Publications by authors named "Ana C Nastri"
COVID-19 disease is spread worldwide and diagnostic techniques have been studied in order to contain the pandemic. Immunochromatographic (IC) assays are feasible and a low-cost alternative especially in low and middle-income countries, which lack structure to perform certain diagnostic techniques. Here we evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of eleven different IC tests in 145 serum samples from confirmed cases of COVID-19 using RT-PCR and 100 negative serum samples from blood donors collected in February 2019.
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- - A healthcare worker contracted monkeypox virus (MPXV) from a patient due to a needlestick injury, leading to a lesion forming five days later.
- - The worker tested positive for MPXV in their blood before showing severe symptoms, and the virus was still detectable 19 days after symptoms began.
- - Implementing postexposure prophylaxis could help prevent the spread of MPXV through bloodborne routes in similar cases.
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- Two new cases of Sabiá virus (SABV) infection were diagnosed in Brazil, marking the first instances in over 20 years.
- The infected patients exhibited severe symptoms, including hepatitis and neurological issues, leading to their deaths, with unique histopathological features observed in autopsies.
- Despite the possibility of transmission in healthcare settings, contact tracing showed no additional infections among hospital staff and contacts, highlighting the rarity of this virus.
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- Corynebacterium diphtheriae infections, particularly non-toxigenic strains, are emerging as serious causes of invasive diseases like endocarditis, especially in developing countries.
- A case involving a 21-year-old male with severe symptoms linked to acute infective endocarditis highlighted the pathogen's virulence and necessitated urgent and interdisciplinary medical intervention.
- Despite initial treatment, the patient's condition worsened, leading to surgery for mitral valve replacement, demonstrating the complexities of diagnosing and treating infections caused by C. diphtheriae.
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- A study evaluated the effectiveness of a rapid chromatographic immunoassay and ELISA for diagnosing COVID-19 among 122 individuals at two hospitals in Brazil, including both RT-PCR-positive and symptomatic RT-PCR-negative patients.
- The rapid test showed an overall sensitivity of 85.8%, which increased to 94.9% after 14 days of symptom onset, with a specificity of 100%.
- The common symptoms in patients included fever, cough, and dyspnea, and the main thoracic CT findings were ground glass changes, with a significant number of RT-PCR-negative patients also testing positive with the rapid test.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects approximately 3 % of the world population. HCV targets hepatic tissue, and most infected patients develop a chronic infection. Currently, studies have demonstrated an association between HCV-RNA replication and miR-122, the most abundant microRNA in the liver.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Nucleoside/nucleotide analogue (NA) treatment causes selection pressure for HBV strains carrying mutations conferring NA resistance. Drug-resistance mutations occur in the reverse transcriptase (RT) region of the HBV polymerase gene and spontaneously arise during viral replication. These mutations can also alter the hepatitis B surface (HBs) protein and in some cases reduce binding to HBs antibodies.
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