Experimental study on physical exercise in diabetes: pathophysiology and therapeutic effects.

Diabetes is a chronic disease. Some complications can be prevented, their effects can be slowed down.  Sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of obesity and consequently the predisposition to diabetes II. The article aimed to demonstrate the positive and negative effects of exercise on active and sedentary diabetics and on pathophysiology, evaluating the effects after 3 and 6 months. The study involved 90 participants, both male and female, with type II diabetes, aged 45, divided into two groups: Group A (n=50, sedentary) and Group B (n=40, active). We evaluated anthropometric parameters, blood chemistry values, which are fundamental for the transversal evaluation of the results. In group A improvements were less noticeable than group B. The most improved parameter is blood sugar, Glycemic values and BMI. Cholesterol and Hb1Ac decreased but more slowly than previous parameters. The expectations of the study were, not only in recognizing the therapeutic and preventive powers of exercise, but above all in choosing to program a motor protocol after a team work between diabetologist, sports doctor and kinesiologist and/ or personal trainer. Physical activity is an additional therapy to insulin.

Influence of the stress level on the execution of the Grooved Pegboard Test.

BACKGROUND: The Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT) is a widely adopted test to evaluate manual dexterity. A factor that could influence the cognitive process is physical and mental stress, which could be controlled by respiration. Stress can be monitored through heart variability. Consequently, the present study's objective was to investigate the association between the breath relaxation technique and the GPT and correlate the findings with stress parameters. METHODS: One hundred fourteen participants were recruited. Stress level test, GPT, and breathing exercise for relaxation were performed. Spearman test was adopted to evaluate the correlation, while the Friedman Test and the Dunn Test and the Mann-Whitney Test were performed to detect statistical differences. RESULTS: Correlation existed between GPT and age (r=-0.02), height (r=0.22), weight (r=0.21), and handgrip (r=0.21). The Friedman and Dunn's post-test resulted in significant differences in group 1 and 2 between GPT baseline vs. GPT rest (P<0.01) and GPT baseline vs. GPT relax in group 1 (P<0.01) and group 2 (P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: A breath relaxation technique does not influence the GPT, and even not significantly, physical stress increases the time to complete the GPT. Instead, high mental stress, stress resistance, and heart frequency decrease the time to complete the GPT.

Sportomics in professional soccer players: metabolomics results during preseason.

BACKGROUND: Sportomics is the application of metabolomics to study the metabolism shifts of individuals that practice sports or do physical exercise. This aim was reached by the analysis of low molecular weight metabolites (<1.5 kDa) present in biological fluids such as blood, saliva or urine. METHODS: In this study, authors performed a 1H-NMR analysis of urine from 21 professional soccer players collected at 3 different time points during the preseason preparation period before the beginning of Serie A Championship (first division) in Italy. RESULTS: Urine profile changed during the observational period. In particular, significant variations were observed for trimethylamine-N-oxide, dimethylamine, hippuric acid, hypoxanthine, guanidoacetic acid, 3-hydroxybutyric acid, citric acid and creatine. These modifications could be related to the diet, training and microbiota. For instance, trimethylamine-N-oxide and hippuric acid are both of dietary origins but are also related to the microbiota, while 3-hydroxy-butyric acid is associated with the type of physical exercise. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first sportomics study ever performed on professional soccer players, according to authors' knowledge. In the future, sportomics could be applied in a tailored way to choose the best diet and training program in the single individual to obtain the best possible performances and to prevent injuries of athletes.

Age- and sex-based reference ranges for non-invasive ventricular repolarisation parameters.

BACKGROUND: Some electrocardiographic parameters are able to assess indirectly ventricular repolarisation homogeneity. It is consequently essential to discriminate between normal and abnormal values in clinical decision-making. Considering there is still not a consensus about normal cut-off values, the aim of this study was to document reference intervals in all age groups of a healthy population, providing for age- and sex-percentile tables, which can be used easily and quickly in clinical practice. METHODS: We evaluated repolarisation markers in 606 sex-matched participants aged 1 day-94 years. Each subject underwent a 12-lead electrocardiogram at rest, and the following parameters were measured: QT, corrected QT, QTpeak, Tpeak-Tend, Tpeak-Tend dispersion, Tpeak-Tend/QT and QTpeak/QT ratio. RESULTS: A relationship was demonstrated between age and QTpeak, Tpeak-Tend, QT and QTc. In children, QTpeak, Tpeak-Tend and QT intervals increased linearly with age. In adolescents, all the three parameters remained stable. In adults, QTpeak and QT showed a further significant increase. On the contrary, Tpeak-Tend interval was longer in adults aged between 20 and 64 years than in participants aged 65 years or over, but the difference was not statistically significant. Male vs female participants showed longer Tpeak-Tend intervals; this sex difference was not statistically significant at birth and during childhood, whereas it was in adolescents and in adults. CONCLUSIONS: Repolarisation parameters showed age- and sex-based variations, which are important to know to differentiate normal from pathological values.

Behavior of repolarization variables during exercise test in the athlete's heart.

BACKGROUND: T peak-T end, QT peak/QT ratio and T peak-T end/QT ratio are markers able to test myocardial repolarization homogeneity, their increase has been related to a higher risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmias. These parameters have not yet been studied in left ventricular hypertrophy due to training. Aim of the research was to test the behavior of these variables in the athlete's heart during exercise. METHODS: We examined 70 athletes, all males, divided into two groups according to the absence or the presence of a left ventricular mass index over 49 g/m(2.7) and a control group composed of 35 healthy, untrained males. All study participants underwent electrocardiogram at rest, transthoracic echocardiogram, and ergometric test. Repolarization markers (QT, corrected QT, QT dispersion, T peak-T end, QT peak/QT, T peak-T end/QT) were calculated at rest, at peak exercise and during recovery. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference among the groups regarding all the parameters studied, except for corrected QT at rest between athletes with left ventricular hypertrophy and control group. The behavior of repolarization markers during exercise was not dissimilar in the three groups. CONCLUSIONS: Athlete's heart is not associated to any alteration in ventricular repolarization homogeneity, neither at rest nor during physical activity nor during recovery. Training-induced left ventricular hypertrophy does not affect relationship QT parameters/RR interval.

Novel electrocardiographic parameters of altered repolarization in uncomplicated overweight and obesity.

In addition to well-known electrocardiographic measurements, as QT, QT dispersion, and QT apex dispersion, new parameters such as Tpeak-Tend, Tpeak-Tend dispersion, and Tpeak-Tend/QT ratio have been recently introduced as indexes of increased arrhythmic risk. The aim of the present study was to test, in overweight and obese subjects not affected by conditions of comorbidity, the aforementioned markers of ventricular repolarization. We studied 60 athletic subjects with normal body weight (21 females and 39 males, BMI between 19 and 24, mean BMI 22.0 ± 2.0 kg/m(2), aged 14-64 years, mean age 32 ± 13.59) and 60 sedentary and overweight/obese subjects (34 overweight and 26 obese, 22 females, and 38 males, BMI between 26 and 55, mean BMI 30.7 ± 5.7 kg/m(2), aged 14-64, mean age 38 ± 14.49). Each subject underwent anthropometric measurements and a 12-lead electrocardiogram, from which the following different parameters were calculated: QT, corrected QT, QT dispersion, QT apex dispersion, Tpeak-Tend, Tpeak-Tend dispersion and Tpeak-Tend/QT ratio were calculated. The aforementioned repolarization markers resulted, respectively: 340.2 ± 25.1, 373.8 ± 25.9, 29 ± 16.2, 23.5 ± 14.6, 87.3 ± 12.8, 26.5 ± 16.8, and 0.22 ± 0.03 ms in control subjects and 362.5 ± 28.5, 397.4 ± 35.4, 34.5 ± 16.8, 30.7 ± 16.3, 90.5 ± 15.2, 27 ± 17.1, and 0.22 ± 0.04 ms in overweight/obese subjects. Neither uncomplicated obesity nor overweight were associated with a statistically significant difference in QT dispersion, QT apex dispersion, Tpeak-Tend, Tpeak-Tend dispersion, and Tpeak-Tend/QT ratio; QT and corrected QT were the only parameters that showed statistically significant variations between normal weight and overweight/obese subjects.