Measuring Health Vulnerability: An Interdisciplinary Indicator Applied to Mainland Portugal.

Health promotion and inequality reduction are specific goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, which are interconnected with several dimensions of life. This work proposes a composite index -socioeconomic health vulnerability index-to address Portuguese population socioeconomic determinants that affect health outcomes. Variables composing are aligned with the sustainable development goals considering data and times series availability to enable progress monitoring, and variables adequacy to translate populations' life conditions affecting health outcomes.

Year-Long Rhinovirus Infection is Influenced by Atmospheric Conditions, Outdoor Air Virus Presence, and Immune System-Related Genetic Polymorphisms.

Rhinovirus is a common picornavirus with over 150 serotypes and three species, which is responsible for half of the human common cold cases. In people with chronic respiratory conditions and elders, it may also cause life-threatening diseases. Transmission routes are not definitively established but may involve direct human-to-human and indirect transmission (surfaces and aerosols based).

Clinicobiological, immunophenotypic, and molecular characteristics of monoclonal CD56-/+dim chronic natural killer cell large granular lymphocytosis.

Indolent natural killer (NK) cell lymphoproliferative disorders include a heterogeneous group of patients in whom persistent expansions of mature, typically CD56(+), NK cells in the absence of any clonal marker are present in the peripheral blood. In the present study we report on the clinical, hematological, immunophenotypic, serological, and molecular features of a series of 26 patients with chronic large granular NK cell lymphocytosis, whose NK cells were either CD56(-) or expressed very low levels of CD56 (CD56(-/+dim) NK cells), in the context of an aberrant activation-related mature phenotype and proved to be monoclonal using the human androgen receptor gene polymerase chain reaction-based assay. As normal CD56(+) NK cells, CD56(-/+dim) NK cells were granzyme B(+), CD3(-), TCRalphabeta/gammadelta(-), CD5(-), CD28(-), CD11a(+bright), CD45RA(+bright), CD122(+), and CD25(-) and they showed variable and heterogeneous expression of both CD8 and CD57.

Assessment of three rapid methods for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

We evaluated three rapid methods to detect methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and compared them with PCR amplification of mecA. A total of 103 S. aureus strains were studied by MRSA-Screen, BBL Crystal, Velogene Genomic and mecA PCR.

Advances in the genotyping of thrombosis genetic risk factors: clinical and laboratory implications.

Since FV-Leiden polymorphism was first described in 1994, a growing number of polymorphic loci have been identified in association with increased genetic risk for thrombophilia. Often however, these risk factors have been studied in isolation of the remaining known phenotype linked polymorphisms. This fact has, at least in part, been justified by the laborious techniques traditionally used in the genotyping studies, as well as its relatively high costs.

Guess what: Chronic 13q14.3+/CD5-/CD23+ lymphocytic leukemia in blood and t(11;14)(q13;q32)+/CD5+/CD23- mantle cell lymphoma in lymph nodes!

We report a case of a patient with two B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders: CD5(-)/CD23(+) B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and CD5(+)/CD23(-) mantle cell lymphoma. These disorders were diagnosed simultaneously based on flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and polymerase chain reaction-based molecular studies. The B-cell lymphocytic leukemia clone predominated in the blood and bone marrow, whereas the mantle cell clone predominated in lymph nodes.

Detection of herpesvirus infection of the CNS: the experience of hospital Geral de Santo António.

Background: PCR detection of CSF Herpes virus DNA is an important tool in the diagnosis of CNS infections. Use of this test has been shown to have an impact on patient management as measured by shortened patient stays, specific therapeutic intervention, reduction of empirical expensive therapy administration, all of which should translate into significant health care savings.

Objective: The present study aimed at implementing, and evaluating both clinically and analytically the performance of several commercially available PCR based assays for the detection of Herpes virus infections of the CNS.