Effect of yoga on heart rate variability in shift worker

Night shift work causing circadian disruption of sleep has been suggested to be an important risk factor of cardiovascular disease. Heart ratevariability (HRV) provides a tool to assess stress related short and long term effects on autonomic regulation of cardiovascular system. Yoga isfrequently used as a lifestyle intervention to reduce stress & restore autonomic nervous system balance. The aim of study was to evaluate theeffect of yoga on HRV and Blood pressure in shift workers. For this cross sectional study, a total of 70 apparently healthy shift workers weredivided into two groups. 1) Study group (n=35) Night shift workers, 2) Control groups (n=35) Day shift workers. Anthropometric, Blood pressureand HRV were measured in both groups. Study group underwent yogic exercise for 8 weeks. The same parameter measured again after yogicexercise. Study group showed decrease in BMI, Waist/Hip ratio, Heart rate, SBP and DBP. HRV showed a significant parasympatheticdominance.

Comparative study of effect of anuloma-viloma (pranayam) and yogic asanas in premenstrual syndrome.

The present study was planned to investigate the effects of Anuloma-viloma and specific yogic asanas in Premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The study group comprised of 60 females suffering from PMS between the age group of 18- 40 years, having 28-34 days regular menstrual cycle, further subdivided into 3 groups having equal number (n=20) of subjects-group A (no intervention), group B (Anuloma-viloma) and group C (yogic asanas). Age-matched 30 healthy female subjects were taken as control. In all the subjects, a baseline recording of the systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) from the right arm was taken using an automated sphygmomanometer. The heart rate (HR/min), electromyogram (EMG; mV), galvanic skin response (GSR;kΩ), respiratory rate (RR/min), peripheral temperature (T;°F), were recorded simultaneously, on an automated biofeedback apparatus Relax 701. The subjects of group A and group B performed yogic exercises, regularly for 7 days prior to the expected date of menstruation for 3 consecutive menstrual cycles. The parameters were recorded again at the end of 7 days in each menstrual cycle. We observed that, in the group A and group B, HR, SBP, DBP, EMG, GSR and RR showed a very significant reduction (P<0.001) and T rose more significantly (P<0.001) after the 3rd menstrual cycle, when compared with their basal levels. On computing the percentage difference between the baseline and post values in all the three groups and than comparing this percentage difference, we found a y significant difference (P<0.05) between the groups. In the present study, the relaxation response in the females suffering from PMS showed a reduction in an abnormally high basal sympathetic activity and a heightened relaxation response in both the study groups (group B and Group C) in comparison with group A.

Perinephric abscess caused by fusarium chlamydosporum in an immunocompetent child: Case report and identification of the morphologically atypical fungal strain.

Fusarium infections are important problem worldwide, cause a broad spectrum of infections in human including superfi cial infections as well as locally invasive and disseminated infections. We report a rare case of perinephric abscess caused by Fusarium chlamydosporum in a child who had a recent episode of pyelonephritis. This case illustrates the ever increasing spectrum of rare but offending pathogenic fungi in an immunocompetent host. Fungal infections should always be suspected in patients having one or the other underlying risk factor or who are unresponding to antibacterial therapy. Early diagnosis of infection with a specifi c pathogen may lead to changes in antifungal therapy and may be critical for an improved outcome

Cardiac autonomic activity in young females with primary dysmenorrhea.

Various studies have reported the effect of different phases of normal menstrual cycle on the autonomic control over the cardiac activity using heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. However, information on cardiac autonomic activity in young females suffering from primary dysmenorrhea (PD) is scant. Hence, the aim of the present study was to assess the HRV and blood pressure (BP) in different phases of menstrual cycle in women with PD and to compare these findings with eumenorrheic females. Sixty healthy unmarried female subjects (30 females with PD and 30 control subjects), in the age group of 18-25 years, having regular 28-32 days menstrual cycle were recruited for the study. Anthropometric measurements such as height, weight, BMI and WHR were measured. Blood pressure was measured with automatic blood pressure monitor and lead II ECG recordings were done to obtain HRV, during menstrual, follicular and luteal phases of menstrual cycle in both groups. The data recorded were subjected to time and frequency domain analysis. The results showed that dysmenorrheic women had significantly high BMI (P<0.05). Analysis of HRV during the different phases of the menstrual cycle between two groups revealed significantly increased (P<0.01) mean HR and significantly reduced (P<0.01) mean RR and RMSSD in all the 3 examined phases, SDNN significantly less (P<0.05) and systolic BP significantly higher (P<0.001) during the luteal phase in study group compared to control. Also, we observed a statistically significant decrease in TP and LF ms2 (P<0.05), HF ms2 & nu (P<0.01) in menstrual phase, HF ms2 (P<0.05) and HF nu (P<0.01) in luteal phase, while LF nu and LF-HF ratio were found to be significantly higher (P<0.01) in menstrual and luteal phases in women with PD compared to control group. This study has shown decreased HRV in the form of increased sympathetic tone and decreased parasympathetic activity in dysmenorrheic women which may be considered an important cardiovascular risk factor.

Comparison of cardiac autonomic activity between malnourished and healthy children.

Severe malnutrition can significantly compromise autonomic nervous system. However, less is known about the cardiac autonomic activity in mild and moderate grades of malnutrition in children. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the effect of mild/moderate malnutrition on heart rate variability (HRV), a non invasive tool to estimate the cardiac autonomic activity. A cross sectional, community based study was conducted in which 35 malnourished children (mean age: 6.06±2.04 yrs), on the basis of anthropometric parameters, were enrolled in the study group by random samplings, who were the children of urban slum dwellers and 35 age and sex matched healthy children, were taken as controls. Grading of malnutrition was done according to Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) classification. Anthropometry, basal heart rate (BHR), blood pressure were determined. Time domain and frequency domain indices of HRV were assessed using RMS Polyrite D (version 2.4). Weight, height, mid arm circumference (MAC) and body mass index (BMI) were found to be statistically lower in the study group. There was a strong negative correlation between MAC and LF component (P<0.01). BHR was found to be increased in the malnourished group (P=0.027). Low frequency (LFnu) & LF-HF ratio were found to be increased (P=0.000 & P=0.001 respectively) while high frequency (HFnu) component was decreased (P=0.000) in malnourished group. Our results suggested that impaired cardiac autonomic nerve function characterized by sympathetic over activity may occur in malnourished children. This study also enables us to compare, in future works, HRV in pediatric subjects with different grades of malnutrition.

Y-haplotypes and idiopathic male infertility in an Indian population.

Infertility being a multifactorial disorder, both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the etiology of infertile phenotype. Chromosomal anomalies and Y-microdeletion are the established genetic risk factors of male infertility. Y-haplotypes has been found as risk factor for male infertility in certain populations, though in certain others no association has been reported, suggesting a population-specific association of these variations with male infertility. In a case-control study, 165 azoo-/oligospermic patients and 200 controls were haplotyped for certain Y-haplogroups for a possible association with idiopathic male infertility in an Indian population. Analysed Y-haplogroups showed no association with infertile phenotype. Thus this genetic factor is not a risk for infertility in the studied Indian population but that does not rule out the possibility of any of them, to be a risk in other populations.

Male infertility: Y-chromosome deletion and testicular aetiology in cases of azoo-/oligospermia.

The spermatogenesis locus azoospermia factor (AZF) in Yq11 has been delineated into three microdeletion intervals designated as AZFa, AZFb andAZFc. AZFc is the most frequently deleted region. We have studied 270 male infertile patients for various genetic disorders associated with infertile phenotype. In this study, we have presented results of our studies on Y-chromosome deletions, chromosomal abnormalities (Klinefelter syndrome) and histology of testis with the objective of seeing whether there were cases of gonosomic mosaicism and a causal correlation between the genetic disorder; and testicular aetiology could be drawn. In all the 13 cases of Y-chromosome microdeletion, AZFc region and DAZ gene were deleted, while no case of AZFa deletion was detected. This result was at variance with other reports from India, where a considerable fraction of cases showed deletion in AZFa region of the Y-chromosome. Both Y-deleted and non-Y-deleted cases revealed heterogeneous testicular phenotype with comparable severity. This disparity among testicular phenotype in cases with known genetic aetiology and even in cases of unknown aetiology can be attributed to different genetic backgrounds and effect of modifiers. Since male infertility is a multifactorial disorder, the contributions of environmental and occupational insults may not be underestimated.