Surgery for Obesity and Weight-Related Diseases Changes the Inflammatory Profile in Women with Severe Obesity: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.

INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: Obesity increases significantly every year worldwide. Since 1980, the prevalence of individuals with obesity has practically doubled. Obesity plays an important role in the pathophysiology of diseases that arise from a complex interaction of nutritional, genetic, and metabolic factors, characterizing a chronic inflammatory state. This study aimed to verify the systemic inflammatory response through the analysis of IGF-1, IL-23, and resistin levels and the lipid profile in severely obese women undergoing surgery for obesity and weight-related diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This randomized controlled clinical trial includes female patients clinically diagnosed with severe obesity with an indication for bariatric surgery. RESULTS: In the initial evaluation, no significant difference was observed between the control (CG) and bariatric surgery (BSG) groups. The weight, BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, total non-HDL cholesterol, and glucose in BSG patients showed a significant change after surgery. Pre- and post-surgery levels of resistin, IGF-1, and IL-23 showed a significant difference in the BSG group, but only IL-23 was changed after 6 months in the CG. CONCLUSION: The results of this study confirmed that weight loss induced by surgery for obesity and weight-related diseases improved the lipid profile and reduced the chronic inflammatory status in women with severe obesity.

Adjunctive inspiratory muscle training for patients with COVID-19 (COVIDIMT): protocol for randomised controlled double-blind trial.

INTRODUCTION: A significant number of patients with COVID-19 may experience dyspnoea, anxiety, depression, pain, fatigue and physical impairment symptoms, raising the need for a multidisciplinary rehabilitation approach, especially for those with advanced age, obesity, comorbidities and organ failure. Traditional pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), including exercise training, psychosocial counselling and education, has been employed to improve pulmonary function, exercise capacity and quality of life in patients with COVID-19. However, the effects of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in PR programmes remain unclear. This study aimed to determine whether the addition of a supervised IMT in a PR is more effective than PR itself in improving dyspnoea, health-related quality of life and exercise capacity in symptomatic patients with post-COVID-19. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This parallel-group, assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial, powered for superiority, aimed to assess exercise capacity as the primary outcome. A total of 138 are being recruited at two PR centres in Brazil. Following baseline testing, participants will be randomised using concealed allocation, to receive either (1) standard PR with sham IMT or (2) standard PR added to IMT. Treatment effects or differences between the outcomes (at baseline, after 8 and 16 weeks, and after 6 months) of the study groups will be analysed using an ordinary two-way analysis of variance. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This trial was approved by the Brazilian National Ethics Committee and obtained approval on 7 October 2020 (document number 4324069). The findings will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04595097.

Avaliação das funções visuais e sua relação com a visão funcional e quedas em idosos ativos da comunidade / Evaluation of visual functions and their relationship to functional vision and falls in active elderly of the community

Resumo Objetivo: Avaliar as funções visuais dos idosos e a relação com a visão funcional e quedas. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo de caráter transversal, realizado no município de Anápolis-GO com 46 idosos de idade ≥ a 60 anos, que cumpriram com todos os requisitos de inclusão. Estes foram avaliados quanto a visão funcional, funções visuais, funcionalidade global e autorrelato de quedas. Foi realizada análise estatística para verificar a correlação entre caidores e não caidores com as funções visuais e a visão funcional. Resultados: Houve uma correlação estatisticamente significativa entre o autorrelato de quedas e a estereopsia em idosos (p=0,05). Do mesmo modo, foi encontrado uma relação entre a visão funcional e a acuidade visual (p=0,023). O medo de novas quedas afetou a grande maioria dos idosos. Todavia, não houve correlação entre o autorrelato da visão e as quedas. Conclusão: Os resultados encontrados evidenciam que há correlação entre a estereopsia e a incidência de quedas, sugerindo que a visão de profundidade pode estar diretamente relacionada ao risco de quedas. Houve também, correlação entre a visão funcional e a acuidade visual, sugerindo que a capacidade do olho em distinguir detalhes, contornos e formas pode influenciar na qualidade das atividades que envolvem a visão.

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the visual functions of the elderly and the relationship with functional vision and falls. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in the municipality of Anápolis-GO with 46 elderly aged ≥ 60 years, who met all inclusion requirements. These were evaluated for functional vision, visual functions, overall functionality and self-reported falls. Statistical analysis was performed to verify the correlation between fallers and nonfallers with visual functions and functional vision. Results: There was a statistically significant correlation between self-reported falls and stereopsis in the elderly (p=0.05). Similarly, a relationship was found between functional vision and visual acuity (p=0.023). Fear of further falls affected the vast majority of the elderly. However, there was no correlation between self-reported vision and falls. Conclusion: The results show that there is a correlation between stereopsis and the incidence of falls, suggesting that deep vision may be directly related to the risk of falls. There was also a correlation between functional vision and visual acuity, suggesting that the ability of the eye to distinguish details, contours and shapes may influence the quality of activities involving vision.