Motivations for smoking in hospitalized patients.

Objective: To investigate the profile of motivations for smoking among inpatients at a hospital in southern Brazil.

Methods: A survey study involving hospitalized smokers. The Modified Reasons for Smoking Scale (MRFSS) and its domains were analyzed according to gender and dependence degree.

The role of sonography in differentiating full versus partial distal biceps tendon tears: correlation with surgical findings.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of ultrasound for distinguishing complete rupture of the distal biceps tendon versus partial tear and versus a normal biceps tendon. Surgical findings were used as the reference standard in cases of tear. Clinical follow-up was used to assess the normal tendons.

Ultrasound of the shoulder: asymptomatic findings in men.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the range and prevalence of asymp tomatic findings at sonography of the shoulder.

Materials And Methods: The study sample comprised 51 consecutively enrolled subjects who had no symptoms in either shoulder. Ultrasound of one shoulder per patient was performed by a musculoskeletal sonographer according to a defined protocol that included imaging of the rotator cuff, tendon of the long head of the biceps brachii muscle, subacromial-subdeltoid bursa, acromioclavicular joint, and posterior labrum.

Entrapment neuropathies I: upper limb (carpal tunnel excluded).

Several entrapment neuropathies of the upper extremity can cause hypoechoic swelling and nerve compression as seen at ultrasound. The ulnar nerve can be compressed at the cubital tunnel of the elbow and Guyon's canal at the wrist. The deep branch of the radial nerve can be compressed at the supinator muscle at the elbow, and the superficial radial nerve may be compressed at the dorsal wrist (Wartenberg's syndrome).

Glycoinositolphospholipids from Trypanosoma cruzi interfere with macrophages and dendritic cell responses.

To investigate the possible effects of glycoinositolphospholipid (GIPL) from Trypanosoma cruzi on human antigen presenting cells, we tested their effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated human macrophages and dendritic cells (DC). Human macrophages or DC were incubated with GIPL (50 microg/ml) and LPS (500 pg/ml) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 8 (IL-8), IL-10, and IL-12p40 levels in supernatants were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. TNF-alpha, IL-10, and IL-12 secretion were significantly decreased by GIPL both in macrophages and DC.