Knowledge and attitude of deaf women in relation to contraceptive methods: A systematic review.

Background: Communication barriers make it difficult for deaf women to access information about contraceptive methods, making them vulnerable to unplanned pregnancies.

Objective: To identify knowledge and attitudes of deaf women in relation to contraceptive methods.

Method: The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature, PROSPERO registry (CRD42021277635), conducted from August 2021 to April 2024.

Contribution of Clinical and Genetic Approaches for Diagnosing 209 Index Cases With 46,XY Differences of Sex Development.

Context: Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technologies have emerged as a first-tier approach for diagnosing several pediatric genetic syndromes. However, MPS has not been systematically integrated into the diagnostic workflow along with clinical/biochemical data for diagnosing 46,XY differences of sex development (DSD).

Objective: To analyze the contribution of phenotypic classification either alone or in association with genetic evaluations, mainly MPS, for diagnosing a large cohort of 46,XY DSD patients.

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor increases the infectivity of Leishmania amazonensis by protecting promastigotes from heat-induced death.

We have studied the effect of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) on the infectivity of promastigotes of Leishmania amazonensis, an obligate intramacrophage parasite. We measured the capacity of the promastigotes to infect macrophages after preincubation at different temperatures (28, 34, and 37 degrees C) with recombinant murine GM-CSF, as well as the effect of an anti-murine GM-CSF antibody on the in vitro and in vivo infectivity of the parasite. GM-CSF increases the capacity of the promastigotes to infect cells when preincubated at 34 and 37 degrees C, whereas the anti-GM-CSF antibody exerts the opposite effect: it decreases the internalization rate and the progression of infection in macrophage cultures and slows the growth of the lesion in infected BALB/c mice.

[Immunoglobulins in the chronic phase of Chagas disease].

Since divergent results were obtained by different authors about immunoglobulins concentration in sera from acute and chronic cases of Chagas disease, the problem was submitted to statistical approach in field conditions in the endemic zone of Bambui, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Positives cases were considered in all individuals presenting evidences in parasitological, immunological or electrocardiographical examination living exactly in the same conditions, but without any evidence of infection under the same criteria. The sample consisted of 32 chronic cases and no significant difference in the immunoglobulins levels were detected in chronic cases of Chagas disease as compared with the control group.