Diagnosis of Coronary Arteries Stenosis Using Data Mining.

Diagnosis of Coronary Arteries Stenosis Using Data Mining.

J Med Signals Sens. 2012 7; 2(3): 153-159
Alizadehsani R, Habibi J, Bahadorian B, Mashayekhi H, Ghandeharioun A, Boghrati R, Sani ZA

Cardiovascular diseases are one of the most common diseases that cause a large number of deaths each year. Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the most common type of these diseases worldwide and is the main reason of heart attacks. Thus early diagnosis of CAD is very essential and is an important field of medical studies. Many methods are used to diagnose CAD so far. These methods reduce cost and deaths. But a few studies examined stenosis of each vessel separately. Determination of stenosed coronary artery when significant ECG abnormality exists is not a difficult task. Moreover, ECG abnormality is not common among CAD patients. The aim of this study is to find a way for specifying the lesioned vessel when there is not enough ECG changes and only based on risk factors, physical examination and Para clinic data. Therefore, a new data set was used which has no missing value and includes new and effective features like Function Class, Dyspnoea, Q Wave, ST Elevation, ST Depression and Tinversion. These data was collected from 303 random visitor of Tehran’s Shaheed Rajaei Cardiovascular, Medical and Research Centre, in 2011 fall and 2012 winter. They processed with C4.5, Naïve Bayes, and k-nearest neighbour (KNN) algorithms and their accuracy were measured by tenfold cross validation. In the best method the accuracy of diagnosis of stenosis of each vessel reached to 74.20 ± 5.51% for Left Anterior Descending (LAD), 63.76 ± 9.73% for Left Circumflex and 68.33 ± 6.90% for Right Coronary Artery. The effective features of stenosis of each vessel were found too. HubMed – depression

 

Prolonged Internal Displacement and Common Mental Disorders in Sri Lanka: The COMRAID Study.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e64742
Siriwardhana C, Adikari A, Pannala G, Siribaddana S, Abas M, Sumathipala A, Stewart R

Evidence is lacking on the mental health issues of internally displaced persons, particularly where displacement is prolonged. The COMRAID study was carried out in year 2011 as a comprehensive evaluation of Muslims in North-Western Sri Lanka who had been displaced since 1990 due to conflict, to investigate the prevalence and correlates of common mental disorders.A cross-sectional survey was carried out among a randomly selected sample of internally displaced people who had migrated within last 20 years or were born in displacement. The total sample consisted of 450 adults aged 18-65 years selected from 141 settlements. Common mental disorders (CMDs) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalences were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire and CIDI sub-scale respectively.The prevalence of any CMD was 18.8%, and prevalence for subtypes was as follows: somatoform disorder 14.0%, anxiety disorder 1.3%, major depression 5.1%, other depressive syndromes 7.3%. PTSD prevalence was 2.4%. The following factors were significantly associated with CMDs: unemployment (odds ratio 2.8, 95% confidence interval 1.6-4.9), widowed or divorced status (4.9, 2.3-10.1) and food insecurity (1.7, 1.0-2.9).This is the first study investigating the mental health impact of prolonged forced displacement in post-conflict Sri Lanka. Findings add new insight in to mental health issues faced by internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka and globally, highlighting the need to explore broader mental health issues of vulnerable populations affected by forced displacement. HubMed – depression

 

Dispositional Mindfulness Co-Varies with Smaller Amygdala and Caudate Volumes in Community Adults.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e64574
Taren AA, Creswell JD, Gianaros PJ

Mindfulness, a psychological process reflecting attention and awareness to what is happening in the present moment, has been associated with increased well-being and decreased depression and anxiety in both healthy and patient populations. However, little research has explored underlying neural pathways. Recent work suggests that mindfulness (and mindfulness training interventions) may foster neuroplastic changes in cortico-limbic circuits responsible for stress and emotion regulation. Building on this work, we hypothesized that higher levels of dispositional mindfulness would be associated with decreased grey matter volume in the amgydala. In the present study, a self-report measure of dispositional mindfulness and structural MRI images were obtained from 155 healthy community adults. Volumetric analyses showed that higher dispositional mindfulness is associated with decreased grey matter volume in the right amygdala, and exploratory analyses revealed that higher dispositional mindfulness is also associated with decreased grey matter volume in the left caudate. Moreover, secondary analyses indicate that these amygdala and caudate volume associations persist after controlling for relevant demographic and individual difference factors (i.e., age, total grey matter volume, neuroticism, depression). Such volumetric differences may help explain why mindful individuals have reduced stress reactivity, and suggest new candidate structural neurobiological pathways linking mindfulness with mental and physical health outcomes. HubMed – depression

 

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Interleukin-2 Treatment on the Sensitivity of Periadolescent Female Mice to Interleukin-2 and Dopamine Uptake Inhibitor.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(5): e64473
Rankin JS, Zalcman SS, Zhu Y, Siegel A

Interleukin (IL)-2, a T-helper 1 (Th1) cell-derived cytokine, which potently modulates dopamine activity and neuronal excitability in mesolimbic structures, is linked with pathological outcomes (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, etc.) that at least partly reflect alterations in central dopaminergic processes. It has been suggested that dopamine neurons undergo pruning during adolescence and abnormalities in pruning predispose individuals to behavioral disorders. Since IL-2 is known as a neurodevelopmental factor affecting associated behavioral processes, the present study tested whether IL-2 can modulate stereotypic behaviors in both the periadolescent and adult periods. This study determined whether IL-2 treatment would produce long-lasting changes in sensitivity to a later challenge with IL-2 or GBR 12909, a highly selective dopamine uptake inhibitor. Four experiments were conducted. Firstly, a decrease in novelty-induced stereotypic behavior was observed in BALB/c periadolescent mice (38 days of age) following IL-2 administration (0.4 µg/2 ml) relative to vehicle control. In the second experiment, an initial dose of IL-2 was given in the periadolescent period, but did not affect rearing responses. A second dose of IL-2 given to the animals 30 days later as adults, resulted in a significant increase in rearing behaviors relative to control animals. In the third experiment, separate groups of experimental and control mice were administered GBR 12909, a highly selective dopamine reuptake inhibitor, 30 days following treatment with either IL-2 or vehicle. It was noted that this experimental group, which initially received IL-2, exhibited stereotypy, as evidenced by increased sniffing behavior. A fourth experiment revealed that IL-2 administered in periadolesecence and adulthood had no effect on other motor responses, indicating that IL-2 selectively modulates selective stereotypic behaviors. The results provide evidence, for the first time, that long-term changes in stereotypy in periadolescent mice are linked to an IL-2 mechanism, possibly utilizing dopamine. HubMed – depression