Tourism Climate Index in Batumi

ნაშრომში მოცემულია ბათუმისათვის ტურიზმის კლიმატური პოტენციალის შეფასება სხვადასხვა ქვეყანაში ხშირად ხმარებული “ტურიზმის კლიმატური ინდექსის” შესაბამისად

Tourism Climate Index in Tbilisi

ნაშრომში მოცემულია თბილისისათვის ტურიზმის კლიმატური პოტენციალის შეფასება სხვადასხვა ქვეყანაში ხშირად ხმარებული “ტურიზმის კლიმატური ინდექსის” შესაბამისად.

Duke Activity Status Index em Doenças Cardiovasculares: Validação de Tradução em Português

Fundamentos: O Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) avalia a capacidade funcional de pacientes com doença cardiovascular (DCV), mas não há versão validada em português para doenças cardiovasculares. Objetivos: Traduzir e adaptar culturalmente o DASI para o idioma português do Brasil, e verificar suas propriedades psicométricas na avaliação da capacidade funcional de pacientes com doenças cardiovasculares. Métodos: O DASI foi traduzido para o português, verificado pela retrotradução para o inglês e avaliado por um comitê de especialistas. A versão pré-teste foi avaliada pela primeira vez em 30 indivíduos. As propriedades psicométricas e a correlação com o teste de esforço foram verificadas em um segundo grupo de 67 indivíduos. Uma análise fatorial exploratória foi realizada em todos os 97 pacientes para verificar a validade de construto do DASI. Resultados: O coeficiente de correlação intraclasse para a confiabilidade teste-reteste foi de 0,87 e para a confiabilidade entre avaliadores foi de 0,84. O alfa de Cronbach para consistência interna foi de 0,93. A validade concorrente foi verificada por correlações positivas significativas de pontuações do DASI com o VO2 max (r = 0,51, p < 0,001). A análise fatorial mostrou dois fatores que explicaram 54% da variância total, com o fator 1 responsável por 40 % da variância. A aplicação do DASI requer entre um e três minutos e meio por paciente. Conclusão: A versão brasileira do DASI parece ser um instrumento válido, confiável, rápido e fácil de administrar para avaliar a capacidade funcional em pacientes com doenças cardiovasculares.

Left Atrial Volume Index and Prediction of Events in Acute Coronary Syndrome: Solar Registry

Background: According to some international studies, patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and increased left atrial volume index (LAVI) have worse long-term prognosis. However, national Brazilian studies confirming this prediction are still lacking. Objective: To evaluate LAVI as a predictor of major cardiovascular events (MCE) in patients with ACS during a 365-day follow-up. Methods: Prospective cohort of 171 patients diagnosed with ACS whose LAVI was calculated within 48 hours after hospital admission. According to LAVI, two groups were categorized: normal LAVI (≤ 32 mL/m2) and increased LAVI (> 32 mL/m2). Both groups were compared regarding clinical and echocardiographic characteristics, in- and out-of-hospital outcomes, and occurrence of ECM in up to 365 days. Results: Increased LAVI was observed in 78 patients (45%), and was associated with older age, higher body mass index, hypertension, history of myocardial infarction and previous angioplasty, and lower creatinine clearance and ejection fraction. During hospitalization, acute pulmonary edema was more frequent in patients with increased LAVI (14.1% vs. 4.3%, p = 0.024). After discharge, the occurrence of combined outcome for MCE was higher (p = 0.001) in the group with increased LAVI (26%) as compared to the normal LAVI group (7%) [RR (95% CI) = 3.46 (1.54-7.73) vs. 0.80 (0.69-0.92)]. After Cox regression, increased LAVI increased the probability of MCE (HR = 3.08, 95% CI = 1.28-7.40, p = 0.012). Conclusion: Increased LAVI is an important predictor of MCE in a one-year follow-up.

An Equation for the Prediction of Oxygen Consumption in a Brazilian Population

Background: The equations predicting maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max or peak) presently in use in cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) softwares in Brazil have not been adequately validated. These equations are very important for the diagnostic capacity of this method. Objective: Build and validate a Brazilian Equation (BE) for prediction of VO2peak in comparison to the equation cited by Jones (JE) and the Wasserman algorithm (WA). Methods: Treadmill evaluation was performed on 3119 individuals with CPET (breath by breath). The construction group (CG) of the equation consisted of 2495 healthy participants. The other 624 individuals were allocated to the external validation group (EVG). At the BE (derived from a multivariate regression model), age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity level were considered. The same equation was also tested in the EVG. Dispersion graphs and Bland-Altman analyses were built. Results: In the CG, the mean age was 42.6 years, 51.5% were male, the average BMI was 27.2, and the physical activity distribution level was: 51.3% sedentary, 44.4% active and 4.3% athletes. An optimal correlation between the BE and the CPET measured VO2peak was observed (0.807). On the other hand, difference came up between the average VO2peak expected by the JE and WA and the CPET measured VO2peak, as well as the one gotten from the BE (p = 0.001). Conclusion: BE presents VO2peak values close to those directly measured by CPET, while Jones and Wasserman differ significantly from the real VO2peak.

Screening for Fabry Disease in Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: Documentation of a Novel Mutation

AbstractBackground:Fabry disease is a lysosomal storage disease caused by enzyme α-galactosidase A deficiency as a result of mutations in the GLA gene. Cardiac involvement is characterized by progressive left ventricular hypertrophy.Objective:To estimate the prevalence of Fabry disease in a population with left ventricular hypertrophy.Methods:The patients were assessed for the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy defined as a left ventricular mass index ≥ 96 g/m2 for women or ≥ 116 g/m2 for men. Severe aortic stenosis and arterial hypertension with mild left ventricular hypertrophy were exclusion criteria. All patients included were assessed for enzyme α-galactosidase A activity using dry spot testing. Genetic study was performed whenever the enzyme activity was decreased.Results:A total of 47 patients with a mean left ventricular mass index of 141.1 g/m2 (± 28.5; 99.2 to 228.5 g/m2] were included. Most of the patients were females (51.1%). Nine (19.1%) showed decreased α-galactosidase A activity, but only one positive genetic test − [GLA] c.785G>T; p.W262L (exon 5), a mutation not previously described in the literature. This clinical investigation was able to establish the association between the mutation and the clinical presentation.Conclusion:In a population of patients with left ventricular hypertrophy, we documented a Fabry disease prevalence of 2.1%. This novel case was defined in the sequence of a mutation of unknown meaning in the GLA gene with further pathogenicity study. Thus, this study permitted the definition of a novel causal mutation for Fabry disease - [GLA] c.785G>T; p.W262L (exon 5).

Soluble ST2 Testing: A Promising Biomarker in the Management of Heart Failure

Abstract ST2 is a member of the interleukin-1 receptor family biomarker and circulating soluble ST2 concentrations are believed to reflect cardiovascular stress and fibrosis. Recent studies have demonstrated soluble ST2 to be a strong predictor of cardiovascular outcomes in both chronic and acute heart failure. It is a new biomarker that meets all required criteria for a useful biomarker. Of note, it adds information to natriuretic peptides (NPs) and some studies have shown it is even superior in terms of risk stratification. Since the introduction of NPs, this has been the most promising biomarker in the field of heart failure and might be particularly useful as therapy guide.

AvBandTest – a Testing Tool for Implementations of Available Band width Estimation Algorithms

This work describes a test tool that allows to make performance tests of different end-to-end available bandwidth estimation algorithms along with their different implementations. The goal of such tests is to find the best-performing algorithm and its implementation and use it in congestion control mechanism for high-performance reliable transport protocols. The main idea of this paper is to describe the options which provide available bandwidth estimation mechanism for highspeed data transport protocols and to develop basic functionality of such test tool with which it will be possible to manage entities of test application on all involved testing hosts, aided by some middleware.

Best-Practice - Mobile Testing Viewing mobile usability studies with the example of an eyetracking study in the retail sector

Today, usability testing in the development of software and systems is essential. A stationary usability lab offers many different possibilities in the evaluation of usability, but it reaches its limits in terms of flexibility and the experimental conditions. Mobile usability studies consider consciously outside influences, and these studies require a specially adapted approach to preparation, implementation and evaluation. Using the example of a mobile eye tracking study the difficulties and the opportunities of mobile testing are considered.