Publications by authors named "Ana C Ferreira"

To evaluate whether the presence of proteinuria, although no longer mandatory in the revised diagnostic criteria, results in worse maternal and fetal outcomes in preeclampsia (PE). A retrospective cohort study was conducted, analyzing data from pregnant patients diagnosed with PE between January 2015 and December 2019 at a tertiary care center in Brazil. Ethical approval was obtained, and the patient records were reviewed to assess maternal and perinatal outcomes based on the revised diagnostic criteria by the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, focusing on the presence or absence of proteinuria.

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  • * Both traditional risk factors (like diabetes and high blood pressure) and kidney-specific factors (such as uremic toxins and chronic inflammation) can damage the blood-brain barrier and promote neuroinflammation, leading to cognitive impairments.
  • * Recent animal model studies suggest new prevention and treatment strategies, focusing on the role of the blood-brain barrier, physical activity, and innovative therapies like SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists in addressing cognitive decline in kidney disease.
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  • T helper 2 (T2) cells play a key role in type 2 immunity, helping the body fight off parasitic infections and maintain tissue balance.
  • When T2 cells act inappropriately against harmless substances, they can contribute to allergic conditions like asthma.
  • New technologies are revealing important details about how T2 cells develop and function at a molecular level.
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  • * The European Renal Osteodystrophy (EUROD) initiative emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach, bringing together specialists to tackle complex cases of CKD-associated osteoporosis.
  • * The establishment of kidney-bone MDTs is recommended to enhance diagnostics and personalized treatment plans for improve patient management in CKD-MBD across different levels of healthcare.
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  • - The study examined the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) and found that over half of the patients (65% by one test and 33% by another) showed signs of MCI, which poses risks like peritonitis and increased mortality.
  • - Factors associated with MCI included older age, lower education levels, physical assistance requirements, a specific type of PD modality, and greater overall health issues (measured by the Charlson comorbidity index). Lower dialysis adequacy (Kt/V) and diet quality (nPCR) were also linked to MCI.
  • - The findings highlight the need for better cognitive health monitoring and management in PD patients, as those with
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  • The link between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cognitive function is gaining attention, particularly focusing on the effects of antibacterial agents (ABs) used in CKD patients who are more prone to infections.
  • This review highlights how ABs can have direct neurotoxic effects on the central nervous system (CNS) and discusses how these medications can also alter gut microbiota, impacting cognitive symptoms through the brain-gut-kidney axis.
  • The findings emphasize the need for careful monitoring of AB therapies in CKD patients to manage adverse drug reactions, particularly antibiotic-associated encephalopathy.
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  • * A study comparing blood lipids and body measurements of 30 pediatric FH patients from pre-pandemic times to the post-lockdown period found no significant changes in their metabolic profiles, which was better than expected.
  • * These findings suggest that education on healthy lifestyles may have mitigated negative impacts during lockdowns, but the small and diverse sample size indicates that more extensive research is needed to fully understand the effects on this group.
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Aquaculture located in urban river estuaries, where other anthropogenic activities may occur, has an impact on and may be affected by the environment where they are inserted, namely by the exchange of antimicrobial resistance genes. The latter may ultimately, through the food chain, represent a source of resistance genes to the human resistome. In an exploratory study of the presence of resistance genes in aquaculture sediments located in urban river estuaries, two machine learning models were applied to predict the source of 34 resistome observations in the aquaculture sediments of oysters and gilt-head sea bream, located in the estuaries of the Sado and Lima Rivers and in the Aveiro Lagoon, as well as in the sediments of the Tejo River estuary, where Japanese clams and mussels are collected.

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Bone and mineral metabolism abnormalities are frequent in kidney transplant recipients and have been associated with cardiovascular morbidity. The primary aim of this study was to analyse the association between routine clinically available biochemical evaluation, non-routine histomorphometric bone evaluation, and vascular disease in kidney transplanted patients. A cross-sectional analysis was performed on 69 patients, 1-year after kidney transplantation.

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Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of mortality worldwide. Patients with phenylketonuria (PKU) may be at increased cardiovascular risk. This review provides an overview of clinical and metabolic cardiovascular risk factors, explores the connections between body composition (including fat mass and ectopic fat) and cardiovascular risk, and examines various methods for evaluating body composition.

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There is growing evidence that chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an independent risk factor for cognitive impairment, especially due to vascular damage, blood-brain barrier disruption and uremic toxins. Given the presence of multiple comorbidities, the medication regimen of CKD patients often becomes very complex. Several medications such as psychotropic agents, drugs with anticholinergic properties, GABAergic drugs, opioids, corticosteroids, antibiotics and others have been linked to negative effects on cognition.

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Lipocalin-2 (LCN2) is an acute phase protein able to bind iron when complexed with bacterial siderophores. The recent identification of a mammalian siderophore also suggested a physiological role for LCN2 in the regulation of iron levels and redox state. In the central nervous system, the deletion of LCN2 induces deficits in neural stem cells proliferation and commitment, with an impact on the hippocampal-dependent contextual fear discriminative task.

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  • Dihydropteridine reductase deficiency (DHPRD) is a rare genetic disorder affecting the regeneration of tetrahydrobiopterin, leading to symptoms that often resemble cerebral palsy, such as developmental delays and feeding difficulties.
  • A 2-year-old boy diagnosed with cerebral palsy in Guinea was found to have hyperphenylalaninemia, prompting further testing that revealed DHPRD due to a specific genetic variant.
  • Early treatment initiation, including a restrictive diet and medication, led to moderate improvement in the child's condition, highlighting the importance of accurate diagnosis to ensure effective management of neurological disorders that may mimic cerebral palsy.
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Magnesium and vitamin D play important roles in most cells of the body. These nutrients act in a coordinated fashion to maintain physiologic functions of various organs, and their abnormal balance could adversely affect these functions. Therefore, deficient states of both nutrients may lead to several chronic medical conditions and increased cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.

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Functional output of the hippocampus, a brain region subserving memory function, depends on highly orchestrated cellular and molecular processes that regulate synaptic plasticity throughout life. The structural requirements of such plasticity and molecular events involved in this regulation are poorly understood. Specific molecules, including tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP2) have been implicated in plasticity processes in the hippocampus, a role that decreases with brain aging as expression is lost.

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  • Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) metabolism disorders lead to different health issues based on where the metabolic pathway is disrupted, resulting in conditions like combined methylmalonic acidemia and homocystinuria or isolated forms of these diseases.* -
  • A study was conducted on patients with these disorders over 23 years, revealing varied clinical presentations, such as severe symptoms at birth or developmental delays, highlighting the diverse impact of these conditions.* -
  • The findings align with existing literature on these disorders, emphasizing the need for early diagnosis and tailored treatments, such as betaine or hydroxycobalamin, which were administered to all patients in the study.*
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  • Metabolic myopathies (MM) are genetic disorders that impact energy production pathways, leading to symptoms like exercise intolerance, muscle pain, and weakness, often diagnosed through clinical observation or screenings.
  • A study reviewed 23 patients, revealing varied diagnoses, with glycogen storage diseases and fatty acid oxidation disorders being the most common, and symptoms frequently included fatigue, rhabdomyolysis, and exercise intolerance.
  • Diagnosis was primarily confirmed through biochemical tests and genetic analysis, emphasizing the importance of clinical history in differentiating these disorders.
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Introduction: Paediatric palliative care (PPC) has a significant role in improving the quality of life of children with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses, diminishing symptom burden, and providing holistic support to patients and families. Inherited metabolic diseases (IMD) are a group of heterogeneous diseases that often present with severe neurologic impairment, needing lifelong care and challenging symptom management.

Objective: Our aim was to characterize the cohort of patients with IMD followed by the paediatric palliative care team (PPCT) and to describe the provision of care provided.

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High-quality and goal-directed peritoneal dialysis (PD) prescription should be provided to all PD patients. Prioritizing patients' goals is necessary for their quality of life, as it is assessment of volume and nutritional status, anemia and mineral and bone management, or small-solute removal. To optimize the removal of small solutes, and depending on membrane characteristics, the increase in concentration gradient difference or the increase in volume (recruitment of all peritoneal capacities) can be performed.

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  • A new zoonotic bacteria is emerging as the primary cause of canine brucellosis in Europe, leading to reproductive issues in dogs and potential chronic illnesses in humans.* -
  • Current understanding of host interactions and effective diagnostic tools for this infection is limited, with no vaccine available and ineffective antimicrobial treatments increasing the risk of antibiotic resistance.* -
  • The lack of systematic surveillance and legal frameworks to address canine brucellosis complicates management efforts, prompting the need for improved strategies to combat this disease among pets and in kennel settings.*
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