Effect of Sahaja yoga practice on stress management in patients of epilepsy.

An attempt was made to evaluate the effect of Sahaja yoga meditation in stress management in patients of epilepsy. The study was carried out on 32 patients of epilepsy who were rendomly divided into 3 groups: group I subjects practised Sahaja yoga meditation for 6 months, group II subjects practised postural exercises mimicking Sahaja yoga and group III served as the epileptic control group. Galvanic skin resistance (GSR), blood lactate and urinary vinyl mandelic acid (U-VMA) were recorded at 0, 3 and 6 months. There were significant changes at 3 & 6 months as compared to 0 month values in GSR, blood lactate and U-VMA levels in group I subjects, but not in group II and group III subjects. The results indicate that reduction in stress following Sahaja yoga practice may be responsible for clinical improvement which had been earlier reported in patients who practised Sahaja yoga.

Determinaçäo por cromatografia em fase líquida de alto desempenho de ácido mandélico em urina de trabalhadores expostos ao estireno / Determination at high performance liquid chromatography of mandelic acid in urine of workers for the styrene exposition

O estireno é uma importante matéria-prima extensamente empregada na fabricaçäo de plásticos e elastômeros. Durante a sua utilizaçäo, a emissäo dos vapores para o ambiente de trabalho pode ser significativa. Considerada uma substância quìmica reconhecidamente tóxica, a monitorizaçäo biológica da exposiçäo ocupacional constitui-se em procedimento indispensável para uma avaliaçäo do risco, através da quantificaçäo do ácido mandélico urinário, seu principal produto de biotransformaçäo, e posterior comparaçäo a valores de referência. Foi padronizado o método analítico de Poggi et al que se utiliza da cromatografia em fase de alto desempenho (HPLC), obtendo-se resultados de boa precisäo (coeficientes de varaçäo intra-ensaio e interesaio menores que 2%) e recuperaçäo média de 98 +- 5%. Foi determinada a concentraçäo deste ácido presente em amostras de urina de indivíduos ocupacionalmente expostos (Grupo Exposto) e näo expostos (Grupo Controle) de uma indústria de produçäo do monômero de estireno. No Grupo Exposto foi realizada uma estimativa de exposiçäo com o uso de amostradores por difusäo passiva, e foram encontradas concentraçöes inferiores a 1,2 mg/m3 (0,3 ppm) de estireno. A concentaçäo média de ácido mandélico encontrada no Grupo Exposto foi de 0,0239 +- 0,0037 g/L (0,0136 +- 0,0019 g/g de creatinina); e a encontrada no Grupo Controle, de 0,0133 +- 0,0024 g/L (0,0073 +- 0,0011 g/g de creatinina).

Urinary Excretion of Vanillymandelic Acid in Normal Korean Adults and in Patients with Primary Hypertension

Urinary excretion of vanillymandelic acid (VMA) during a period of 24 hours was determined in 127 normal Korean adults and in 27 patients suffering from primary hypertension. The diurnal and nocturnal variations of urinary VMA excretion were measured in 3O normal persons and 11 patients with primary hypertension, and the day to day variations of urinary VMA excretion in l2 normal persons. The mean daily output of urinary VMA was fairly constant in each individual but varied widely between individuals. The mean daily output of urinary VMA in normal Korean adults is 1.95 +/- 1.15 (S.D.)mg, which is similar to that observed in occidentals. There is no significant difference between the nocturnal and the diurnal excretion of VMA. The mean daily output of urinary VMA in patients with primary hypertension was 2.17 +/- 0.76(S.D.) mg. This means that there is no significant variation in the urinary excretion of VMA between normal adults and patients with primary hypertension. Furthermore, the urinary output of VMA is not influenced by the sex.