No abstract

Among adolescents, overweight, obesity and metabolic syndrome are rapidly increasing in recent years as a consequence of unhealthy palatable diets. Animal models of diet-induced obesity have been developed, but little is known about the behavioural patterns produced by the consumption of such diets. The aim of the present study was to determine the behavioural and biochemical effects of a cafeteria diet fed to juvenile male and female rats, as well as to evaluate the possible recovery from these effects by administering standard feeding during the last week of the study. Two groups of male and female rats were fed with either a standard chow diet (ST) or a cafeteria (CAF) diet from weaning and for 8 weeks. A third group of males (CAF withdrawal) was fed with the CAF diet for 7 weeks and the ST in the 8th week. Both males and females developed metabolic syndrome as a consequence of the CAF feeding, showing overweight, higher adiposity and liver weight, increased plasma levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides, as well as insulin resistance, in comparison with their respective controls. The CAF diet reduced motor activity in all behavioural tests, enhanced exploration, reduced anxiety-like behaviour and increased social interaction; this last effect was more pronounced in females than in males. When compared to animals only fed with a CAF diet, CAF withdrawal increased anxiety in the open field, slightly decreased body weight, and completely recovered the liver weight, insulin sensitivity and the standard levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides in plasma. In conclusion, a CAF diet fed to young animals for 8 weeks induced obesity and metabolic syndrome, and produced robust behavioural changes in young adult rats, whereas CAF withdrawal in the last week modestly increased anxiety, reversed the metabolic alterations and partially reduced overweight.

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is an objective, non-invasive tool to assessing autonomic dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). People with CFS/ME tend to have lower HRV; however, in the literature there are only a few previous studies (most of them inconclusive) on their association with illness-related complaints. To address this issue, we assessed the value of different diurnal HRV parameters as potential biomarker in CFS/ME and also investigated the relationship between these HRV indices and self-reported symptoms in individuals with CFS/ME. Methods: In this case-control study, 45 female patients who met the 1994 CDC/Fukuda definition for CFS/ME and 25 age-and gender-matched healthy controls underwent HRV recording-resting state tests. The intervals between consecutive heartbeats (RR) were continuously recorded over three 5-min periods. Time-and frequency-domain analyses were applied to estimate HRV variables. Demographic and clinical features, and self-reported symptom measures were also recorded. Results: CFS/ME patients showed significantly higher scores in all symptom questionnaires (p < 0.001), decreased RR intervals (p < 0.01), and decreased HRV time-and frequency-domain parameters (p < 0.005), except for the LF/HF ratio than in the healthy controls. Overall, the correlation analysis reached significant associations between the questionnaires scores and HRV time-and frequency-domain measurements (p < 0.05). Furthermore, separate linear regression analyses showed significant relationships between self-reported fatigue symptoms and mean RR (p = 0.005), RMSSD (p = 0.0268) and HFnu indices (p = 0.0067) in CFS/ME patients, but not in healthy controls. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that ANS dysfunction presenting as increased sympathetic hyperactivity may contribute to fatigue severity in individuals with ME/CFS. Further studies comparing short-and long-term HRV recording and self-reported outcome measures with previous studies in larger CFS/ME cohorts are urgently warranted.

Seismocardiography is a simple and non invasive method of recording cardiac activity from the movements of the body caused by heart pumping. In this preliminary study we use a smartphone to record this acceleration and estimate the heart rate. We compare the heart rate variability parameters from the seismocardiogram and ECG reference signal. The results show a great similarity and are strongly influenced by the instability in the sampling frequency of the device. The differences between RR series are lower than 10 ms.

Background. Monitoring changes in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is the recommended method for assessing the progression of kidney disease. The aim of this study was to assess the decline of graft function defined by the annualized change in GFR and the factors which affect it.Methods. Four thousand four hundred and eighty-eight patients, transplanted during the years 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002 in 34 centres in Spain with allograft survival of at least 1 year, were included in the study. GFR was estimated using the four-variable equation of the Modification of Diet in Renal Diseases (MDRD) study. Linear mixed effects model was applied to determine the relation between the covariates and the annualized change in GFR after transplantation.Results. The average GFR at 12 months was 51.4 ± 18.9 mL/min/1.73 m2; most patients were in stage 3 of chronic kidney disease classification. The average patient slope, calculated in a linear model with varying-intercept and varying-slope without covariates, was −1.12 ± 0.05 mL/min/year (slope ± standard error). Some variables were related to both the 12-month GFR (intercept) and the slope: recipient gender, hepatitis C virus (HCV) status, estimated GFR (eGFR) at 3 months and proteinuria at 12 months. Some variables were only related to the slope of eGFR: time on dialysis, primary renal disease and immunosuppression. Others affected only the 12-month GFR: donor age, delayed graft function, acute rejection and systolic blood pressure at 12 months. Higher graft function at 3 months had a negative impact on the GFR slope. Cyclosporine-based immunosuppression had a less favourable effect on the rates of change in allograft function.Conclusions. There was a slow decline in GFR. Poor graft function was not associated with an increased rate of decline of allograft function. Immunosuppression with cyclosporine displayed the worst declining GFR rate.