Research Problem
Regardless of the vast advancements in the therapy and diagnosis of cardiovascular sicknesses, the occurrence of persistent heart failure (HF) is consistently expanding and is the main inducer of death among older people. Among the individuals who are older than 65, one out of six has unrecognized HF (Heo et al., 2019). Consequently, HF is not just a significant clinical but an epidemiological and financial issue. Heart failure is a condition brought by a primary and utilitarian heart irregularity, bringing about a decreased cardiovascular yield or raised intracardiac pressures during stress or relaxation (Ponikowski et al., 2016).
It is associated with hypertension, diabetes, smoking, unhealthy dieting habits, and a stationary way of life (Klimiuk et al., 2020). Oxidative pressure is viewed as the main cause of HF compared to numerous other serious illnesses (Klimiuk et al., 2020). Undoubtedly, the vital commitment of oxidative pressure in HF has been shown in the progression of brain, hereditary, and digestive illnesses. The chosen article by Klimiuk and his research partners demonstrates the experimental study and evaluation of human saliva as a potential marker of non-prominent heart failure.
Research Purpose and Hypothesis
The goal of the investigation was to assess the pace of reactive oxygen species (ROS) creation, cancer prevention agent boundary, and oxidative harm in non-stimulated (NWS) and stimulated (SWS) saliva. The investigation was directed utilizing plasma and red blood cells of 50 patients with persistent heart failure. There were two groups of people with the disease among the members: New York Heart Association class II (NYHA II) and New York Heart Association class III (NYHA III) (Klimiuk et al., 2020). The researchers hypothesize that saliva’s superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity is dependent on the ROS production rate caused by HF.
Theoretical Framework
Redox biomarkers are becoming a common tool in clinical research facility diagnostics. Therefore, this study is suitable for healthcare diagnostics in professional nursing. I will personally need to identify major health conditions such as coronary and heart disease on time. A significant factor impacting remedial achievement is the non-obtrusive assortment of the material for assessments, which lessens patients’ uneasiness and adds to a more noteworthy longing to screen one’s wellbeing status and analyze the illness at its beginning phase. The scientists offer to use saliva instead of blood collection for detection of the condition. Thus, the application of an effective, quick, and easy diagnostic method is necessary for modern nursing and cardiovascular medicine.
Methodology
The scholars based their research on the quantitative study on the group of actual patients. This is a non-probability sampling because the group was comprised of 50 patients with HF treated in the hospital under the supervision of cardiac specialists between 2018 and 2019 (Klimiuk et al., 2020). Seven of the members were ladies, and 43 of them were men (Klimiuk et al., 2020). In all patients, clinical history, actual assessment, resting ECG, echocardiography, chest X-beam just as blood research center tests were performed. Thirty-three patients were NYHA II (patients with slight active work constraints), and 17 patients were NYHA III (patients with critical active work impediments) (Klimiuk et al., 2020).
There also was a control group of the same size and gender ratio as in the group diagnosed with the disease. The authors of the article state that “the study was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland,” showing the ethical validity of the method (Klimiuk et al., 2020, p. 2). The investigators gave the information and purpose of the experiments to all participants and received their consent.
The study uses inductive reasoning as it derives its theory from the precise concept of oxidative stress during HF. Accordingly, the salivary system work just as redox homeostasis in the saliva and blood of patients with heart disorder was concentrated in the introduced study. The examination is the first to describe the salivary redox profile in people with coronary dysfunction and assess the clinical helpfulness of oral enzymes in the determination of cardiovascular breakdown. ROS level was an independent variable, and salivary antioxidant enzymes were a dependent variable in the experiments.
Data Analysis
The dependent and independent variables’ amounts were measured via the spectrophotometric method. The salivary protein fixation was controlled utilizing bicinchoninic corrosive as it shapes a complex in the presence of the protein. The pace of ROS creation in saliva was controlled by chemiluminescence (Klimiuk et al., 2020). The data analysis of the outcomes and experimental statistics were performed utilizing GraphPad Prism 7.0 for macOS (Klimiuk et al., 2020). The appropriation of the received results was assessed with the help of the D’Agostino-Pearson test and the Shapiro–Wilk test.
The homogeneity of difference was checked by Levine’s test (Klimiuk et al., 2020). The results in the paper are displayed in the form of graphs containing the concentrations of reagents from HF diagnosed patients and HF negative participants. The overall results illustrate an increase in salivary antioxidant enzymes’ in elevated concentrations of ROS in HF positive patients only (25 nmol oxygen micromol/mg protein) (Klimiuk et al., 2020). For this reason, the study proves that human saliva can be used as a positive marker of hidden heart failure.
Review of the Literature
The work uses many reviewed scholarly articles which were published over the last five years. However, some articles were released before the 21st century. The researchers used these references since they contain a valid characterization and thorough investigation of foundational information for the study. These include ROS production by human cells, saliva content, and other relevant scientific knowledge bases. Moreover, the research experiment was based on the study of real patients with heart dysfunction and the control group.
Conclusion
The problem of an increasing number of deaths due to heart failure is often because of the late detection of the condition among the older population. The knowledge obtained from the chosen article can be used to ease the process of coronary disease detection in nursing and diagnostic medicine as it utilizes saliva as a sample biomaterial rather than blood. The proposed method is non-invasive and quick in obtaining the results for the presence of cardiovascular disorders. I believe this finding will improve my nursing experience when testing patients for HF. The article is reliable due to studying the affected patients with heart failure and a healthy group of people.
The diagnostic technique is suitable for the general population since HF progresses similarly in all humans. The research used modern analytic equipment and various scientific tests to assess the outcomes. The article has many references from peer-reviewed scientific journals in medicine. Most of them were published over the recent five years. Unfortunately, the experiments tested the hypothesis only on 50 patients with the named disease. There is a need for a bigger sample for a more valid verification of the thesis.
References
Heo, S., Moser, D. K., Lennie, T. A., Grudnowski, S., Kim, J., & Turrise, S. (2019). Patients’ beliefs about causes and consequences of heart failure symptoms. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 41(11), 1623–1641. Web.
Klimiuk, A., Zalewska, A., Sawicki, R., Knapp, M., & Maciejczyk, M. (2020). Salivary oxidative stress increases with the progression of chronic heart failure. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(3), 1-22. Web.
Ponikowski, P., Voors, A. A., Anker, S. D., Bueno, H., Cleland, J. G. F., Coats, A. J. S., … Meer, P. V. D. (2016). 2016 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure. European Heart Journal, 37(27), 2129–2200. Web.