Liesegang rings in paratubal cysts: case report and literature review.

Liesegang rings (LRs) are laminated precipitation structures well recognized in the field of chemistry. I present a rare case of a 53-year-old female who consulted for pelvic pain and abnormal uterine bleeding. The pelvic ultrasound revealed intramural and submucous uterine leiomyomas, and she underwent hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy.

A medical informatics distance-learning course for Latin America. Translation, implementation and evaluation.

Background: There is a growing need and interest worldwide for healthcare and information technology professionals trained in medical informatics. Distance learning technologies are increasingly used to deliver such education, but have mainly been limited to the English language.

Objective: Describe the implementation and student satisfaction of a medical informatics course delivered in Spanish for a Latin American audience.

A comprehensive study of reaction parameters in the enzymatic production of novel biofuels integrating glycerol into their composition.

A comprehensive study of critical parameters in the pig pancreatic lipase (PPL) catalysed transesterification of sunflower oil to novel biofuels integrating glycerol into their composition is reported. The influence of oil/alcohol ratio, temperature, quantity of enzyme and water added and pH have been investigated. The enzymatic activity of PPL was found to be greatly influenced by the pH, reaching notable activities at high pH values (10-12), in contrast to other lipases.

Deconfounding the effects of local element spatial heterogeneity and sparsity on processing dominance.

Previous studies on the processing of hierarchical patterns (Luna & Montoro, 2008) have shown that altering the spatial relationships between the local elements affected processing dominance by decreasing global advantage. In the present article, the authors examine whether heterogeneity or a sparse distribution of the local elements was the responsible factor for this effect. In Experiments 1 and 2, the distance between the local elements was increased in a similar way, but between-element distance was homogeneous in Experiment 1 and heterogeneous in Experiment 2.

Spreading knowledge in medical informatics: the contribution of the hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires.

Unlabelled: Medical Informatics (MI) is an emerging discipline with a high need of trained and skillful professionals.

Objective: To describe the educational experience of the Department of Health Informatics of the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires.

Methods: A descriptive study of the development of the Medical Informatics Residency Program (MIRP) and the e-learning courses related to medical informatics.

Sustainable preparation of supported metal nanoparticles and their applications in catalysis.

Metal nanoparticles have attracted much attention over the last decade owing to their unique properties as compared to their bulk metal equivalents, including a large surface-to-volume ratio and tunable shapes. To control the properties of nanoparticles with particular respect to shape, size and dispersity is imperative, as these will determine the activity in the desired application. Supported metal nanoparticles are widely employed in catalysis.

Event-related potential correlates of visual identity negative priming unbiased by trial-by-trial effects.

Negative priming (NP) refers to slowed reaction times and/or less accurate responses in people responding to a target that was ignored on a previous trial. Although extensive research with behavioral measures has been conducted, little is known about the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying this effect. The few previous studies carried out have led to contradictory results, supporting either episodic-retrieval or inhibition-based theoretical perspectives.

Preparation of highly active and dispersed platinum nanoparticles on mesoporous Al-MCM-48 and their activity in the hydroisomerisation of n-octane.

Platinum nanoparticles supported on Al-MCM-48 materials have been prepared. The resultant catalysts have been characterized by means of XRD, N2 physisorption experiments, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). The activity of these nanoparticles has been tested in relation to the hydroisomerisation of n-octane.

[Changes in physicians' attitudes to computerized ambulatory medical record systems: a longitudinal qualitative study].

Objectives: To explore physicians' beliefs about a computerized ambulatory medical record system at different stages of its implementation.

Methods: We performed a longitudinal qualitative in-depth interview study (July 2001 to December 2003) in the Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 20 primary care cardiologists purposively selected before, during and after the system's implementation process (10 interviews per stage).

Analysis and redesign of a knowledge database for a drug-drug interactions alert system.

Physicians tend to ignore drug-drug interactions alerts, this is due to the large amount of irrelevant interactions displayed and the interface in which these alerts are shown. The high rate of clinically inadequate alerts produce "alerts fatigue". This high number of incorrect alerts predisposes physicians to underestimate the electronic prescription systems as useful tools in their practice.

Creation of a local interface terminology to SNOMED CT.

This paper describes the steps followed in the creation of a local Interface Terminology to SNOMED CT (as reference terminology) with a strong focus on user acceptability. The resulting list of terms is used for clinical data input by physicians and nurses at the Hospital Italiano in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Description includes data model, mappings to SNOMED CT and classifications, subsets definitions and extensibility mechanisms.

Creation and evaluation of a terminology server for the interactive coding of discharge summaries.

Free text entry versus structured data has been proposed as models in data entry in health information systems. A new user interface was developed with the objective of improving data capture. It also implemented a modification of the discharge summary data entry user interface that allowed the selection of already coded terms from a local terminology in the context of an inpatient electronic medical record.

A practical approach to advanced terminology services in health information systems.

As the medical informatics field evolves, new functions appear as the focus of interest; a more advanced management of terminology is one of them. Using comprehensive and detailed terminology to represent clinical rules in computer systems, associated with patient information, would allow clinical software to provide patient specific recommendations or alerts. In order to uniform data collection through our HIS, and lay the foundations for future clinical decision support systems, we decided to move from our previous classification-based medical record into new terminology services built around Snomed CT, Spanish Language Version.

An event-related potentials study of identity positive and negative priming.

Although extensive research on negative priming has been conducted using behavioural measures, little is known about its brain correlates. Moreover, results from this scarce number of studies are rather contradictory. The aim of this study is to further explore the temporal course of negative and positive priming in the brain by means of an identity task in which participants had to recognize letters.

The effect of spatial-frequency filtering on the visual processing of global structure.

In three experiments we measured reaction times (RTs) and error rates in identifying the global structure of spatially filtered stimuli whose spatial-frequency content was selected by means of three types of 2-D isotropic filters (Butterworth of order 2, Butterworth of order 10, and a filters with total or partial Gaussian spectral profile). In each experiment, low-pass (LP), bandpass (BP), and high-pass (HP) filtered stimuli, with nine centre or cut-off spatial frequencies, were used. Irrespective of the type of filter, the experimental results showed that: (a) RTs to stimuli with low spatial frequencies were shorter than those to stimuli with medium or high spatial frequencies, (b) RTs to LP filtered stimuli were nearly constant, but they increased in a nonmonotonic way with the filter centre spatial frequency in BP filtered stimuli and with the filter cut-off frequency in HP filtered stimuli, and (c) the identification of the global pattern occurred with all visible stimuli used, including BP and HP images without low spatial frequencies.

The distortion of spatial relationships between local elements in hierarchical patterns decreases the global advantage effect.

The present study examined the influence of perceptual organization on the processing of global and local information in hierarchical patterns. In two experiments, we examined whether disturbing the spatial relationships between local elements by introducing between-element distance and size heterogeneity affected global processing dominance. The effects on global processing dominance of undistorted compound stimuli with equidistant and homogeneous local elements were compared with those of compound stimuli which presented between-element distance heterogeneity (Experiment 1) or heterogeneity in size (Experiment 2).

Catalytic ability of a cationic Ru(II) monochloro complex for the asymmetric hydrogenation of dimethyl itaconate and enamides.

The synthesis of two Ru chloro complexes, Ru(III)Cl(3)(bpea), 1, and cis-fac-Delta-[Ru(II)Cl{(R)-(bpea)}{(S)-(BINAP)}](BF(4)), cis-fac-Delta-(R)-(S)-2, (bpea = N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylamine; (S)-BINAP = 2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1'-binaphthyl), is described. Complex 2 is characterized in solution through UV-vis, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that in the solid state it possesses the same structure as in solution, as expected for a low-spin d(6) Ru(II)-type complex.

Bilateral lacrimal sac mucocele with punctal and canalicular atresia.

Congenital absence of lacrimal puncta may be an isolated finding or associated with other developmental abnormality. Nasolacrirnal ducts can be absent thus predisposing to the formation of a congenital lacrimal mucocele. Punctal and canalicular agenesis is very rare.

Assessing the impact of change in the organization of a technical support system for a health information systems (HIS).

Objective: Evaluate the impact of the implementation of a new model of Help Desk and technical support in HIS users of the hospital. We carried an anonymous survey on a random sample of 150 users of the new system. The administrative staff (A), doctors (D) and nurses (N) were analysed by strata.

Evolution of medical informatics in bibliographic databases.

Medical informatics became a medical specialty during the last years and this is evidenced by a great amount of journal articles regarding the subject published worldwide. We compared the presentation of Medical Informatics in two different bibliographic databases: MEDLINE and LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on the Health Sciences). Previous studies described how Medical Informatics was represented in MEDLINE, but we wanted to compare it to a regional database as LILACS.

Development of the Spanish version of the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine: methodology and main issues.

This presentation features linguistic and terminology management issues related to the development of the Spanish version of the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED). It aims at describing the aspects of translating and the difficulties encountered in delivering a natural and consistent medical nomenclature. Bunge's three-layered model is referenced to analyze the sequence of symbolic concept representations.

[Neurological aspects of ceroid-lipofuscinoses].

Objective: We discuss the historical, epidemiological, clinical, complementary tests and neuropathological details of ceroid-lipofuscinoses in children.

Development: Initially, we review the basic concepts and historical details of the disorders, and the frequency and distribution of the different clinical forms. Subsequently, we review the subtypes and variants most commonly found in children, together with the elements necessary for diagnosis.

Genome search for susceptibility loci of common idiopathic generalised epilepsies.

Genetic factors play a major role in the aetiology of idiopathic generalised epilepsies (IGEs). The present genome scan was designed to identify susceptibility loci that predispose to a spectrum of common IGE syndromes. Our collaborative study included 130 IGE-multiplex families ascertained through a proband with either an idiopathic absence epilepsy or juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, and one or more siblings affected by an IGE trait.

[Prolonged bradyarrhythmias after coronary revascularization surgery].

The authors report four cases of prolonged bradyarrhythmias after isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery. All the four patients required permanent pacemaker implantation. Etiologic factors of conduction disturbances after coronary artery bypass and long term follow-up are discussed.

Stiparin: a glycoprotein from sea cucumber dermis that aggregates collagen fibrils.

The interactions between collagen fibrils in many echinoderm connective tissues are rapidly altered by the secretions of resident neurosecretory cells. Recent evidence has suggested that a secreted protein is responsible for the interactions that lead to an increase in tissue stiffness (Trotter and Koob, 1995). Structurally intact collagen fibrils have been isolated from such a connective tissue- the dermis of the sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa- and used in an assay in vitro to identify a protein that binds to them and causes them to aggregate.