic regressions were employed, adjusted for age, gender, functional status and severity of disease. Results:  Patients with low income or education had a higher probability of having poor psychological well-being compared to participants with high income or education (OR 5.5,CI 2.32-12.80; OR 3.1,CI 1.52-6.37 resp.), and were also more likely to have worse mental health status (OR2.9,CI 1.02-8.51;OR 4.8,CI 1.36-16.99 resp.), and low quality of life (OR 2.9,CI 1.02-8.51; OR 4.8,CI 1.36-16.99 resp.). Conclusions:  Socioeconomic status was found to be negatively associated with the psychological outcomes and quality of life among cardiac patients. Socioeconomic inequalities should be taken into account when designing suitably-adapted interventions focusing on psychosocial factors among cardiac patients. Submitted: 27 September 2007; revised: 08 January 2009, 16 March 2009; accepted: 18 March 2009     

Effect of Fire on Pools of Mercury in Forest Soil,Central Europe

In year 2006, 17.9 ha of forest was burned during a forest fire at the Bohemian Switzerland National Park found in northern part of Czech Republic (CR), central Europe. Complete combustion of organic soil (4,039 t) on the burned area caused volatilization of 1.34 ± 0.07 kg of Hg. Thus Hg emissions due to fire amounted to 75.1 g ha⁻¹. The average burned forested areas in CR for the period 2000–2006 were reported at 356 ha with estimated Hg emissions at 26.7 kg year⁻¹, while the average anthropogenic emissions in the same period amounted to 3 t year⁻¹. Thus estimated mean emissions of Hg from burned forest soil in the period 2000–2006 reached 1% of the annual anthropogenic Hg emissions.     

ALIS-FLP: amplified ligation selected fragment-length polymorphism method for microbial genotyping

A DNA fingerprinting method known as ALIS-FLP (amplified ligation selected fragment-length polymorphism) has been developed for selective and specific amplification of restriction fragments from TspRI restriction endonuclease digested genomic DNA. The method is similar to AFLP, but differs in that only one specific restriction enzyme (TspRI) is used. The cohesive ends of the DNA fragments are ligated with two types of oligonucleotide. A long oligonucleotide containing the primer site and the specific 9 nt 3 prime end, which is complementary to specific 9 nt, cohesive 3 prime end of the TspRI genomic DNA fragment, and a short, degenerated, oligonucleotide covering the remaining TspRI cohesive ends. Other cohesive ends are covered by a short degenerated oligonucleotide lacking the primer site. The ligation mixture is used as a template for amplification using a single primer corresponding to the 5 prime end of the long, specific oligonucleotide. The selection of TspRI digested genomic DNA fragments for amplification is achieved by sequence selective ligation of the specific long oligonucleotide carrying the primer site to both ends of the specific target fragment. This technique allows for differentiation of the organisms without previous knowledge of their DNA sequence. The usefulness of the method is confirmed by genotyping of 70 previously characterized clinical E. coli isolates. The grouping obtained was identical to the results of REA-PFGE. Versatility of the method is highlighted, i.e. its combining the advantages of the AFLP technique with a simple, rapid and cheap polymerase chain reaction product detection method.     

Neuroticism and extraversion in association with quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Purpose  Personality traits appear as determinants of quality of life (QoL) in most chronic diseases. The aim of this study is to explore whether neuroticism and extraversion contribute to the variance in QoL in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) when controlled for age, functional status and disease duration. Methods  The Parkinson’s Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire (PDQ-39) was used to assess QoL and the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) for disease severity. Neuroticism and extraversion were measured with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR-A). Multiple linear regression analysis was then used to assess the contribution of neuroticism and extraversion to QoL. Results  The sample consisted of 153 PD patients (48.4% women; 67.9 ± 9.3 years; mean disease duration 7.5 ± 5.8 years). Neuroticism was, after disease severity, the second most important variable associated with QoL in PD patients, in particular for domains associated with psychological processes: emotional well-being, social support, stigma and communication. A higher score in extraversion was significantly associated with better emotional well-being in males, but surprisingly, with worse emotional well-being in females. Conclusions  After functional status, personality traits were clearly associated with QoL in PD patients. Therefore, they should be taken into account by health-care professionals in their appraisal of patient complaints.     

Effect of the Cdk-inhibitor roscovitine on mouse hematopoietic progenitors in vivo and in vitro

Myelosuppression is one the most frequent side effects of chemotherapy. New agents that more selectively target cancer cells have been developed in attempt to improve the effects and to decrease the side effects of cancer treatment. Roscovitine is a purine analogue and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. Several studies have shown its cytotoxic effect in cancer cell lines in vitro and in xenograft models in vivo. In this study, we investigated the effect of roscovitine on hematopoietic progenitors in vitro and in vivo in mice. The clonogenic capacity of hematopoietic progenitors was studied using burst-forming unit-erythroid (BFU-E), colony-forming unit granulocyte, macrophage (CFU-GM) and colony-forming unit granulocyte, erythroid, macrophage, megakaryocyte (CFU-GEMM). In vitro, bone marrow cells were exposed to roscovitine (25–250 μM) in Iscove’s modified Dulbecco’s media for 4 h or to roscovitine (1–100 μM) in MethoCult media for 12 days. No effect on colony formation was observed after exposure to roscovitine for 4 h; however, concentration- and cell type-dependent effects were observed after 12 days. Roscovitine in concentration of 100 μM inhibited the growth of all types of colonies, while lower concentrations have shown differential effect on hematopoietic progenitors. The most sensitive were CFU-GEMM, followed by BFU-E and then CFU-GM. In vivo, mice were treated with single dose of roscovitine (50, 100 or 250 mg/kg) and the effect on bone marrow was studied on day 1, 3, 6, 9 or 12 after the treatment. In the second part of experiment, the mice were treated with roscovitine 350 mg/kg/day divided into two daily doses for 4 days. The bone marrow was examined on day 1 and 5 after the last dose of roscovitine. On day 1, BFU-E decreased to less than 50% of the controls (P = 0.019). No decrease in BFU-E formation was observed on day 5. No significant effect was observed on CFU-GM and CFU-GEMM growth after the treatment with multiple doses of roscovitine. Single doses of roscovitine or dimethylsulfoxide did not affect the colony formation. We also studied the distribution of roscovitine to the bone marrow after a dose of 50 mg/kg was administered intraperitoneally. Only 1.5% of the drug was detected in the bone marrow. Thus, the roscovitine effect on hematopoietic progenitors in bone marrow in vivo is only transient. One reason may be that only a small fraction of roscovitine reaches the bone marrow. Another explanation may be the short half-life observed for roscovitine that might not allow enough cell exposure to the drug. However, the toxicity of roscovitine to hematopoietic progenitors in vitro is within the same exposure range as cytotoxicity to cancer cells. Thus, precaution should be taken in clinical trials, especially when combinations with myelosuppressive cytostatics are used. Hairong Song and Marina Vita contributed equally to this work.     

Metabolic, coagulative, and hemodynamic changes during intestinal transplant: good predictors of postoperative damage?

BACKGROUND: Analysis of intraoperative changes of metabolic, hemodynamic, and coagulative parameters is useful to detect early ischemia-reperfusion damage after intestinal transplant. METHODS: The objective of our study is to correlate the histological damage at the end of transplant in relation to the intraoperative changes after reperfusion. The histological aspect was graded according to Park's classification at the end of the surgical procedure with biopsies of the graft. Patients were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of histological damage of the small bowel wall: group A (normal mucosa/minimal damage: Park's grades 0-1) and group B (mucosal damage: Park's grades 2-8). RESULTS: Significant hemodynamic, metabolic, and coagulative disorders were observed in group B. Consequently, these disorders are thought to be early indicators of graft damage. CONCLUSIONS: Actual monitoring procedures used for postoperative graft surveillance remain paramount in detecting postoperative intestinal dysfunction, but the indicators described in this paper could represent a further help in intraoperative and postoperative management.     

Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis by photodynamic therapy

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous leishmaniasis represents a common health problem and standard treatments are often ineffective or yield poor cosmetic results. OBJECTIVE: We compared the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with paromomycin sulfate in 10 lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis. METHODS: Five lesions were treated by PDT with Metvix (Photocure, Oslo, Norway) and 75 J/cm(2) red light. PDT was performed twice weekly and, after 12 weeks, once weekly. The other 5 lesions were treated with paromomycin sulfate once daily. All nonresponding lesions of the paromomycin-treated plaques finally also underwent PDT. RESULTS: All 5 lesions treated by PDT and 2 of the paromomycin sulfate-treated plaques were clinically and histologically Leishmania free. Three lesions with poor response to paromomycin sulfate finally responded to subsequent PDT. Ten months after therapy there was no recurrence, and cosmetic outcome after PDT was excellent. CONCLUSION: PDT may be an effective therapeutic alternative in cutaneous leishmaniasis.     

Labeling of pancreatic islets with iron oxide nanoparticles for in vivo detection with magnetic resonance

In vitro labeling of pancreatic islets with iron nanoparticles enables their direct posttransplant visualization by magnetic resonance; however, there is still a discrepancy in the fate of iron nanoparticles. This study was performed to detail the labeling process, consequently to improve the labeling efficacy and to confirm safety for islet cells. The islets were visible on T2*-weighted magnetic resonance images as hypointense spots immediately after 1-hr cultivation. Although at this time already the sufficient superparamagnetic effect was achieved, most of the particles were deposed in islet macrophages and only later were they found in endosomes of endocrine islet cells. The iron content depended on length of culture period. The labeled islets showed an intact ultrastructure, responded normally to glucose stimulation in vitro, and were able to treat experimental diabetes. For purpose of subsequent magnetic resonance imaging, a 24-hr culture with ferucarbotran leads to sufficient labeling with no apparent adverse effect on beta cell morphology or function.     

The effect of total-ABL, GUS and B2M control genes on BCR-ABL monitoring by real-time RT-PCR

We compared the effect of control genes (CG): total Abelson (total-ABL), beta-2-microglobulin (B2M) and beta-glucuronidase (GUS), recommended in the Europe Against Cancer (EAC) program, on real-time BCR-ABL monitoring in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We focused on the stability of CG expressions during therapy and the effect of the CGs on BCR-ABL ability to characterize the disease status and disease prognosis, issues that have not been addressed yet. The results showed B2M as a very convenient CG for BCR-ABL monitoring. On the contrary, the widely used total-ABL was not confirmed as appropriate for normalization of gene expression in CML.