Two to six-year disease resolution and marginal bone stability rates of a modified resective-implantoplasty therapy in 32 peri-implantitis cases.

Background: Different nonsurgical, antibacterial, surgical, and regenerative approaches to treat peri-implantitis have been proposed, but there is no an actual "gold" standard treatment showing the most favorable results to counteract peri-implantitis effects.

Purpose: To evaluate radiographically and clinically the disease resolution and peri-implant marginal bone stability rates of peri-implantitis cases treated through a combined resective-implantoplasty therapy in a moderate to long-term period.

Materials And Methods: Records of patients diagnosed with peri-implantitis and treated through the same protocol applying a combined resective-implantoplasty therapy with minimum 2-year follow-up were screened.

Clinical and immunological profiles of anaemia in children and adolescents with Plasmodium vivax malaria in the Pará state, Brazilian Amazon.

Children and adolescents are at great risk for developing iron deficiency anaemia worldwide. In the tropical areas, malaria and intestinal parasites may also play an important role in anaemia pathogenesis. This study aimed at evaluating clinical and immunological aspects of anaemia in children and adolescents with Plasmodium vivax malaria, in the Pará State, Brazil.

Creeping attachment involving dental implants: two case reports with a two-year follow-up from an ongoing clinical study.

Introduction. This paper describes case reports where coronal growth of soft tissue on implant threads was observed after surgery for soft tissue graft. This phenomenon is known as "creeping attachment.

Multifocal electroretinography after high dose chloroquine therapy for malaria.

Purpose: To investigate changes in multifocal electroretinography (mfERG) parameters associated with high dose chloroquine therapy for treatment of malaria in the Amazonia region of Brazil.

Methods: Forty-eight subjects who had received chloroquine treatment for single or multiple malaria infections with a cumulative dose ranging from 1,050 to 27,000mg were included. The control group consisted of 37 healthy aged-matched subjects.

Cellular and humoral immune responses against the Plasmodium vivax MSP-1₁₉ malaria vaccine candidate in individuals living in an endemic area in north-eastern Amazon region of Brazil.

Background: Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1) is an antigen considered to be one of the leading malaria vaccine candidates. PvMSP-1 is highly immunogenic and evidences suggest that it is target for protective immunity against asexual blood stages of malaria parasites. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the acquired cellular and antibody immune responses against PvMSP-1 in individuals naturally exposed to malaria infections in a malaria-endemic area in the north-eastern Amazon region of Brazil.

Fetal and maternal immune responses to methylmercury exposure: a cross-sectional study.

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant with known neurodevelopmental effects. In humans, prenatal exposures primarily occur through maternal consumption of contaminated fish. In this study, we evaluated the association between prenatal exposure to MeHg and titers of total immunoglobulins (Ig) and specific autoantibodies in both mothers and fetuses by analyzing maternal and cord blood serum samples.

Brazilian Plasmodium falciparum isolates: investigation of candidate polymorphisms for artemisinin resistance before introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapy.

Background: This study was performed to better understand the genetic diversity of known polymorphisms in pfatpase6 and pfmdr1 genes before the introduction of ACT in Brazil, in order to get a genotypic snapshot of Plasmodium falciparum parasites that may be used as baseline reference for future studies.

Methods: Parasites from P. falciparum samples collected in 2002, 2004 and 2006-2007 were genotyped using PCR and DNA sequencing at codons 86, 130, 184, 1034, 1042, 1109 and 1246 for pfmdr1 gene, and 243, 263, 402, 431, 623, 630, 639, 683, 716, 776, 769 and 771 for pfatpase6 gene.

Mercury exposure, serum antinuclear/antinucleolar antibodies, and serum cytokine levels in mining populations in Amazonian Brazil: a cross-sectional study.

Mercury is an immunotoxic substance that has been shown to induce autoimmune disease in rodent models, characterized by lymphoproliferation, overproduction of immunoglobulin (IgG and IgE), and high circulating levels of auto-antibodies directed at antigens located in the nucleus (antinuclear auto-antibodies, or ANA) or the nucleolus (antinucleolar auto-antibodies, or ANoA). We have reported elevated levels of ANA and ANoA in human populations exposed to mercury in artisanal gold mining, though other confounding variables that may also modulate ANA/ANoA levels were not well controlled. The goal of this study is to specifically test whether occupational and environmental conditions (other than mercury exposure) that are associated with artisanal gold mining affect the prevalence of markers of autoimmune dysfunction.

Chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum parasites in a Brazilian endemic area.

Background: The goal of the present study was the characterization of Plasmodium falciparum genes associated to malaria drug resistance (pfcrt, pfdhfr and pfdhps), in samples from two Brazilian localities.

Methods: Parasites from 65 P. falciparum samples were genotyped using nested-PCR and direct DNA sequencing.

Analysis of genetic variability of Plasmodium vivax isolates from different Brazilian Amazon areas using tandem repeats.

Few genetic markers have been described to analyze populations of Plasmodium vivax. The genetic variability of P. vivax has been analyzed mainly among isolates taken from areas ranging from hyper- to holoendemic areas.

Transitory myocardial ischemia in patients with vascular lower limb amputation: relationship with long-term atherothrombotic events.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of asymptomatic transitory myocardial ischemia during scintigraphy among amputees of vascular etiology as well as to ascertain correlation with atherothrombotic events during long-term follow-up.

Design: A cohort, mean follow-up of 2.1 yrs study was performed in an outpatient rehabilitation clinic with 58 lower limb vascular amputees who were referred for rehabilitation, asymptomatic for coronary heart disease.

Real-time PCR versus conventional PCR for malaria parasite detection in low-grade parasitemia.

We have optimized a faster and cheaper real-time PCR and developed a conventional genus specific PCR based on 18S rRNA gene to detect malaria parasites in low-grade parasitemias. Additionally, we compared these PCRs to the OptiMAL-IT test. Since there is no consensus on choice of standard quantitative curve in real-time assays, we decided to investigate the performance of parasite DNA from three different sources: "genome", amplicon and plasmid.

Some aspects of the behavior of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis in patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria: Cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone levels.

We studied the behavior of cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in 24 patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria of the Evandro Chagas Institute, Belém, Pará, Brazil. The patients were evaluated before treatment (Day 0), 24h after the beginning of medication (Day 1) and on Day 8 of follow-up (Day 7). Steroid levels were correlated with parasitemia, temperature and time of the disease.

Bloodstream infections with metallo-beta-lactamase-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa: epidemiology, microbiology, and clinical outcomes.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains that produce metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs) are becoming increasingly prevalent. We evaluated the epidemiological and microbiological characteristics of monomicrobial bloodstream infections caused by MBL-producing P. aeruginosa isolates, as well as the clinical outcomes in patients with these infections.

[Anthropophilic activity of Aedes aegypti and of Aedes albopictus in area under control and surveillance].

Objective: To describe the hematophagous activity of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus in an area under control and surveillance.

Mercury exposure, malaria, and serum antinuclear/antinucleolar antibodies in Amazon populations in Brazil: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Mercury is an immunotoxic metal that induces autoimmune disease in rodents. Highly susceptible mouse strains such as SJL/N, A.SW, B10.

[Hemoglobin concentration in children from birth to one year of age].

This study aimed to describe the evolution of hemoglobin concentration considering the following factors: birth weight, growth rate, and food intake. The cross-sectional study focused on infants (<1 year of age) whose growth and development were monitored by public health services in cities located in the five geographic regions of Brazil. Some 51.

Assessment of chloroquine single dose treatment of malaria due to Plasmodium vivax in Brazilian Amazon.

Malaria regions of the Amazon basin have been characterized by difficult access and non-compliance of the patients to treatment. In an attempt to assess the schizonticide efficacy of chloroquine in a single dose of 600 mg, the authors realized a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 132 outpatients with vivax malaria. Patients were distributed into two groups: group CPLA, given chloroquine 600 mg (single dose) on the first day of treatment, and two doses of placebo on second and third days.

[Risks associated with the weaning process in children born in a university hospital: a prospective cohort in the first year of life, São Paulo, 1998-1999].

This study describes breastfeeding practices with children born in a university hospital in the city of S o Paulo, Brazil, and identifies factors associated with duration of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding. A cohort of 506 children was identified; of these, it was possible to analyze information on feeding practices for 450 infants at least until the second month of life. Daily information on infant feeding was recorded by mothers in a food frequency questionnaire.

[Importance of clinical and laboratory profiles for the differential diagnosis of malaria and acute viral hepatitis].

Objective: To establish clinical and diagnostic findings of malaria and acute viral hepatitis in children, stressing similarities and differences, so as to enhance the sensitivity of early malaria diagnosis in childhood.

Methods: Two groups were studied, each including 30 children between 2 and 10 years of age. The patients presented either primary malaria infection or acute viral hepatitis, confirmed by thick blood film and tests for markers of viral hepatitis A and B.

[Short course schemes for vivax malaria treatment].

with the objective of evaluating shortened therapeutic outlines effective in vivax malaria treatment, we accomplished an open, prospective study allocating 234 patients with vivax malaria distributed at random into eight therapeutic groups. Six groups used oral arthemisin as blood esquizonticide at different doses for one day and the other two groups received chloroquine in a single dose. The primaquine was used as a hypnozoiticide in all groups.

Mercury exposure and malaria prevalence among gold miners in Pará, Brazil.

Economic development, including resource extraction, can cause toxic exposures that interact with endemic infectious diseases. Mercury is an immunotoxic metal used in the amalgamation of gold, resulting in both occupational exposures and environmental pollution. A cross-sectional medical survey was conducted in 1997 on 135 garimpeiros in Para, Brazil, because of their risks of both mercury exposure and malaria transmission.

Assessment of mercury exposure and malaria in a Brazilian Amazon riverine community.

Small-scale gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon occurs in areas with high rates of malaria transmission. Amazonian populations can be exposed to mercury through direct contact with the mining process and/or through fish consumption. Because of data from experimental studies, we examined the potential for mercury to affect host response to malaria.