Prevalence and factors associated with impaired left ventricular global longitudinal strain in patients with Chagas disease: SaMi-Trop cohort study.

Cardiomyopathy is a major cause of death in Chagas disease and early detection of cardiac involvement is essential. Myocardial strain is a reliable technique for assessment of subtle left ventricular (LV) contractility alterations. This study assessed LV global longitudinal strain (GLS) in a large Chagas disease population living in remote areas.

A protective effect of morning radiotherapy on acute skin toxicity in patients with breast cancer: A prospective cohort study.

The focus of this prospective cohort study was to evaluate the risk factors of severe acute skin toxicity (grade ≥2) in 100 patients with breast cancer (BC) during radiotherapy (RT).The patients were evaluated weekly during RT and 3 months after treatment. The endpoint included the occurrence of skin toxicity grade ≥2, according to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG).

Treatment of Chronic Atrial Fibrillation During Surgery for Rheumatic Mitral Valve Disease.

Introduction: The result of surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation remains controversial, although prospective and randomized studies have shown significant differences in the return to sinus rhythm in patients treated with ablation versus control group. Surgery of the Labyrinth, proposed by Cox and colleagues, is complex and increases the morbidity rate. Therefore, studies are needed to confirm the impact on clinical outcomes and quality of life of these patients.

INDIAM--an e-learning system for the interpretation of mammograms.

We propose the design of a teaching system named Interpretation and Diagnosis of Mammograms (INDIAM) for training students in the interpretation of mammograms and diagnosis of breast cancer. The proposed system integrates an illustrated tutorial on radiology of the breast, that is, mammography, which uses education techniques to guide the user (doctors, students, or researchers) through various concepts related to the diagnosis of breast cancer. The user can obtain informative text about specific subjects, access a library of bibliographic references, and retrieve cases from a mammographic database that are similar to a query case on hand.

Thoracic ectopia cordis with anatomically normal heart.

Ectopia cordis is a rare congenital malformation, which is commonly associated with other intracardiac defects. At two-day-old full-term baby girl was admitted to Santa Casade Misericórdia Hospital Montes Claros, NG, Brazil, with thoracic ectopia cordis. A transthoracic echocardiographic study did not identify any associated congenital heart diseases.