Individual variations of plasma levels of hormones testosterone (T) and cortisol (C), before (pre) and after (post) Kumite (real fight) and Kata (ritualized fight) were measured in male karate athletes and analyzed in relation with the agonistic outcome (i.e. winning or losing the fight) and personality trait measures. T and C increased only during Kumite contest and pre- and post-competition C levels were higher in losers than winners. Losers showed higher levels of harm avoidance and anxiety as well as lower level of novelty seeking than winners. Importantly, novelty seeking negatively correlates with pre C and the higher the level of risk assessment, emotionality and insecurity indexes the higher the pre C level. In conclusion, personality traits might be an important factor asymmetry between athletes influencing both the probability of winning or losing an agonistic interaction and the different anticipatory endocrine response to the incipient fight.

No abstract

We planned a prospective study to assess platelet number and size in patients with or without brain injury after mild head trauma (MHT). Platelet count and mean platelet volume (MPV) were assessed in consecutive patients admitted to the emergency department with isolate MHT, as well as in healthy blood donors who served as controls. The study population consisted in 54 patients with MHT, 13 of whom (24%) with intracranial lesions suggestive for brain injury, and 339 healthy blood donors. The value of platelet count was significantly lower in patients with MHT and positive computerized tomography than in healthy controls (P = 0.014). The vales of MPV progressively decreased from healthy controls (11.1 fl) to patients with MHT and negative computerized tomography (9.8 fl; P < 0.001), and further to patients with MHT and positive computerized tomography (8.6 fl; P < 0.001). The MPV was significantly lower in patients with MHT and positive computerized tomography than in those with negative computerized tomography (P = 0.002). As compared with healthy controls, the frequency of decreased MPV values was 10-fold and 17-fold higher in MTH patients with negative and positive computerized tomography, respectively. The MPV exhibited an area under the curve of 0.74 (95% CI, 0.58 to 0.89; P < 0.001) for differentiating MHT patients with positive computerized tomography from those with negative computerized tomography. MHT patients display a larger prevalence of small and hyporeactive platelets. This observation provides a reliable basis for planning further studies to establish whether MPV may be useful for diagnostic evaluation of MHT in the emergency department.

No abstract

This prospective study was planned to assess whether red blood cell (RBC) parameters may be useful in diagnostics of patients with brain injury after mild head trauma. The RBC count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, RBC distribution width (RDW) and mean corpuscular volume were assessed in all consecutive patients admitted to the emergency department over 3 months with isolate, mild head trauma and Glasgow coma scale between 14-15, and seen within 3 h from trauma. The final study population consisted of 54 patients (21 women and 33 men; median age=48 years), of whom, 13 (24%) with positive computed tomography (CT). No significant difference was found for age (P=0.45) and gender (P=0.21) distribution between CT positive and negative patients. No significant difference was observed for the median concentration of all the RBC parameters tested, and the prevalence of anemia (P=0.37) and anysocytosis (P=0.40) did not differ significantly between patients with positive and negative CT. Red blood cell distribution width assessment upon patient admission did not provide a significant contribution to final diagnosis of mild head injury in receiver operating characteristic curve analysis [area under the curve (AUC) 0.51; P=0.44]. We conclude that assessment of RDW does not provide useful clinical information for diagnosing brain injury after mild head trauma.