Spiritual Well-Being and Death Anxiety: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Iranian Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients experience a tremendous psychological burden, typically in the form of death worry due to acute medical conditions and the possibility of mortality. The unfavourable conditions of ACS patients cause them to reconsider the meaning of life and their spiritual well-being. This study evaluated the association between death anxiety and spiritual well-being in a total of 241 ACS patients in Shahroud, northeast of Iran. The data were collected using the Templer Death Anxiety Scale, and the Spiritual Well-being Scale by convenience sampling method. All patients indicated a high degree of death anxiety, and roughly half reported a moderate level of spiritual well-being. There was a significant and direct correlation between death anxiety and spiritual well-being levels. Older age, single status, and non-smoking were other predictors of good spiritual well-being. A multidisciplinary health team should identify and implement approaches to promote spiritual well-being and reduce mental suffering.

Hyperspectral Imaging Using Intracellular Spies: Quantitative Real-Time Measurement of Intracellular Parameters In Vivo during Interaction of the Pathogenic Fungus Aspergillus fumigatus with Human Monocytes.

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a technique based on the combination of classical spectroscopy and conventional digital image processing. It is also well suited for the biological assays and quantitative real-time analysis since it provides spectral and spatial data of samples. The method grants detailed information about a sample by recording the entire spectrum in each pixel of the whole image. We applied HSI to quantify the constituent pH variation in a single infected apoptotic monocyte as a model system. Previously, we showed that the human-pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus conidia interfere with the acidification of phagolysosomes. Here, we extended this finding to monocytes and gained a more detailed analysis of this process. Our data indicate that melanised A. fumigatus conidia have the ability to interfere with apoptosis in human monocytes as they enable the apoptotic cell to recover from mitochondrial acidification and to continue with the cell cycle. We also showed that this ability of A. fumigatus is dependent on the presence of melanin, since a non-pigmented mutant did not stop the progression of apoptosis and consequently, the cell did not recover from the acidic pH. By conducting the current research based on the HSI, we could measure the intracellular pH in an apoptotic infected human monocyte and show the pattern of pH variation during 35 h of measurements. As a conclusion, we showed the importance of melanin for determining the fate of intracellular pH in a single apoptotic cell.