Time- and frequency-domain parameters of heart rate variability and sympathetic skin response in Parkinson's disease.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is regularly affected in Parkinson's disease (PD). Information on autonomic dysfunction can be derived from e.g.

Greater cardiovascular reactivity to a cold stimulus is due to higher cold pain perception in black Africans: the Sympathetic Activity and Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Africans (SABPA) study.

Objective: To evaluate the role of pain perception and pain stimulus components for blood pressure responses to stress in the black and the white African population with hypertension.

Basic Methods: Cardiovascular regulation in response to a cold pressor stimulus was studied in hypertensive black (n = 110) and white (n = 95) Africans. Perception of stressfulness of the task was assessed on a seven-point Likert scale.

Genotoxic effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.

101 publications are exploited which have studied genotoxicity of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) in vivo and in vitro. Of these 49 report a genotoxic effect and 42 do not. In addition, 8 studies failed to detect an influence on the genetic material, but showed that RF-EMF enhanced the genotoxic action of other chemical or physical agents.

Influence of ECG sampling frequency on spectral analysis of RR intervals and baroreflex sensitivity using the EUROBAVAR data set.

To evaluate the impact of different ECG sampling frequencies on parameters of spectral and baroreflex analysis. Spectral and baroreflex analyses were performed in the EUROBAVAR data set (46 recordings of 23 persons) using the original ECG sampling frequency of 500 Hz and - simulated - sampling frequencies of 200 and 100 Hz. For this analysis, the technique of trigonometric regressive spectral (TRS) analysis was used.

Acute autonomic effects of vitamins and fats in male smokers.

Background/objectives: Vitamins can help improve cardiovascular control. In contrast, smoking works in the opposite fashion, reducing the baroreflex control of heart rate (HR) possibly via oxidative stress. High-fat challenges also impair cardiovascular regulation.

Effects of short- and long-term unemployment on physical work capacity and on serum cortisol.

Aim: To investigate whether a decrease in physical working capacity occurs during the first year of unemployment and if this is accompanied by a deterioration in mental health.

Methods: In a longitudinal study, 71 unemployed individuals were investigated for 1, 6 months and 1 year after becoming unemployed. An additional 102 individuals who have been unemployed for more than 1 year were included in the cross-sectional part of the study.

Antagonistic combinations of occupational carcinogens.

Several epidemiological and experimental studies demonstrate that combinations of carcinogens may interact in a synergistic way. This has prompted speculations that modulating interactions of individual chemical carcinogens are synergistic as a rule. However, various combinations of chemical carcinogens have been described which interact not even additively but in an antagonistic way.

Welder's maculopathy?

Objective: The aim of this study was to verify or to disprove whether the term 'Welder's maculopathy' or 'Welding arc maculopathy' has to be considered being a justifiable occupational hazard and is to be annexed to the list of occupational diseases.

Methods: Multifocal electroretinography (MERG) and thorough ophthalmologic examinations were performed in a group of 89 welders. The matched control group comprised 81 subjects who had never been exposed to welding.

Sympathetic and parasympathetic activation in heart rate variability in male hypertensive patients under mental stress.

Disturbed sympathetic and also parasympathetic activity of the autonomic nervous system points to pathological alterations in the cardiovascular system. Untreated hypertensive subjects were examined with respect to the question of whether an increase in sympathetic activity necessarily goes along with a reduction in parasympathetic activity, and whether 'delayed' recovery behaviour after mental stress could be an indicator of a disturbed cardiovascular function. In 20 male hypertensive (HT) and 20 normotensive (NT) subjects (control group), heart rate variability (HRV) was compared during rest and under mental stress.

Electrophysiologic effects and efficacy of intravenous propafenone in terminating atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia in children.

In pediatric patients with atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia, intravenous propafenone exhibits its electrophysiologic effects in a dose-dependent manner by slowing or blocking retrograde conduction at the accessory connection. The high drug efficacy (81%) in terminating tachycardia is not dependent on patient age or retrograde conduction properties of the accessory connection.

High-level, but not low-level, occupational exposure to inhaled anesthetics is associated with genotoxicity in the micronucleus assay.

Unlabelled: To minimize the possible health risks posed by waste anesthetic gases, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends exposure limits. We investigated the genotoxicity of a previously established occupational exposure exceeding these limits (high-level exposure) and of one within these limits (low-level exposure). Genotoxicity was assessed by the formation of micronucleated lymphocytes in 25 anesthetists and anesthetic nurses of an Eastern European (High-Level Exposure Group) and a German (Low-Level Exposure Group) university hospital.

Increased blood cobalt and chromium after total hip replacement.

Objective: To determine metal concentrations in blood and urine of patients who received cobalt-chromium-alloy metal on metal hip implants.

Methods: Cobalt and chromium were determined in blood and urine of 76 patients and 26 controls by electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy.

Results: A significant postoperative elevation of the metal concentrations was observed for total hip replacement patients in contrast to the control group.

Variations of p53 in cultured fibroblasts of patients with lung cancer who have a presumed genetic predisposition.

The authors studied cultured skin fibroblasts of 64 patients with lung cancer for constitutive mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gene by using polymerase chain reaction and single-strand conformation polymorphism covering the entire coding region. The patients were considered to be genetically predisposed because lung cancer had developed in 25 of them before age 46 and because 42 of them had at least one first-degree relative with lung cancer. One mutation was detected at position 235 coding for serine instead of asparagine in the conserved DNA binding domain.