Disturbed stress responses in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

BACKGROUND: We analyzed the neuroendocrine and immune cell responses to psychosocial stress in PCOS patients compared to BMI-matched healthy controls. METHODS: Responses to public speaking stress were analyzed in 32 PCOS patients and 32 BMI-matched healthy controls. At baseline, during, and 10- and 45-min after stress, state anxiety, cardiovascular responses, cortisol, ACTH, as well as circulating leukocyte subpopulations were analyzed, together with hsCRP and serum IL-6 concentrations. RESULTS: In response to public speaking stress, both groups showed significant but comparable increases in state anxiety, and blood pressure (all p<0.001; time effects). The ACTH and cortisol stress responses were significantly enhanced in PCOS (both p<0.05; interaction effect). In addition, heart rate was significantly higher in PCOS (p<0.05; group effect). PCOS patients displayed a reduced upregulation of IL-6 levels in response to stress (p<0.05; interaction effect). Baseline levels of circulating leukocyte subpopulations, IL-6 and hsCRP concentrations did not differ between BMI-matched controls and PCOS patients. PCOS patients were characterized by markedly increased psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: PCOS patients showed enhanced HPA-axis and heart rate reactivity as well as a reduced upregulation of IL-6 in response to stress. The altered stress reactivity in PCOS patients may constitute a link between depression, overweight, and the cardiovascular and diabetes risks associated with the diagnosis.

Multidimensional analysis of speech of hearing impaired children.

The character of speech of hearing impaired children was evaluated via multidimensional protocol in order to provide sensitive and quantitative measures of assessment. 20 children (9 males and 11 females) with moderate to severe hearing impairment, were studied. The protocol of assessment included auditory perceptual assessment (APA) (documented by high fidelity audiorecording), audiological assessment, formal testings, aerodynamic assessment and acoustic analysis. APA showed addected vowels (90%), affected suprasegmental phonology; rate (60%), stress (80%), tonality (85%); decreased resonance (15%); affected voice (45%) and affected intelligibility (85%). Aerodynamic results showed highly significant increase in the subglottic pressure, highly significant decrease in glottal resistance and glottal efficiency, indicating a possible breakdown in respiratory, phonatory and articulatory coordination. Spectrographic results showed significant increase in the syllable duration; vowel duration and sentence duration. Visi-Pitch results showed highly significant increase in the intensity, significant decrease in the maximum fundamental frequency (Fo) and highly significant decrease in the percent pause. The accoustic findings may represent a quantitative correlate to some of the subjective observations of APA.