Lung cancer in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-- incidence and predicting factors.

Rationale: Little is known about the clinical factors associated with the development of lung cancer in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), although airway obstruction and emphysema have been identified as possible risk factors.

Objectives: To explore incidence, histologic type, and factors associated with development of lung cancer diagnosis in a cohort of outpatients with COPD attending a pulmonary clinic.

Methods: A cohort of 2,507 patients without initial clinical or radiologic evidence of lung cancer was followed a median of 60 months(30–90).

Experimental depression induces renal oxidative stress in rats.

Depression has been associated to inflammatory and oxidative events. Previous report has shown renal oxidative stress in patients with depression. In order to analyze if depressive status is related to renal oxidative and inflammatory events, Sprague Dawley rats were submitted to forced swimming test (FST) and the renal oxidative metabolism, monocyte-macrophage infiltration and Angiotensin II (Ang II) expression were determined.

A new classification of complications in neurosurgery.

Objective: To define and grade neurosurgical and spinal postoperative complications based on their need for treatment.

Methods: Complications were defined as any deviation from the normal postoperative course occurring within 30 days of surgery. A four-grade scale was proposed based on the therapy used to treat the complications: grade I, any non-life-threatening complications treated without invasive procedures; grade II, complications requiring invasive management such as surgical, endoscopic, and endovascular procedures; grade III, life-threatening adverse events requiring treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU); and grade IV, deaths as a result of complications.

The 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule megathrust earthquake of Central Chile, monitored by GPS.

Large earthquakes produce crustal deformation that can be quantified by geodetic measurements, allowing for the determination of the slip distribution on the fault. We used data from Global Positioning System (GPS) networks in Central Chile to infer the static deformation and the kinematics of the 2010 moment magnitude (M(w)) 8.8 Maule megathrust earthquake.

Structure of a lectin with antitumoral properties in king bolete (Boletus edulis) mushrooms.

A novel lectin has been isolated from the fruiting bodies of the common edible mushroom Boletus edulis (king bolete, penny bun, porcino or cep) by affinity chromatography on a chitin column. We propose for the lectin the name BEL (B. edulis lectin).

Prognostic assessment in COPD: health related quality of life and the BODE index.

Rationale: COPD is a debilitating disease with increasing mortality worldwide. The BODE index evaluates disease severity and the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) measures health status.

Objective: To identify the relationship between BODE index and the SGRQ and to test the predictive value of both tools against survival.

[Coccidioidomycosis in Argentina, 1892-2009].

Clinical cases of coccidioidomycosis are rare in Argentina and are generally found in the large arid precordilleran area of the country. This study aims to perform a retrospective review of all coccidioidomycosis cases documented in the country from 1892 to 2009, and to describe those occurring in the last 4 years. One hundred and twenty eight cases were documented in the 117 year-period.

Distribution and inventories of polychlorinated biphenyls in the polar mixed layer of seven pan-arctic shelf seas and the interior basins.

Assessment of the Arctic as a global repository of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and of uptake processes in the base of its marine food chain hinges on reliable information of PCB distribution in surface seawater, yet there is a scarcity of quality-assured PCB measurements in this key compartment. Here, surface seawater PCB concentrations and congener fingerprints are evaluated for all seven pan-Arctic shelf seas and for the interior basins. Particulate and dissolved PCBs were collected via trace-clean protocols on three basin-wide expeditions (AO-01, Beringia-2005, and ISSS-08).

Assessment of prenatal exposure to persistent organohalogen compounds from cord blood serum analysis in two Mediterranean populations (Valencia and Menorca).

Prenatal levels of organohalogen compounds (OHCs), including polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), hexachlorocyclohexanes and DDTs, have been investigated in two different cohorts from the Spanish Mediterranean area, Valencia and Menorca, by analysis of cord blood serum. Comparison of the observed median concentrations to other cohorts shows low PBDE levels (2.8-6.

Continuous positive airway pressure as treatment for systemic hypertension in people with obstructive sleep apnoea: randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To assess the effect of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring values in a large number of patients with untreated systemic hypertension of new onset and obstructive sleep apnoea.

Design: Multicentre, double blind, randomised, placebo controlled trial.

Setting: Eleven general hospitals in Spain between 2004 and 2007.

The metabolic syndrome and its constituting variables in atypical antipsychotic-treated subjects: comparison with other drug treatments, drug-free psychiatric patients, first-degree relatives and the general population in Venezuela.

Background: Few studies on the association between atypical antipsychotic drug (AAP) administration and metabolic dysfunction have concurrently evaluated the general population (GP), other psychotropic drug treatments and drug-free psychiatric patients.

Methods: We assessed the frequency of the metabolic syndrome (MS) according to the National Cholesterol Education Program criteria (NCEP) and its constituting variables in a GP sample (n=271) and in patients receiving, for at least three consecutive months, antiepileptic drugs (n=93), olanzapine (n=162), clozapine (n=105), typical antipsychotics (n=117), other AAP (n=58), other psychotropic drugs (n=185), and drug-free individuals (n=636). Subjects were clinically classified as schizophrenia, bipolar or other axis I disorders (DSM-IV-RT), and as first-degree relatives of each diagnostic group.

Hospital outcome of moderate to severe pericardial effusion complicating ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Hospital prognosis of moderate to severe pericardial effusion (MPE; ≥10 mm) in ST-elevation myocardial infarction is largely unknown.

Methods And Results: Data from 446 ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients, 228 with MPE-88 with cardiac tamponade (CT) and electromechanical dissociation (EMD), 44 with CT without EMD (w/oEMD), and 96 without initial CT-and 218 with small PE (5 to 9 mm), were compared. Patients with MPE without initial CT were also compared with 96 patients without PE.

Gender differences in macroprolactinomas: study of clinical features, outcome of patients and ki-67 expression in tumor tissue.

Prolactinomas in men are usually macroprolactinomas and other investigators have attributed bigger size of tumors in men to delay in diagnosis. A retrospective study of 71 macroadenomas (42 men) was carried out. Parameters studied were age, signs and symptoms at presentation, time of onset of symptoms, basal prolactin, estradiol, and total testosterone levels, tumor size and Ki 67 expression in tumor tissue.

Compound-specific bromine isotope analysis of brominated diphenyl ethers using gas chromatography multiple collector/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

The bromine isotope composition is potentially diagnostic in both degradation monitoring and source apportionment of organobromines in the environment. A method for compound-specific bromine isotope analysis (delta(81)Br) based on gas chromatography multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (GC/ICPMS) was developed for common brominated diaromatic compounds. Brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs) in Bromkal 70-5DE, a technical flame-retardant mixture containing mainly BDEs #47, #99 and #100, were used as test substances, with standard bracketing for the samples achieved through co-injected monobromobenzene (MBB) with a known delta(81)Br of -0.

Forced swimming test decreases chemotactic responsiveness and expression of CD11a in rat monocytes.

Objectives: Previous reports have shown that the depressive status in humans and experimental animals is associated with decreased immune response. Since monocyte chemotaxis and expression of CD11a are pivotal mechanisms in immune response, impairment of these events could explain the diminished immune response in depression.

Methods: To test this, rats were submitted to the forced swimming test (FST) for 3 and 15 days.

Outcomes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea: the overlap syndrome.

Rationale: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (overlap syndrome) are more likely to develop pulmonary hypertension than patients with either condition alone.

Objectives: To assess the relation of overlap syndrome to mortality and first-time hospitalization because of COPD exacerbation and the effect of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on these major outcomes.

Methods: We included 228 patients with overlap syndrome treated with CPAP, 213 patients with overlap syndrome not treated with CPAP, and 210 patients with COPD without OSA.

Integrated analysis of halogenated organic pollutants in sub-millilitre volumes of venous and umbilical cord blood sera.

A rapid, robust and economical method for the analysis of persistent halogenated organic compounds in small volumes of human serum and umbilical cord blood is described. The pollutants studied cover a broad range of molecules of contemporary epidemiological and legislative concern, including polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), polychlorobenzenes (CBs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), DDTs, polychlorostyrenes (PCSs) and polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Extraction and clean-up with n-hexane and concentrated sulphuric acid was followed with analysis by gas chromatography coupled to electron capture (GC-ECD) and GC coupled to negative ion chemical ionisation mass spectrometry (GC-NICI-MS).

An evaluation of the sexual differences in the accumulation of organochlorine compounds in children at birth and at the age of 4 years.

This study of the body burden and serum concentrations of organochlorine compounds (OCs), represents a general population in a cohort from Menorca Island (birth 1997-1998) of children at birth and at 4 years of age; the study has shown that the concentrations of hexachlorobenzene (HCB), 4,4'-DDE, 4,4'-DDT, polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) congeners #153, #138 and #180 and total PCBs in sera collected at 4 years are much higher in breastfed children than in those fed with formula, e.g. HCB 0.

Epidemiology of hip fracture in Tucuman, Argentina.

Unlabelled: The incidence of osteoporotic hip fracture was studied previously in a central area of Argentina. Studying Tucuman (north area) was very useful to compare results of the different areas and detect a similar incidence in women and a slightly higher incidence in men compared with previous data for the central region.

Introduction/methods: Epidemiology of hip fracture was studied over a 1-year period in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán (SMT) and in the whole province of Tucumán, located in the northeast of Argentina (latitudes 26° and 28° south).

[Identification of immunoreactive antigens of Leptospira interrogans].

A batch of 28 llama (Lama gama) sera from Jujuy province in Argentina was studied in order to identify immune reactive antigens to Leptospira interrogans. Different antigenic preparations from the bacterium were used to study the immune reactivity by the microagglutination (MAT), ELISA and Western immunoblot tests. A control pool of positive bovine sera was used.

Structural and ultrastructural analysis of cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and hypothalamus from diabetic rats.

Autonomic and peripheral neuropathies are well-described complications in diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is also associated to central nervous system damage. This little-known complication is characterized by impairment of brain functions and electrophysiological changes associated with neurochemical and structural abnormalities.

Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis of polychlorostyrene congener mixtures in sediments, human sera and cord sera.

Complex mixtures of polychlorostyrenes are produced and released into the environment by reaction of chlorine with graphite at high temperatures, e.g. in electrodes.

Depressive status does not alter renal oxidative and immunological parameters during early diabetic nephropathy in rats.

Depression is frequently observed among patients with diabetes and depressive status has been associated to activation of inflammatory processes, suggesting a role of depression in the inflammatory events observed in diabetes. To test that proposal, it was studied the effect of depression induced by forced swimming test (FST) on the evolution of early diabetic nephropathy. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin injection.