METHODS: Thirty healthy Muslim men participated in the study. Their electrocardiograms and EEGs were continuously recorded before, during, and after salat practice with a computer-based data acquisition system (MP150, BIOPAC Systems Inc., Camino Goleta, California). Power spectral analysis was conducted to extract the RPα and HRV components.
RESULTS: During salat, a significant increase (p
METHODS: In the Malaysian Health and Adolescents Longitudinal Research Team (MyHEART) study, 1071 healthy secondary school students, aged 13 years old, participated in the step test. Parameters for body composition measures were body mass index z-score, body fat percentage, waist circumference, and waist height ratio. The step test was conducted by using a modified Harvard step test. Heart rate recovery of 1 minute (HRR1min) and heart rate recovery of 2 minutes (HRR2min) were calculated by the difference between the peak pulse rate during exercise and the resting pulse rate at 1 and 2 minutes, respectively. Analysis was done separately based on gender. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the association between the HRR parameters with body composition measures, while multiple regression analysis was used to determine which body composition measures was the strongest predictor for HRR.
RESULTS: For both gender groups, all body composition measures were inversely correlated with HRR1min. In girls, all body composition measures were inversely correlated with HRR2min, while in boys all body composition measures, except BMI z-score, were associated with HRR2min. In multiple regression, only waist circumference was inversely associated with HRR2min (p=0.024) in boys, while in girls it was body fat percentage for HRR2min (p=0.008).
CONCLUSION: There was an inverse association between body composition measurements and HRR among apparently healthy adolescents. Therefore, it is important to identify cardio-metabolic risk factors in adolescent as an early prevention of consequent adulthood morbidity. This reiterates the importance of healthy living which should start from young.
DESIGN: Prospective data collection for selected patients.
SETTING: High risk pregnancy unit of a teaching hospital.
SUBJECTS: Group 1 consisted of 18 healthy women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies. Group 2 consisted of 27 women admitted to the high risk pregnancy unit over a 9 month period with intrauterine growth retardation and other related problems; all these women were delivered by prelabour caesarean section.
INTERVENTION: Serial Duplex sonography to determine fetal MCA PI in Groups 1 and 2. Serial FHR analysis using computerised numerical techniques in Group 2 only.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Serial MCA PI values from 24 to 39 completed weeks of gestation in Group 1. Comparison of serial MCA PI values with FHR analysis in relation to fetal outcome in Group 2.
RESULTS: In Group 1 the MCA PI diminished significantly as gestation advanced from 1.73 (SD 0.25) at 24 weeks to 1.38 (SD 0.26) at 39 weeks (P < 0.01). In Group 2 eleven babies were hypoxaemic at delivery: all had low MCA PI values while only nine had an abnormal FHR prior to delivery.
CONCLUSION: In normal pregnancy, there is a fall in the fetal MCA PI with advancing gestation which probably reflects a decreasing vascular resistance to fetal cerebral blood flow. Hypoxaemia at delivery appeared to be better recognised by the fetal MCA flow velocity waveform than the FHR analysis. This increased sensitivity, however, was achieved at the expense of a reduced specificity. Larger studies are needed to confirm the findings of this preliminary investigation.
METHODS: The proposed device measures and displays the FHR on a screen liquid crystal display (LCD). The device consists of hardware that comprises condenser microphone sensor, signal conditioning, microcontroller and LCD, and software that involves the algorithm used for processing the conditioned fetal heart signal prior to FHR display. The device's performance is validated based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) test.
RESULTS: FHR data was recorded from 22 pregnant women during the 17th to 37th week of gestation using the developed device and two standard devices; AngelSounds and Electronic Stethoscope. The results show that F-value (1.5) is less than F𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡, (3.1) and p-value (p> 0.05). Accordingly, there is no significant difference between the mean readings of the developed and existing devices. Hence, the developed device can be used for monitoring FHR in clinical and home environments.
METHODS: We reviewed 22 previous studies that (1) empirically manipulated social support in a stressful situation, (2) measured CVR, and (3) tested a moderator of social support effects on CVR.
RESULTS: Although a majority of studies reported a CVR-mitigating effect of social support resulting in an overall significant combined p-value, we found that there were different effects of social support on CVR when we considered high- and low-engagement contexts. That is, compared to control conditions, social support lowered CVR in more engaging situations but had no significant effect on CVR in less engaging situations.
CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that a dual-effect model of social support effects on CVR may better capture the nature of social support, CVR, and health associations than the buffering hypothesis and emphasize a need to better understand the health implications of physiological reactivity in various contexts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? According to the stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, ), one pathway social support benefits health is through mitigating the physiological arousal caused by stress. However, previous studies that examined the effects of social support on blood pressure and heart rate changes were not consistently supporting the hypothesis. Some studies reported that social support causes elevations in cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress (Anthony & O'Brien, ; Hilmert, Christenfeld, & Kulik, ; Hilmert, Kulik, & Christenfeld, ) and others showed no effect of social support on CVR (Christian & Stoney, ; Craig & Deichert, ; Gallo, Smith, & Kircher, ). What does this study add? When participants were in more engaging conditions, social support decreased CVR relative to no support. When participants were in less engaging conditions, social support did not have a significant effect on CVR. Provide an alternative way to explain the ways social support affects cardiac health.
METHODS: This article provides a comprehensive review of automated sleep stage scoring systems, which were created since the year 2000. The systems were developed for Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electrooculogram (EOG), and a combination of signals.
RESULTS: Our review shows that all of these signals contain information for sleep stage scoring.
CONCLUSIONS: The result is important, because it allows us to shift our research focus away from information extraction methods to systemic improvements, such as patient comfort, redundancy, safety and cost.
OBJECTIVE: To study the efficacy of 5 minutes of mindful breathing (MB) for rapid reduction of distress in a palliative setting. Its effect to the physiological changes of the palliative cancer patients was also examined.
METHODS: This is a randomized controlled trial. Sixty palliative cancer patients were recruited. They were randomly assigned to either 5 minutes of MB or normal listening arms. The changes of perceived distress, blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing rate, galvanic skin response, and skin surface temperature of the patients were measured at baseline, after intervention, and 10 minutes post-intervention.
RESULTS: There was significant reduction of perceived distress, blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing rate, and galvanic skin response; also, significant increment of skin surface temperature in the 5-minute MB group. The changes in the 5-minute breathing group were significantly higher than the normal listening group.
CONCLUSION: Five-minute MB is a quick, easy to administer, and effective therapy for rapid reduction of distress in palliative setting. There is a need for future study to establish the long-term efficacy of the therapy.