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Authors are the souls of any journal, and deserve much respect. To publish a journal manuscripts are needed from authors. Authors have a great responsibility for producing facts of their work in terms of number and results truthfully and an individual honesty is expected from authors in this regards. Both ways its true "No authors-No manuscripts-No journals" and "No journals–No manuscripts–No authors". Reviewing a manuscript is also a very responsible and important task of any peer-reviewed journal and to be taken seriously. It needs knowledge on the subject, sincerity, honesty and determination. Although the process of reviewing a manuscript is a time consuming task butit is expected to give one's best remarks within the time frame of the journal.
Salient features of the JCDR: It is a biomedical, multidisciplinary (including all medical and dental specialities), e-journal, with wide scope and extensive author support. At the same time, a free text of manuscript is available in HTML and PDF format. There is fast growing authorship and readership with JCDR as this can be judged by the number of articles published in it i e; in Feb 2007 of its first issue, it contained 5 articles only, and now in its recent volume published in April 2011, it contained 67 manuscripts. This e-journal is fulfilling the commitments and objectives sincerely, (as stated by Editor-in-chief in his preface to first edition) i e; to encourage physicians through the internet, especially from the developing countries who witness a spectrum of disease and acquire a wealth of knowledge to publish their experiences to benefit the medical community in patients care. I also feel that many of us have work of substance, newer ideas, adequate clinical materials but poor in medical writing and hesitation to submit the work and need help. JCDR provides authors help in this regards.
Timely publication of journal: Publication of manuscripts and bringing out the issue in time is one of the positive aspects of JCDR and is possible with strong support team in terms of peer reviewers, proof reading, language check, computer operators, etc. This is one of the great reasons for authors to submit their work with JCDR. Another best part of JCDR is "Online first Publications" facilities available for the authors. This facility not only provides the prompt publications of the manuscripts but at the same time also early availability of the manuscripts for the readers.
Indexation and online availability: Indexation transforms the journal in some sense from its local ownership to the worldwide professional community and to the public.JCDR is indexed with Embase & EMbiology, Google Scholar, Index Copernicus, Chemical Abstracts Service, Journal seek Database, Indian Science Abstracts, to name few of them. Manuscriptspublished in JCDR are available on major search engines ie; google, yahoo, msn.
In the era of fast growing newer technologies, and in computer and internet friendly environment the manuscripts preparation, submission, review, revision, etc and all can be done and checked with a click from all corer of the world, at any time. Of course there is always a scope for improvement in every field and none is perfect. To progress, one needs to identify the areas of one's weakness and to strengthen them.
It is well said that "happy beginning is half done" and it fits perfectly with JCDR. It has grown considerably and I feel it has already grown up from its infancy to adolescence, achieving the status of standard online e-journal form Indian continent since its inception in Feb 2007. This had been made possible due to the efforts and the hard work put in it. The way the JCDR is improving with every new volume, with good quality original manuscripts, makes it a quality journal for readers. I must thank and congratulate Dr Hemant Jain, Editor-in-Chief JCDR and his team for their sincere efforts, dedication, and determination for making JCDR a fast growing journal.
Every one of us: authors, reviewers, editors, and publisher are responsible for enhancing the stature of the journal. I wish for a great success for JCDR."
Thanking you
With sincere regards
Dr. Rajendra Kumar Ghritlaharey, M.S., M. Ch., FAIS
Associate Professor,
Department of Paediatric Surgery, Gandhi Medical College & Associated
Kamla Nehru & Hamidia Hospitals Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462 001 (India)
E-mail: drrajendrak1@rediffmail.com
On May 11,2011
Dr. Shankar P.R.
"On looking back through my Gmail archives after being requested by the journal to write a short editorial about my experiences of publishing with the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research (JCDR), I came across an e-mail from Dr. Hemant Jain, Editor, in March 2007, which introduced the new electronic journal. The main features of the journal which were outlined in the e-mail were extensive author support, cash rewards, the peer review process, and other salient features of the journal.
Over a span of over four years, we (I and my colleagues) have published around 25 articles in the journal. In this editorial, I plan to briefly discuss my experiences of publishing with JCDR and the strengths of the journal and to finally address the areas for improvement.
My experiences of publishing with JCDR: Overall, my experiences of publishing withJCDR have been positive. The best point about the journal is that it responds to queries from the author. This may seem to be simple and not too much to ask for, but unfortunately, many journals in the subcontinent and from many developing countries do not respond or they respond with a long delay to the queries from the authors 1. The reasons could be many, including lack of optimal secretarial and other support. Another problem with many journals is the slowness of the review process. Editorial processing and peer review can take anywhere between a year to two years with some journals. Also, some journals do not keep the contributors informed about the progress of the review process. Due to the long review process, the articles can lose their relevance and topicality. A major benefit with JCDR is the timeliness and promptness of its response. In Dr Jain's e-mail which was sent to me in 2007, before the introduction of the Pre-publishing system, he had stated that he had received my submission and that he would get back to me within seven days and he did!
Most of the manuscripts are published within 3 to 4 months of their submission if they are found to be suitable after the review process. JCDR is published bimonthly and the accepted articles were usually published in the next issue. Recently, due to the increased volume of the submissions, the review process has become slower and it ?? Section can take from 4 to 6 months for the articles to be reviewed. The journal has an extensive author support system and it has recently introduced a paid expedited review process. The journal also mentions the average time for processing the manuscript under different submission systems - regular submission and expedited review.
Strengths of the journal: The journal has an online first facility in which the accepted manuscripts may be published on the website before being included in a regular issue of the journal. This cuts down the time between their acceptance and the publication. The journal is indexed in many databases, though not in PubMed. The editorial board should now take steps to index the journal in PubMed. The journal has a system of notifying readers through e-mail when a new issue is released. Also, the articles are available in both the HTML and the PDF formats. I especially like the new and colorful page format of the journal. Also, the access statistics of the articles are available. The prepublication and the manuscript tracking system are also helpful for the authors.
Areas for improvement: In certain cases, I felt that the peer review process of the manuscripts was not up to international standards and that it should be strengthened. Also, the number of manuscripts in an issue is high and it may be difficult for readers to go through all of them. The journal can consider tightening of the peer review process and increasing the quality standards for the acceptance of the manuscripts. I faced occasional problems with the online manuscript submission (Pre-publishing) system, which have to be addressed.
Overall, the publishing process with JCDR has been smooth, quick and relatively hassle free and I can recommend other authors to consider the journal as an outlet for their work."
Dr. P. Ravi Shankar
KIST Medical College, P.O. Box 14142, Kathmandu, Nepal.
E-mail: ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com
On April 2011 Anuradha
Dear team JCDR, I would like to thank you for the very professional and polite service provided by everyone at JCDR. While i have been in the field of writing and editing for sometime, this has been my first attempt in publishing a scientific paper.Thank you for hand-holding me through the process.
Dr. Anuradha
E-mail: anuradha2nittur@gmail.com
On Jan 2020
Original article / research
Full Version
A Pilot Study on Long Term Effects of Mobile Phone Usage on Heart Rate Variability in Healthy Young Adult Males
Correspondence Address :
Dr. Bhagyalakshmi K. MBBS, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Physiology
Center for Basic sciences-Bejai, KMC, Mangalore
Unit of Manipal university –Manipal
Mangalore, Karnataka. India -575004
Fax: 91 824 2428183 Mob Ph No : 9449468282
E-mail: bhagyaavabratha@yahoo.com
Introduction and Objectives:
The electromagnetic fields which are emitted by cellular telephones may influence the autonomic tone which modifies the functioning of the circulatory system. The present research work was taken up to study the long term impact of mobile phone usage on the heart rate variability (HRV) in healthy, young, adult males.
Methods:
A total of 37 healthy, volunteered males (18 -24 years) were included in the study and they were grouped in to mobile users who had been using the mobile phones for more than one years (n=21) and non-mobile users (n=16). The HRV was analyzed both by the time domain and the frequency domain methods during normal breathing. Statistical analysis was done by using the Students unpaired t-test. A two tailed p value less than 0.05 was considered to be significant. The present study was completed in two months.
Results:
In the time domain analysis, the HRV showed no statistically significant difference in between the two groups. But in the frequency domain analysis, the total power (TP), the very low density frequency (VLF) power and the low frequency (LF) power were found to be statistically significantly high in the mobile users. The high frequency normalized unit ( HF nu) was low and the LF normalized unit (LF nu) and the LF: HF ratio were high in the mobile users.
Conclusion:
The present study showed that the mobile users had a higher sympathetic tone and a lower parasympathetic tone as compared to the mobile non users.
Heart rate Variability, Time domain method, Frequency domain method, Mobile phone users and non-users
Introduction
The radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) of the mobile communication systems are widespread in the living environment. The potential health risk of the electromagnetic fields which are emitted by mobile phones (MP) is of considerable public interest. In the recent years, mobile phone subscriptions have reached the symbolic threshold of five billion and people have decided that the benefits outweigh any risks to their health. Mobile phones are low power radio devices that transmit and receive radio frequency radiation which might induce or promote cancer, and the symptoms which are associated with their use include sleep disturbances, memory problems, headaches, nausea, dizziness and changes in the electroencephalographic activity (1),(2), (3). Recent studies have shown that the decreased fluctuation of the R-R intervals implicates an increased risk of arrhythmic events and an increased mortality rate (4), (5). The time and frequency domain measures of the HRV have provided prognostic information and they have also made it possible to perform non-invasive studies on the significance of the changes in the regulation of heart rate behaviour. Electromagnetic fields which are emitted by cellular phones interfere with the work of cardiac pacemakers and other implantable medical devices (6), (7). It was shown that the occupational exposition to EMF could cause fluctuations in the heart rate and the heart rate variability (8),(9). Previous studies on the acute usage of mobile phones have shown controversial results on the cardiovascular parameters (10),(11),(12),(13). There is no sufficient data which has shown the long term effects of mobile phone usage on the heart rate variability. Hence, the present research work was taken up Original Article Physiology Section to study the impact of mobile phone usage on the heart rate variability in healthy, young, adult males.
The present study was conducted at the Kasturba Medical College, Center for Basic Sciences, Bejai, Mangalore. A total of 40 healthy, male volunteers between the ages of 18-24 years were included in the study. They were grouped into twenty one mobile users and sixteen non mobile-users. The mobile users had been using mobile phones for more than 2 hours in a week, during a period of more than 1 year. The non-mobile users had not been using mobile phones. All the participants were healthy and none of them were on any pharmacological treatment. The following exclusion criteria were accepted for the investigation: presence of any serious cardiovascular disease, including arterial hypertension and metabolic and neurological disorders that could influence the heart rate variability and serious arrhythmias. Three subjects were excluded, based on the exclusion criteria. A written informed consent was obtained from all the students who took part in the study. The study was approved by the institutional ethical committee and the procedures were followed in accordance with the institutional ethical standards. All the subjects were asked to abstain from consuming caffeinated beverages and undertaking excessive physical activity, including gymnastics, for 12 hrs preceding the data collection. They were also requested not to eat and drink on the morning of the experiment and to not take a shower. The students were fully habituated to the equipment, the protocols and the experimenters. Our investigation was performed in a semidarkened, temperature-controlled, quiet laboratory which was at room temperature (21°C). Before the experiment, the participants rested in a laboratory room in a sitting posture for about 20 min. The records were taken between 09:00AM–10.00 AM in the morning under similar conditions (the same place of the experiment and the same sitting position). The general physical examination including height, body weight, blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate and the complete systemic examination was done. The subjects were screened to exclude any morbid state which could influence the autonomic response. The autonomic activity was assessed by recording the electro cardiogram (ECG) and by measuring the R-R intervals and calculating the HRV by using a software which quantified the autonomic drive to the myocardium. The ECG was recorded from the limb lead II from all the subjects by using a BPL ECG machine and the analogue output from the machine was digitized by using an A/D converter from National Instruments, Bangalore. The HRV was analyzed by using the “HRV soft 1.1 Version” software package (built by using the LabView software from Texas Instruments, USA) which was provided by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. The ECG was recorded from all the subjects while they were in a supine position, fully relaxed and breathing normally for a period of five minutes, which gave the “Short term HRV”. The HRV was analyzed both by the time domain and the frequency domain methods during normal breathing. In the time domain analysis, the mean value of the R-R interval; RMSSD – root of the mean of the squared successive R-R interval differences; NN50 – the number of R-R interval differences which were equal to or more than 50 milliseconds; and pNN50 – the percentage of NN50 were analyzed. In the frequency domain analysis, the R-R series were transformed to the frequency domain and the spectral power was determined. Further, in accordance with the task force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing Electrophysiology (14), we calculated TP, VLF, LF, HF, LFnu, HF nu and the LF:HF ratio.
Statistics:
Statistical analysis was performed by using the “STATISTICAPL 6.0” package (StatSoft Poland). The data were expressed as means and standard deviations. The analysis was done by using the Students unpaired t test. A p-value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
The demographic characteristics of the subjects, like age, basal heart rate, weight, body mass index and the blood pressure of the mobile users and the mobile non-users are represented in (Table/Fig 1). There was no statistically significant difference in the demographic characteristics between the mobile users and the mobile non-users. Further, the analysis of the HRV by the time domain method (Table/Fig 2) showed no statistically significant difference in any of the variables between the two groups. Whereas, in the frequency domain analysis of the HRV, the TP, the VLF power and the LF power were statistically significantly high in the mobile users as compared to the mobile non-user groups. The values of LF nu and the LF: HF ratio were high and HF nu was low in the mobile users as compared to the mobile non-user groups, but this difference did not reach up to the statistically significant level (Table/Fig 3).
Mobile phones are being widely used, especially by young people. It is possible that the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) which are generated during the use of mobile phones may have an influence on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hence, on the heart rate variability. The heart rate variability is the simplest and most widely performed measure of the autonomic function, which signifies the sensitive, specific and the reproducible indirect measure of the autonomic activity. Researchers have examined the effects of the radio frequency radiation on the autonomic nervous system, as was measured by its impact on the cardiovascular system. The literature lacks data on the long term effects of mobile phone usage on the heart rate variability. Hence, the present work signifies the impact of long term mobile phone usage on the heart rate variability. Previous studies have shown that the age, weight, body mass index and the blood pressure were the major factors that were known to affect the HRV (15),(16),(17),(18). However, in the present study, the demographic characteristics were well balanced and they did not differ significantly between the mobile users and the mobile non users. The time domain analysis of the HRV did not show any statistically significant results in the present study. Further, in the frequency domain analysis, the total power, the VLF power and the LF power were found to be statistically significantly high in the mobile users as compared to the mobile non-user groups. The values of LF nu and the LF: HF ratio were high and HF nu was low in the mobile users as compared to the mobile non-user groups, but this difference did not reach up to the statistically significant level. It is now known that among the prominent frequency bands in the HRV frequency spectra, the high frequency (HF) component is attributed to the para-sympathetic influences on the heart and that the low frequency (LF) component is due to both the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activities (19), (20). This showed that mobile users had a higher sympathetic tone and a lower para-sympathetic tone as compared to the mobile non users. Studies on the usage of mobile phones have showed controversial results. Wilen et al., (21) found an increased heart rate variability and a very low frequency power during the night time in RF plastic sealer operators. They postulated that this could be due to an adaptation of the thermoregulatory system and the cardiac autonomic modulation to a long-term, low-level thermal exposure. Parazzini et al (22)., found no effect on the main outcome of the R-R interval on the electrocardiogram. The effect of the electromagnetic field which was emitted by mobile phones on the heart rate and the heart rate variability in young adults proved that the radio frequency fields which were emitted by cellular phones did not cause observable effects on the regulation of the heart rate (23). Mann et al., (24) did not find any effect on the heart rate in young men who were exposed to 900 MHz of radiation. Nam et al., (25) and Barkeret al., (26) did not find any cardiovascular changes after RFR exposure from mobile phones. Regarding the widespread use of mobile phones, closer attention should be paid to the young age group of people who use mobile phones for a long time and who are frequently exposed to electromagnetic fields. The results of our investigation suggest that the long term use of mobile phones might exert a noticeable effect on the autonomic balance and that it might progressively cause a deterious effect on the HRV, i.e. lack of a typical decrease in the parasympathetic activity, with the domination of the sympathetic system. Further, our study provides a supportiveevidence that the excessive use of mobile phones, in the long term, might provoke negative health effects. The detection of a sympathovagal imbalance at an early age due to the continuous usage of mobile phones and necessary life style modifications could decrease the incidence of cardiovascular diseases. But a limitation of our study is that, it was done in a small population and the randomization of the study population was not done. Hence, such studies have to be conducted in a larger population, with randomization, to confirm our results.
DOI: JCDR/3002:1997
Financial OR OTHER COMPETING INTERESTS:
None.
Date of Submission: Aug 01, 2011
Date of peer review: Dec 31, 2011
Date of acceptance: Jan 05, 2012
Date of Publishing: May 01, 2012
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