To investigate the effect of 15 weeks of resistance training on the frequency of moderate to severe hot flushes in postmenopausal women. Study design: Postmenopausal women with at least 4 moderate or severe hot flushes or night sweats per day day were randomized to a 15-week resistance training intervention or unchanged physical activity. Participants did not exercise regularly at baseline and had not used any therapy for hot flushes two months prior to study entry. The resistance training was performed three times per week and the program contained 8 exercises performed with 8-12 repetitions in 2 sets. Loads were set individually from eight-repetition maximum-strength tests and increased progressively. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was change in mean moderate or severe hot flushes per day from baseline to week 15, assessed with symptom diaries. Secondary outcomes included change in hot flush score and time spent on physical activity. Results: Between November 19, 2013, and October 26, 2016, 65 women were enrolled; 58 completed the trial and were included in the analyses. The mean age was 55 and the mean number of moderate or severe hot flushes per day at baseline was 7.1; there were no baseline differences between groups. The frequency of hot flushes decreased more in the intervention group than in the control group (mean difference −2.7, 95% CI −4.2 to −1.3). The mean percentage change was-43.6% (−56.0 to −31.3) in the intervention group and −2.0% (−16.4-12.4) in the control group. Conclusion: A 15-week resistance-training program decreased the frequency of moderate and severe hot flushes among postmenopausal women and could be an effective and safe treatment option to alleviate vasomotor symptoms.

ObjectivesTo determine precision of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based fat and muscle quantification in a group of postmenopausal women. Furthermore, to extend the method to individual muscles relevant to upper-body exercise.Materials and methodsThis was a sub-study to a randomized control trial investigating effects of resistance training to decrease hot flushes in postmenopausal women. Thirty-six women were included, mean age 56 ± 6 years. Each subject was scanned twice with a 3.0T MR-scanner using a whole-body Dixon protocol. Water and fat images were calculated using a 6-peak lipid model including R2*-correction. Body composition analyses were performed to measure visceral and subcutaneous fat volumes, lean volumes and muscle fat infiltration (MFI) of the muscle groups’ thigh muscles, lower leg muscles, and abdominal muscles, as well as the three individual muscles pectoralis, latissimus, and rhomboideus. Analysis was performed using a multi-atlas, calibrated water-fat separated quantification method. Liver-fat was measured as average proton density fat-fraction (PDFF) of three regions-of-interest. Precision was determined with Bland-Altman analysis, repeatability, and coefficient of variation.ResultsAll of the 36 included women were successfully scanned and analysed. The coefficient of variation was 1.1% to 1.5% for abdominal fat compartments (visceral and subcutaneous), 0.8% to 1.9% for volumes of muscle groups (thigh, lower leg, and abdomen), and 2.3% to 7.0% for individual muscle volumes (pectoralis, latissimus, and rhomboideus). Limits of agreement for MFI was within ± 2.06% for muscle groups and within ± 5.13% for individual muscles. The limits of agreement for liver PDFF was within ± 1.9%.ConclusionWhole-body Dixon MRI could characterize a range of different fat and muscle compartments with high precision, including individual muscles, in the study-group of postmenopausal women. The inclusion of individual muscles, calculated from the same scan, enables analysis for specific intervention programs and studies.

Physical inactivity and the onset of menopause increase the risk of cardiovascular disease amongst postmenopausal women. We aim to investigate the effect of resistance training (RT) on plasma levels of selected cytokines, adipokines, myokines, and sex hormones in postmenopausal women with vasomotor symptoms. This was a sub-study of a randomised controlled trial investigating the effects of RT on vasomotor symptoms in postmenopausal women. Women were randomised to join a 15-week RT program (n = 26) or remain sedentary as control (n = 29). Venous blood samples were taken at week-0 and week-15 for all participants. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and multiple bead assays were used to measure cytokines, adipokines, myokines, and sex hormones in plasma. Plasma measurements of 16 of 33 analytes were within detectable limits. After adjusting for good compliance in the RT group (58% of RT participants), after 15 weeks, significantly lower plasma levels of adiponectin (p < 0.001), lipocalin-2 (p < 0.01) and resistin (p = 0.04) were found. Comparing control and RT women, using change-over-time values, significant increases in median testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin levels were seen in RT women. RT intervention lowers the levels of adipokines, particularly adiponectin, in postmenopausal women with vasomotor symptoms. These results were secondary outcomes of a clinical trial, and further investigations in a larger cohort are essential with the additional control of diet control and body composition analyses. Nevertheless, our study shows RT may be a beneficial intervention in reducing inflammation amongst postmenopausal women.

The objective of this study was to determine if 15 weeks of resistance training (RT) can alter the levels of blood lipids, body iron status, and oxidative stress in postmenopausal women with vasomotor symptoms. Postmenopausal women enrolled in a randomised controlled trial were allocated to either a sedentary control group (n = 29) or a RT group (n = 26). Blood samples were taken at week-0 and week-15 for all participants. Blood lipids and iron status were measured via routine clinical analyses. Immunoassays were used to measure oxidative stress markers. The RT group, with good compliance, was associated with significant reductions in ferritin, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Moreover, ferritin was positively correlated with atherogenic lipids while negatively correlated with high-density lipoprotein in RT women. This occurred without alterations in serum iron, transferrin, transferrin-saturation, C-reactive protein and oxidative stress markers. No differences were found in control women. This study suggests that RT in postmenopausal women both reduces levels of ferritin and counteracts atherogenic lipid profiles independent of an apparent oxidative mechanism. RT may be a beneficial intervention in postmenopausal women via an interaction between ferritin and lipids; however, further investigation in a larger cohort is essential. The risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) approximately doubles in women during the 10 years after menopause, and physical inactivity contributes to this risk 1,2. The increase in CVD risk is partially attributed to the reduced levels of oestrogens (oestradiol and oestrone) that increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels and decrease low-density lipoprotein (LDL) 3. Oestrogens also increase production of the vasodilator nitric oxide by means of nitric oxide-synthase activation, and possess antioxidant properties reducing levels of reactive oxygen species 3. Oxidative stress levels are a risk factor for CVD and known to be greater in postmenopausal women, compared to women of fertile age, with higher levels of 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), malondialdehyde, and oxidised LDL 4. In addition, postmenopausal women have an increased body iron burden, in comparison to premenopausal women, that can contribute to iron-driven oxidative stress 5. Ferritin, an iron storage protein, is increased in postmenopausal women and associated with the metabolic syndrome, subclinical coronary atherosclerosis 6 , and carotid atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women 7. Physical inactivity increases the risk for the development of CVD and all-cause mortality in postmenopausal women 8. A comparative study between sedentary postmenopausal women and postmenopausal women who perform regular aerobic exercise showed a significantly lower level of iron burden, including serum ferritin, iron and transferrin saturation, and oxidative stress levels in the active women 9. Aerobic exercise has also shown beneficial effects on lipid profiles in postmenopausal women, with re...

Investigation of the effect on accuracy and precision of different parameter settings is important for quantitative MRI. The purpose of this study was to investigate T1 bias and precision for muscle fat infiltration (MFI) measurements using fat-referenced chemical shift MFI measurements at flip angles of 5 and 10 . The fat-referenced measurements were compared with fat fractions, which is a more commonly used measure of MFI. This retrospective study was performed on data from a clinical intervention study including 40 postmenopausal women. Test and retest images were acquired with a 3-T scanner using four-point 3D spoiled gradient multiecho acquisition. Postprocessing included T2* correction and fat-referenced calibration, where the fat signal was calibrated using adipose tissue as reference. The mean MFI was calculated in six different muscle regions using both the fat-referenced fat signal and the fat fraction, defined as the fat signal divided by the sum of the fat and water signals. Both methods used the same fat and water images as input. The variance of the difference between mean MFI from test and retest was used as the measure of precision. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) characteristics were analyzed by measuring the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the fat signal distribution. There was no difference in the mean MFI at different flip angles for the fat-referenced technique (p = 0.66), while the measured fat fractions were 3.3 percentage points larger for 10 compared with 5 (p < 0.001). No significant difference in the precision was found in any of the muscles analyzed. However, the FWHM of the fat signal distribution was significantly (p = 0.01) lower at 10 . This strenghtens the hypothesis that fatreferenced MFI is insensitive to flip angle-induced T1 bias in CSE-MRI, enabling usage of a higher and more SNR-effective flip angle. The lower FWHM in fatreferenced MFI at 10 indicates that high flip angle acquisition is advantageous even although no significant differences in precision were observed comparing 5 and 10 .