Changes in salivary physiological stress markers induced by muscle stretching in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Psychophysiological processing has been reported to play a crucial role in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but there has been no report on modulation of the stress marker chromogranin A (CgA) resulting from muscle stretching. We hypothesized that abdominal muscle stretching as a passive operation would have a beneficial effect on a biochemical index of the activity of the sympathetic/adrenomedullary system (salivary CgA) and anxiety. METHODS: Fifteen control and eighteen untreated IBS subjects underwent experimental abdominal muscle stretching for 4 min. Subjects relaxed in a supine position with their knees fully flexed while their pelvic and trunk rotation was passively and slowly moved from 0 degrees of abdominal rotation to about 90 degrees or the point where the subject reported feeling discomfort.Changes in the Gastrointestinal Symptoms Rating Scale (GSRS), State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), ordinate scale and salivary CgA levels were compared between controls and IBS subjects before and after stretching. A three-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) with period (before vs. after) as the within-subject factor and group (IBS vs. Control), and sex (men vs. female) as the between-subject factors was carried out on salivary CgA. RESULTS: CgA showed significant interactions between period and groups (F[1, 31] = 4.89, p = 0.03), and between groups and sex (F[1, 31] = 4.73, p = 0.03). Interactions between period and sex of CgA secretion were not shown (F[1, 3] = 2.60, p = 0.12). At the baseline, salivary CgA in IBS subjects (36.7 +/- 5.9 pmol/mg) was significantly higher than in controls (19.9 +/- 5.5 pmol/mg, p < 0.05). After the stretching, salivary CgA significantly decreased in the IBS group (25.5 +/- 4.5 pmol/mg), and this value did not differ from that in controls (18.6 +/- 3.9 pmol/mg). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest the possibility of improving IBS pathophysiology by passive abdominal muscle stretching as indicated by CgA, a biochemical index of the activity of the sympathetic/adrenomedullary system.

Real time 3-D echocardiography in cardiac surgery.

OBJECTIVE: Real time 3-D echocardiography provides real time live images of intracardiac anatomy. We evaluate its clinical application for intraoperative echocardiography. METHOD: The "xStream"3-D architecture designed with "xMatrix array" using approximately 3,000 transducer elements achieves live digital volume imaging in real time 3-D echocardiography (SONOS 7500, Philips Medical Systems, Inc.). Intraoperative echocardiography was performed in mitral (n = 14) and aortic valve diseases (n = 6), 4 heart anomaly, 4 aortic diseases and 15 normal anatomies. RESULTS: Heart valves were depicted via enface view. Simultaneous movement of leaflets and subvalvular apparatus can be observed. Prolapsed leaflets are easily detected and regurgitated jets are detected as 3-D color images. The four cardiac chambers were observed in their real shape and size. Septum defects were also depicted in real shape, size and position. Precise intracardiac anatomy was observed in cardiac anomalies. Information on the endothelium, intimal flap, entry, reentry and aortic wall character was provided and allowed for planning in aortic surgery. CONCLUSION: Live 3-D echocardiography provides excellent depiction of any cardiac and aortic anatomy in any direction and greatly enhances efficiencies in planning appropriate surgical procedures.

Effects of bilateral auricular acupuncture stimulation on body weight in healthy volunteers and mildly obese patients.

We investigated the effects of auricular acupuncture stimulation on non-obese healthy volunteers and mildly obese patients. Subjects (n = 55 and 5, respectively) averaged 34.5 years old, and BMI was 24.3 and less than 27.5 kg/m2, respectively. We also studied the effects of single-blind sham treatment in approximately 500 age-, sex-, and BMI-matched subjects. Small (0.15 x 2.0 mm) auricular needles were placed intracutaneously into the bilateral cavum conchae identified by having a resistance of less than 100 kOmega/cm2. In the 2-week pretreatment the period, in which body weight was measured without auricular acupuncture stimulation, 57.1% of the subjects showed a reduction in body weight. This indicates that charting one's own body weight might itself be a useful method of weight control. In the auricular acupuncture treatment period, 35 healthy subjects of 55 (63.6%) showed a decreased body weight, 11 (20%) showed an increased body weight, and 9 (16.4%) showed no change in body weight. The obese patients showed individual variation, but all achieved weight reduction, with a highly significant correlation between body weight and fat volume. The CT/MRI cross-sectional pictures supported these findings. Sham treatment had no statistically significant effect on body weight. These results suggest that success in achieving weight reduction can be partly attributed to the act of charting of one's own weight pattern. Bilateral auricular acupuncture stimulation can help reduce body weight both in mildly obese patients and in healthy non-obese subjects. In conclusion, this is in accord with the bilateral auricular acupuncture stimulation that it may be useful in the treatment of the obesity. We propose a possible mechanism for the weight-reducing effects of bilateral auricular acupuncture stimulation.

Unexpected roles of a Dictyostelium homologue of eukaryotic EF-2 in growth and differentiation.

EF-2 is believed to be indispensable for polypeptide chain elongation in protein synthesis and therefore for cell proliferation. Surprisingly, we could isolate ef2 null cells from Dictyostelium discoideum that exhibited almost normal growth and protein synthesis, which suggests that there is another molecule capable of compensating for EF-2 function. The knock-out of Dictyostelium EF-2 (Dd-EF2H; 101 kDa phosphoprotein) impairs cytokinesis, resulting in formation of multinucleate cells. The initiation of differentiation, including the acquisition of aggregation competence, was delayed in Dd-ef2 null cells compared with that in wild-type. By contrast, Dd-ef2 overexpression enhanced the progression of differentiation, thus indicating a positive involvement of Dd-EF2H in growth/differentiation transition.