Publications by authors named "Joao Costa"

Objective: To update evidence-based medicine recommendations for treating motor fluctuations of Parkinson's disease (PD).

Background: The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) Evidence Based Medicine in Movement Disorders Committee recommendations for the treatments of PD were first published in 2002 and regularly updated. The current review uses a new methodology, including the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and a modified version of GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction And Objectives: To present the report on the trends in percutaneous coronary activity data in Portugal from the last decade (from 2014 to 2023).

Methods: Data were extracted from the Portuguese National Registry of Interventional Cardiology (RNCI) and the numbers in recent years were compared and complemented by information from the 2023 European Society of Cardiology Atlas in Interventional Cardiology (IC) survey, which was administered to the director of every IC department. Linear regression analysis was used to assess trends in activity over time.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to identify barriers to veterinary involvement in calf health and assess knowledge gaps in calf care among American and Canadian bovine veterinarians. A questionnaire was administered to veterinarians, collecting data on demographics, satisfaction with calf health management knowledge, involvement in decision-making, satisfaction with calf health involvement, frequency of calf health record analysis and feedback, topics of interest for further learning, and preferred learning formats. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess associations between variables and outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metallic nanoparticles with virucidal properties dispersed in a polymeric matrix have gained prominence in the scientific community as a rapid and effective alternative that employs the additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing method. This study aims to produce filaments for 3D printing using polymer nanocomposites based on polylactic acid (PLA) and copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) in different proportions. The virucidal activity of various proportions of nanoparticles in PLA was investigated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials are at the forefront of potential technological advancements. Carbon-based materials have been extensively studied since synthesizing graphene, which revealed properties of great interest for novel applications across diverse scientific and technological domains. New carbon allotropes continue to be explored theoretically, with several successful synthesis processes for carbon-based materials recently achieved.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a respiratory pathogen that has gained increasing recognition due to advancements in molecular diagnostic tools, which have improved its detection and characterization. While severe disease manifestations are traditionally associated with pediatric, elderly, or immunocompromised patients, hMPV-related pneumonia in immunocompetent adults remains underexplored.

Methods: This case report describes a 68-year-old male who developed severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) caused by hMPV despite being immunocompetent and having no significant comorbidities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The Global Observatory for Physical Education (GoPE!) builds on the Global Observatory for Physical Activity (GoPA!) to address gaps in surveillance, policy, and research on physical education (PE) and activity (PA). GoPE! is a worldwide surveillance system of quality PE and school-based PA that informs policy and interventions and allows comparative analysis so that each country and region can check their status and progress. This paper presents GoPE!'s conceptual framework and describes the research protocol as a cross-continental and evidence-based surveillance system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We discuss a case of a 19-year-old female who presented with pressure headaches and progressive vision loss. In the emergency department, a series of diagnostic tests were conducted, including CT, MRI, and lumbar puncture with measurement of opening pressure. All these examinations yielded results consistent with the suspected diagnosis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/objectives: According to the World Health Organization, the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19 is the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test. However, to confirm the diagnosis in patients who have negative results but still show symptoms, imaging tests, especially computed tomography (CT), are used. In this study, using convolutional neural networks, we compared the following topics using manual and automatic lung segmentation methods: (1) the performance of an automatic segmentation of COVID-19 areas using two strategies for data partitioning, CT scans, and slice strategies; (2) the performance of an automatic segmentation method of COVID-19 when there was interobserver agreement between two groups of radiologists; and (3) the performance of the area affected by COVID-19.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting both sexes, but differences exist between male and female in clinical manifestations, functional impact of symptoms and hormonal influences. Therefore, representativeness of females in PD trials indirectly determines the external validity of the clinical research in this field.

Objective: To estimate the representativeness of female in infusion therapy trials for advanced PD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Despite the importance of medication reconciliation for the continuity of care, there is currently no information on the practices, knowledge, and attitudes of Portuguese family doctors on this subject. This study aimed to characterize the formal medication reconciliation procedures in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Health Region, as well as the perception of family doctors in this region about what they know, how they think and how they practice medication reconciliation.

Methods: We conducted an observational, cross-sectional and descriptive study, using two observation units: primary health care units (study 1) and family doctors (study 2) in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Health Region.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Apigenin, a flavonoid thought to benefit cardiovascular health, was studied for its effects on vascular function in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRs) to understand its mechanisms of action.
  • Vascular beds from SHRs were tested with varying doses of apigenin, showing that its ability to lower blood pressure depended on the presence of endothelial cells and was significantly reduced by inhibitors of nitric oxide and potassium channels.
  • The research concluded that apigenin causes vasodilation primarily through endothelial nitric oxide and calcium-activated potassium channels, suggesting its potential for therapeutic use in cardiovascular diseases and the need for more clinical studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The databases provided for two meteorological stations installed in the Alqueva reservoir (the largest artificial lake in Europe), one located on a floating platform and the other on the shore (approximately 1 km away in a straight line), cover a period of 6 years, from 2018 to 2023. The data available are, the hourly accumulated precipitation as well as the hourly averages of surface water temperature (0.25 m of depth), soil temperature, and meteorological parameters (wind intensity and direction, relative humidity, upward/downward solar radiation, air temperature, and relative humidity).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased in the last decades, posing significant health and economic impacts globally. These conditions are related to several non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and cancer. This study estimated the disease burden and healthcare costs associated with overweight and obesity in the adult population in mainland Portugal, in 2018.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In Hepatitis B patients, the virus targets liver cells, leading to inflammation and liver damage, which can result in severe complications such as liver failure, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Therapeutic options for liver disease are currently limited. Curcumin, a polyphenol with potential protective effects against chronic diseases like cancer, suffers from poor water solubility, restricting its pharmacological applications.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Significant progress has been made in tissue engineering (TE), aiming at providing personalized solutions and overcoming the current limitations of traditional tissue and organ transplantation. 3D bioprinting has emerged as a transformative technology in the field, able to mimic key properties of the natural architecture of the native tissues. However, most successes in the area are still limited to avascular or thin tissues due to the difficulties in controlling the vascularization of the engineered tissues.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examined different methods of assessing feeding behavior in Nellore cattle, focusing on "feed events" versus "meals" to understand their genetic relationships and feed efficiency.
  • It analyzed multiple traits related to feeding events and meals, calculating heritabilities and correlations using sophisticated genetic models.
  • Results showed that more efficient cattle had shorter feeding times and faster eating rates, suggesting a genetic link between feeding behavior and feed efficiency traits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Observing the world on a global scale can help us understand better the context of problems that engage us all. In this paper, we propose a data-driven global observatory methodology that puts together the different perspectives of media, science, statistics and sensing over heterogeneous data sources and text mining algorithms. We also discuss the implementation of this global observatory in the context of epidemic intelligence, monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the context of climate change, with a specific focus on water resource management.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The demands of playing professional football can have an impact on an individual's quality of life (QoL), which may remain into retirement. Given limited evidence exists regarding the QoL in former football players, this study aimed to assess QoL among Portuguese former players according to career duration, career end period, competitive level, tactical-positional status, international status, academic qualifications, serious injuries in career, and current professional football connection.

Methods: The study included 84 Portuguese former football players (48.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Early gastric cancer is treated endoscopically, but patients require surveillance due to the risk of metachronous gastric lesions (MGLs). Epigenetic alterations, particularly aberrant DNA methylation in genes, such as MIR124-3, MIR34b/c, NKX6-1, EMX1, MOS and CDO1, have been identified as promising biomarkers for MGL in Asian populations. We aimed to determine whether these changes could predict MGL risk in intermediate-risk Caucasian patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fish are excellent bioindicators and can reveal the presence of plastic in the environment. Diagnosing the composition and abundance of polymers in the fish diet makes it possible to evaluate their point sources and possible trophic transfers. We aimed to use the gastrointestinal contents of Poecilia reticulata in subtropical urban streams to detect the occurrence, shape, color, size, and chemical composition of polymers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Gym-goers usually seek methods to improve performance, muscle gain, and overall health. One of the main strategies is including food supplements (FS) into their routine as aids to enhance their athletic capabilities and satisfy their nutritional needs. Thus, this study aimed to investigate and characterize the main FS and Sports Foods (SF) currently consumed, as well as the main reasons for their use and the source of advice in a group of gym-goers in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Breast cancer has several subtypes, including HER2-positive breast cancer, which is characterized by overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), aggressiveness, poor prognosis, and high risk of recurrence and metastasis. Brain metastases are a common complication of HER2-positive breast cancer, but brain imaging is not included in the initial staging of this disease. This prospective pilot study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of brain computed tomography (CT) in the initial staging of HER2-positive breast cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hepatitis B, caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), often progresses to chronic infection, leading to severe complications, such as cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Chronic HBV infection is characterized by a complex interplay between the virus and the host immune system, resulting in immune cell exhaustion, a phenomenon commonly observed in chronic viral infections and cancer. This state of exhaustion involves elevated levels of inhibitory molecules, cells, and cell surface receptors, as opposed to stimulatory counterparts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_session8c4c0imftp3ruc1ath0r3p2nmpohdhsv): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once