Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia in suicide attempters

Although suicide attempts (SA) occur across a broad range of diagnoses as well as in the absence of a diagnosable disorder, most studies to date have focused on them within a single, specific disorder. Consistent with the NIMH RDoC initiative to identify biobehavioral vulnerabilities that cut across diagnoses, the goal of the present study was to examine potential differences in resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) levels in a large, diagnostically heterogeneous sample of women with and without a history of SA who were matched on a broad range of demographic and clinical variables. Participants were 112 women with (n = 56) and without (n = 56) a history of SA recruited from the community. The two groups were equated on approximate age, race, household income, and lifetime histories of psychiatric diagnoses. Resting electrocardiogram was recorded during a 2‐min rest period. RSA was calculated via spectral power analyses with a fast Fourier transform. We found that women with a history of SA exhibited significantly lower resting RSA levels than women with no history of SA, and this difference was maintained even after statistically controlling for the potential influence of women's history of psychiatric diagnoses and their current symptoms of depression and anxiety. These findings suggest the presence of a link between resting RSA and SA history.     

Biological basis of lymphocyte ratios for survival prediction in hemodialysis patients: a longitudinal study

International Urology and Nephrology - The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte (PLR) ratios have been proposed as emerging markers of inflammation and prognosis in maintenance...     

Rumination and Hopelessness as Mediators of the Relation Between Perceived Emotion Dysregulation and Suicidal Ideation

The present study examined whether particular emotion dysregulation dimensions were associated with suicidal ideation through their effects on ruminative thinking and hopelessness. Emerging adults (ages 18–25) with (n = 32) and without (n = 111) a suicide attempt history completed an emotion dysregulation measure at baseline and measures of rumination, hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation 2–3 years later. Multiple suicide attempters (n = 15) were distinguished by elevated scores on emotion dysregulation dimensions involving impulse control difficulties and inability to access effective emotion regulation strategies. The Strategies dimension, assessed at baseline, was significantly associated with both rumination and hopelessness at follow-up, and with higher ideation at follow-up. Rumination and hopelessness mediated the relation between Strategies and ideation, even when adjusting for depressive symptoms. Perceived inability to access emotion regulation strategies may increase vulnerability to suicidal ideation through its effects on rumination and hopelessness.     

Field vole-associated Traemmersee hantavirus from Germany represents a novel hantavirus species

Virus Genes - Vole-associated hantaviruses occur in the Old and New World. Tula orthohantavirus (TULV) is widely distributed throughout the European continent in its reservoir, the common vole...     

Doxorubicin-induced Changes of Ventricular Repolarization Heterogeneity: Results of a Chronic Rat Study

Anthracycline chemotherapy produces cardiac repolarization abnormalities and arrhythmias because of cardiac toxicity of drugs. Ventricular arrhythmogenesis is attributable to increase in repolarization heterogeneity that is characterized by spatial dispersion of repolarization. The purpose of this work was to study the delayed effects of doxorubicin, the most frequently used anthracycline, on repolarization heterogeneity of the ventricular epicardium. Doxorubicin was administered to rats in a cumulative dose of 15?mg/kg (six equal intraperitoneal injections over a period of 2?weeks). Six weeks after the last injection, electrophysiological mapping of the ventricular epicardium was performed by sequential superimposition of a 64-electrode array on the left ventricular base, left ventricular apex, right ventricular base, and right ventricular apex. Activation?Crecovery intervals (ARIs) were measured. In doxorubicin-treated rats, ARIs were inhomogeneously prolonged, the overall ARI dispersion and local ARI dispersions were increased, and the interregional differences in ARI dispersion were decreased. These data demonstrate that doxorubicin-induced inhomogeneous prolongation of repolarization of the ventricular epicardium results in increasing heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization because of increasing intraregional heterogeneity while interregional differences are lost. Repolarization of the right ventricle is more sensitive to doxorubicin than that of the left one.     

Cognitive inflexibility and suicidal ideation: Mediating role of brooding and hopelessness

Previous research suggests that cognitive inflexibility prospectively increases vulnerability to suicidal ideation, but the specific cognitive factors that may explain the relation have not been examined empirically. The present study examined the brooding subtype of rumination and hopelessness as potential mediators of the prospective relation between cognitive inflexibility and suicidal ideation. Fifty-six young adults who completed a measure of cognitive inflexibility and suicidal ideation at baseline were followed up 2–3 years later and completed measures of brooding, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. Cognitive inflexibility at baseline predicted suicidal ideation at follow up, adjusting for baseline ideation. This relation was mediated by brooding but not by hopelessness. However, there was an indirect relation between perseverative errors and suicidal ideation through brooding, followed by hopelessness, such that brooding was associated with greater hopelessness and hopelessness, in turn, was associated with greater suicidal ideation. Cognitive inflexibility may increase vulnerability to suicidal thinking because it is associated with greater brooding rumination, while brooding, in turn, is associated with hopelessness.