University of Ioannina

About: University of Ioannina is a education organization based out in Ioannina, Greece. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 7654 authors who have published 20594 publications receiving 671560 citations. The organization is also known as: Panepistimio Ioanninon.

The Role of Catastrophizing in the Prediction of Postoperative Pain

Abstract: Objective. Catastrophizing has been broadly conceived as an exaggerated negative “mental set” brought to bear during actual or anticipated pain experience and has risen to the status of one of the most important psychological predictors of pain. The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between catastrophizing and postoperative pain outcomes (pain intensity and analgesia use) in patients undergoing elective instrumented lumbar fusion surgery. Design. On the day before surgery, 61 patients completed the Greek versions of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. On postoperative days 1 and 2, pain intensity (at rest and during activity) on the Verbal Rating Scale as well as intravenous patient-controlled analgesia fentanyl use were assessed. Results. Catastrophizing and gender predicted postoperative pain intensity at rest, whereas catastrophizing emerged as the unique predictor of postoperative pain intensity during activity. Catastrophizing and anxiety predicted analgesic use. Conclusions. The present study findings suggest that it is possible to preoperatively identify patients at risk for experiencing more severe pain in the postoperative recovery period. In such cases, consideration might be given to utilizing a variety of resources to ameliorate or prevent pain.

Blood Pressure Loci Identified with a Gene-Centric Array

Abstract: Raised blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have identified 47 distinct genetic variants robustly associated with BP, but collectively these explain only a few percent of the heritability for BP phenotypes. To find additional BP loci, we used a bespoke gene-centric array to genotype an independent discovery sample of 25,118 individuals that combined hypertensive case-control and general population samples. We followed up four SNPs associated with BP at our p < 8.56 × 10(-7) study-specific significance threshold and six suggestively associated SNPs in a further 59,349 individuals. We identified and replicated a SNP at LSP1/TNNT3, a SNP at MTHFR-NPPB independent (r(2) = 0.33) of previous reports, and replicated SNPs at AGT and ATP2B1 reported previously. An analysis of combined discovery and follow-up data identified SNPs significantly associated with BP at p < 8.56 × 10(-7) at four further loci (NPR3, HFE, NOS3, and SOX6). The high number of discoveries made with modest genotyping effort can be attributed to using a large-scale yet targeted genotyping array and to the development of a weighting scheme that maximized power when meta-analyzing results from samples ascertained with extreme phenotypes, in combination with results from nonascertained or population samples. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and transcript expression data highlight potential gene regulatory mechanisms at the MTHFR and NOS3 loci. These results provide candidates for further study to help dissect mechanisms affecting BP and highlight the utility of studying SNPs and samples that are independent of those studied previously even when the sample size is smaller than that in previous studies.

Assembly of a Porous Three-Dimensional Coordination Polymer: Crystal Structure of {[La2(adipate)3(H2O)4]6H2O}n

Abstract: The structure and dehydration behavior of the porous 3D coordination polymer {[La2(adipate)3(H2O)4]6H2O}n are described. Each La3+ is coordinated by nine oxygen atoms belonging to five carboxylate ...