Maternal oxygenation and fetal-neonatal mortality among patients with COVID-19 requiring advanced respiratory support in ICU: A multicenter prospective cohort study.

Objective: To explore the association of maternal characteristics, oxygenation, and mechanical ventilatory parameters with fetal and neonatal outcomes.

Methods: The present study was a multicenter, binational (Argentina/Colombia), prospective, cohort study, conducted in 21 intensive care units (ICUs) and including pregnant or postpartum patients with COVID-19 pneumonia requiring advanced respiratory support and their fetuses/neonates. Advanced respiratory support was defined as high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC), non-invasive ventilation (NIV) or invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV).

Epidemiology, patterns of care and prognosis of acute kidney injury in critically ill patients: A multicenter study in Argentina (The EPIRA study).

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates in the intensive care unit (ICU). In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), epidemiological information about this condition is still scarce. Our main objective was to characterize its epidemiology, prognosis, and its treatment.

Ventilatory Parameters in Obstetric Patients With COVID-19 and Impact of Delivery: A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: Current evidence on obstetric patients requiring advanced ventilatory support and impact of delivery on ventilatory parameters is retrospective, scarce, and controversial.

Research Question: What are the ventilatory parameters for obstetric patients with COVID-19 and how does delivery impact them? What are the risk factors for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and for maternal, fetal, and neonatal mortality?

Study Design And Methods: Prospective, multicenter, cohort study including pregnant and postpartum patients with COVID-19 requiring advanced ventilatory support in the ICU.

Results: Ninety-one patients were admitted to 21 ICUs at 29.

Fluids in the postoperative period: effects of lack of adjustment to body weight.

Objective: To compare the differences in fluid and electrolyte balance in patients with low and high weight in the first postoperative day.

Methods: Over a period of 18 months, we prospectively evaluated 150 patients in the first 24 hours after surgery, in a university-affiliated hospital intensive care unit. Patients with low weight (< 60 kg) and high body weight (> 90 Kg) were compared in terms of fluid intake and output.

An analysis of the regulatory program of quality audits in radiotherapy in Brazil from 1995 to 2007.

The Brazilian Institute of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry (IRD/CNEN) carried out quality assurance regulatory audits in Brazilian radiotherapy facilities from 1995 to 2007. In this work, the set of data collected from 195 radiotherapy facilities that use high-energy photon beams are analyzed. They include results from audits in linear electron accelerators and/or Co-60 units.

[State of the art and scientific evidence on the role of unidirectional airflow ventilation systems in reducing surgical site infections].

The use of unidirectional airflow ventilation systems in operating rooms is frequently recommended for the prevention of Surgical Site Infections (SSI). However, scientific evidence is lacking to clearly support this technology which entails high investment costs and operating expenses, as compared with traditional ventilation systems. This sparse evidence is mainly related to the small number of interventions analyzed in each study and the difficulty to distinguish the effects of ventilation and other important confounding factors, such as antibiotic prophylaxis, special operating staff clothing and adoption of educational and training programs against SSI for the surgical personnel.

Radiometric survey of teletherapy treatment rooms in Brazil.

The Brazilian national regulatory authority, National Commission of Nuclear Energy, requires that dose rates in the vicinity of teletherapy treatment rooms do not exceed the permissible limits for workers as well as members of the public, depending on the place considered. At the end of 2005, the Brazilian national regulatory authority reduced the permissible dose limit for controlled areas from 1000 to 400 microSv week(-1). Therefore, the aim of this work is to verify the adequacy of structural shielding to this new limit for telecobalt units that had their sources changed and clinic linear accelerators (ALs) installed before the end of 2005.

Dosimetric audits of photon beams in radiation therapy centres in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Data related to 11 y of high-energy photon radiotherapy beam dosimetry are presented and analysed. Dosimetric evaluations were carried out using water phantoms and thimble ionisation chambers and are part of the radiation protection regulatory licensing process for medicine facilities of Brazilian government. Measurements were done at reference conditions for a standard absorbed dose of 100 cGy [cGy (=1 rad)].

[Cost evaluation of a ventilation system for operating theatre: an ultraclean design versus a conventional one].

The postoperative infection has been recognized as a critical problem in healthcare, increasing patients'complications and hospitalization costs. At the moment the scientific evidence clearly linking ventilation parameters, such as air changes per hour, bacterial counts and infection, is lacking, with the exception of prosthetic joint surgery. This study aims to evaluate the building and operating costs of an ultraclean system versus a conventional one (which satisfies the minimum performance requested by rules), also considering the debating efficacy of ultraclean ventilation on prevention of postoperative infection.

Considerations on isolation rooms and alternative pressure ventilation systems.

The health-care facility environment is involved in disease transmission in essentially two different situations: 1. in cases where patients are immunocompromised and require protection from infections; 2. in cases of inadvertent exposure to environmental or airborne pathogens that can aggravate patients' existent disease and cause illness among health-care personnel.

[Regional odontodysplasia ("ghost teeth"). A case report].

The authors present a rare case of developmental anomaly called regional odontodysplasia. It is also called odontogenic dysplasia, ghost teeth. It is a disorder that affects both the ectodermal and mesodermal dental components.

Polyvinilpyrrolidone-iodine (P.V.P.-I) bladder irrigation for prevention of catheter-associated urinary infections in patients treated by T.U.R.

The incidence of urinary infection in catheterized patients is very important in those undergoing T.U.R.

Early diagnosis of genito-urinary tumours by urinary cytology.

Urinary Cytology, if performed with accuracy, plays an important (sometimes decisive) role in early diagnosis of genito-urinary tumours. It offers many advantages: easiness in carrying out, possibility to repeat the examination at will, painless execution, no invasiveness and restricted cost. The Authors report on their experience in performing cytologic examination on fresh urine specimens, formalin-fixed in Swinnex milliphore-filter and stained according to a slightly modified Papanicolau method (Alcohol 80 degrees + Haematoxylin-).

[Evaluation of 3 different methods for determining triiodothyronine (T-3) and thyroxine (T-4)].

The authors compare three methodologies based on the immunology (RIA, FPIA, LIA) in the determination of two important parameters of the so-called thyroid outline: triiodothyronine (T-3) and thyroxine (T-4). The correlations between the analytic systems examined are presented and discussed.

Hormone treatment and sex steroid receptors in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: report of a multicentric prospective study.

Twenty-eight patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma entered a multicentric prospective study to evaluate the response to high-dose medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) and testosterone in MPA failures in relation to sex steroid receptors. No objective remission was seen in the 24 evaluable patients, and only disease stabilizations of short duration were achieved in one-third of treated patients. Stabilizations achieved with second line testosterone were all seen in patients unresponsive to MPA.

Adjunctive medroxyprogesterone acetate to radical nephrectomy in category M0 renal cell carcinoma. Preliminary report of a prospective randomized trial.

From July 1979 to December 1981, 83 patients from 6 centers in the Lombardy underwent radical nephrectomy for category M0 renal cell carcinoma. Postoperatively they were randomly allocated to adjunctive medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) or to a control group. After the first year of follow-up, the relapse rate was 13% in the controls (5 of 38 evaluable patients) versus 28% in the MPA treatment group (9 of 32).