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Biomedical subjects

J Salerno

Publications and source records attributed to J Salerno.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Maharishi Vedic vibration technology on chronic disorders and associated quality of life.

There is a growing interest for more effective, innovative programs to address the chronic illness suffered by approximately 40 percent of the U.S. population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a new Maharishi Vedic Medicine program-the Maharishi Vedic Vibration Technology-on the quality of life of individuals with chronic disorders. A total of 213 individuals took part in the study (mean age=48.55 years; average length of time of chronic illness=18.42 years). Results showed that over three sessions, the average self-reported improvement in chronic illness was 40.97 percent. Conditions related to neck pain improved the most (51.25%), followed by respiratory ailments (48.00%), digestive problems (46.90%), mental health, including anxiety and depression (46.34%), arthritis (41.57%), insomnia (37.38%), back pain (36.32%), headaches (35.83%), cardiovascular conditions (22.31%), and eye problems (21.19%). Findings also showed significant reductions in frequency of discomfort or pain (p<.000001), intensity of discomfort (p<.000001), and disabling effects of the discomfort in daily activity (p<.000001), in addition to overall improvement in mental health (p<.000001) and vitality (p<.000125). Possible mechanisms of action are presented.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Classification of atrial flutter and regular atrial tachycardia according to electrophysiologic mechanism and anatomic bases: a statement from a joint expert group from the Working Group of Arrhythmias of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology.

Regular atrial tachycardias classically are classified into flutter or tachycardia, depending on the rate and presence of a stable baseline on the ECG. However, current understanding of electrophysiology atrial tachycardias makes this classification obsolete, because it does not correlate with mechanisms. The proposed classification is based on electrophysiologic mechanisms, defined by mapping and entrainment. Radiofrequency ablation of a critical focus or isthmus can afford proof. Focal tachycardias are characterized by radial spread of activation and endocardial activation not covering the whole cycle. Ablation of the focus of origin interrupts the tachycardia. The mechanism of focal firing is difficult to ascertain by clinical methods. Macroreentrant tachycardias are characterized by circular patterns of activation that cover the whole cycle. Fusion can be shown during entrainment on the ECG or by multiple endocardial recordings. Ablation of a critical isthmus interrupts the tachycardia. Macroreentry can occur around normal structures (terminal crest, eustachian ridge) or around atrial lesions. The anatomic bases of these tachycardias must be defined, to guide appropriate treatment. Atrial flutter is a mere description of continuous undulation on the ECG, and only some strictly defined typical flutter patterns correlate with right atrial macroreentry bounded by the tricuspid valve, terminal crest, and caval vein orifices. This classification should be considered open, as some classically described tachycardias, such as reentrant sinus tachycardia, inappropriate sinus tachycardia, and type II atrial flutter, cannot be classified accurately. Furthermore, the possibility of fibrillatory conduction makes the limits with atrial fibrillation still ill defined.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of a bacteriophage T4 primase fragment.

The primase from bacteriophage T4 is a single-stranded DNA-dependent RNA polymerase that is one of the seven proteins that constitute the DNA-replication machinery of bacteriophage T4. In an attempt to crystallize the protein, a number of variants were generated. One such construct, which includes the C-terminal region (residues 196-340), gave four different crystal forms which diffract in the 3. 5-6.0 A resolution range.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2000

Effects of stress reduction on carotid atherosclerosis in hypertensive African Americans.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: African Americans suffer disproportionately higher cardiovascular disease mortality rates than do whites. Psychosocial stress influences the development and progression of atherosclerosis. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is a valid surrogate measure for coronary atherosclerosis, is a predictor of coronary outcomes and stroke, and is associated with psychosocial stress factors. Stress reduction with the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program decreases coronary heart disease risk factors and cardiovascular mortality in African Americans. B-mode ultrasound is useful for the noninvasive evaluation of carotid atherosclerosis. METHODS: This randomized controlled clinical trial evaluated the effects of the TM program on carotid IMT in hypertensive African American men and women, aged >20 years, over a 6- to 9-month period. From the initially enrolled 138 volunteers, 60 subjects completed pretest and posttest carotid IMT data. The assigned interventions were either the TM program or a health education group. By use of B-mode ultrasound, mean maximum IMT from 6 carotid segments was used to determine pretest and posttest IMT values. Regression analysis and ANCOVA were performed. RESULTS: Age and pretest IMT were found to be predictors of posttest IMT values and were used as covariates. The TM group showed a significant decrease of -0.098 mm (95% CI -0. 198 to 0.003 mm) compared with an increase of 0.054 mm (95% CI -0.05 to 0.158 mm) in the control group (P=0.038, 2-tailed). CONCLUSIONS: Stress reduction with the TM program is associated with reduced carotid atherosclerosis compared with health education in hypertensive African Americans. Further research with this stress-reduction technique is warranted to confirm these preliminary findings.

Black People↗
PubMed1999

Which strategy is "best" after myocardial infarction? The Beta-blocker Strategy plus Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Trial: rationale and study design.

The Beta-blocker Strategy plus Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (BEST-ICD) Trial is a multicenter prospective randomized trial that started in June 1998, in 95 centers in Italy and Germany. The trial will test the hypothesis whether, in high-risk post myocardial infarction (MI) patients already treated with beta blockers, electrophysiologic study (EPS)-guided therapy (including the prophylactic implantation of implantable cardioverter defibrillator [ICD] in inducible patients) will improve survival compared with conventional therapy. Patients eligible for the study are survivors of recent MI (> or = 5 and < or = 21 days), aged < or = 80 years, with left ventricular ejection fraction < or = 35% and > or = 1 of the following additional risk factors: (1) ventricular premature beats > or = 10/hour; (2) decreased heart rate variability (standard deviation of unusual RR intervals < 70 msec); and (3) presence of ventricular late potentials. Furthermore, all enrolled patients must be able to tolerate at least 25 mg of metoprolol per day. These patients constitute about 9% of all patients with recent MI and are expected to have a 2-year all-cause mortality > 25% of which 50% is anticipated to be from sudden death. The main criteria of exclusion from the study are (1) a history of sustained ventricular arrhythmia; (2) documentation of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia during the screening phase; and (3) the need for myocardial revascularization and contraindications or intolerance to beta-blocker therapy. Eligible patients will be randomized to 2 different therapeutic strategies: conventional strategy or EPS/ICD strategy. Patients allocated to the EPS/ICD strategy will undergo further risk stratification, and electrophysiologically inducible patients (approximately 35%) will receive prophylactic ICDs, in addition to the conventional therapy, whereas noninducible patients will be only conventionally treated. The primary endpoint of the study will be death from all causes. By hypothesizing a 30% reduction in the 2-year mortality (from 20% to 14%) in the EPS/ICD group compared with conventionally treated patients, 1,200 patients will have to be included. A triangular, 2-sided sequential design with preset boundaries, for a 5% significance level and 90% power to detect a reduction in 2-year mortality from 20% to 14%, will be used to permit early termination of the trial if the strategy is found to be efficacious, no difference, or inefficacious.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗
PubMed1997

Where are all the women with heart failure?

In recent clinical trials of medical therapy for heart failure, only approximately 20% of patients enrolled were women. The reasons for the low enrollment of women have not been clear. Although the incidence of heart failure is higher in men than in women, the prevalence is equal. When men and women with heart failure and a low left ventricular ejection fraction are compared, the women are more symptomatic and have a similarly poor outcome. Because mortality is worse in men than in women in large populations of patients with heart failure, there may be important pathophysiologic differences. Substantial data suggest that women may have diastolic dysfunction more often than men. This difference would explain differences in mortality and the difficulty in enrolling women in studies of medical therapy for heart failure with underlying systolic dysfunction.

Diastole↗
PubMed1997

Structural analysis of the Trichodesmium nitrogenase iron protein: implications for aerobic nitrogen fixation activity.

Trichodesmium spp. are marine filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria which play an important role in the nitrogen budget of the open ocean. Trichodesmium is unique in that it is nonheterocystous and fixes nitrogen during the day, while evolving oxygen through photosynthesis, even though nitrogenase is sensitive to oxygen inactivation. The sequence of the gene encoding the Fe protein component of nitrogenase from the recently cultivated isolate Trichodesmium sp. IMS 101 was used to construct a 3-dimensional model of the Fe protein, by comparison to the X-ray crystallographic structure of the Fe protein of the gamma-proteobacterium Azotobacter vinelandii. The primary differences in amino acid sequences of the Fe protein from diverse organisms do not impact the critical structural features of the Fe protein. It can be concluded that aerobic nitrogen fixation in Trichodesmium spp. is not facilitated by unique structural features of Trichodesmium Fe protein.

Aerobiosis↗
PubMed1996

Trial of stress reduction for hypertension in older African Americans. II. Sex and risk subgroup analysis.

Our objective was to test the short-term efficacy and feasibility of two stress-reduction approaches for the treatment of hypertension in older African Americans, focusing on subgroup analysis by sex and by high and low risk on six measures of hypertension risk: psychosocial stress, obesity, alcohol use, physical inactivity, dietary sodium-potassium ratio, and a composite measure. The study involved a follow-up subgroup analysis of a 3-month randomized, controlled, single-blind trial conducted in a primary care, inner-city health center. Subjects were 127 African American men and women, aged 55 to 85 years, with diastolic pressure of 90 to 104 mm Hg and systolic pressure less than or equal to 179 mm Hg. Of these, 16 did not complete follow-up blood pressure measurements. Mental and physical stress-reduction approaches-the Transcendental Meditation technique and progressive muscle relaxation, respectively-were compared with a life-style modification education control and with each other. Both systolic and diastolic pressures changed from baseline to follow-up for both sexes and for high and low risk level (defined by median split) on the six measures of hypertension risk. Compared with education control subjects, women practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique showed adjusted declines in systolic (10.4 mm Hg, P < .01) and diastolic (5.9 mm Hg, P < .01) pressures. Men in this treatment group also declined in both systolic (12.7 mm Hg, P < .01) and diastolic (8.1 mm Hg, P < .001) pressures compared with control subjects. Women practicing muscle relaxation did not show a significant decrease compared with control subjects, and men declined significantly in diastolic pressure only (6.2 mm Hg, P < .01). For the measure of psychosocial stress, both the high and low risk subgroups using the Transcendental Meditation technique declined in systolic (high risk, P = .0003; low, P = .06) and diastolic (high risk, P = .001; low, P = .008) pressures compared with control subjects, whereas for muscle relaxation, blood pressure dropped significantly only in the high risk subgroup and only for systolic pressure (P = .03) compared with control subjects. For each of the other five risk measures, Transcendental Meditation subjects in both the high and low risk groups declined significantly in systolic and diastolic pressures compared with control subjects. Effects of stress reduction on blood pressure were found to generalize to both sexes and diverse risk factor subgroups and were significantly greater in the Transcendental Meditation treatment group. These effects (along with high compliance) even in individuals with multiple risk factors for hypertension clearly warrant longer-term investigation in this and other populations.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Modular structure of neuronal nitric oxide synthase: localization of the arginine binding site and modulation by pterin.

A putative dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) module has been identified in neuronal nitric oxide synthase, consisting of amino acids 558-721, and is proposed to be the site of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) binding. This polypeptide has been expressed in E. coli as a fusion protein with glutathione S-transferase (GST), using the plasmid pGEX-4T1. The protein binds N omega-nitro-L-arginine (NNA) tightly, but this binding is not stimulated by BH4. cDNAs for Module II (residues 220-557) and Module III (residues 220-721) have been expressed as fusion proteins with GST. Module II does not bind NNA. However, Module III does bind NNA and binding is significantly stimulated by BH4. These observations are taken as strong evidence that the DHFR module contains the L-arginine binding site and, presumably, the BH4 binding site by analogy to its homology with DHFR, but that tight binding of BH4 requires amino acids 220-577.

Amino Acid Oxidoreductases↗
PubMed1994

Reduction of functional neuronal connectivity in long-term treated hypertension.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Anatomic imaging of patients with chronic well-treated hypertension has demonstrated dilatation of the lateral cerebral ventricles and left brain atrophy, whereas positron emission tomography has shown only subtle reductions in regional cerebral metabolic rates for glucose in some subcortical nuclei. To further explore the implications of the imaging changes, an analytic technique designed to determine functional neuronal connectivity between regions of interest (ROIs) was applied to the data on regional cerebral metabolic rates for glucose to determine if and where in the brain reduction of functional neuronal connectivity occurred. METHODS: Glucose metabolism was measured by positron emission tomography in 17 older men (age, 68 +/- 8 years) with well-controlled, noncomplicated hypertension of at least 10 years' duration and in 25 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects. A significant correlation difference analysis was performed to determine which ROI pairs had reduced correlation coefficients (reduced functional neuronal connectivity). The vascular pattern of the reduction was determined after allocating the ROIs to their appropriate vascular territories. RESULTS: Compared with the control subjects, hypertensive patients had reduced correlation coefficients in cortical territories of the internal carotid arteries but not of the vertebrobasilar arteries. The border zone supplied by the middle and anterior cerebral arteries was most affected. CONCLUSIONS: The border zone between the anterior and middle cerebral arteries is vulnerable to ischemia from carotid pathology, systemic hypotension, or both. We hypothesize that although these hypertensive patients were "well controlled" and had normal neuropsychological tests, they may have experienced ischemia severe enough to cause border zone reduction of functional neuronal connectivity as a result of carotid pathology, antihypertensive medications, hypotensive episodes with a right-shifted autoregulation curve, or other factors in isolation or combination.

Aged↗
PubMed1992

Left atrial isolation associated with mitral valve operations.

Surgical isolation of the left atrium was performed for the treatment of chronic atrial fibrillation secondary to valvular disease in 100 patients who underwent mitral valve operations. From May 1989 to September 1991, 62 patients underwent mitral valve operations (group I); 19, mitral valve operations and DeVega tricuspid annuloplasty (group II); 15, mitral and aortic operations (group III); and 4, mitral and aortic operations and DeVega tricuspid annuloplasty (group IV). Left atrial isolation was performed, prolonging the usual left paraseptal atriotomy toward the left fibrous trigone anteriorly and the posteromedial commissure posteriorly. The incision was conducted a few millimeters apart from the mitral valve annulus, and cryolesions were placed at the edges to ensure complete electrophysiological isolation of the left atrium. Operative mortality accounted for 3 patients (3%). In 79 patients (81.4%) sinus rhythm recovered and persisted until discharge from the hospital. No differences were found between the groups (group I, 80.7%; group II, 68.5%; group III, 86.7%; group IV, 75%; p = not significant). Three late deaths (3.1%) were registered. Long-term results show persistence of sinus rhythm in 71% of group I, 61.2% of group II, 85.8% of group III, and 100% of group IV. The unique risk factor for late recurrence of atrial fibrillation was found to be preoperative atrial fibrillation longer than 6 months. Due to the satisfactory success rate in recovering sinus rhythm, we suggest performing left atrial isolation in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation undergoing valvular operations.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1992

[Left atrial electric isolation in the treatment of atrial fibrillation secondary to rheumatic valvular disease].

BACKGROUND: Surgical isolation of the left atrium was performed for the treatment of chronic atrial fibrillation secondary to valvular disease in 100 patients who underwent valve surgery. METHODS: From May 1989 to September 1991, 62 patients underwent mitral valve surgery (Group I), 19 underwent mitral valve surgery and DeVega tricuspid annuloplasty (Group II), 15 underwent mitral and aortic surgery (Group III), and 4 patients underwent mitral and aortic surgery and DeVega tricuspid annuloplasty (Group IV). Left atrial isolation was performed prolonging the usual left paraseptal atriotomy towards the left fibrous trigone anteriorly, and the postero-medial commissure posteriorly. The incision was conducted a few millimeters apart from the mitral valve annulus, and cryolesion were placed at the edges to ensure complete electrophysiological isolation of the left atrium. RESULTS: Operative mortality accounted for 3 cases (3%). In 79 patients (81.4%) sinus rhythm recovered and persisted until discharge from the hospital. No differences were found between the groups (Group I: 80.7%; Group II: 68.5%; Group III 86.7%, Group IV 75% - p = N.S.). Three cases of late mortality (3.1%) were registered. long-term results showed persistence of SR in 71% of Group I, 61.2% of Group II, 85.8% of Group III, and 100% of Group IV. The unique risk factor for late recurrency of atrial fibrillation was found to be a duration of preoperative AF longer than 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: Due to the high success rate in recovering the sinus rhythm, we suggest left atrial isolation in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation undergoing valvular surgery.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Purification, characterization, and partial structure of D factor from Polysphondylium violaceum.

The A component of D factor (DfA) was overproduced during development of wild type Polyspondylium violaceum strain China after starvation in liquid medium. Crude DfA excreted by strain China was partially purified by ultrafiltration using Amicon YM10 and YM2 filters with DfA extracted from the filtrate by absorption onto a preparative grade C-18 resin. The concentrated material was further purified on a C-18 analytical column using both acetonitrile:water and methanol:water gradients. This highly purified fraction was a single component with a final specific activity of greater than 10(6) units per mg dry weight. Purified DfA is red having a broad visible absorbance at 500 nm and a ultraviolet (uv) absorbance at 290-300 nm. The red chromophore is sensitive to pH and to oxidation-reduction. 1H and 13C nmr studies with purified DfA indicate that it is a C11 compound with both polar and non-polar regions. The non-polar region has been identified as a hexanone and is the same as the side chain of DIF from Dictyostelium discoideum. Purified DfA has been used in studies with the D factor non-producing mutant, tsg-119 cyc-1 aggA586 (A586), to show that neither production of glorin nor chemotactic sensitivity to glorin are affected by D factor. However, founder cells develop in A586 mutant populations only after addition of D factor. These data suggest that DfA may be necessary for induction of aggregate formation by aggregation-competent amoebae.

Cell Aggregation↗
PubMed1986

Clinical and angiographic findings in angina at rest.

The purpose of this study was to delineate the clinical, ECG, and angiographic features of a large series of consecutive patients with angina at rest. Transient ST segment elevation during pain was observed in 219 patients (group I), while 220 patients showed ST segment depression during pain (group II). Group II patients were found to have higher incidence of hypertension (p less than 0.001), prior myocardial infarction (p less than 0.0005), history of exertional angina (p less than 0.0005), and a progressive aggravation of symptoms before hospitalization (p less than 0.0005), while group I patients had a prevalence of recent onset angina (p less than 0.05) and more frequently developed severe ventricular arrhythmias during pain (p less than 0.0005). Furthermore, a larger number of patients showing ST segment depression during chest pain had multivessel disease (p less than 0.0005), left main involvement (p less than 0.005), and lower values of left ventricular ejection fraction (p less than 0.001) than patients with ST segment elevation during pain. Survival curves of medically treated patients showed a significantly better long-term prognosis in patients of group I (p less than 0.01). The direction of the ST segment shift during anginal attacks at rest may therefore allow a classification of patients included into the broad spectrum of unstable angina. This distinction should be taken into consideration in studies aimed at evaluating long-term prognosis or the results of medical and surgical therapy.

Adult↗