The aim of this study was to assess the validity (Study 1) and reliability (Study 2) of a novel intermittent running test (Carminatti's test) for physiological assessment of soccer players. In Study 1, 28 players performed Carminatti's test, a repeated sprint ability test, and an intermittent treadmill test. In Study 2, 24 players performed Carminatti's test twice within 72 h to determine test-retest reliability. Carminatti's test required the participants to complete repeated bouts of 5 × 12 s shuttle running at progressively faster speeds until volitional exhaustion. The 12 s bouts were separated by 6 s recovery periods, making each stage 90 s in duration. The initial running distance was set at 15 m and was increased by 1 m at each stage (90 s). The repeated sprint ability test required the participants to perform 7 × 34.2 m maximal effort sprints separated by 25 s recovery. During the intermittent treadmill test, the initial velocity of 9.0 km · h(-1) was increased by 1.2 km · h(-1) every 3 min until volitional exhaustion. No significant difference (P > 0.05) was observed between Carminatti's test peak running velocity and speed at VO(2max) (v-VO(2max)). Peak running velocity in Carminatti's test was strongly correlated with v-VO(2max) (r = 0.74, P < 0.01), and highly associated with velocity at the onset of blood lactate accumulation (r = 0.63, P < 0.01). Mean sprint time was strongly associated with peak running velocity in Carminatti's test (r = -0.71, P < 0.01). The intraclass correlation was 0.94 with a coefficient of variation of 1.4%. In conclusion, Carminatti's test appears to be avalid and reliable measure of physical fitness and of the ability to perform intermittent high-intensity exercise in soccer players.

Introduction: Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is a serious public health problem and represents one of the leading causes of death in the world. In emergency situations the assessment of the victim and care must be effective, to reduce negative outcomes and to increase the survival rate. Objective: To analyze graduation students in the Health Sciences through objective testing on Basic Life Support (BLS). Methods: This is a descriptive, observational and cross sectional study, performed in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The study population consisted of 664 graduation students in Medicine, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, Nutrition and Occupational Therapy. Data collection occurred through an instrument in the form of objective tests based on the guidelines for Basic Life Support from the American Heart Association. For analysis the Shapiro-Wilk, Chi-square, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. The adopted confidence level was 95%. The statistical program used was Stata 11.0. Result: There was found to be a prevalence of students who were female (82.23%), single (77.56%), on the physiotherapy course (53.16%), in the freshmen year (32.2%) with previous training (54.45%) and with a median age of 22 years old. When the association between the scores was analyzed according to sex, marital status, previous training, course and year of study, the relation between the number of correct answers and previous training, course and year of study showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.001). Conclusion: 99.9% of subjects had lower score than the minimum score of 84% of Americam Heart Association, which characterizes insufficient knowledge about the basic support of life theme. Thus, there is need for continued training of health sciences students on the subject, at the undergraduate level.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic recessive disorder with progressive muscle weakness. Despite the general muscle wasting, degeneration and necrosis of cardiomyocytes have been the main causes of morbidity and death in individuals with DMD. Cardiac failure is generally preceded by disturbances in heart rate variability (HRV), and non-invasive measurement of the autonomic nervous system has been an important tool to predict adverse cardiovascular events. Hence, the application of HRV to study autonomic modulation in DMD individuals, and the establishment of correlations between HRV and heart/lung diseases, age, and mortality will have the potential to improve quality of life and life expectancy of individuals with DMD. In order to evaluate the state of the art in this field, we conducted a systematic search in Medline/PubMed and BVS (virtual library in health) databases. We selected 8 studies using pre-defined criteria and meta-analysis revealed decreased parasympathetic activity and increased sympathetic predominance in individuals with DMD as major observations. Moreover, there is a strong association between diminished HRV and myocardial fibrosis with DMD. These patterns are evident in patients at early-stage DMD and become more prominent as disease severity and age increase. Thus, data minning clearly indicates that HRV assessment can be used as a predictor for sudden death in individuals with DMD. The use of the HRV, which is inexpensive, ubiquitously available in clinics and hospitals, and a non-invasive analysis tool, can save lives and decrease the morbity in DMD by alerting care givers to consider autonomic nervous system intervention.

RESUMOO presente estudo se propôs verificar o grau de associação entre a freqüência cardíaca de repouso (FC Rep ), diferentes índi-ces de variabilidade da freqüência cardíaca (FC) em repouso e a intensidade de esforço referente ao limiar de variabilidade da FC. Vinte homens (21,3 ± 2,6 anos) iniciaram o protocolo do teste com um período de repouso sentado no cicloergômetro, em seguida realizaram um teste progressivo (14,6 W/minuto) até a exaustão. O limiar de variabilidade foi identificado na primeira carga inferior a 3 ms na curva de decréscimo da variabilidade da FC. A FC e sua variabilidade foram registradas utilizando-se um cardiofreqüencímetro Polar ® . Para associação dessas variáveis (Spearman Rank) foi considerado p<0,05. As correlações entre os diversos índices de variabilidade foram significantes (r≥ 0,80). A FC Rep apresentou associação significativa e negativa com os índices de variabilidade e com a intensidade no limiar de variabilidade da FC (r ≥ -0,63). A intensidade no limiar mostrou estreita relação com os índices: SD1 (r = 0,51), SD2 (r = 0,46), RMSSD (r = 0,48), pNN50 (r = 0,55), HF (r = 0,50) e LF/HF (r = -0,56). Nossos achados indicam que elevada atividade vagal de repouso pode postergar o aumento da predominância simpática em exercício progressivo.Palavras-chave: freqüência cardíaca de repouso, variabilidade da freqüência cardíaca, domínio do tempo e freqüência, limiar de variabilidade da freqüência cardíaca, capacidade aeróbia. SD2 (r = 0,46), RMSSD (r = 0,48), pNN50 (r = 0,55), HF (r = 0,56). These results showed that an elevate resting vagal activity can postpone the increase of the predominance of the sympathetic system during progressive exercises. ABSTRACT Indexes of Autonomic Cardiac Regulation in Rest andKey Words: rest heart rate, heart rate variability, time and frequency domain, heart rate variability threshold, aerobic capacity.

BackgroundThe literature indicates that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects cardiac autonomic control. In this study, we conducted a literature review in order to investigate the heart rate variability (HRV) in COPD subjects.MethodsA search was performed in Medline database, using the link between the keywords: “autonomic nervous system”, “cardiovascular system”, “COPD” and “heart rate variability”.ResultsThe search resulted in a total of 40 references. Amongst these references, the first exclusion resulted in the barring of 29 titles and abstracts, which were not clearly related to the purpose of review. This resulted in a total of 11 articles that were then read and utilized in the review. The selected studies indicated that there is significant reduction of HRV in patients with COPD, characterized by reduction of indices that assess parasympathetic activity in addition to dealing with the global autonomic modulation. We also established that supervised exercise can reduce these harmful effects in COPD patients. Also, it was reported that the use of non-invasive ventilation in these patients may contribute to the improvement of respiratory symptoms, with no impairing, and may even induce positive responses in cardiac autonomic regulation.ConclusionThe studies indicate a need for further investigations to guide future therapies to improve the treatment of cardiovascular system in the respiratory diseases.

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Background: About 7% of rape cases in Brazil result in pregnancy.Overall, Brazilian women are unaware of the right to legal interruption of pregnancy after rape, so they delay in applying the procedure to get a legal abortion or at the end they try to abort in a condition that may be unsafe. Objective:To analyse factors associated with the leadtime to have a legal abortion after rape.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The data were collected from electronical medical records of 1,270 women who requested legal abortion in a public hospital in São Paulo during the period of 1994 to 2013. The variables age, education, race, marital status, religion, form of intimidation, vulnerable condition, perpetrator of sexual violence, number of perpetrators, and police report were analysed in relation to gestational age, according to multiple multinomial logistic regression models. Results BackgroundSexual crimes particularly affect vulnerable young females and may be associated with physical trauma, mortality, sexual disorders, unwanted pregnancy, and psychological consequences. Damages to reproductive health include increased risk of infertility, anogenital cancer, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) [1]. In addition to representing a public health problem in developing countries, the subject of discussing the conflict of interrupting an unwanted pregnancy, as a consequence of a rape or not, requires a well informed decision making proccess, covering the scope of legal, moral, religious, social, and cultural aspects that are linked to it [2].Emerging data on violence against females around the world suggest that in some countries, one in five female suffer rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. Recent research on the behaviour, attitudes, and sexual experiences of young people in areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America revealed that between 5 and 20% of females' first sexual experience was forced. Regardless of whether they have access to contraception, a forced sexual act is usually unprotected, exposing females not only to unwanted pregnancy but also to STDs, including HIV [3].In Brazil, about 7% of rape cases resulted in pregnancy. Under Brazilian law, the victim of this type of violence has the right to abort. However, 67.4% of females who were pregnant after being raped didn't get the access to legal abortion in a The delay verified in the decision to search for legal termination of pregnancy cannot be attributed to or explained by the cost of abortion in Brazil. The Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) ensures full and free coverage for abortion in these cases, regardless of the woman has any sort of health insurance. Therefore, the females who have participated in this study did not face any financial barriers to make legal abortion.According to the Allan Guttmacher Institute, the highest rates of abortions were observed between 1995 and 2008 mainly in those regions where laws against abortion are more rigid. In 2008, an average of 28 women per thousand carried out an abortion, indicating a...