[Evaluation of radiological methods for detection of wood foreign body in animal model].

Purpose: To determine the usefulness of different radiological methods in the diagnoses of wooden foreign bodies (FB).

Methods: Eleven adult chickens were used. Each thigh received a puncture wound and in one of them a wooden splinter was introduced and left in place while in the contralateral it was introduced and removed (control group).

Risk factors for decreased total body and regional bone mineral density in hemodialysis patients with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Hyperparathyroidism contributes significantly to decreased bone mineral density (BMD) in end-stage renal disease patients, but this negative influence is not homogeneous throughout the skeleton. We studied the BMD by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry on total body and on different regions of the skeleton in 42 patients with severe hyperparathyroidism on hemodialysis. We also evaluated the relationship between different risk factors and BMD found on the regions examined in these patients.

[Variations in tooth decay rates among children 5 and 12 years old in Minas Gerais, Brazil].

The aim of this ecological study was to analyze to what extent World Health Organization goals were met in relation to dental caries in 2000 in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, identifying factors associated with variation in DMFT and the occurrence of DMFT < or = 3 among 12-year-old children and in the percentage of caries-free 5-year-olds. Secondary data from different sources were used. Linear regression and multiple logistic regression techniques were applied to the analysis of the numerical and dichotomous dependent variables.

Bone mass is recovered from lactation to postweaning in adolescent mothers with low calcium intakes.

Background: Adolescent mothers may be at increased risk of irreversible bone loss during pregnancy and lactation, particularly when calcium intake is low.

Objective: Longitudinal changes in bone mass from lactation to postweaning were evaluated in 10 adolescent mothers aged 15-18 y who habitually consumed <500 mg Ca/d.

Design: Total-body bone mineral content (TBBMC), total-body bone mineral density (TBBMD), and lumbar spine bone mineral density (LSBMD) were measured at lactation (6-24 wk postpartum) and after weaning (12-30 mo postpartum).

Quantification of left ventricular infarcted mass on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging: comparison between planimetry and the semiquantitative visual scoring method.

Objective: To compare a new semiquantitative visual scoring method with quantitative digital planimetry for determining left ventricular infarcted mass by use of cardiac delayed contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging.

Method: Seventy-seven patients with previous myocardial infarction underwent delayed contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging using a 1.5T device for assessing myocardial viability and calculating the infarcted mass.

The role of lipoxygenase products on the endocytosis of yolk proteins in insects: participation of cAMP.

The participation of eicosanoids and second messengers in the regulation of endocytosis by the ovaries was investigated using the uptake of Rhodnius heme binding protein (RHBP) as an experimental model. The rate of RHBP uptake decreased up to 40% in the presence of BWA4C and NDGA, 5 and 12-lipoxygenase inhibitors, respectively, suggesting the involvement of lipoxygenase products in endocytosis regulation. Addition of Leukotriene B4 (LTB(4); one product of the 5 lipoxygenase pathway) increased in vitro the uptake of RHBP by 30%.

Effect of puberty on the relationship between bone markers of turnover and bone mineral density in Turner's syndrome.

It has been suggested that the appropriate timing of puberty is necessary for normal bone mineral acquisition which may not be achieved amongst patients with Turner's syndrome (TS). The aim of this study was to assess bone mineral density (BMD) and bone turnover in 34 patients with TS (age range 2.2-39.

The blood-brain barrier in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement may occur in 20-70% of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients where neurological symptoms are overt; this is termed neuropsychiatric lupus or NPSLE. This review summarizes evidence that damage to the brain endothelium forming the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a contributory factor in NPSLE. The normal CNS is protected by blood-tissue barriers at three sites, the brain endothelium (BBB), the choroid plexus epithelium (blood-CSF barrier) and the arachnoid epithelium.

The role of residues R97 and Y331 in modulating the pH optimum of an insect beta-glycosidase of family 1.

The activity of the digestive beta-glycosidase from Spodoptera frugiperda (Sfbetagly50, pH optimum 6.2) depends on E399 (pKa = 4.9; catalytic nucleophile) and E187 (pKa = 7.

Calcium-parathyroid hormone-vitamin D axis and metabolic bone disease in chronic viral liver disease.

Background: The main process involved in hepatic osteodystrophy seems to be osteoporosis, but decreased 25-hydroxylation of vitamin D might lead to osteomalacia and secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Methods And Results: We studied bone mineral density (BMD) by using DEXA-Expert Lunar, biochemical markers of bone turnover and calcium-parathyroid hormone (PTH)-vitamin D axis in 100 patients with chronic viral hepatitis secondary to hepatitis C virus: 49 non-cirrhotic (NCir) and 51 with cirrhosis (Cir) confirmed by liver biopsy and/or clinical and biochemical features. When compared to the age-matched population, 25% of the patients had low BMD at the lumbar spine (LS), 26.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as a possible cause for reversible infertility.

Objective: To highlight the possible association between infertility and treatment with long-term non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs). NSAIDs act mainly through the inhibition of cyclooxygenase, the enzyme that catalyses the synthesis of prostaglandins, which are essential mediators of ovulation, implantation and placentation of the conceptus.

Methods: Case reports of four women suffering from severe arthritis, on long-term NSAIDs and undergoing extensive investigation and treatment for infertility.

Natural immune response involving anti-endothelial cell antibodies in normal and lupus pregnancy.

Objective: To determine whether immunoglobulins with affinity for the vascular endothelium displayed any distinguishing behavior during normal and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) pregnancy. We also attempted to verify whether isotype expression of anti-endothelial cell antibodies (AECA) would have any predictive value for pregnancy outcome.

Methods: Sera from 38 pregnant patients with SLE, 68 normal pregnant women, and 84 nonpregnant healthy controls were studied.

[Congenital myotonia. Report of 7 patients].

Myotonia is the phenomenon of decrease of muscular relaxation rate, after either a contraction or a mechanical or electrical stimulus. Congenital myotonias are hereditary affections and do not present muscular dystrophy. The current trend is to group them as ionic channels diseases, together with the periodic paralysis.

[Myotonic dystrophy: study of clinico-genetic correlation in a pair of relatives (father-son)].

We report the case of a child with myotonic dystrophy (DM) with symptoms beginning at the age of seven, whose genetic study showed an additional DNA fragment, greater than of his father, an asymptomatic carrier. The clinical and molecular analysis of this parent-child pair are probably the first described in Brazil, since the recent discovery of genetic abnormality in DM by American and European researchers, that explained the long-debated phenomenon of "anticipation" in this disease. The main advances in molecular genetics in DM and its correlation with increasing severity and earlier onset of the symptoms in successive generations of a family are commented briefly.

[Endothelial antigenicity in diffuse connective tissue diseases].

The authors review the published data on antibodies to endothelial cells observed in patients suffering from diffuse connective tissue diseases. In these patients the histologic lesions are found in vessels of different sizes and localizations. It is believed that such auto-antibodies may have a role in the pathogenesis and prognosis of these disorders.

[Soft tissue rheumatism: therapeutic approach].

The authors review the conventional methods for the management of the soft tissue rheumatism. The success in relieving the patient's chief complaint, i.e.

[Soft tissue rheumatism: critical approach of clinical aspects].

Soft tissue rheumatism or "non-articular rheumatism" represents a group of diverse entities, the common feature of which is muscular stiffness and pain. It is the major cause of morbidity and loss of productive man-hours at work. There is no internationally accepted classification of the soft tissue rheumatism.

[Reactive arthritis associated with infections and intestinal infestations].

Reactive arthritis is a non suppurative articular inflammation following an infection elsewhere in the body. It probably occurs by interaction of external infections agents and immunological factors that mediate the host's response to the agent's antigens. The authors reviewed the role of gastrointestinal infection and infestation as a cause of reactive arthritis.

[Enterovirus 70 in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil, from 1984 to 1987: infection aspects in endemic and epidemic periods].

Results of investigation about Enterovirus-70 (EV-70) as an etiologic agent of epidemic of acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) and neurological disease in the metropolitan area of São Paulo city are presented. During the first three months of 1984, in an epidemic period of AHC, 3 groups with a total of 291 persons were studied. The group A included 90 individuals affected by AHC; the 99 persons belonging to group B did not acquire the AHC but referred familiar contact with the ill individuals; the group C included 102 persons who denied the AHC or any contact with the illness.