6 research outputs found
"Relazione tra osteoartrosi ed osteoporosi. Studio sperimentale e clinico."
The authors conducted two studies to demonstrate the presence of a relationship between osteoporosis and arthrosis: the first study was experimental involving thirty femoral heads removed during hip arthroplasty, and the second was a clinical study conducted on forty patients with coxarthrosis. The results obtained confirm how the presence of one of the two pathologies may prevent or delay occurrence of the other, and on this basis the authors review the literature. Finally, also taking into account the interpretations of other authors, possible hypotheses on the inverse relationship that links the two pathologies are propose
La cistatina C sierica come marker di funzione renale nella valutazione del rischio cardiovascolare.
Association of severity of osteoarthritis and carotid atherosclerosis in patients with metabolic syndrome
Transcranial direct current stimulation enhances soothing positive affect and vagal tone
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a promising tool for the treatment of depression and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is often targeted when exploring tDCS effects on mood. However, the basic effects of tDCS on momentary emotions are inconsistent. We tested whether a single-session of anodal tDCS over the left temporal lobe (T3), topographically closer to the insular cortex than dlPFC, had effects on both vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV) and momentary affect in healthy participants. Thirty-four subjects underwent both sham and active tDCS in a counterbalanced random order. ECG was continuously recorded to derive both time and frequency domain HRV indexes. Before and after the tDCS protocol, participants completed momentary affect assessments. Results showed that HRV and soothing positive affectivity were both enhanced after a single-session of tDCS over T3, while negative and activating positive affect were not modulated by the stimulation. After controlling for sex, age, and levels of anxiety and depression a significant association emerged between increases in soothing positive affect and concomitant increases in vagally-mediated HRV. Deficits in soothing positive emotions have consistently been associated with psychopathology and psychotherapeutic approaches aimed to develop this type of emotionality have shown to improve psychological well-being. Thus, present exploratory results may impact future research investigating potential moderators (site of stimulation) and mediators (specificity for a determined type of momentary affect) of the effects of tDCS on psychopathological conditions such as depression
Transcranial direct current stimulation improves the QT variability index and autonomic cardiac control in healthy subjects older than 60 years
Gianfranco Piccirillo,1 Cristina Ottaviani,2 Claudia Fiorucci,1 Nicola Petrocchi,2 Federica Moscucci,1 Claudia Di Iorio,1 Fabiola Mastropietri,1 Ilaria Parrotta,1 Matteo Pascucci,1 Damiano Magrì3 1Department of Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Nephrological, Anestesiological and Geriatric Sciences, “Sapienza” University, 2Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 3Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Rome, Italy Background: Noninvasive brain stimulation technique is an interesting tool to investigate the causal relation between cortical functioning and autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses. Objective: The objective of this report is to evaluate whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the temporal cortex influences short-period temporal ventricular repolarization dispersion and cardiovascular ANS control in elderly subjects. Subjects and methods: In 50 healthy subjects (29 subjects younger than 60 years and 21 subjects older than 60 years) matched for gender, short-period RR and systolic blood pressure spectral variability, QT variability index (QTVI), and noninvasive hemodynamic data were obtained during anodal tDCS or sham stimulation. Results: In the older group, the QTVI, low-frequency (LF) power expressed in normalized units, the ratio between LF and high-frequency (HF) power, and systemic peripheral resistances decreased, whereas HF power expressed in normalized units and α HF power increased during the active compared to the sham condition (P<0.05). Conclusion: In healthy subjects older than 60 years, tDCS elicits cardiovascular and autonomic changes. Particularly, it improves temporal ventricular repolarization dispersion, reduces sinus sympathetic activity and systemic peripheral resistance, and increases vagal sinus activity and baroreflex sensitivity. Keywords: transcranial direct current stimulation, QT variability, heart rate variability, autonomic nervous system, agin
