Benefica chirurgia. A global surgery project focusing on hernia surgery.

Background: The aim of international health cooperation projects is to alleviate the deficiencies in the area of health in low resource settings. Hernia surgery is a procedure that is well suited to these missions, due to its low morbidity, the fact that it can be performed on an outpatient basis, and the improvement in quality of life that it provides.

Objective: To describe the results of Benefica Chirurgia (BC), a Spanish non-profit humanitarian association in hernia pathology.

Evaluation of a Patient-Specific, Low-Cost, 3-Dimensional-Printed Transesophageal Echocardiography Human Heart Phantom.

Objective: Currently available 3-dimensional (3D) modeling and printing techniques allow for the creation of patient-specific models based on 3D medical imaging data. The authors hypothesized that a low-cost, patient-specific, cardiac computed tomography-based phantom, created using desktop 3D printing and casting, would have comparable image quality, accuracy, and usability to an existing commercially available echocardiographic phantom.

Design: Blinded comparative study.

Correlation Between Transhepatic and Subcostal Inferior Vena Cava Views to Assess Inferior Vena Cava Variation: A Pilot Study.

Objectives: To assess the feasibility and reliability of transthoracic echocardiography to measure inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter variation using a transhepatic view.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Single-center hospital.

Death in a legal poppy field in Spain.

Opium is a substance extracted from Papaver somniferum L. Opium latex contains morphine, codeine, and thebaine and non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine. In Spain opium growing is allowed only for scientific or pharmaceutical purposes and harvest is supervised by the Spanish Health Ministry.

The submarine volcano eruption off El Hierro Island: effects on the scattering migrant biota and the evolution of the pelagic communities.

The submarine volcano eruption off El Hierro Island (Canary Islands) on 10 October 2011 promoted dramatic perturbation of the water column leading to changes in the distribution of pelagic fauna. To study the response of the scattering biota, we combined acoustic data with hydrographic profiles and concurrent sea surface turbidity indexes from satellite imagery. We also monitored changes in the plankton and nekton communities through the eruptive and post-eruptive phases.

Adrenergic response of splanchnic arteries from cirrhotic patients: role of nitric oxide, prostanoids, and reactive oxygen species.

Peripheral and splanchnic vasodilatation in cirrhotic patients has been related to hyporesponsiveness to vasoconstrictors, but studies to examine the vascular adrenergic response provide contradictory results. Hepatic arteries from cirrhotic patients undergoing liver transplantation and mesenteric arteries from liver donors were obtained. Segments 3 mm long from these arteries were mounted in organ baths for testing isometric adrenergic response.

Apelin effects in human splanchnic arteries. Role of nitric oxide and prostanoids.

Apelin effects were examined in human splanchnic arteries from liver donors (normal arteries) and from liver recipients. Segments 3 mm long were obtained from mesenteric arteries taken from liver donors (normal arteries), and from hepatic arteries taken from cirrhotic patients undergoing liver transplantation (liver recipients), and the segments were mounted in organ baths for isometric tension recording. In arteries under resting conditions, apelin (10(-10)-10(-6) M) caused no effect in any of the arteries tested.

Endothelium-dependent relaxation of isolated splanchnic arteries from cirrhotic patients: Role of reactive oxygen species.

Aim: To examine the endothelium-dependent relaxation of splanchnic arteries during cirrhosis as well as the role of reactive oxygen species in this relaxation using hepatic arteries from cirrhotic patients undergoing liver transplantation and mesenteric arteries from liver donors.

Methods: Arterial segments 3 mm long were mounted in organ baths for isometric tension recording and precontracted with the thromboxane A(2) analog U46619 (10(-7)-10(-6) M).

Results: The relaxation to acetylcholine (10(-8)-10(-4) M), but not to sodium nitroprusside (10(-8)-10(-4) M) was lower in hepatic arteries.

Treatment of chronic he1patitis C genotype 1 with peginterferon-alpha2a (40 kDa) plus ribavirin under routine clinical practice in Spain: early prediction of sustained virological response rate.

Background: Sustained virological response rates of up to 52% have been obtained with peginterferon alpha2a (40 kDa) plus ribavirin in patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 in randomized-controlled trials.

Aim: To assess early virological response and its clinical utility in predicting an sustained virological response in patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 in routine clinical practice in Spain.

Methods: Treatment-naïve patients received pegylated interferon alpha2a (40 kDa) 180 microg/week plus ribavirin 1000/1200 mg/day for 48 weeks, and were followed for a further 24 weeks.

[Metric characteristics of the Professional Quality of Life Questionnaire [QPL-35] in primary care professionals].

Objective: To assess the internal consistency, discriminative capacity and factorial composition of the Professional Quality of Life Questionnaire (QPL-35) in a population of primary care professionals.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analytical study in a primary care area in Madrid from 2001 to 2003. Random sampling of 450 healthcare professionals was performed on 2 occasions.

Method to determine the authenticity of aroma of saffron (Crocus sativus L.).

A thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry technique was applied to 252 different Spanish saffron samples (from La Mancha and Teruel). The average safranal content made up of 60% of the volatile fraction of the saffron. All the chromatograms obtained showed an interval between 8 and 18 min (retention time of safranal +/- 5 min) in which the silhouette of the chromatographic peaks was similar in all the samples.

[Prognostic factors in low-grade lymphoma].

Purpose: Prognostic factors in low grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (LGL) are not well established. The aim of this study is to investigate prognostic factors on LGL treated in our institution during the last decade.

Patients And Methods: The study was carried out on 70 cases of newly diagnosed LGL, most treated with CVP or clorambucil and prednisone.

[Research on prognostic factors in large-cell lymphomas].

Background: To carry out a study on the prognostic factors in large cell lymphomas (LCL) treated during the last decade and validate the international prognostic index (IPI).

Methods: One hundred twenty-four cases of newly diagnosed LCL, treated from 1978 to 1990, with a mean follow up of 27 months (1-142) were included in the study. The chemotherapy used was: CHOP (65%), ProMACE-CytaBOM (17%) and others (C-MOPP, MACOP-B).

[Infectious complications in bone marrow transplantation].

Background: Initially, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the incidence and implicated organisms in the infections in patients receiving a bone marrow transplants (BMT).

Methods: 194 febrile episodes (FE) were evaluated in 115 patients having received a BMT between 1980 and 1987. The analysis was carried out at three different moments: during the period of most marked neutropenia (period I) to the 100th day after BMT (period II) and beyond the 100th day (period III).

[Empirical treatment of febrile episodes in patients with neutropenia in bone marrow transplantation].

The results of therapy of febrile episodes during the pregraft phase in bone marrow transplant was retrospectively evaluated in 84 granulocytopenic patients. Most patients received co-trimoxazole and i.v.

[Prevention of acute graft versus host disease using 3 prophylactic schemes].

During 7 years 81 patients received an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) for several diseases. The prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was undertaken with methotrexate (MTX), MTX plus antilymphocytic gammaglobulin plus prednisone (MTX + ALT + P), and elimination of the T-lymphocytes of the donor's bone marrow with the monoclonal antibody CAMPATH-1. The actuarial survival of the patients who did not develop GVHD was significantly better than that of those who developed grade II-IV GVHD: 56% [95% confidence interval (CI) 39-71%] versus 10% (95% CI 3-25%) (p less than 0.

Therapy of advanced myelodysplastic syndrome with aggressive chemotherapy.

Nine patients with advanced stages of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) received aggressive chemotherapy with high-dose cytarabine or with a standard acute myeloid leukemic regimen. Six of them were in frank acute myeloid leukemic phase. The mean age was 57 years (range 32-71).

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation versus intensification chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukaemia in first remission: a prospective controlled trial.

In 1982 we began a prospective controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation and intensive post-remission chemotherapy for patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia in first complete remission. Fourteen patients, 3-45 years of age, who had an HLA-identical sibling donor, received bone marrow transplantation. Twenty-five patients who either lacked an HLA-identical sibling or were over 45 years of age received intensive consolidation chemotherapy including high-dose cytosine arabinoside with or without adriamycin.

A randomized trial comparing chlorambucil plus prednisone vs cyclophosphamide, melphalan, and prednisone in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia stages B and C.

Ninety-six previously untreated patients (67 males/29 females; mean age: 63 years; range: 46-84) with CLL in stage B (62 cases) or C (34 cases) were randomized to be treated with either chlorambucil (0.4 mg/kg orally days 5 and 6) plus prednisone (60 mg/m2 orally days 1 to 4) (CL + PDN) every 2 weeks or cyclophosphamide (160 mg/m2 orally days 1 to 4), melphalan (6 mg/m2 orally days 1 to 4), and prednisone (60 mg/m2 orally days 1 to 4) (CMP) every 3 weeks for 10 months. Forty-eight patients were treated with CLR + PDN, and the remaining 48 with CMP.