Heavy metals, which are persistent in the environment and toxic, can accumulate in the body and cause organ damage, which may further negatively affect perinatal women and their fetuses. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary interventions to reduce heavy metal exposure in antepartum and postpartum women. Methods: We searched five databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) for randomized controlled trials that provided dietary interventions for antepartum and postpartum women. Quality assessments were conducted independently by two reviewers using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool, a quality assessment tool for randomized controlled trials. Results: A total of seven studies were included. The studies were conducted in six countries, with interventions categorized into “nutritional supplements,” “food supply,” and “educational” strategies. Interventions involving nutritional supplements, such as calcium and probiotics, primarily reduced heavy metal levels in the blood and minimized toxicity. Food-based interventions, including specific fruit consumption, decreased heavy metal concentrations in breast milk. Educational interventions effectively promoted behavioral changes, such as adopting diets low in mercury. The studies demonstrated a low overall risk of bias, supporting the reliability of the findings. These strategies underscore the effectiveness of dietary approaches in mitigating heavy metal exposure and improving maternal and child health. Conclusion: The main findings underscore the importance of dietary interventions in reducing heavy metal exposure. This emphasizes the critical role of nursing in guiding dietary strategies to minimize exposure risks, ultimately supporting maternal and fetal health during pregnancy.

Heavy metals, which are persistent in the environment and toxic, can accumulate in the body and cause organ damage, which may further negatively affect perinatal women and their fetuses. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary interventions to reduce heavy metal exposure in antepartum and postpartum women. Methods: We searched five databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) for randomized controlled trials that provided dietary interventions for antepartum and postpartum women. Quality assessments were conducted independently by two reviewers using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool, a quality assessment tool for randomized controlled trials. Results: A total of seven studies were included. The studies were conducted in six countries, with interventions categorized into “nutritional supplements,” “food supply,” and “educational” strategies. Interventions involving nutritional supplements, such as calcium and probiotics, primarily reduced heavy metal levels in the blood and minimized toxicity. Food-based interventions, including specific fruit consumption, decreased heavy metal concentrations in breast milk. Educational interventions effectively promoted behavioral changes, such as adopting diets low in mercury. The studies demonstrated a low overall risk of bias, supporting the reliability of the findings. These strategies underscore the effectiveness of dietary approaches in mitigating heavy metal exposure and improving maternal and child health. Conclusion: The main findings underscore the importance of dietary interventions in reducing heavy metal exposure. This emphasizes the critical role of nursing in guiding dietary strategies to minimize exposure risks, ultimately supporting maternal and fetal health during pregnancy.

Heavy metals, which are persistent in the environment and toxic, can accumulate in the body and cause organ damage, which may further negatively affect perinatal women and their fetuses. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary interventions to reduce heavy metal exposure in antepartum and postpartum women. Methods: We searched five databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) for randomized controlled trials that provided dietary interventions for antepartum and postpartum women. Quality assessments were conducted independently by two reviewers using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool, a quality assessment tool for randomized controlled trials. Results: A total of seven studies were included. The studies were conducted in six countries, with interventions categorized into “nutritional supplements,” “food supply,” and “educational” strategies. Interventions involving nutritional supplements, such as calcium and probiotics, primarily reduced heavy metal levels in the blood and minimized toxicity. Food-based interventions, including specific fruit consumption, decreased heavy metal concentrations in breast milk. Educational interventions effectively promoted behavioral changes, such as adopting diets low in mercury. The studies demonstrated a low overall risk of bias, supporting the reliability of the findings. These strategies underscore the effectiveness of dietary approaches in mitigating heavy metal exposure and improving maternal and child health. Conclusion: The main findings underscore the importance of dietary interventions in reducing heavy metal exposure. This emphasizes the critical role of nursing in guiding dietary strategies to minimize exposure risks, ultimately supporting maternal and fetal health during pregnancy.

Heavy metals, which are persistent in the environment and toxic, can accumulate in the body and cause organ damage, which may further negatively affect perinatal women and their fetuses. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary interventions to reduce heavy metal exposure in antepartum and postpartum women. Methods: We searched five databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) for randomized controlled trials that provided dietary interventions for antepartum and postpartum women. Quality assessments were conducted independently by two reviewers using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool, a quality assessment tool for randomized controlled trials. Results: A total of seven studies were included. The studies were conducted in six countries, with interventions categorized into “nutritional supplements,” “food supply,” and “educational” strategies. Interventions involving nutritional supplements, such as calcium and probiotics, primarily reduced heavy metal levels in the blood and minimized toxicity. Food-based interventions, including specific fruit consumption, decreased heavy metal concentrations in breast milk. Educational interventions effectively promoted behavioral changes, such as adopting diets low in mercury. The studies demonstrated a low overall risk of bias, supporting the reliability of the findings. These strategies underscore the effectiveness of dietary approaches in mitigating heavy metal exposure and improving maternal and child health. Conclusion: The main findings underscore the importance of dietary interventions in reducing heavy metal exposure. This emphasizes the critical role of nursing in guiding dietary strategies to minimize exposure risks, ultimately supporting maternal and fetal health during pregnancy.

Heavy metals, which are persistent in the environment and toxic, can accumulate in the body and cause organ damage, which may further negatively affect perinatal women and their fetuses. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary interventions to reduce heavy metal exposure in antepartum and postpartum women. Methods: We searched five databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) for randomized controlled trials that provided dietary interventions for antepartum and postpartum women. Quality assessments were conducted independently by two reviewers using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool, a quality assessment tool for randomized controlled trials. Results: A total of seven studies were included. The studies were conducted in six countries, with interventions categorized into “nutritional supplements,” “food supply,” and “educational” strategies. Interventions involving nutritional supplements, such as calcium and probiotics, primarily reduced heavy metal levels in the blood and minimized toxicity. Food-based interventions, including specific fruit consumption, decreased heavy metal concentrations in breast milk. Educational interventions effectively promoted behavioral changes, such as adopting diets low in mercury. The studies demonstrated a low overall risk of bias, supporting the reliability of the findings. These strategies underscore the effectiveness of dietary approaches in mitigating heavy metal exposure and improving maternal and child health. Conclusion: The main findings underscore the importance of dietary interventions in reducing heavy metal exposure. This emphasizes the critical role of nursing in guiding dietary strategies to minimize exposure risks, ultimately supporting maternal and fetal health during pregnancy.

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia are major components of Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, we aimed at investigating the prevalence and severity of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in very mild to mild Alzheimer’s disease. Forty-four patients with Alzheimer’s disease who visited the neurology outpatient clinic of Seoul Medical Center were included. A trained neurologist or a supervised test technician administered the neuropsychological test, the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery including Mini Mental State Examination and Clinical Dementia Rating. The instrument used for assessing behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia was Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire. In order of prevalence, apathy, depression, irritability, anxiety, and agitation were the most common symptoms occurring in very mild-to-mild Alzheimer’s disease group. The prevalence and severity of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia were found to be in positive correlation with the Clinical Dementia Rating scores. Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia are found even in the very early stage of Alzheimer’s disease, apathy and depression being the most common symptoms. Physicians should be aware of this when managing dementia patients.

OBJECTIVE: Panic disorder has been suggested to be divided into the respiratory and non-respiratory subtypes in terms of its clinical presentations. The present study aimed to investigate whether there are any differences in treatment response and clinical characteristics between the respiratory and non-respiratory subtypes of panic disorder patients. METHODS: Among the 48 patients those who completed the study, 25 panic disorder patients were classified as the respiratory subtype, whereas 23 panic disorder patients were classified as the non-respiratory subtype. All patients were treated with escitalopram or paroxetine for 12 weeks. We measured clinical and psychological characteristics before and after pharmacotherapy using the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS), Albany Panic and Phobic Questionnaire (APPQ), Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised (ASI-R), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T, STAI-S), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). RESULTS: The prevalence of the agoraphobia was significantly higher in the respiratory group than the non-respiratory group although there were no differences in gender and medication between the two groups. The respiratory group showed higher scores on the fear of respiratory symptoms of the ASI-R. In addition, after pharmacotherapy, the respiratory group showed more improvement in panic symptoms than the non-respiratory group. CONCLUSION: Panic disorder patients with the respiratory subtype showed more severe clinical presentations, but a greater treatment response to SSRIs than those with non-respiratory subtype. Thus, classification of panic disorder patients as respiratory and non-respiratory subtypes may be useful to predict clinical course and treatment response to SSRIs.
Agoraphobia ; Anxiety ; Citalopram ; Classification ; Depression ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Panic ; Panic Disorder* ; Paroxetine ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors ; Treatment Outcome

No abstract available.
Aged ; Alcohol-Induced Disorders, Nervous System/etiology/*pathology ; Alcoholism/complications/*pathology ; Cerebellum/*pathology ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/*methods ; Male ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spinocerebellar Degenerations/*etiology/*pathology

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Given that only a few studies have focused on the bimodal benefits on objective and subjective outcomes and emphasized the importance of individual data, the present study aimed to measure the bimodal benefits on the objective and subjective outcomes for adults with cochlear implant. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Fourteen listeners with bimodal devices were tested on the localization and recognition abilities using environmental sounds, 1-talker, and 2-talker speech materials. The localization ability was measured through an 8-loudspeaker array. For the recognition measures, listeners were asked to repeat the sentences or say the environmental sounds the listeners heard. As a subjective questionnaire, three domains of Korean-version of Speech, Spatial, Qualities of Hearing scale (K-SSQ) were used to explore any relationships between objective and subjective outcomes. RESULTS: Based on the group-mean data, the bimodal hearing enhanced both localization and recognition regardless of test material. However, the inter- and intra-subject variability appeared to be large across test materials for both localization and recognition abilities. Correlation analyses revealed that the relationships were not always consistent between the objective outcomes and the subjective self-reports with bimodal devices. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study supports significant bimodal advantages on localization and recognition measures, yet the large individual variability in bimodal benefits should be considered carefully for the clinical assessment as well as counseling. The discrepant relations between objective and subjective results suggest that the bimodal benefits in traditional localization or recognition measures might not necessarily correspond to the self-reported subjective advantages in everyday listening environments.
Adult ; Cochlear Implants ; Counseling ; Hearing ; Hearing Aids ; Humans

Background: and Purpose: Ventricle enlargement has been implicated in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We studied the relationship between ventricular size and cognitive function in patients with AD. We focused on the effect of the initial ventricle size on the rate of cognitive decline in patients with AD. Methods: A retrospective analysis of probable clinical AD participants with more than 2 magnetic resonance imaging images was performed. To measure ventricle size, we used visual rating scales of (1) Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) score and (2) conventional linear measurement method. Results: Increased clinical dementia rating (CDR) was correlated with a decreased MiniMental Status Examination (MMSE) score, and increased medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTLA) and global ventricle size (p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.021, respectively). There was a significant correlation between the change in cognitive function in the group (70%–100%ile) with a large initial ventricle size (p=0.021 for ΔCDR, p=0.01 for ΔMMSE), while the median ventricle size (30%–70%ile) showed correlation with other brain structural changes (MTLA, frontal atrophy [FA], and white matter) (p=0.036 for initial MTLA, p=0.034 for FA). Conclusions In this study, the initial ventricle size may be a potential new imaging biomarker for initial cognitive function and clinical progression in AD. We found a relationship between the initial ventricle size and initial AD-related brain structural biomarkers.