Osteopontin Promotes Cholangiocyte Secretion of Chemokines to Support Macrophage Recruitment and Fibrosis in MASH.

Background And Aims: Osteopontin (OPN) promotes the ductular reaction and is a major driver of chronic liver disease (CLD) progression. Although CLD is characterised by the accumulation of inflammatory cells including macrophages around the peri-portal regions, the influence of OPN on recruitment is unclear. We investigated the role of OPN in cholangiocyte chemokine production and macrophage recruitment by combining in vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches.

Maternal mortality: protocol of a study integrated to the Birth in Brazil II survey.

The Maternal Mortality Study conducts a hospital investigation of maternal deaths that occurred in 2020/2021 in the maternity hospitals sampled by the Birth in Brazil II survey, with the following objectives: estimate the maternal mortality underreporting; calculate a correction factor and the corrected (MMR); validate the causes of maternal mortality reported in the death certificate (DC); and analyze the factors associated with maternal mortality. The Birth in Brazil II includes approximately 24,250 puerperal women distributed in 465 public, private, and mixed hospitals with ≥ 100 live births/year in the five macroregions of Brazil. The Maternal Mortality Study data will be completed using the same Birth in Brazil II questionnaire, from the consultation of hospital records.

Birth in Brazil II: a postpartum maternal, paternal and child health research protocol.

Pregnancy, parturition and birth bring major changes to the lives of mothers and fathers. This article presents a research protocol for estimating the prevalence of postpartum mental health outcomes in mothers and fathers, abuse and satisfaction in delivery/abortion care, and the correlations between them and socioeconomic, obstetric, and child health factors. As a 2-component research, it consists of a prospective cohort study with all postpartum women interviewed in the 465 maternity hospitals included at the Birth in Brazil II baseline survey conducted from 2021 to 2023, and a cross-sectional study with the newborns' fathers/partners.

Perinatal mortality, severe maternal morbidity and maternal near miss: protocol of a study integrated with the Birth in Brazil II survey.

Brazil presents high maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Cases of severe maternal morbidity, maternal near miss, and perinatal deaths are important health indicators and share the same determinants, being closely related to living conditions and quality of perinatal care. This article aims to present the study protocol to estimate the perinatal mortality rate and the incidence of severe maternal morbidity and maternal near miss in the country, identifying its determinants.

Protocol of Birth in Brazil II: National Research on Abortion, Labor and Childbirth.

Brazil has made advances in obstetric care in public and private hospitals; however, weaknesses in this system still require attention. The Brazilian Ministry of Health, aware of this need, funded the second version of the Birth in Brazil survey. This study aimed to evaluate: prenatal, labor and birth, postpartum, and abortion care, comparing the results with those of Birth in Brazil I; and analyze the main determinants of perinatal morbidity and mortality; evaluate the care structure and processes of obstetrics and neonatology services in maternity hospitals; analyze the knowledge, practices, and attitudes of health professionals who provide birth and abortion care; and identify the main barriers and facilitators related to care of this nature in Brazil.

[Factors associated with breastfeeding at birth in maternity hospitals linked to the Rede Cegonha, Brazil, 2016-2017].

Breastfeeding (BF) is a human right, and it must start from birth. The adequacy of Rede Cegonha (RC) strategies can contribute to the promotion of BF. The objective was to identify factors associated with BF in the first and 24 hours of live births at full-term maternity hospitals linked to CR.

Effect of Antibiotic Prophylaxis on Early Loss of Implants Installed by Unexperienced Operators.

Routine use of antibiotics for dental implant installation is widely applied in dental practice to prevent postoperative infection and implant loss. However, the effectiveness and necessity of such protocols have not been consensual in the literature. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of antibiotic prophylaxis on survival of dental implants placed in clinically healthy patients by unexperienced operators.

Agreement between maternal self-report of birth-related information and medical records in Brazil: A comparison study between public, mixed, and private hospitals.

Background: The study aims to assess agreement between data obtained from interviews with postpartum women and their health records about labor and birth characteristics, newborn care, and reasons for cesarean birth.

Methods: The present study analyzes the Birth in Brazil study dataset, a nationwide hospital-based survey that included 23,894 postpartum women. Reliability was assessed using kappa coefficients and 95% confidence intervals.

Inter-sectoral prioritization of climate technologies: insights from a Technology Needs Assessment for mitigation in Brazil.

Unlabelled: Technological development is key for national strategies to cope with the Paris Agreement's goals. Technology Needs Assessments (TNAs) aim to identify, prioritize, and diffuse climate change mitigation and/or adaptation technologies in developing countries. Their methodology includes a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework but, although many countries already conducted a TNA, literature lacks discussions on country-specific processes for a TNA, as it usually follows a one-size-fits-all approach.

Association Between Molar-Incisor Hypomineralization and Enamel Hypoplasia.

Objective: To investigate the association between molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH) and enamel hypoplasia.

Study Design: The sample consisted of 311 orthodontic files of patients aged between 12 and 18 years, divided into two groups: patients with MIH (109) and without MIH (202). MIH and enamel hypoplasia were diagnosed via panoramic radiographs and intraoral photographs, followed by clinical examination of the MIH-affected patients as per the modified EAPD scoring criteria.

Care for healthy newborns in Brazil: are we making progress in achieving best practices?

This paper aims to compare best practices for healthy newborns in public and mixed hospitals affiliated with SUS, according to type of birth, between "Nascer no Brasil/2011" (NB - Birth in Brazil) and in the last assessment cycle of Rede Cegonha, here called "Avaliação da Rede Cegonha/2017" (ARC - Stork Network Assessment). NB included a sample with national representativeness of 266 hospitals, and ARC was conducted in 606 maternity hospitals included in the Rede Cegonha strategy, totaling 15,994 and 8,047 pairs of healthy mothers and newborns, respectively.Between the two studies, NB-2011 and ARC-2017, although the proportion of cesarean sections remained around 44%, the prevalence of skin-to-skin contact with newborns, breastfeeding in the delivery room and breastfeeding in the first 24h of life increased by 140%, 82% and 6%, respectively.

Labor and childbirth care in maternities participating in the "Rede Cegonha/Brazil": an evaluation of the degree of implementation of the activities.

Using a judgment framework, this article analyzes the degree of implementation of the best practices in labor and childbirth care contained in the guidelines of the Rede Cegonha (RC) across Brazil. The study eligibility criteria were public and mixed hospitals located in a health region with a RC action plan in place in 2015, resulting in a total of 606 facilities distributed across the country. Three different data collection methods were used: face-to-face interviews with managers, health professionals and puerperal women; document analysis; and on-site observation.

Assessment of delivery and childbirth care in the maternity units of Rede Cegonha: the methodological paths.

This article describes the methodology used to evaluate delivery and childbirth care practices in maternity hospitals that belong to the Rede Cegonha, according to scientific evidence and rights guarantee. It shows the maternity selection criteria, the evaluated guidelines, their devices and check items, the method used to collect information and the treatment of data to obtain the results. It discusses the chosen guidelines and the strategy of returning results to managers and services and discusses their potential to foster management qualification processes and obstetric and neonatal care.

Hormonal and biochemical changes in female Proechimys guyannensis, an animal model of resistance to pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus.

The Amazon rodent Proechimys guyannensis is widely studied for hosting various pathogens, though rarely getting sick. Previous studies on male Proechimys have revealed an endogenous resistance to epilepsy. Here, we assess in female Proechimys, whether sex hormones and biochemical aspects can interfere with the induction of status epilepticus (SE).

[Large-scale contamination by Bisphenol A: are we aware of the risk and forms of exposure?].

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a substance extensively used in daily life, mainly in plastic materials. This study assessed the exposure of university students to endocrine disruptor BPA, their knowledge about this substance and the damage it causes to human health. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out with 500 students from a University in Curitiba.

Nascer no Brasil: continuity of care during pregnancy and postpartum period for women and newborns.

Objective: To estimate the adequacy of health care during pregnancy and the postpartum period in puerperal women and newborn users of the Unified Health System and verify the factors associated with greater adequacy.

Methods: We used data obtained in the hospital interview, the prenatal card and the first telephone interview of 12,646 women participating in the study Nascer no Brasil (Birth in Brazil), conducted in 2011 and 2012. In the first stage of the analysis, the sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics of women and the estimation of adequacy of prenatal and postpartum care indicators are described.

[Use of outpatient health services by postpartum women and newborns: data from the Birth in Brazil study].

This study aims to estimate postpartum use of outpatient health services and verify the demographic, socioeconomic, and obstetric factors associated with use. A nationwide hospital-based study in 2011-2012 interviewed 23,894 women. Point estimates and respective confidence intervals were calculated for eight indicators of health services use, with performance assessed as "satisfactory" (75%-100%); "partial" (50%-74%), or "unsatisfactory" (< 50%).

Characterization of the estrous cycle in the Amazon spiny rat ().

Males of , a rodent living in the Amazon rainforest are studied in biomedical research because of their antiepileptogenic mechanism. Females are usually taken from experimental designs, because of limited data of this sex. This study aimed to characterize the estrous cycle to include females together with males in research in a more balanced approach.

Progress in childbirth care in Brazil: preliminary results of two evaluation studies.

This article aims to describe the preliminary results of two evaluations studies, one about the Stork Network program and the other about the Adequate Birth program, called Stork Network Assessment and Healthy Birth, and to identify possible improvements in comparison to the Birth in Brazil study. Both studies used a cross-sectional design and were conducted in 2017. The Stork Network Assessment study included all 606 public and mixed maternity hospitals from the Stork Network and a total of 10,675 postpartum women.

Health facility structure and maternal characteristics related to essential newborn care in Brazil: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To assess the use of the WHO's Essential Newborn Care (ENC) programme items and to investigate how the non-use of such technologies associates with the mothers' characteristics and hospital structure.

Design: A cross-sectional observational health facility assessment.

Setting: This is a secondary analysis of the 'Birth in Brazil' study, a national population-based survey on postnatal women/newborn babies and of 266 publicly and privately funded health facilities (secondary and tertiary level of care).

The rabbit vagina as an in vivo model for vaginal fenticonazole permeability and toxicity.

Introduction: Vaginal route is often used in topical antifungal formulations. Vaginal permeability assays are generally performed as in vitro tests.

Method: An in vivo vaginal permeability assay was developed using female rabbits.

Modification of the natural progression of epileptogenesis by means of biperiden in the pilocarpine model of epilepsy.

Brain injuries are often associated with the later development of epilepsy. Evidence suggests that morphological and functional changes occur in the remaining neural tissue during a silent (or latent) period in which no seizures are expressed. It is believed that this silent (reorganization) period may provide a therapeutic window for modifying the natural history of disease progression.

Determinants of infant mortality in the Jequitinhonha Valley and in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil.

Objective: This study aims to identify the social and demographic determinants, in addition to the determinants of reproductive health and use of health services, associated with infant mortality in small and medium-sized cities of the North, Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil.

Methods: This is a case-control study with 803 cases of death of children under one year and 1,969 live births (controls), whose mothers lived in the selected cities in 2008. The lists of the names of cases and controls were extracted from the Sistema de Informação sobre Mortalidade (SIM - Mortality Information System) and the Sistema de Informação sobre Nascidos Vivos (SINASC - Live Birth Information System) and supplemented by data obtained by the research of "active search of death and birth".