Effect of individualized physical rehabilitation programs on respiratory function in women with post-mastectomy syndrome

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an individualized physical rehabilitation programs aimed at improving respiratory function in women with post-mastectomy syndrome. Methods: In a randomized controlled trial 50 women with post-mastectomy syndrome were enrolled in the experimental group (EG, n = 25) or the comparison group (CG, n = 25). The program for the EG included: aqua aerobics (i.e. aqua jogging, aqua building, and aqua stretching); conditional swimming; and recreational aerobics. The program for the CG included: conditional swimming and Pilates exercises. Both intervention groups attended individualized physical rehabilitation programs three times per week for 48 weeks. The primary outcome measure was spirometry of the patients measured before, 6 and 12 months after the intervention. Results: This study demonstrated that most of the respiratory function parameters increased significantly in both groups over the year of exercise training. After the year of training the individualized physical rehabilitation program for the EG was significantly better (p < 0.01) as compared with the CG, except for inspiratory reserve volume and maximal voluntary ventilation, which were not statistically different. Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that individual programs of physical rehabilitation could be considered effective for the improvement of respiratory function of the patients with post-mastectomy syndrome. The results obtained could serve as a basis for more widespread clinical program development.     

Clinical Results of Dynamic Cardiomyoplasty

Thirty-five cardiomyoplasty procedures were performed in five patients with dilated and 30 patients with ischemic cardiomyopathies. Russian-made cardiomyostimulators (CMS) were implanted in these patients. Twenty-one patients underwent a one-step procedure using a left thoracotomy for cardiomyoplasty, while in 14 patients, a two-step procedure that included a mid-line sternotomy was carried out. During the average follow-up period of 9 ± 2.1 months, studies were carried out that showed in survivors improved clinical functional status and decreased heart failure symptoms. Evidence of revascularization of the ischemic myocardium from the latissimus dorsi muscle (LDM) wrap was obtained by angiography and radioactive scintigraphy. In five patients, the CMS had to be removed due to complications, and in all these patients, their clinical functional status deteriorated following the cessation of cardiomyostimulation.     

Loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 9q22.3 in microdissected basal cell carcinomas around the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing Site, Kazakhstan

A high incidence of skin cancers has been noted around the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing Site (SNTS) in Kazakhstan. Recently, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) susceptibility genes, human homolog of the Drosophila pathed gene (PTCH), and the xeroderma pigmentosa group A-complementing gene (XPA), have been cloned and localized on chromosome 9q22.3. To clarify the effect of low-dose irradiation on the occurrence of BCC, we used microdissection and polymerase chain reaction to identify loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at 9q22.3 using BCC samples obtained from this region. Ten Japanese samples were analyzed as controls. LOH with at least 1 marker was identified in 5 of 14 cases from around SNTS, whereas only 1 case with 1 marker was identified among the 10 Nagasaki cases. The total number of LOH alleles from SNTS (8 of 45) was significantly higher than the number from Nagasaki (1 of 26) (P = 0.03). The higher incidence of LOH on 9q22.3 in BCC from around SNTS suggests involvement of chronic low-dose irradiation by fallout from the test site as a factor in the cancers.     

X-ray converters for medical radioscopy

Spektr Scientific-Industrial Association, Moscow. Research Institute of Radioscopy, S. M. Kirov Tomsk Polytechnic Institute. Translated from Meditsinskaya Tekhnika, No. 1, pp. 3–7, January–February, 1989.     

Temperature compensation of neuromuscular modulation in aplysia

Physiological systems that must operate over a range of temperatures often incorporate temperature-compensatory mechanisms to maintain their output within a relatively narrow, functional range of values. We analyze here an example in the accessory radula closer (ARC) neuromuscular system, a representative part of the feeding neuromusculature of the sea slug Aplysia. The ARC muscle's two motor neurons, B15 and B16, release, in addition to ACh that contracts the muscle, modulatory peptide cotransmitters that, through a complex network of effects in the muscle, shape the ACh-induced contractions. It is believed that this modulation is critical in optimizing the performance of the muscle for successful, efficient feeding behavior. However, previous work has shown that the release of the modulatory peptides from the motor neurons decreases dramatically with increasing temperature. From 15 to 25 degrees C, for example, release decreases 20-fold. Yet Aplysia live and feed successfully not only at 15 degrees C, but at 25 degrees C and probably at higher temperatures. Here, working with reduced B15/B16-ARC preparations in vitro as well as a mathematical model of the system, we have found a resolution of this apparent paradox. Although modulator release decreases 20-fold when the temperature is raised from 15 to 25 degrees C, the observed modulation of contraction shape does not decrease at all. Two mechanisms are responsible. First, further downstream within the modulatory network, the modulatory effects themselves-experimentally dissected by exogenous modulator application-have temperature dependencies opposite to that of modulator release, increasing with temperature. Second, the saturating curvature of the dose-response relations within the network diminishes the downstream impact of the decrease of modulator release. Thus two quite distinct mechanisms, one depending on the characteristics of the individual components of the network and the other emerging from the network's structure, combine to compensate for temperature changes to maintain the output of this physiological system.     

Humoral immune response to thymidylate synthase in colon cancer patients after 5-FU chemotherapy

Thymidylate synthase (TYMS), the critical enzyme for DNA synthesis and a target for chemotherapy, was recently characterized as an oncogene and a potential target for specific immunotherapy. Here we report TYMS-specific antibody response in a fraction of colon cancer patients. Humoral immune response to TYMS is induced by chemotherapy using TYMS inhibitors, such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and may be associated with tumor burden. Therefore, TYMS may serve as a useful serological biomarker for monitoring the course of disease and treatment in cancer patients.     

Categorization of unilaterally presented emotional words: an ERP analysis

This study is intended to clarify the functional role of different ERP components as indicators of the processing of emotions. The effect of emotional connotation of words on hemispheric lateralization is also explored. Visual ERPs were recorded to unilaterally presented positive, negative, and neutral words that should be categorized according to their emotional connotation. The P2 amplitude was larger to positive than to negative words whereas P3 amplitude was larger to positive words compared with neutral ones. The slow positive wave (SPW) was influenced by words emotionality at anterior and posterior sites differently. The amplitude of the N1 component was larger in the left hemisphere to contralaterally presented words. The P2 and P3 components were larger over the left hemisphere whereas the N3 and N4 components were larger over the right hemisphere to ipsilateral stimulation. The results support our hypotheses on the functional role of positive ERP components in the processing of an affective words connotation: the P2 wave reflects a general evaluation of emotional significance, the P3 a task-related decision, and the SPW an additional decision control in the context of the emotional experience of an individual. Neither the "right hemisphere hypothesis" nor "valence hypothesis" on lateralization of the processing of emotions were confirmed. Each hemisphere seems to exert its effect on emotion through specific hemispheric resources that are unequally allocated along the different stages of task processing and may cause alternation of hemispheric dominance.     

Tight or loose coupling between components of the feeding neuromusculature of Aplysia?

Like other complex behaviors, the cyclical, rhythmic consummatory feeding behaviors of Aplysia-biting, swallowing, and rejection of unsuitable food-are produced by a complex neuromuscular system: the animal's buccal mass, with numerous pairs of antagonistic muscles, controlled by the firing of numerous motor neurons, all driven by the motor programs of a central pattern generator (CPG) in the buccal ganglia. In such a complex neuromuscular system, it has always been assumed that the activities of the various components must necessarily be tightly coupled and coordinated if successful functional behavior is to be produced. However, we have recently found that the CPG generates extremely variable motor programs from one cycle to the next, and so very variable motor neuron firing patterns and contractions of individual muscles. Here we show that this variability extends even to higher-level parameters of the operation of the neuromuscular system such as the coordination between entire antagonistic subsystems within the buccal neuromusculature. In motor programs elicited by stimulation of the esophageal nerve, we have studied the relationship between the contractions of the accessory radula closer (ARC) muscle, and the firing patterns of its motor neurons B15 and B16, with those of its antagonist, the radula opener (I7) muscle, and its motor neuron B48. There are two separate B15/B16-ARC subsystems, one on each side of the animal, and these are indeed very tightly coupled. Tight coupling can, therefore, be achieved in this neuromuscular system where required. Yet there is essentially no coupling at all between the contractions of the ARC muscles and those of the antagonistic radula opener muscle. We interpret this result in terms of a hypothesis that ascribes a higher-order benefit to such loose coupling in the neuromusculature. The variability, emerging in the successive feeding movements made by the animal, diversifies the range of movements and thereby implements a trial-and-error search through the space of movements that might be successful, an optimal strategy for the animal in an unknown, rapidly changing feeding environment.