Improvement of Low-Grade Inflammation in Patients with Metabolically Healthy Severe Obesity After Primary Bariatric Surgery.

Introduction: The inflammatory state that accompanies adiposity and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) is called "low-grade" inflammation. White blood cell count (WBC) has been proposed as an emerging biomarker for predicting future cardiovascular events, MetS and mortality. Bariatric surgery (BS) improves comorbidities associated with obesity and the MetS and the surgically induced weight loss is known to improve inflammatory status.

Interference in visual perception by verbal and spatial cognitive activity.

In two experiments we tested the hypothesis that cognitive processing based on spatial imagery produces more deterioration of visual perception than cognitive processing based on verbal codes. So, we studied the effect on visual perception of two cognitive tasks, one of spatial imagery and the other a verbal task. In the first one, with 30 participants, we analyzed the mental load and ocular behaviors in both cognitive tasks.

Mental workload and visual impairment: differences between pupil, blink, and subjective rating.

This research has two aims: (a) To study the concurrent validity of three measures of mental workload, NASA TLX rating scale, pupil dilation and blink rate, testing the hypothesis that they will provide convergent results using a single-task, and dissociative results for dual-task; and (b) To analyse their capability to predict visual search impairment. These three measures were analyzed in the same cognitive tasks in single-task and dual-task (cognitive task and visual search) conditions in a within-subjects experiment with twenty-nine participants. Mental workload measures showed concurrent validity under single-task condition, but a complex pattern of results arose in the dual-task condition: it is suggested that NASA TLX would be a subjective addition of the rating of each task; pupil dilation would measure the average arousal underlying the cognitive tasks; and the blink rate would produce opposite effects: whereas mental workload of cognitive tasks would increase blink rate, visual demand would inhibit it.

Association of leprosy with HLA-DRB1 in an Argentinean population.

Background: Previous studies have suggested an influence of HLA molecules on the regulation of the anti Mycobacterium leprae immune response.

Methods: DNA typing of HLA-DRB1 alleles in 71 leprosy patients and 81 healthy controls was performed. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood and used as a template to amplify the polymorphic second exon of the HLA-DRB1 by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).