Publications by authors named "Marcelo F da Costa"

Introduction: This study aimed to assess visual acuity (VA) in Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS)-children to evaluate visual loss. To that end we evaluated 41 CZS - children, from Rio de Janeiro using Teller Acuity Cards.

Methods: To asses VA, we evaluated 41 CZS - children, from Rio de Janeiro using Teller Acuity Cards.

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Objectives: This systematic review examined studies that used mediation analysis to investigate the mechanisms of action of cognitive-behavioral, mind-body, and exercise-based interventions for pain and disability in people with chronic primary musculoskeletal pain.

Materials And Methods: We searched 5 electronic databases for articles that conducted mediation analyses of randomized controlled trials to either test or estimate indirect effects.

Results: We found 17 studies (n=4423), including 90 mediation models examining the role of 22 putative mediators on pain or disability, of which 4 had partially mediated treatment effect; 8 had mixed results, and 10 did not mediate treatment effect.

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Introduction: People with chronic shoulder pain commonly report pain during arm movements in daily-life activities. Pain related to movement is commonly viewed as an accurate representation of tissue damage. Thus, when a person reports pain across a variety of movements, this is often understood as indicative of greater damage.

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Perception is not simply a carbon copy of the real world, but is subject to distortions that may reflect protective drive. This study aimed to investigate whether people with chronic shoulder pain show perceptual distortions of space and body that may promote protective behavior. Eighty-four people with shoulder pain and 51 healthy controls participated.

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Introduction: The purpose of this study was to measure luminance contrast sensitivity and color vision thresholdfs in normal subjects using a blue light filter lens and transparent intraocular lens material.

Methods: Monocular luminance grating contrast sensitivity was measured with Psycho for Windows (version 2.36; Cambridge Research Systems) at 3.

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Objective: Visual preference for faces at birth is the product of a multimodal sensory experience experienced by the fetus even during the gestational period. The ability to recognize faces allows an ecologically advantageous interaction with the social environment. However, perinatal events such as premature birth, may adversely affect the adequate development of this capacity.

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Purpose: Visual information is processed in parallel pathways in the visual system. Parallel processing begins at the synapse between the photoreceptors and their postreceptoral neurons in the human retina. The integrity of this first neural connection is vital for normal visual processing downstream.

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When combined with the electroretinogram (ERG), the heterochromatic flicker photometry procedure allows an objective in vivo assessment of postreceptoral activity. Responses evoked at intermediate (approximately 12 Hz) and high (>30 Hz) temporal frequencies reflect the red-green cone opponent (possibly parvocellular) and the luminance (possibly magnocellular) responses, respectively. Previously, we found that cone-isolating stimuli at intermediate temporal frequencies elicited ERG responses with similar amplitudes and phases for different spatial arrangements of the stimuli, whereas response amplitudes at high temporal frequencies were positively correlated with stimulus size.

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Background: Electroretinographic measurement instruments allow the variation of several stimulation parameters enabling to study a wide range of retinal processes. The purpose of the present study was to measure human flicker electroretinograms (ERGs) varying temporal modulation, temporal frequency and mean luminance in the photopic and higher mesopic ranges where the change from cone to rod dominance occurs.

Methods: Fourteen healthy subjects (mean age = 31 ± 6) participated in this study.

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Purpose: The study investigated possible asymmetric dysfunction of the ON and OFF visual mechanisms in DMD (Duchenne muscular dystrophy) patients associated with specific genetic alterations.

Methods: nineteen DMD patients and 7 heterozygous dmd carriers were tested, as well as 19 age-matched controls.Full-field ergs were recorded using mesopic (1 cd/m(2)) and photopic (250 cd/m(2)) sawtooth luminance modulations as stimuli: rapid increase and ramping decrease (to isolate ON responses) or rapid decrease and ramping increase (for OFF responses).

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The combination of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography is evaluated here for fatty acid (FA) profiling of the glycerophospholipid fraction from human buccal mucosal cells. A base-catalyzed derivatization reaction selective for polar lipids such as glycerophospholipid was adopted. SPME is compared to a miniaturized liquid-liquid extraction procedure for the isolation of FA methyl esters produced in the derivatization step.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Ten workers with chronic exposure showed significant alterations in visual functions like visual field thresholds, contrast sensitivity, and color discrimination compared to non-exposed controls.
  • * Despite visual impairments, there were no major differences in neuropsychological test results, although duration of Hg exposure correlated with issues in verbal memory and depression.
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This longitudinal study addresses the reversibility of color vision losses in subjects who had been occupationally exposed to mercury vapor. Color discrimination was assessed in 20 Hg-exposed patients (mean age = 42.4 +/- 6.

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Visual field losses associated with mercury (Hg) exposure have only been assessed in patients exposed to methylmercury. Here we evaluate the automated visual field in 35 ex-workers (30 males; 44.20+/-5.

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The aim of the present study was to measure visual acuity (VA) by the sweep visual evoked potential method (sVEP) and relate it to the degree of motor impairment in children with spastic cerebral palsy (SCP). Monocular VA was estimated in 37 SCP children aged from 6 to 48 months, classified as tetraplegic (n = 14), diplegic (n = 13), and hemiplegic (n = 10), without ophthalmological complaints with ages ranging from 6 to 48 months. Motor impairment was rated according to the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), in five levels of severity.

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