Assessment of Life Quality, Stress and Physical Activity Among Patients with Psoriasis.

INTRODUCTION: Psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory skin disease affecting 2-4% of the general population, which nowadays is even perceived as a systemic illness. The nature of this dermatosis may negatively influence patients' general condition, life expectancy, and quality of life, which highlights the severity of the problem and the need to perform further investigation. We aimed to assess quality of life, stress severity, and physical activity of patients with psoriasis in relation to demographic and clinical data and comparison to the control group without dermatoses. METHODS: A set of surveys was conducted in 56 patients with psoriasis hospitalized at the Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Bialystok. Questionnaires used involved the Dermatology Life Quality Index, WHO Quality of Life questionnaire, International Questionnaire of Physical Activity, and a self-invented stress survey. Obtained data were compared to a sex- and age-matched control group without dermatoses. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism. RESULTS: Patients with psoriasis were found to be significantly less satisfied with their health and had lower scores in WHO social, environmental, and psychological domains, comparing to controls. Patients reported higher stress severity and lower satisfaction with sex life and physical appearance than controls. Patients with psoriasis also tended to perform less intensive physical activity than controls. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the perception of psoriasis as not only affecting skin but also having a multifactorial impact on psychological and internal condition. Described lifestyle abnormalities can be easily evaluated with validated questionnaires, which could be introduced to patients in order to raise their awareness of comorbidities and mobilize them to modify incorrect lifestyle habits. Screening for other disorders and introduction of a holistic approach to every patient could be beneficial because the improvement of patients' life quality is one of the most important issues.

The Assessment of Risk and Predictors of Sleep Disorders in Patients with Psoriasis-A Questionnaire-Based Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease affecting 2-4% of the general population. Accompanying subjective symptoms (pruritus or pain) may cause decreased life quality including sleep disorders (SD). Sixty psoriatic patients fulfilled the following questionnaires: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), STOP BANG for the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) assessment, and Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Severity Scale. Patients' laboratory and clinical data were also investigated. All data obtained were compared to 40 participants without dermatoses. Mean PSQI, risk of OSAS, and RLS severity of psoriatics were significantly higher than in controls (p < 0.0001, p < 0.05, p < 0.05 respectively). There was a positive correlation between the time of suffering from psoriasis and the risk of OSAS (R = 0.286, p < 0.05). We did not observe any significant relationship between PSQI, risk of OSAS, or RLS and psoriasis severity assessed with PASI (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index). We identified four possible predictors of RLS: glucose, CRP and total cholesterol concentrations, and PSQI. SD are significantly more frequent in psoriatics than in people without chronic dermatological diseases but surprisingly they are not correlated with psoriasis severity. SD decrease patients' life quality and may result in serious consequences. Therefore, establishing recommendations concerning screening for SD and their predictors should be considered.

What do you know about sexually transmitted infections? Survey concerning knowledge and risky behaviors among students of Bialystok universities.

INTRODUCTION: Sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) are serious public health problem, being acquired by more than 1 million people every day worldwide. OBJECTIVE: Assess the knowledge, attitudes, risky behaviors and preventive practices related to STIs among medical and non-medical faculties students from Bialystok. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 2018 an original anonymous survey was carried among 168 subjects from medical and 142 from non-medical universities. They filled 37 questions: general and specific regarding STI. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-Square test, statistically significant difference was at p=0.05. RESULTS: In the group 80,6% were females and 19,4% males, with a mean age of 21,9 years. Over 73% were sexually active and almost half of them admitted risky sexual behavior in the past. Almost 16% have ever done an examination for STIs. HIV remains the best known STIs, while hepatitis B was known mainly among medical students. Three fourth students knew that STIs could be asymptomatic. Over half of the students knew that vaccinations against STIs were available and 88,6% of them heard about the HPV vaccine. There was statistically significant difference between the groups regarding the knowledge of diseases transferred sexually, causative agents, history of STI examination, vaccines against STIs. CONCLUSIONS: Almost all participants identified HIV as STIs. Unfortunately, knowledge about other STIs is still at lower level. Both groups have indicated the Internet as a source of knowledge about STIs and the need to acquire additional education about these diseases. To conclude, non-medical students have less awareness about STIs.

Lack of expression of preproorexin and orexin receptors genes in human normal and prostate cancer cell lines.

INTRODUCTION: Studies on expression of orexins (OXs) and their receptors in human prostate gland and human prostatic cell lines are scanty and their results contradictory. Regarding this, we carefully reinvestigated this problem on human prostatic cell lines. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Expression of preproorexin (ppOX) (6 primer pairs), and orexin receptors 1 and 2 (OXR1, OXR2) (4 and 2 primer pairs, respectively) was assessed by conventional PCR and QPCR in human normal (PrEC, PrSc, PrSmC) and prostate carcinoma (Du145, LNCaP, and PC3) cell lines. We designed intron spanning primers and also we applied primers from earlier publications and commercially available ones. RESULTS: With the designed primer pairs, in all studied cell lines we failed to demonstrate expression of ppOX, OXR1 and OXR2 genes at the mRNA level, while reaction products were observed in control tissues (human placenta and adrenals). Primers applied in earlier studies did not form amplification products specific for preproorexin or orexin 1 receptor. Some commercially available primers for orexin receptor 1 produced false positive results. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence for the presence of preproorexin-orexin receptors system genes' mRNAs in human prostate cell lines. The reported premises for these genes' expression in prostate and prostatic cell lines may have arisen either from the presence of non-prostate cells included in the samples or from faulty PCR settings.