Heart Rate monitoring during physical exercise using wrist-type photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals.

Heart rate monitoring using wrist-type using photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals during subjects' intensive exercises is a challenging problem, since signals are strongly affected by motion artifacts caused by unexpected movements. This paper presents a method that uses both time and frequency characteristics of signals; using sparse signal reconstruction for high-resolution spectrum estimation. Experimental results on type data sets recorded from 12 subjects during fast running at peak speed of 15 km/hour. The results have a performance with the average absolute error being 1.80 beat per minute.

Adherence to American society of health-system pharmacists surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines in a teaching hospital.

OBJECTIVE: Surgical site infections are the second most common type of adverse events occurring in hospitalized patients, whereas an estimated 40-60% of these infections are thought to be preventable. Choice of regimen, administration timing or duration of antibiotic prophylaxis is reported to be inappropriate in approximately 25-50% of cases. We tried to evaluate an antibiotic administration pattern for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis in a teaching hospital. METHODS: This study was conducted at the general surgery and orthopedic wards of a teaching hospital affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. The medical records of admitted patients who underwent different surgical procedures were reviewed. Compliance was assessed with the recommendations of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' guidelines for every aspect of antibiotic prophylaxis. All data were coded and analyzed by SPSS16 software using Student's t-test and Chi-square test. FINDINGS: During 1 year, 759 patients who underwent different surgeries were included in the study. Mean age of patients was 32.02 ± 18.79 years. Hand and foot fractures repair were the most frequent surgery types. About 56.4% of administered prophylactic antibiotics were in accordance with the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) guidelines regarding prophylaxis indication. The most commonly antibiotic used was cefazolin and antibiotic choices were appropriate in 104 of 168 surgical procedures (62%). Gentamicin, metronidazole and ceftriaxone were the most frequently antibiotics that used inappropriately. Only in 100 of 168 procedures, duration was concordant with the ASHP guideline, whereas in 68 procedures, duration was longer than recommended time. In 98 procedures, the dose was lower and in one procedure, it was higher than recommended doses. CONCLUSION: Although such guidelines have been in place for many years, studies showed that much inappropriate antibiotic use as prophylaxis and poor adherence to guidelines are still major issues. It is essential for surgeons to be aware to consider the best antibiotic choices, dose and duration based on reliable guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis.

Chemoprotective effects of hesperidin against genotoxicity induced by cyclophosphamide in mice bone marrow cells.

The preventive effect of hesperidin as a flavonoid was investigated in mouse bone marrow cells against genotoxicity induced by cyclophosphamide. Mice were orally (gavages) pretreated with solutions of hesperidin at four different doses (50, 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg b.w.) for five consecutive days. Mice were injected intraperitoneally on the fifth day with cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg b.w.) and killed after 24 h for the evaluation of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MnPCEs) and the ratio of PCE/(PCE+NCE) (polychromatic erythrocyte/ polychromatic erythrocyte + normochromatic erythrocyte). Three last doses of hesperidin significantly reduced frequency of MnPCEs induced by cyclophosphamide (p<0.0001). Hesperdin at dose 200 mg/kg b.w. reduced MnPCEs 2.37 time and also completely normalized PCE/ (PCE+NCE) ratio. Histological examination of bone marrow showed that hesperidin affected on proliferation and hyper cellularity of immature myeloid elements in bone marrow that reduced by cyclophosphamide. It is obvious that hesperidin, may with antioxidative activity, reduced the oxidative stress and genotoxicity induced by cyclophosphamide in mouse bone marrow cells.