Plos One
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The training to become a dentist can create psychological distress. The present study evaluates the structure of the 'Perceived Stress Questionnaire' (PSQ), its internal consistency model and interrelatedness with burnout, anxiety, depression and resilience among dental students. ⋯ The PSQ showed a hierarchical bi-factor structure among Spanish dental students. Using the questionnaire as a uni-dimensional scale may be useful in perceived stress level discrimination, while the sub-factors could help us to refine perceived stress analysis and improve therapeutic processes.
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Cardiac operations with cardiopulmonary bypass can be associated with postoperative lung dysfunction. The present study investigates the incidence of postoperative hypoxia after cardiac surgery, its relationship with the length of intensive care unit stay, and the role of body mass index in determining postoperative hypoxia and intensive care unit length of stay. ⋯ Obese patients are at higher risk for postoperative hypoxia, but this leads to a prolonged intensive care unit stay only for moderate-morbid obese patients. Obese patients are partially protected against the deleterious effects of hemodilution and transfusions. Underweight patients present the "paradox" of a better lung gas exchange but a longer intensive care unit stay. This is probably due to a higher severity of their cardiac disease.
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To evaluate the usefulness of 2-[18F] fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in the early detection of breast cancer tumor recurrences and its role in post-therapy surveillance. ⋯ FDG-PET/CT was able to detect recurrence, and the results altered the intended patient management in the post-therapy surveillance of breast cancer. FDG-PET/CT should be used as a priority in patients with increased serum CA 15-3 levels, or with clinical/radiologic suspicion of recurrence, and might be useful for asymptomatic patients.
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Cognitive reserve (CR) is understood as capacity to cope with challenging conditions, e.g. after brain injury or in states of brain dysfunction, or age-related cognitive decline. CR in elderly subjects has attracted much research interest, but differences between healthy older and younger subjects have not been addressed in detail hitherto. Usually, one-time standard individual assessments are used to characterise CR. ⋯ Gender, personality traits and mood did not significantly influence gains in either group. Surprisingly about half of the older subjects performed at the level of the younger group, suggesting that interindividual differences in CR are possibly age-independent. We propose that these findings may also be understood as indication that one-time standard individual measurements do not allow assessment of CR, and that the use of DSST in a testing-the-limits paradigm is a valuable assessment method for CR in young and elderly subjects.
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The levels of nitric oxide (NO) and various cytokines are known to be increased during sepsis. These signaling molecules could potentially act as regulators and underlie the enhancement of mitochondrial function described in the later phase of sepsis. Therefore, we investigated the correlation between observed changes in platelet mitochondrial respiration and a set of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines as well as NO plasma levels in patients with sepsis. ⋯ Out of ten analyzed cytokines and nitric oxide, IL-8 correlated with the observed increase in mitochondrial respiration. This suggests that cytokines as well as NO do not play a prominent role in the regulation of platelet mitochondrial respiration in sepsis. Further, the respiratory increase was not accompanied by an increase in markers of mitochondrial content, suggesting a possible role for post-translational enhancement of mitochondrial respiration rather than augmented mitochondrial mass.