Parent and teacher feedback indicate some level of psychosocial and behavioral morbidity for adolescents treated for a brain tumor; this finding contrasts with adolescent Self-Report indicating no difficulties in behavioral and psychosocial functioning. The extent to which these vulnerabilities impact quality of life and the discrepancy between reporters should be assessed in follow-up studies with a larger cohort of patients.

Proper insulin homeostasis appears critical for adapting to and surviving a heat load. Further, heat stress (HS) induces phenotypic changes in livestock that suggest an increase in insulin action. The current study objective was to evaluate the effects of HS on whole-body insulin sensitivity. Female pigs (57±4 kg body weight) were subjected to two experimental periods. During period 1, all pigs remained in thermoneutral conditions (TN; 21°C) and were HEC remained similar in HS pigs while it decreased (36%) in PFTN controls. Prior to the ITT, HS increased (41%) skeletal muscle insulin receptor substrate-1 protein abundance, but did not affect protein kinase B or their phosphorylated forms. In adipose tissue, HS did not alter any of the basal or stimulated measured insulin signaling markers. In summary, HS increases wholebody insulin-stimulated glucose uptake, which may be partially explained by an increase in skeletal muscle insulin signaling.

BackgroundThe Duruöz Hand Index (DIH) is a reliable tool for the evaluation of hand's function in patients with scleroderma.ObjectivesThe aim of our study was to adapt and to validate the DHI questionnaire in an Argentinian population with scleroderma.MethodsFor validation, 3 rheumatologists adapted and translated to Spanish the original version in French and the final version was re-translated to French by a bilingual person. To evaluate the construct validity, we used the patient global visual analogue scale (VAS), VAS for questions for the same activity, the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) and the Rodnan. A subsample attended a second visit to evaluate reproducibility, with no modifications in the treatment in relation to the previous visit. Continuos variables were expressed as mean and standard desviation (SD) or medians with their interquartile range (IQR). Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to quantify the degree of correlation between the different VAS, HAQ and Rodnan with the total score. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess reproducibility and Cronbach's alpha to evaluate internal consistency.Results45 patients diagnosed with scleroderma were included in the study. 84,44% were women, mean age of 51±13,72 years (SD), 48,89% were Mestizos, while 46,67% were Caucasians with a disease duration of 24 months (IQR: 18-60). 64, 44% patients had diagnostic of limited scleroderma; 77, 78% were right handed and 53, 33% had extra cutaneous manifestations. Raynaud was present in 93, 33%, pitting scars in 33, 33% and digital ulcers in 26, 67%. The median score of the total questionnaire was 4, 5 (IQR: 0-26), of the global VAS 49 (IQR: 10-50), of HAQ 0,3 (IQR: 0-1) and of Rodnan 5 (IQR:2-11). The correlation between the total score of DHI and the patient global VAS was 0, 58, with the HAQ was 0, 63 and with Rodnan 0, 08. The correlation coefficient between the VAS and each group of questions for the same activity in the DHI questionnaire, indicated good correlation for the questions that refer to activities of kitchen(0,60;0,71;0,67;0,67;0,59;0,62;0,55), as well as for dressing(0,69;0,65;057), for hygiene (0,61;0,56), and for the office questions (o,56;0,73). There was excellent level of correlation with those related to fine motor activities with a maximun r value of 0, 78. The reproducibility was 0, 88 (CI 95% 0,76-0,99) and the internal consistency according to Cronbach's alpha was 0,98.ConclusionsThe results from this study show the DHI to be a reliable and valid test for this Argentinian population with scleroderma.ReferencesDuruoz MT, Poiraudeau S, Fermanian J, Menkes C, Amor B, Dougados M, et al. Development and validation of a rheumatoid Duruoz's Hand Index that assesses functional handicap. J Rheumatol 1996; 23:1167–72.AcknowledgementsJanet L. Poole.Disclosure of InterestNone declared

No abstract