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Copyright of Česká a Slovenská Neurologie a Neurochirurgie is the property of Czech Medical Association of JE Purkyne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Česká a Slovenská Neurologie a Neurochirurgie is the property of Czech Medical Association of JE Purkyne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the use of the Pressure Mapping System (PMS) to comprehensively evaluate spinal cord-injured (SCI) patients with wheelchair mobility. Materials and methods: A cohort of 29 patients with both traumatic and non-traumatic aetiology was analysed. The patients were examined at the spinal outpatient clinic for life-long care at the University Hospital Brno in 2015. The examination included detailed medical history, clinical evaluation while sitting in a wheelchair, laying and sitting on an examination couch, clinical evaluation of pressure on a seating cushion using PMS, photo documentation of sitting in a wheelchair. Results: Of the total of 21 men and eight women with SCI, 26 had a traumatic lesion (20 men and six women). Three (one man and two women) had non-traumatic aetiology. All were mobile on a mechanical wheelchair. The distribution of pressure on a seating cushion showed that the pressure under ischial tuberosities was lower than 100 mm Hg in 10 patients (mean 80 ± 24 mm Hg left, 91 ± ± 24 mm Hg right). Unilateral pathology of pressure above 100 mm Hg under an ischial tuberosity was found in 12 patients (mean 93 ± 21 mm Hg left, 103 ± 36 mm Hg right). We found bilateral pathology of pressure over 100 mm Hg under both ischial tuberosities in seven patients (mean 128 ± ± 19 mm Hg left and 117 ± 21 mm Hg right). Statistically signifi cant diff erences in pressure were only found under the left ischial tuberosity. Conclusion: We verifi ed that examination with PMS is an appropriate element of comprehensive assessment of patients with wheelchair mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rehabilitation & Physical Medicine / Rehabilitace a Fyzikální Lékařství is the property of Czech Medical Association of JE Purkyne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction: Favourable effect of exercise training on cardiovascular prognosis in patients with metabolic syndrome have been documented in lot of studies. Less information exist about results of cardiovascular rehabilitation in patients with different forms of coronary heart disease and associated diseases and abnormalities within metabolic syndrome., Methods: The present article evaluates a benefit of combined, aerobic-resistance training in two groups of patients after percutaneous coronary intervention for acute coronary syndrome: with [group MS(+), n = 42] and without [group MS(-), n = 53] metabolic syndrome. The changes in aerobic capacity (VO2 peak, VO2 peak . kg(-1)), physical performance (W peak, W peak . kg(-1)), blood pressure, BMI and waist circumference after 12 weeks of cardiovascular rehabilitation are evaluated., Results: Significant improvement in aerobic capacity and physical performance were found out both in group MS(+) and MS(-) (p < 0.01, resp. p < 0.001). Decrease of systolic blood pressure was significant in MS(+), whereas in MS(-) together with decrease of diastolic BP in both groups were not significant. The increase in aerobic capacity and physical performance in patients of MS(+) is comparable with those in MS(-); the decrease in systolic BP was more intensive in MS(+) compared to MS(-). The changes in waist circumference and BMI were not significant in both groups., Conclusion: The results show, that in patients with high number of risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome was demonstrated at least comparable benefit from cardiovascular rehabilitation compared with those without metabolic syndrome.

Three spectral components with periods of about (~) 0.41, ~0.5 and ~1.0 year had been found with serially independent sampling in human circulating melatonin. The time series consisted of around-the-clock samples collected for 24 hours at 4-hour intervals from different patients over several years. Some of these components had been found to be circadian stage-dependent, the daytime measurements following mostly a circannual variation, whereas a half-year characterized the nighttime samples. The latter were incorporated into a circasemiannual map. The relative brevity of the series prevented a check for the coexistence of all three spectral components, even if each component seemed to have a raison d'être. In time series of transdisciplinary data, a 1.00-year synchronized component is interpreted as representing the seasons. The half-year may qualify the circannual waveform, but it is also a signature of geomagnetics. An ~0.41-year (~5-month) component is the signature of solar flares. It has been called a cis-half-year (cis = on this side of a half-year) and may be detected only intermittently. Charles L. Wolff predicted the existence, among others, of ~0.42- and ~0.56-year components as beat periods of rotations at different solar latitudes.The multiple components characterizing circulating melatonin could also be found in a (to our knowledge unique) data set of a clinically healthy scientist (RBS). Herein, we focus on vascular data self-measured by RBS as he aged from ~20 to ~60 years. A multi-component model consisting of cosine curves with periods of 0.41, 0.50 and 1.00 year was fitted to weekly means of systolic (S) and diastolic (D) blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) collected ~5 times a day over 39 years by RBS. All three components can coexist for a while, although all of them are nonstationary in their characteristics and come and go by the criterion of statistical significance.Intermittently, BP and HR are synchronized selectively with one or the other aspect of RBS' physical environment, namely the seasons (at ~1.0 year), earth magnetism (at ~0.5 year) and/or solar flares (at ~0.42 year). Cosmic-biotic transfer of information, albeit hardly of energy (the biospheric amplitudes are very small) may be mediated in this set of frequency windows. As found earlier, RBS' circulation is also frequency-trapped environmentally in multidecadal windows, HR being locked into the transtridecadal Brückner, or rather Brückner-Egeson-Lockyer, BEL sunspot and terrestrial weather cycle, while his BP follows Hale's didecadal cycle in the changing polarity of sunspots.The ~0.41-year HR cycle may be associated with changes in solar flares, the cis-half-year amplitude of HR showing a cross-correlation coefficient of 0.79 with the total solar flare index (from both solar hemispheres) at a lag of ~3.2 years. The superposed time courses of these two variables indicate the presence of a shared Horrebow-Arago-Schwabe sunspot cycle of ~11 years, the cis-half-year in HR being more prominent after the total solar flare index reaches its ~11-year peak. Differences in the time-varying behavior of BP vs. HR are also described.

Countering the trend in specialization, we advocate the trans-disciplinary monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate for signatures of environmental cyclic and other variabilities in space as well as terrestrial weather on the one hand, and for surveillance of personal and societal health on the other hand. New rules (if confirmed novel laws) emerge as we recognize our inheritance from the cosmos of cycles that constitute and characterize life and align them with inheritance from parents. In so doing, we happen to follow the endeavors of Gregor Mendel, who recognized the segregation and independent assortment of what became known as genes. Circadians, rhythms with periods, τ, between 20 and 28 hours, and cycles with frequencies that are higher (ultradian) or lower (infradian) than circadian, are genetically anchored. An accumulating long list of very important but aeolian (nonstationary) infradian cycles, characterizing the incidence patterns of sudden cardiac death, suicide and terrorism, with drastically different τs, constitutes the nonphotic (corpuscular emission from the sun, heliogeomagnetics, ultraviolet flux, gravitation) Cornélissen-series.

Favorable effects of exercise training on cardiovascular prognosis have been reported repeatedly in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). However, little is known about the cardiovascular rehabilitation effects in diabetic patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). This study has evaluated the benefits of combined aerobic-resistance training in two groups of patients--diabetics and non-diabetics--after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Changes in exercise capacity parameters, resting cardiovascular and anthropometrical parameters were evaluated in 77 patients who completed 12-weeks of combined aerobic-resistance training: 32 patients with DM2 (DM) and 45 patients without DM2 (NDM). Significant improvements in exercise capacity (total peak workload [W(peak)], peak workload per kg of body weight [W(peak)/kg], total peak oxygen uptake [VO(2peak)], peak oxygen uptake per kg of body weight [VO(2peak)/kg]) were found in both DM and NDM (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). The decrease in resting heart rate (HR(rest)), resting systolic (SBP(rest)) resting diastolic (DBP(rest)) blood pressures, body weight (BW) and BMI in the DM group was not statistically significant. However, there was a statistically significant decrease in SBP(rest), BW and BMI in the NDM group. In conclusion, this study demonstrated similar beneficial effects of combined cardiovascular training on exercise capacity in patients with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our results suggest that the combined cardiac training is well tolerated and useful in secondary prevention in patients with DM2 and CAD.

Correctly indicated physical exercise performed and controlled on a regular basis is an inseparable part of treatment and rehabilitation of patients with left ventricular dysfunction. In order to guarantee the best effect and safety of physical exercise, it is necessary to adopt a differential approach to its prescription to patients with different degrees of functional damage. In addition, a number of conditions should be fulfilled, among which, in the first place, the determination of functional classification of patients used in practice and described in the relevant literature (NYHA, AMA, Goldman, Weber). Physical exercise cannot be differentiated only with respect to the degree of dysfunction; other conditioning factors should be taken into consideration, too, among which the relative contraindication of physical strain, somatic condition, physical exercise anamnesis and others (i.e. sex, age, motivation, etc.), causing a high degree of patient heterogeneity. Also described are additional conditions for differentiation and correct application of physical training, which involve the selection of suitable types of exercise and their energetic demands, adequate intensity, frequency and duration; it is also important to determine the available effective and safe methods, programmes and means of training. The article contains examples of the above conditions, as well as classification of physical exercise into functional classes NYHA I-IV. In conclusion, the authors point out the necessity of differentiation of physical training and of cooperation of the cardiologist with the physiotherapist in its indication, implementation and monitoring.

The objective of this study was to find if there was a relationship between the time when cardiovascular rehabilitation was running in the patients after myocardial infarction and an average daily value of systolic and diastolic blood pressure at 7-day ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.Systolic and diastolic pressures significantly increased in patients who underwent cardiovascular rehabilitation in the morning from 9.00 a.m. to 10.15 a.m., and significantly decreased in those who did their physical exercise in the afternoon from 1.30 p.m. to 2.45 p.m., compared to their blood pressure values on days without rehabilitation.

Re-evaluation of all functions of baroreflex by means of a simple mathematical model of circulation was the aim of the present study. The following states are modelled: 1. Rest. 2. Immediately after baroreceptor denervation. 3. Several days after denervation. 4. Physical exercise before denervation. 5. Physical exercise several days after denervation. Despite the same cardiac contractility and the same vasodilatation in working muscles as before denervation the cardiac output is by one third lower after baroreceptor denervation. In conclusion, a model simulation revealed the common regulation of blood pressure and blood volume by baroreflex and kidneys as a primary function of baroreflex.

The mapping of time structures, chronomes, constitutes an endeavor spawned by chronobiology: chronomics. This cartography in time shows signatures on the surface of the earth, cycles, also accumulating in life on the earth's surface. We append a glossary of these and other cycles, the names being coined in the light of approximate cycle length. These findings are transdisciplinary, in view of their broad representation and critical importance in the biosphere. Suggestions of mechanisms are derived from an analytical statistical documentation of characteristics with superposed epochs and superposed cycles and other "remove-and-replace" approaches. These approaches use the spontaneously changing presence or absence of an environmental, cyclic or other factor for the study of any corresponding changes in the biosphere. We illustrate the indispensability of the mapping of rhythm characteristics in broader structures, chronomes, along several or all available different time scales. We present results from a cooperative cartography of about 10, about 20, and about 50-year rhythms in the context of a broad endeavor concerned with the Biosphere and the Cosmos, the BIOCOS project. The participants in this project are our co-authors worldwide, beyond Brno and Minneapolis; the studies of human blood pressure and heart rate around the clock and along the week may provide the evidence for those influences that Mendel sought in meteorology and climatology.

BIOCOS, the project aimed at studying BIOlogical systems in their COSmos, has obtained a great deal of expertise in the fields of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) monitoring and of marker rhythmometry for the purposes of screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Prolonging the monitoring reduces the uncertainty in the estimation of circadian parameters; the current recommendation of BIOCOS requires monitoring for at least 7 days. The BIOCOS approach consists of a parametric and a non-parametric analysis of the data, in which the results from the individual subject are being compared with gender- and age-specified reference values in health.Chronobiological designs can offer important new information regarding the optimization of treatment by timing its administration as a function of circadian and other rhythms.New technological developments are needed to close the loop between the monitoring of blood pressure and the administration of antihypertensive drugs.

The relationship between age and circadian blood pressure (BP) variation was the aim of the present study. One hundred and eighty-seven subjects (130 males, 57 females), 20-77 years old, were recruited for seven-day BP monitoring. Colin medical instruments (Komaki, Japan) were used for ambulatory BP monitoring (oscillation method, 30-minute interval between measurements). A sinusoidal curve was fitted (minimum square method) and the mean value and amplitude of the curve (double amplitude corresponds to the night-day difference) were evaluated on every day of monitoring. The average 7-day values of the mean (M) and of double amplitude (2A) for systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), and heart rate (HR) were determined in each subject. The mean values of M (+/-SD) for the whole group were: SBP- 127+/-8, DBP - 79+/-6 mmHg, HR - 70+/-6 bpm; of 2A: SBP - 21+/-7, DBP - 15+/-5 mmHg, HR - 15+/-6 bpm. A linear relationship between M of SBP and age (r=0.341, p< 0.001) and DBP and age (r=0.384, p<0.001) was found (difference between 20 and 77 years: SBP - 16, DBP - 12 mmHg). 2A of SBP and DBP was increasing with age up to 35 years, then the curve remained relatively flat up to 55 years (maximum at 45 years), and then it decreased again (difference between 45 and 77 years: SBP - 13mmHg, DBP - 12 mmHg). Heart rate M and 2A were age-independent. The mean values of SBP and DBP were increasing with age up to 75 years, but the night-day difference of SBP and DBP reached its maximum value at 45 years and then decreased.

The aim of the study was to assess the time structure (chronome) of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in Austria. The daily incidence of SCD (ICD-10 I46.1) in Austria was obtained for the 4-year span from Jan 2002 to Dec 2005. Data were available separately for men and women. This data series was analyzed by linear-nonlinear rhythmometry. The major feature is the detection of a cis-half-year that is validated nonlinearly, the estimated period of the cis-half-year is 0.408 year (95% CI: 0.389, 0.426). It is concluded that the chronobiological analysis of sudden cardiac death in Austria showed the variability of total incidence with the period of a cis-half-year.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether electrical stimulation of skeletal muscles could represent a rehabilitation alternative for patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Thirty patients with CHF and NYHA class II-III were randomly assigned to a rehabilitation program using either electrical stimulation of skeletal muscles or bicycle training. Patients in the first group (n = 15) had 8 weeks of home-based low-frequency electrical stimulation (LFES) applied simultaneously to the quadriceps and calf muscles of both legs (1 h/day for 7 days/week); patients in the second group (n = 15) underwent 8 weeks of 40 minute aerobic exercise (3 times a week). After the 8-week period significant increases in several functional parameters were observed in both groups: maximal VO2 uptake (LFES group: from 17.5 +/- 4.4 mL/kg/min to 18.3 +/- 4.2 mL/kg/min, P < 0.05; bicycle group: from 18.1 +/- 3.9 mL/kg/min to 19.3 +/- 4.1 mL/kg/min, P < 0.01), maximal workload (LFES group: from 84.3 +/- 15.2 W to 95.9 +/- 9.8 W, P < 0.05; bicycle group: from 91.2 +/- 13.4 W to 112.9 +/- 10.8 W, P < 0.01), distance walked in 6 minutes (LFES group: from 398 +/- 105 m to 435 +/- 112 m, P < 0.05; bicycle group: from 425 +/- 118 m to 483 +/- 120 m, P < 0.03), and exercise duration (LFES group: from 488 +/- 45 seconds to 568 +/- 120 seconds, P < 0.05; bicycle group: from 510 +/- 90 seconds to 611 +/- 112 seconds, P < 0.03). These results demonstrate that an improvement of exercise capacities can be achieved either by classical exercise training or by home-based electrical stimulation. LFES should be considered as a valuable alternative to classical exercise training in patients with CHF.

Head-up tilt table testing is used for diagnostics of vasovagal syncope. Beat-to-beat blood pressure recording and ECG monitoring is not sufficient for clarification of the syncope mechanisms in individual patients, however. That is why a Task Force Monitor was developed in Graz, Austria. In addition this device enables stroke volume recording by impedance method. Other advantages are calculations of cardiac output, beat-to-beat total peripheral resistance, heart rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity as well as activity ofsympathicus and parasympathicus assessment. These methods enable detailed hemodynamic analysis during the whole head-up tilt testing duration, the moment of syncope including.