Evaluating social skill in individuals with schizophrenia with the brief impression questionnaire (BIQ)

Abnormal circulating steroids refine risk of progression to heart failure in ischemic heart disease

BACKGROUND

Patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) experience a high incidence of progression to heart failure (HF) despite current therapies. We speculated that steroid hormone metabolic disorders distinct adverse phenotypes and contribute to HF.

METHODS

We measured 18 steroids using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry in 2023 patients from the Registry Study of Biomarkers in Ischemic Heart Disease (BIOMS-IHD), including 1091 patients with IHD in a retrospective discovery set and 932 patients with IHD in a multicentre validation set. Our outcomes included incident HF after a median follow-up of 4 years.

RESULTS

We demonstrated steroid-based signatures of inflammation, coronary microvascular dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy that were associated with subsequent HF events in patients with IHD. In both cohorts, patients with a high steroid-heart failure score (SHFS) (>1) exhibited a greater risk of incident HF than patients with a low SHFS (≤1). The SHFS further improved the prognostic accuracy beyond clinical variables (net reclassification improvement of 0.628 in the discovery set and 0.299 in the validation set) and demonstrated the maximal effect of steroid signatures in patients with IHD who had lower B-type natriuretic peptide levels (pinteraction = 0.038).

CONCLUSIONS

A steroid-based strategy can simply and effectively identify individuals at higher HF risk who may derive benefit from more intensive follow-ups.

Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of Illness Management and Recovery Scale-Patient form

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to provide the Turkish version of the Illness Management and Recovery Scale-Patient (IMRS-P) form and to determine its psychometric properties.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This is a descriptive and correlation study. The sample of this study consisted of 75 people with schizophrenia. Translation and content validity, confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the validity and reliability of the scales.

RESULTS

The content validity index was found to be 0.93. The scale had a three-factor structure, which subscales were 0.69 for recovery, 0.69 for management, and 0.35 for substance. The Cronbach's alpha was determined as 0.76.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

The Turkish version of the IMRS-P form is a valid and reliable scale for Turkish patients.