Publications by authors named "Alberto Bustamante"

Article Synopsis
  • High-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients in Latin America have experienced BCG shortages, prompting studies on the effectiveness of reduced-dose (RD) versus full-dose (FD) BCG treatments.
  • A retrospective study on 200 patients revealed that those receiving FD BCG had significantly lower recurrence rates and progression to muscle-invasive bladder cancer compared to those on RD BCG.
  • Although RD treatment had fewer treatment discontinuations due to toxicity, it was linked to poorer oncological outcomes, suggesting that full-dose BCG is more effective for high-risk patients.
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Background: To evaluate long-term oncological and renal function outcomes in patients treated with robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) for renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Patients And Methods: Patients undergoing RAPN for clinically localized RCC between January 2014 and December 2019 at a tertiary robotic reference center were evaluated. Clinical course, pathologic characteristics, and long-term outcomes were obtained from our institutional review board-approved RCC database.

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Background: Beyond exposure to arsenic in drinking-water, there is few information about demographic and clinicopathological features of patients with bladder cancer living in arsenic-exposed regions. The aim of the study was to assess the impact of arsenic exposure on clinicopathological characteristics in patients with bladder cancer from a contaminated region compared to those of 2 reference areas.

Methods: Data of 285 patients with bladder cancer (83 with arsenic exposure from Antofagasta and 202 controls from 2 different sites in Santiago) were obtained through personal interviews and from review of medical records.

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Inorganic arsenic (As) is a toxic xenobiotic and carcinogen associated with severe health conditions. The urban population from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile was exposed to extremely high As levels (up to 600 µg/l) in drinking water between 1958 and 1971, leading to increased incidence of urinary bladder cancer (BC), skin cancer, kidney cancer, and coronary thrombosis decades later. Besides, the Andean Native-American ancestors of the Atacama population were previously exposed for millennia to elevated As levels in water (∼120 µg/l) for at least 5,000 years, suggesting adaptation to this selective pressure.

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Cat scratch disease (CSD) is the most common zoonosis transmitted by household animals. There is limited data on the epidemiology and clinical presentation of this disease in Colombia. The typical presentation includes subacute or chronic lymph node infection following inoculation of Bartonella henselae bacilli through a cat scratch.

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Objectives: Household contacts (HHCs) of pulmonary tuberculosis patients are at high risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and early disease development. Identification of individuals at risk of tuberculosis disease is a desirable goal for tuberculosis control. Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) using specific M.

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Given that highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been demonstrated useful to restore immune competence in type-1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1)-infected subjects, we evaluated the specific antibody response to influenza vaccine in a cohort of HIV-1-infected children on HAART so as to analyze the quality of this immune response in patients under antiretroviral therapy. Sixteen HIV-1-infected children and 10 HIV-1 seronegative controls were immunized with a commercially available trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine containing the strains A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B. Serum hemagglutinin inhibition (HI) antibody titers were determined for the three viral strains at the time of vaccination and 1 month later.

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