Publications by authors named "Luz M Mejia"

Background And Aims: Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is the most frequent cause of cardiorespiratory arrest and subsequent death in children worldwide. There have been limited studies regarding ARF in high altitude settings. The aim of this study was to calculate mortality and describe associated factors for severity and mortality in children with ARF.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • High driving pressure (DP) during mechanical ventilation can negatively impact outcomes in pediatric patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS), particularly regarding 28-day mortality rates.
  • A study of 184 intubated children showed that those with a DP greater than 15 cm H2O at 72 hours had a higher risk for mortality and longer ventilation duration.
  • Key findings included that lower tidal volumes were linked to decreased mortality risk, while higher plateau pressures in non-survivors highlighted the importance of managing ventilation parameters effectively.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The geological record encodes the relationship between climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) over long and short timescales, as well as potential drivers of evolutionary transitions. However, reconstructing CO beyond direct measurements requires the use of paleoproxies and herein lies the challenge, as proxies differ in their assumptions, degree of understanding, and even reconstructed values. In this study, we critically evaluated, categorized, and integrated available proxies to create a high-fidelity and transparently constructed atmospheric CO record spanning the past 66 million years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the burden of acute respiratory failure (ARF) in children by calculating disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to inform public health policies and interventions.
  • Conducted in Bogotá, Colombia, it included pediatric patients experiencing respiratory distress from April 2020 to December 2021, with follow-ups and quality of life assessments conducted 30 and 60 days post-admission.
  • Findings revealed that out of 296 ARF cases, there were 22 deaths, resulting in a total of 277,164 DALYs, highlighting ARF as a significant cause of preventable mortality and its negative impact on the pediatric population's health and quality of life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: The Pediatric Index of Mortality 3 (PIM3) is a scale that estimates the risk of mortality in children admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) within the first hour of admission.

Objective: to validate the PIM3 scale in pediatric population admitted to PICU at altitudes over 2,500 meters above sea level (m.a.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is a significant cause of illness and hospitalization in children, often requiring high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) for treatment.
  • A study conducted across three hospitals in Bogota tracked 685 pediatric patients, finding that 48% of those with ARF needed HFNC, particularly due to bronchiolitis, asthma, and pneumonia.
  • The HFNC failure rate was relatively low at 10.6%, indicating its effectiveness and potential for wider use in various pediatric respiratory conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, women disproportionately assume more unpaid activities, affecting their employment.

Objective: Describe the influence of COVID-19 on the employment of caregivers of children and adolescents from a gender perspective.

Methods: Cross-sectional study in three high-complexity hospitals in Bogotá, Colombia from April 2020 to June 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Acute respiratory failure is a life-threatening medical condition, associated with a variety of conditions and risk factors, including acute respiratory diseases which are a frequent cause of pediatric morbidity and mortality worldwide. In Colombia, the literature related to ARF is scarce.

Objective: To determine the incidence, causes, and sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of ARF in three hospitals in Bogota, a high-altitude city located in Colombia, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To assess the risk of bias of clinical trials published in iberoamerican indexed journals from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2012.

Methods: We performed a descriptive study based on the clinical trials published from January 1st 2008 to December 31st 2012 in the iberoamerican urological journals. We assessed the risk of bias by the Cochrane tool.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Analyzing the updating the Colombian social security system's mandatory health plan (MHP),from a perspective of the right to health, by comparing and contrasting MHP content valid until 31st December 2009 (POS-2009) with MHP content from 1st January 2012 onwards (POS-2012).

Methodology: This was a descriptive study aimed at ascertaining the quantitative changes made and comparing the characteristics of modifications made in POS-2012 to POS-2009.

Results: Variation was observed between the two versions of the MHP regarding the number and characteristics of services and drugs;1,724 new procedures and 128 new medicines were included in the 2012 MHP, while 366 procedures and 79 medicines present in the 2009 MHP were excluded from MHP 2012.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Performing an academic exercise aimed at applying the analytical categories from the governance approach developed by Marc Hufty et al., to understand social actors’ relationships in an investigation and intervention project studying so-cioeconomic conditions and seeking to guarantee health insurance continuity for those workers who had lost their work in the city of Medellin, Colombia, from 2004 to 2007.

Methodology: A process of investigation and intervention was examined as a casestudy in which researchers were one of the actors so involved.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Much of the existing research on smoking outcome expectancies has been guided by the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ ). Although the original version of the SCQ has been modified over time for use in different populations, none of the existing versions have been evaluated for use among Spanish-speaking Latino smokers in the United States.

Methods: The present study evaluated the factor structure and predictive validity of the 3 previously validated versions of the SCQ--the original, the SCQ-Adult, and the SCQ-Spanish, which was developed with Spanish-speaking smokers in Spain--among Spanish-speaking Latino smokers in Texas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF