Kirkland Cunningham (stoolland08)

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a heterogeneous endocrine disorder, which affects 4-10 % women of reproductive age. Though accumulating scientific evidence, its pathogenesis remains unclear. In the current study, metabolic profiling as well as diagnostic biomarkers for different phenotypes of PCOS was investigated using non-invasive urinary GCMS based metabolomics. A total of 371 subjects were recruited for the study. They constituted the following groups healthy women, those with hyperandrogenism (HA), women with insulin-resistance (IR) in PCOS. Two cross-comparisons with PCOS were performed to characterize metabolic disturbances. A total of 23 differential metabolites were found. The altered metabolic pathways included glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, pentose and glucuronate interconversions, and citrate cycle and butanoate metabolism. For differential diagnosis, a panel consisting of 9 biomarkers was found from the comparison of PCOS from healthy subjects. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was 0.8461 in the discovery phase. check details Predictive value of 89.17 % was found in the validation set. Besides, a panel of 8 biomarkers was discovered from PCOS with HA vs IR. The AUC for 8-biomarker panel was 0.8363, and a panel of clinical markers (homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance and free androgen index) had 0.8327 in AUC. While these metabolites combined with clinical markers reached 0.9065 in AUC from the discovery phase, and 93.18 % in predictive value from the validation set. The result showed that differences of small-molecule metabolites in urine may reflect underlying pathogenesis of PCOS and serve as biomarkers for complementary diagnosis of the different phenotypes of PCOS. OBJECTIVES To provide reference values and examine the influence of hip/groin pain on hip adductor and abductor strength in professional male ice hockey players, by using a straightforward 5-min procedure. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING On-field assessment of hip/groin muscle strength with dynamometry, together with the concomitant level of hip/groin pain with a visual analogue scale. PARTICIPANTS Professional male ice hockey players competing in the Swiss National League (n = 187). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Hip abductor strength, hip adductor strength and hip adductorabductor ratio. RESULTS Reference values by playing position (goalkeepers, defenders and forwards) are provided for asymptomatic athletes. Players with hip/groin pain during adduction displayed lower hip adductor strength (p = 0.001) and hip adductorabductor ratio (p = 0.012) than their symptom-free peers. CONCLUSIONS The presence of hip/groin pain during adductor testing may contribute to selective hip adductor weakness, whose cause-effect relation with possible groin problems remains to be demonstrated. Parenting with mental illness is associated with family conflicts, parenting difficulties, low parental confidence and increased mental health and behavioural problems in children. Family focused interventions improve child outcomes by about 40 %. However, such services are not available in Sri Lanka.A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out in the general adult psychiatry follow-up clinics in a Teaching Hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka to assess the needs of parents with mental illness. A specifically designed interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic details, difficulties with parenting and perceived care needs. A specifically designed data extraction form was used to gather information from the clinic records, about the parents' illness.Our study revealed that 45.1 % of children knew that their parent had a psychiatric disorder. A total of 67.3 % of parents believed that their mental illness had an impact on their parenting of which, 26.8 % thought that this impact was marked. 67.8 % of parents believed that their illness was having an impact