Analysis of coronary angiography related psychophysiological responses

Attention Dysregulation in Breast Cancer Patients Following a Complementary Alternative Treatment Routine: A Double-Blind Randomized Trial

Introduction:

Breast cancer patients and survivors frequently report fatigue, emotional, and cognitive disturbances, which reduce performance at all levels of occupation and make life quality issues a considerable clinical concern. The aim of this study is to evaluate attention and emotion regulation across radiotherapy period and the possible effects of complementary alternative medicine (CAM).

Methods:

Fifty-seven patients with unilateral breast cancer underwent surgery and systemic chemotherapy before participating in this double-blind randomized study. Two thirds were given CAM (n = 38) while the rest received placebo (carrier only, n = 19). Patients’ attention and anxiety were physiologically tested at baseline, 2 and 4 weeks during the radiation period as well as 1-month after the end of radiation session.

Results:

Both groups showed similar levels of anxiety with no significant differences at baseline nor post-radiotherapy. Long-term significant recovery of attention performance was observed in the CAM patients, accompanied by a similar tendency in anxiety level, measured by the eye-blink probability.

Conclusions:

This study physiologically validates the attention impairment reported among breast cancer survivors; also, it depicted a beneficial late-effect of a routine CAM on attention dysregulation. The suggested non-invasive physiological measures can physiologically monitor patients’ psychological and cognitive well-being as well as evaluate the beneficial effect of CAM in breast cancer patients by assessing their coping ability to support the treatment plan. Thus, the results have potential clinical implications on patients’ and survivors’ quality of life.

Trial Registration:

NIH, NCT02890316. Registered July 2016, http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov

The Effect of Hand Reflexology Massage on Pain and Fatigue in Patients after Coronary Angiography: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Introduction

Coronary angiography can cause pain and fatigue in patients. Hand reflexology as complementary and integrative care approach has been suggested to help with the reduction of patient's pain and fatigue.

Aim

This study aimed to investigate the effect of hand reflexology on pain and fatigue in patients after coronary angiography.

Design

A randomized controlled clinical trial.

Methods

This study was conducted on 90 patients in an angiography department of a referral hospital in an urban area of Iran. The patients were randomly divided into two interventions (n = 45) and control (n = 45) groups. Hand reflexology was performed for 20 minutes in the intervention group. Pain and fatigue in the groups were measured immediately, 4 and 6 hours after the intervention.

Results

Statistically significant differences were observed in pain and fatigue scores between the groups after the intervention (P = 0.001). The intervention had medium to large effects on the patients' pain and fatigue. Hand reflexology as a nonpharmacological and safe technique can be used by nurses along with other pharmacologic interventions in order to reduce patients' suffering related to invasive procedures. The trial is registered with IRCT20110912007529N17.

Comparison of Pulse Rate Variability and Heart Rate Variability for Hypoglycemia Syndrome

BACKGROUND

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a signal obtained from RR intervals of electrocardiography (ECG) signals to evaluate the balance between the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system; not only HRV but also pulse rate variability (PRV) extracted from finger pulse plethysmography (PPG) can reflect irregularities that may occur in heart rate and control procedures.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to compare the HRV and PRV during hypoglycemia in order to evaluate the features that computed from PRV that can be used in detection of hypoglycemia.

METHODS

To this end, PRV and HRV of 10 patients who required testing with insulin-induced hypoglycemia (IIHT) in Clinics of Endocrinology and Metabolism Diseases of Bezm-i Alem University (Istanbul, Turkey), were obtained. The recordings were done at three stages: prior to IIHT, during the IIHT, and after the IIHT. We used Bland-Altman analysis for comparing the parameters and to evaluate the correlation between HRV and PRV if exists.

RESULTS

Significant correlation (r > 0.90, p < 0.05) and close agreement were found between HRV and PRV for mean intervals, the root-mean square of the difference of successive intervals, standard deviation of successive intervals and the ratio of the low-to-high frequency power.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, all the features computed from PRV and HRV have close agreement and correlation according to Bland-Altman analyses' results and features computed from PRV can be used in detection of hypoglycemia.