Publications by authors named "H Clifton"
Article Synopsis
- Health literacy is the ability to access and understand health information, which is crucial for making informed decisions about one’s health.
- The study focused on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to assess their health literacy levels and how it related to the severity of their condition, utilizing specific questionnaires.
- Findings showed that while patients with more severe COPD felt less confident in managing their health, they reported better skills in evaluating health information, suggesting the need to address health literacy as a key factor in effective self-management.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is characterized by reduced ability to sustain physical activity that may be due partly to disease-related changes in autonomic function that contribute to dysregulated cardiovascular control during muscular contraction. Thus, we used a combination of static handgrip exercise (HG) and postexercise ischemia (PEI) to examine the pressor response to exercise and isolate the skeletal muscle metaboreflex, respectively. Mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were assessed during 2-min of static HG at 30 and 40% of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and subsequent PEI in 16 patients with HFpEF and 17 healthy, similarly aged controls.
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- - This study investigated whether short-term supplementation with tetrahydrobiopterin (BH) can improve vascular function in older adults, particularly focusing on flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD).
- - Two experimental methods were used: a multi-day, placebo-controlled crossover trial with nine older adults and a single-day study with thirteen others, showing no significant changes in FMD or shear rate after BH supplementation.
- - Despite an increase in plasma levels of both BH and its oxidized form, the study concluded that acute BH supplementation does not improve vascular dysfunction in older adults, as the essential BH/BH2 ratio remained unchanged.
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare, auto-immune disease with variably progressive fibrosis of the skin and internal organs, as well as vascular dysfunction. Recently, we demonstrated a decrement in exercising skeletal muscle blood flow and endothelium-dependent vasodilation in SSc, but the mechanisms responsible for these impairments have not been investigated. Thus, we sought to determine if acute administration of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH), an essential cofactor for endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), would improve hyperemia and brachial artery vasodilation during progressive handgrip exercise in SSc.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to low oxygen environments (hypoxia) can impair cognitive function; however, the time-course of the transient changes in cognitive function is unknown. In this study, we assessed cognitive function with a cognitive test before, during, and after exposure to hypoxia. Nine participants (28 4 yr, 7 women) completed Conners Continuous Performance Test (CCPT-II) during three sequential conditions: 1) baseline breathing room air (fraction of inspired oxygen, Fo₂ 0.
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