Publications by authors named "Abreu A"

Background: Health-related quality of life (QoL) is severely impaired in acromegaly due to the physical and psychological consequences of the disease. Pharmacological and surgical treatments, when available, can improve QoL and life expectancy.

Case Description: A 34-year-old male with uncontrolled acromegaly due to a large and invasive macroadenoma, which could not be resected by transsphenoidal surgery.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Arsenic and antimony compounds are used to treat endemic diseases, such as cancer, leishmaniasis, and schistosomiasis, in spite of their toxicity. Several studies seeking the development and characterization of nanocarrier systems such as liposomes are being carried out with the aim of developing new drug delivery systems and minimizing the toxicity of these drugs. However, the lack of reference methods to quantify these semimetals within a liposomal matrix hinders the QC of these formulations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Acquired metallo-β-lactamases (MβL) are emerging determinants of resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. The objectives of this study were to phenotypically detect MβL in imipenem-resistant P. aeruginosa and A.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurologic disorder that is not completely understood; its fundamental physiological mechanisms and chemical effects remain somewhat unclear. Among these uncertainties, we can highlight information about the concentrations of brain metabolites, which have been widely discussed. Concentration differences in affected, compared to healthy, individuals could lead to the development of useful tools for evaluating the progression of disease, or to the advance of investigations of different/alternative treatments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A significant number of hospital-acquired infections occur due to inefficient disinfection of hospital surfaces, instruments and rooms. The emergence and wide spread of multiresistant forms of several microorganisms has led to a situation where few compounds are able to inhibit or kill the infectious agents. Several strategies to disinfect both clinical equipment and the environment are available, often involving the use of antimicrobial chemicals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To describe a technique to manage large intravesical prostate lobes (IVPL) during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP).

Patients And Methods: We used a "rescue stitch" to retract large IVPLs anteriorly out of the bladder lumen. This stitch is a 6-inch long 0-polyglactin suture on a CT-1 needle with a Hem-o-lok clip tied to the tail end.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The development of large scale synthesis of enantiopure and thermally stable (R)- and (S)-BINOL molecules constitutes a key milestone in the field of asymmetric catalysis. Particularly, a great variety of chiral binaphthyl-based phosphorus compounds, herein represented by phosphite and phosphine classes, have earned considerable relevance due to their versatility as ligands in enantioselective metal-catalysed reactions, allowing the preparation of optically active products with the desired enantiopurity. This review highlights the most relevant concepts and accounts regarding general synthetic procedures for binaphthyl-based mono- and bidentate phosphites and phosphines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 or Machado-Joseph disease is the most common spinocerebellar ataxia worldwide, and the high frequency of nonmotor manifestations in Machado-Joseph disease demonstrates how variable is the clinical expression of this single genetic entity. Anatomical, physiological, clinical, and functional neuroimaging data reinforce the idea of a degenerative process involving extracerebellar regions of the nervous system in Machado-Joseph disease. Brain imaging and neuropathologic studies have revealed atrophy of the pons, basal ganglia, midbrain, medulla oblongata, multiple cranial nerve nuclei, and thalamus and of the frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, and limbic lobes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Previous studies demonstrated cognitive impairments in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3/MJD); however, there is no consensus about the cognitive domains affected and the correlation with structural brain abnormalities. We investigated the neuropsychological profile and 3T-MRI findings, including high-resolution T1-images, diffusion tensor imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy of 32 patients with SCA3/MJD and 32 age-, gender- and educational level-matched healthy controls. We reviewed patients' clinical history and CAG repeat length, and performed assessment and rating of ataxia (SARA)-Brazilian version and the neuropsychiatric inventory.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The onset of puberty is first detected as an increase in pulsatile secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). Early activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis results in central precocious puberty. The timing of pubertal development is driven in part by genetic factors, but only a few, rare molecular defects associated with central precocious puberty have been identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A set of microsatellite markers was developed for Smilax brasiliensis, a plant known as sarsaparilla, which is commonly used in folk medicine but lacks quality control in Brazil.
  • The study created primer pairs for 26 microsatellite loci, finding that 13 loci were polymorphic and effective for amplifying alleles in related species of Smilax.
  • These new SSR markers can be used to assess genetic diversity and gene flow in Smilax brasiliensis and related species, providing valuable tools for future research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although white matter damage may play a major role in the pathogenesis of spinocerebellar ataxia 3 (SCA3), available data rely exclusively upon macrostructural analyses. In this setting we designed a study to investigate white matter integrity. We evaluated 38 genetically-confirmed SCA3 patients (mean age, 52.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The scope of this study was to evaluate the sleep/wake cycle in shift work nurses, as well as their sleep quality and chronotype. The sleep/wake cycle was evaluated by keeping a sleep diary for a total of 60 nurses with a mean age of 31.76 years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A total of twelve lactating Jersey cows were used in a 5-week experiment to determine the effects of severe feed restriction on the permeability of mammary gland cell tight junctions (TJs) and its effects on milk stability to the alcohol test. During the first 2 weeks, cows were managed and fed together and received the same diet according to their nutritional requirements (full diet: 15 kg of sugar cane silage; 5.8 kg of alfalfa hay; 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Autonomic dysfunction has been already described in patients with SCA3/MJD, but several important questions remain unanswered. The objectives of this study are to determine the frequency and the intensity of autonomic manifestations in SCA3/MJD, as well as to identify possible correlations between autonomic manifestations and genetic and clinical parameters. We have performed clinical and electrophysiological evaluations of 40 patients with SCA3/MJD and 38 healthy controls.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Population genetic studies are essential to the better application of pest management strategies, including the monitoring of the evolution of resistance to insecticides and genetically modified plants. Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bt) crops have been instrumental in controlling tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a pest that has developed resistance to many common insecticides once used for its management.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: We report the perioperative outcomes of robotic/laparoscopic partial nephrectomy for multiple tumors at a single operative session. Outcomes were compared with those of a matched pair cohort treated with partial nephrectomy for a single renal tumor.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a prospectively maintained database from 2001 to 2010 and identified 33 patients who underwent partial nephrectomy for multiple tumors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Age at onset (AO) in Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) is closely associated with the length of the CAG repeat at the mutant ATXN3 allele, but there are other intervening factors. Experimental evidence indicates that the normal ATXN3 allele and the C-terminal heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70)-interacting protein (CHIP) may be genetic modifiers of AO in MJD.

Methods: To investigate this hypothesis, we determined the length of normal and expanded CAG repeats at the ATXN3 gene in 210 unrelated patients with MJD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This research objectives were: to discover the sociodemographic profile of the nursing staff that works in the hospital emergency service, identify the main types of occupational violence suffered by this team. Cross-sectional descriptive study done in a general hospital in Duque de Cazxias/Rio de Janeiro. The data, collected on August, 2009, was put in tables for subsequent univariate analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionjsqs0fb7svqgtj5no00ippd8k89jance): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: A non-numeric value encountered

Filename: controllers/Author.php

Line Number: 219

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Author.php
Line: 219
Function: _error_handler

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: A non-numeric value encountered

Filename: libraries/Pagination.php

Line Number: 413

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Author.php
Line: 274
Function: create_links

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once