Effect of Nature-Based Sound Therapy on Stress and Physiological Parameters in Patients with Myocardial Infarction.

Background: Non-pharmacological interventions in clinical practice, such as Nature-Based Sounds (N-BS), can be an efficient way to reduce stress in patients with Myocardial Infarction (MI). This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of N-BS on stress and physiological parameters in patients with MI. Materials and Methods: This double-blind, randomized clinical trial was conducted on 80 patients with MI from two selected hospitals. Using headphones, the subjects in the intervention group listened to 30 minutes of N-BS twice a day for 3 days. The control group, on the other hand, wore headphones playing no sound. The data were collected using the Persian version of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The repeated measure analysis showed that the within group effect is statistically significant for Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) (F = 113.32, p < 0.001), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) (F = 67.22, p < 0.001), Heart Rate (HR) (F = 28.52, p < 0.001), respiration rate (F = 36.41, p < 0.001), and stress (F = 102.82, p < 0.001). The reciprocal effect was statistically significant for SBP (F = 11.76, p < 0.001) and stress (F = 5.31, p < 0.001). Conclusions: N-BS can provide an effective, inexpensive, and non-invasive method of reducing stress in patients with MI. Nurses can incorporate N-BS intervention into the daily care of patients with MI in order to reduce their stress and lower their SBP and HR.

Association between Endothelial nitric oxide synthase and Hepatic lipase gene polymorphisms with the risk of coronary artery disease in Southern Iran population - A case control study.

Coronary artery disease is a multifactorial genetic disease caused by the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Angiography is the gold standard method for the diagnosis and determining the stage of cardiac disorder. The rs1800588 at the Hepatic Lipase gene and rs1799983 at the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene are two candidate SNP that result in increased risk of this disease. The aim of this study was to find out the associations of the two mentioned polymorphisms with angiographically proven coronary artery patients in a southern Iranian population. In this study, this two polymorphisms in 287 patients and 229 matched controls were confirmed by angiography and analyzed. Genotype analysis was carried out by PCR and RFLP. Data showed that a significant difference for the eNOS gene polymorphism (p = 0.004) and a non-significant difference for the Hepatic lipase polymorphism (p = 0.261) and increasing severity of angiographic evidences of coronary artery disease were observed. Conclusively the significant association of the G894T with the narrowing of two or three coronary vessels of this patients in an Iranian population have been detected.

Increased Expression Level of Long Noncoding RNA H19 in Plasma of Patients with Myocardial Infarction.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are lengthy noncoding transcripts which are actively involved in crucial cellular pathways. Tissue-specific expression of lncRNAs besides its secretion into the body fluids, has made lncRNAs in attention as biomarkers of the diseases. According to the role of lncRNAs, especially H19 in cardiac regeneration, it is not surprising if their altered expression levels lead to cardiac diseases. In the present study, the relative expression of H19 was compared in the plasma of atherosclerotic myocardial infarction and control individuals by real time-PCR, and data were normalized using GAPDH. The association of plasma level of lipid and homocystine with H19 expression was also considered. The potential of H19 to discriminate the case from control was studied using the ROC analysis. We found that the plasma level of H19 transcript significantly increased in the plasma of patients in comparison with the control group. Additionally, the relative expression level of H19 was directly associated with the plasma homocystine level. The relative expression of H19 at threshold of 0.3 showed 70% sensitivity and 94% specificity to discriminate cases from controls. This study revealed that the expression level of H19 may be considered as a biomarker of myocardial infarction, although further studies are needed to generalize this finding.

Relationship between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein serum levels and the severity of coronary artery stenosis in patients with coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) inflammatory biomarker is one of the best informative markers of prognosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) that has been studied. Some studies have found that hs-CRP has a direct correlation with CAD. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between serum levels of hs-CRP and the severity of coronary artery stenosis in patients with stable and unstable angina. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 150 patients undergoing coronary angiography in Golestan Hospital Ahvaz, Iran in 2012, were studied in three groups of stable angina (n = 50), unstable angina (n = 50), and normal coronary angiography (n = 50). Hs-CRP levels were measured in patients before angiography by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method, were compared between the three groups and its correlation with the degree of stenosis was evaluated. RESULTS: The mean levels of hs-CRP in the stable angina group, unstable angina group and the group with normal coronary angiography were 2.46 ± 1.79, 4.84 ± 3.38, and 2.95 ± 2.57 mg/L, respectively. The results show that the mean levels of hs-CRP in patients with unstable angina was significantly higher compared to patients with stable angina (P < 0.050) and patients with normal coronary angiography (P < 0.001). However, a statistical difference between the mean CRP levels in patients with stable angina and patients with normal angiography results was not seen (P > 0.050). A significant relationship between arterial stenosis points and hs-CRP levels in patients with stable angina was not seen (P = 0.985). CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that it seems hs-CRP level in patients with unstable angina were significantly higher than those in patients with stable angina and patients with normal coronary angiography. It also appears that the level of hs-CRP in patients with unstable angina is associated with the severity of coronary stenosis. Given the finding of consistent results, the use of hs-CRP as a prognostic factor in these patients may be useful.