Can body position be arrhythmogenic?

INTRODUCTION: Palpitations occurring in specific body positions are often reported by patients, but the effect of body position on arrhythmia has received little research attention. We hypothesize that resting body position can exert pro-arrhythmogenic effects in various ways. For example, lateral body position is known to increase change atrial and pulmonary vein dimensions. METHODS: This observational study capitalizes on overnight polysomnography (PSG) recordings from a tertiary sleep clinic. PSGs were retrieved based on any mention of cardiac arrhythmia in the clinical report, irrespective of primary sleep diagnosis or (cardiac) comorbidities. Every instance of atrial ectopy was annotated and subgroups with a homogenous rate of atrial ectopy were created based on the Dunn index. A generalized linear mixed-effects model using age, sex, gender, sleep stage and body position was used to analyse the total amount of atrial ectopy in each combination of sleep stage and body position. Backward elimination was then performed to select the best subset of variables for the model. Presence of a respiratory event was then added to the model for the subgroup with a high atrial ectopy rate. RESULTS: PSGs of 22 patients (14% female, mean age 61y) were clustered and analysed. Body position, sleep stage, age or sex did not have a significant effect on atrial ectopy in the subgroup with a low rate of atrial ectopy (N = 18). However, body position did significantly affect the rate of atrial ectopy in the subgroup with a high rate of atrial ectopy (N = 4; 18%). Respiratory events significantly altered the atrial ectopy rate in only three body positions across two patients. DISCUSSION: In each individual with a high rate of atrial ectopy, the rate of atrial ectopy was significantly higher in either left or right decubital or supine position. Increase in atrial wall stretch in lateral decubital position and obstructive respiratory events in positional sleep apnea are two possible pathophysiological mechanisms, while avoidance of a body position due to symptomatic atrial ectopy in that position is an important limitation. CONCLUSION: In a selected cohort of patients with a high rate of atrial ectopy during overnight polysomnography, the occurrence of atrial ectopy is related to resting body position.

The impact of Qodume Shirazi seed mucilage-based edible coating containing lavender essential oil on the quality enhancement and shelf life improvement of fresh ostrich meat: An experimental and modeling study.

Today, food consumers prefer to use the foods that contain natural preservatives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Qodume Shirazi seed mucilage (QSSM) and lavender essential oil (LO) on the preservation of ostrich meat during cold storage. The chemical compounds of LO were identified through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The ostrich meat samples were coated with the mucilage containing the essential oil at concentrations of 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%, v/v. The control and the coated ostrich meat samples were kept at 4°C and analyzed for microbiological (total viable count, psychrotrophic count, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, coliforms, and fungi), physicochemical (moisture content, pH, texture, and color parameters), and sensorial (odor, color, and total acceptance) characteristics during 9 days of storage. GC/MS identified 12 compounds in the essential oil, among which linalool was the major one (43.3%). The lightness (L* value) and hardness of all the ostrich meat samples were reduced during the storage. From a microbiological point of view, the cold storage duration for the control and the coated sample without the essential oil was only 3 days, while for coated samples containing 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% essential oil, it was 3, 3, 6, and 9 days, respectively. The coated ostrich meat containing 2% LO had an appropriate quality with an expanded shelf life. The results showed that neural network with 10 neurons in the hidden layer had the lowest mean squared error and mean absolute error and the highest correlation coefficient for predicting the quality and microbial properties of the coated meat samples during storage.

Healthy eating index-2015 and bone mineral density among adult Iranian women.

This is the first study to examine the potential association of adherence to the healthy eating index-2015 (HEI-2015) and bone health. Findings suggest that better diet quality (i.e., a higher HEI-2015 score) is significantly associated with a small but clinically important increase in bone mineral density among adult Iranian women. PURPOSE: The HEI-2015 is a multidimensional measure of diet quality used to assess how well people's dietary behaviors align with key recommendations of the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans for achieving a healthy dietary pattern. We examined the potential association of the HEI-2015 and bone mineral density (BMD) among adult Iranian women, hypothesizing that a higher HEI-2015 score is associated with greater BMD. METHODS: Four-hundred sixteen participants (mean age 48.0 years; 64.7% premenopausal) participated in this cross-sectional study. Lumbar spine and femoral neck BMDs were measured via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Dietary intakes were assessed using a valid and reliable food frequency questionnaire. The HEI-2015 score was calculated based on dietary intakes of 13 components emphasized or minimized in the HEI-2015. The higher the HEI-2015 score, the better the diet quality. RESULTS: After adjusting for potential covariates in the multiple linear regression analysis, higher HEI-2015 scores were associated with greater lumbar spine and femoral neck BMDs (lumbar spine: standardized beta-coefficient [ß] = 0.292; femoral neck: ß = 0.192; both P < 0.001). Similar significant associations were found among premenopausal (lumbar spine: ß = 0.337; femoral neck: ß = 0.262; both P < 0.001) and postmenopausal women (lumbar spine: ß = 0.198; femoral neck: ß = 0.287; both P < 0.050). Overall, every 10-unit increase in the HEI-2015 score was associated with a 0.03 g/cm2 higher multivariable-adjusted BMD at both lumbar spine and femoral neck (both P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that better diet quality, as indicated by a higher HEI-2015 score, is significantly associated with a small but clinically important increase in BMD among adult Iranian women.

Chromene-based synthetic chalcones as potent antileishmanial agents: synthesis and biological activity.

Two types of regioisomeric chromene-based chalcones namely, 1-(6-methoxy-2H-chromen-3-yl)-3-phenylpropen-1-ones and 3-(6-methoxy-2H-chromen-3-yl)-1-phenylpropen-1-ones were prepared and investigated for their antileishmanial activity against promastigotes form of Leishmania major. The obtained results from in vitro biological assays indicated that chloro-substituted 1-(6-methoxy-2H-chromen-3-yl)-3-phenylpropen-1-ones exhibited excellent activity against Leishmania major at non-cytotoxic concentrations.

Novel antileishmanial chalconoids: synthesis and biological activity of 1- or 3-(6-chloro-2H-chromen-3-yl)propen-1-ones.

A series of novel chalconoids containing a 6-chloro-2H-chromen-3-yl group were prepared through a convenient and efficient synthetic method by using 5-chloro-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde as starting material. The target compounds were evaluated against the promastigote form of Leishmania major using MTT assay. All of the evaluated compounds have shown high in vitro antileishmanial activity at concentrations less than 3.0 microM. The results of cytotoxicity assessment against mouse peritoneal macrophage cells showed that these compounds display antileishmanial activity at non-cytotoxic concentrations.