ABSTRACT
Stress is common for all organisms either in the form of eustress (beneficial) or as distress (harmful). Stress is highly diverse in present world and its effects in organisms are well studied. This study is a comparative effect of stress in the generation of reactive oxygen species in albino Wistar rats, which are seldom reported. Here animals were grouped into four and the test animals of each group were administered with any one of the following stress, namely forced swimming induced stress (FS), and noise induced stress (NS), immobilization stress (IS) and overcrowding stress (OS). After stress administration, serum cortisol was estimated as a bio marker of stress in the albino rats, and the liver homogenate were used to estimate superoxide dismutase (SOD) by using rat Elisa kit in the spectrophotometer. The data were processed with unpaired‘t’ test. The cortisol levels were found to be increased in a highly significant level (P<0.001) in all the groups as compared to the normal control. And the stress level was found to be maximum in the FS group in comparison with other groups. The mean cortisol level in different stress groups such as FS, NS, IS and OS were found to be 4.15, 3.7, 3.63, 3.62 μ gm/dl respectively. Among all the stressed groups, the SOD level in the FS group were found to be increased in a highly significant level (P<0.001) in comparison with normal control group. The SOD level in FS group was (30.75 U/mgm. protein) followed by OS (28.96), noise (28.88) and IS (28.77).
ABSTRACT
Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is suspected to be currently under-diagnosed in India, thus the need for a brief, effective screening test for the condition. Aims: We aimed to test the Malayalam translation of the 7-Minute Screen (7MS) for detecting those at high risk for AD and to report on the subscores used to derive the Alzheimer's risk score. Setting and Design: This study was performed in Kerala State amongst young university students and elders in residential care homes. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and eighty-two volunteers were tested, 178 young controls (aged 20-29) and 104 literate elders, (55-92 years). None were clinically diagnosed with AD. Statistical Analyses: Elders and controls were assessed as High or Low AD Risk with the published 7MS algorithm. Performance was compared between groups with ANOVA. Results: The algorithm estimated high (n = 61/104) or low (n = 40/104) AD risk in the elderly. Significant differences were found between controls, low- and high-risk groups on all four components of the screen (Orientation: F = 131.1, Enhanced Cued Recall: F = 23.4, Clock Drawing: F = 65.1, Verbal Fluency: F = 15.7, P P Conclusions: The 7MS may be a useful screening test for cognitive impairment in India. Suggestions are given for revising the 'risk algorithm' for more appropriate AD risk assessment in this population.