Serology with ML Flow test in health professionals from three different states of Brazil.

Background: In highly endemic countries, transmission and sub-clinical infection of leprosy are likely and the disease manifests itself in individuals without any known close contact with a leprosy patient. Health workers are social contacts belonging to the same network (the Health System) and some of them share the same social environment (nursing assistants) as patients with known patients and / or carriers.

Objective: To identify ML Flow seropositivity among health professionals.

Drug and multidrug resistance among Mycobacterium leprae isolates from Brazilian relapsed leprosy patients.

Skin biopsy samples from 145 relapse leprosy cases and from five different regions in Brazil were submitted for sequence analysis of part of the genes associated with Mycobacterium leprae drug resistance. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes were observed in M. leprae from 4 out of 92 cases with positive amplification (4.

Informed consent for record linkage: a systematic review.

Background: Record linkage is a useful tool for health research. Potential benefits aside, its use raises discussions on privacy issues, such as whether a written informed consent for access to health records and linkage should be obtained. The authors aim to systematically review studies that assess consent proportions to record linkage.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the penis: clinicopathologic study of 34 cases.

Background: In Brazil, the incidence of penile cancer is 8.3 cases per 100,000 population, in contrast to 0.7 in Europe and the United States.

[Severe mental illness in mothers and congenital malformations in newborns: a meta-analysis].

The risk of congenital malformations appears to be higher in infants of mothers with mental disorders as compared to those of mothers with no history of psychiatric illness. This article presents a meta-analysis of studies on the association between maternal mental illness and congenital malformations. The review consisted of an article search in the MEDLINE, ISIWEB, Scopus, and SciELO databases, using the following key words: "mental disorders" OR "mental health" OR "psychotic disorders" OR "schizophrenia" AND "congenital abnormalities" OR "birth defects".

Prognostic value of exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmia in Chagas' heart disease.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and the prognostic value of exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmia (EIVA) in chronic Chagas' heart disease.

Study Design And Setting: An open prospective cohort of 130 clinically stable patients at a University Hospital outpatient unit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was followed up at scheduled clinical visits from 1990 through 2007. The endpoint was total cardiovascular mortality.

Pericardium closure after heart operations: a safety option?

Objectives: Primary pericardium closure may reduce the risk of cardiac injury during chest re opening, especially the right ventricle, aorta and coronary bypass grafts. Nevertheless, concern about adverse hemodynamic effects prevents most heart surgeons of closuring the pericardium.

Methods: We evaluated 48 patients undergoing open heart surgery consecutively which the pericardium was closed in 30 patients (group A) and 18 patients, as a control group (group B) in which the pericardium was left open.

Epidemiologic study of 107 cases of families with leprosy in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Backgrounds: ultibacillary patients are the major source of infection in leprosy. Nevertheless, the risk is higher in household contacts between multibacillary patients than paucibacillary patients and in the general population. Household contacts are in close genetic relationship with the index case-patient.

STROBE initiative: guidelines on reporting observational studies.

Reporting of observational studies is often inadequate, hampering the assessment of their strengths and weaknesses and, consequently, the generalization of study results. The initiative named Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) developed a checklist of 22 items, the STROBE Statement, with recommendations about what should be included in a more accurate and complete description of observational studies. Between June and December 2008, a group of Brazilian researchers was dedicated to the translation and adaptation of the STROBE Statement into Portuguese.

HIV prevalence among female sex workers, drug users and men who have sex with men in Brazil: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The Brazilian response towards AIDS epidemic is well known, but the absence of a systematic review of vulnerable populations horizontal line men who have sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSW), and drug users (DU) remains a main gap in the available literature. Our goal was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies assessing HIV prevalence among MSM, FSW and DU, calculating a combined pooled prevalence and summarizing factors associated the pooled prevalence for each group.

Methods: Nine electronic databases (MEDLINE via PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL, AIDSLINE, AMED, CINAHL, TOXNET, SciELO, and ISI-Web of Science) were searched for peer-reviewed papers published in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese, from 1999 to 2009.

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and cardiovascular risk in resistant hypertensive women.

Background: Few studies have explored the prognostic value of ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) in resistant hypertensive patients, a high-risk group.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic value of uncontrolled daytime ABP in resistant hypertensive women.

Methods: We followed 382 resistant hypertensive women, aged 24-92 years, from a hypertension unit of a university hospital, for up to 8.

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected drug users: a meta-analysis.

We conducted a meta-analysis of studies assessing adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and a qualitative systematic review of factors associated with better HAART outcomes among HIV+ drug users (DU). Thirty-eight studies were considered, which analyzed 14,960 patients (11,394 HIV+ DU, 76.2%).

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome among drug users: a systematic review.

Aims: Adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is a key predictor of survival for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected people. Suboptimal adherence among marginalized populations such as HIV-positive drug users could be associated with clinical failure and the emergence of viral resistance.

Objective: To conduct a systematic review of studies assessing adherence to HAART among HIV-positive drug users (DU) and identify factors associated with non-adherence to HIV treatment.

Heterogeneous resistance to vancomycin and teicoplanin among Staphylococcus spp. isolated from bacteremia.

This study evaluated the BHIA screening method with 4 or 6 mug/mL of vancomycin to detect glycopeptides heteroresistant staphylococci strains isolated from bacteremia. A total of 213 staphylococci strains were isolated from 106 patients between October/2001 and November/2002 in a tertiary hospital in Rio de Janeiro city. Fifty-seven (53.

Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus drug resistance mutations and subtypes in drug-naive, infected individuals in the army health service of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The prevalence of mutations that confer resistance to antiretroviral drugs was examined in 56 drug-naive, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals from the Army Health Service in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. No primary protease inhibitor mutations were found, but secondary mutations were observed in 51.2% of the samples.