[Evaluation of the use of the 10th percentile of weight for age as a cut point for detection of children under nutritional risk].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use of the 10th percentile of weight for age as a cut off point for detection of children under nutritional risk, especially for programs of alimentary supplementation. METHODS: 841 children with age between 10 days and 60 months were studied in a primary health care center located in the periphery of Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. It was a cross-sectional study that included age, sex, weight and height, later computing the z scores of weight for age, height for age and weight for height, on the basis of the data of the NCHS.

Growth of exclusively breast-fed infants from a poor urban population.

The growth of two groups of infants were evaluated, one of them exclusively breast-fed (105 infants) and the other exclusively bottle-fed (61 infants), and compared with one another and with international standards (NCHS). All infants were evaluated by anthropometry at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 months of age. A fourth order polynomial was adopted for each infant and for each anthropometric measurement in order to estimate individual growth, and the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles for weight and length were obtained.

Clinical course of Chagas' heart disease: a comparison with dilated cardiomyopathy.

This investigation was carried out to compare the clinical course of patients with chronic Chagas' heart disease with that of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. A total of 125 patients (75 chagasic and 50 nonchagasic) prospectively followed up at the Cardiomyopathy clinic of Santa Casa Hospital from January 1990 to June 1993 entered the study. Patients underwent clinical history, physical examination, serological tests, resting electrocardiogram, chest X-ray and two-dimensional echocardiography.

[Clinical course of patients treated with partial left ventriculectomy].

Objective: To assess the efficacy of partial left ventriculectomy as a treatment for patients with end-stage heart failure.

Methods: From February to June 1995, 7 patients with end-stage heart failure underwent partial left ventriculectomy. Subsequently, patients underwent clinical evaluation every 2 months, and 2-dimensional echocardiography at the 6th and 12th months after cardiac surgery.

[Consumption of psychoactive substances by school-age adolescents of Ribeirão Preto, SP (Brazil). II--Distribution of consumption by social levels].

Introduction: Many of the epidemiological studies on the consumption of legal and illegal psychoactive substances have included the evaluation of the influence of social context on the levels of prevalence of this consumption using indirect social indicators such as family income, and educational and housing levels in an attempt to identify individuals or groups in different social contexts. The present study investigates the distribution of consumption of psychoactive substances according to social class in a sample of teenage pupils in Ribeirão Preto, SP, Southeastern Brazil.

Material And Method: A self-applicable questionnaire duly adapted and submitted to a reliability test was applied to a proportional sample of 1,025 teenagers enrolled in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 12th grades in public and private city schools.

[The consumption of psychoactive substances by adolescents in schools in Ribeiräo Preto, SP (Brazil). I--Prevalence of consumption by sex, age and substance].

Introduction: Concern over the consumption of psychoactive substances by teenagers has given rise to a great worldwide effort to produce information about this phenomenon. This study set out to investigate the prevalence of consumption of legal and illegal psychoactive substances, its distribution by age, sex and age at first experience of them, among teenage pupils in county, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Southeastern Brazil.

Material And Method: A self-applicable questionnaire duly adapted and submitted to a reliability test was applied to a proportional sample of 1,025 teenagers enrolled in 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grades at public and private city schools.

The relationship between megacolon and carcinoma of the colon: an experimental approach.

'Carcinoma of the colon does not occur in cases of megacolon' is an axiom held by Brazilian physicians working in endemic areas for Chagas' disease. The objective of the present study was to test this axiom experimentally by submitting rats with experimental megacolon to a carcinogen which causes carcinoma of the colon. Eighty young male Wistar rats received serosal application of either saline (0.

An infarct-like myocardial lesion experimentally induced in Wistar rats with Africanized bee venom.

There is evidence in the literature that death following a bee or wasp sting may result from cardiac involvement. This study describes acute cardiac lesions experimentally induced in Wistar Rats submitted to intravenous inoculation of Africanized bee venom (ABV) and killed 1, 4, and 24 h after inoculation. Significant increases in serum enzyme levels were detected; light microscopy showed necrosis of the myocardium; and enzyme histochemistry showed inactivation of enzymes in and around the areas of necrosis.

[Growth of preterm infants].

A hundred-forty-one infants born from 26 to 36 weeks, appropriate-for-gestational-age, were followed from birth until the corrected postmenstrual age of 42 weeks. Weight, height and cephalic perimeter were measured on a weekly basis. Based on the average values and percentiles of these measurements it was adjusted a third degree polynomial function.

Peripheral and coronary sinus catecholamine levels in patients with severe congestive heart failure due to Chagas' disease.

The aim of this study was to assess the peripheral and cardiac autonomic system by catecholamine measurements in patients with severe chagasic and nonchagasic heart failure. Fifteen chagasic and 16 nonchagasic patients were enrolled in the study. Plasma venous norepinephrine levels (pg/ml) were 397.

Cardiac noradrenaline in experimental rat envenomation with Africanized bee venom.

The concentration of cardiac tissue noradrenaline (NOR) was determined in Wistar rats injected with 1.5 microliters/100 g body weight Africanized bee venom (ABV) (LD50 = 0.8 microliter/100 g body weight by the intravenous route).

[Influence of the different types of room on newborns during breastfeeding].

The present study was developed in the CMSCVL, which is a primary medical attendment clinic for children and pregnant women, during the period of 01/10/1980 to 31/12/1984, containing 132 children. The study was longitudinal and respective and the two distinct groups of children may be established, differing in accordance to the hospital stay period of postpartum, in rooming-in or traditional nursery. After the statistic analysis of all the variables involved in the study, the only variable that really resulted was the site of internation during the postpartum period.

Clinical and morphological characteristics associated with sudden cardiac death in patients with Chagas' disease.

The medical records of 24 patients with Chagas disease who died suddenly, between 1982 and 1988, were examined in an attempt to determine the clinical profile of sudden death in Chagas disease. Patient age ranged from 33 to 72 years (average: 51). Seventeen (70%) were male: Five (20%) were asymptomatic.

Accuracy of clinical diagnoses in a teaching hospital: a review of 997 autopsies.

Objectives: To analyse the concordance between clinical and autopsy diagnoses.

Design: Nine-hundred-and-ninety-seven autopsies were studied comparing the diagnoses of the autopsy requests with those of the death certificates and autopsy reports. The cases were grouped according to the 17 categories of diseases of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the concordance was analysed with the kappa (kappa) coefficient of concordance.

Effect of oral phytohaemagglutinin intake on cell adaptation in the epithelium of the small intestine of the rat.

The effect of phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) on the adaptation of the proximal jejunal epithelium and on the distal ileal epithelium was studied in rats. The group receiving PHA gained less weight than controls, and the enterocyte population of their jejunal villi, as well as the morphokinetic parameters (length, population, crypt cell production per crypt) of their jejunal and ileal crypts were higher than those of the controls. The proximal lesion caused by PHA (reduction of villus cell populations) stimulates hyperplasia of the crypt-villus unit of the ileal epithelium with the development of adaptation from afar.

The chronological relationship between the thickening of smooth muscle, epithelial cell proliferation and myenteric neural denervation in the rat jejunum.

The jejunum of rats was treated by serosal application of a 0.2% solution of benzalkonium chloride (BAC) for 30 min. Control animals were treated with saline (0.

Changes in electrocardiographic patterns at different stages of Chagas' heart disease in rats.

1. The resting electrocardiogram was obtained from 25 Trypanosoma cruzi-infected rats 30 days after infection (phase I). The resting electrocardiogram was abnormal in 12 (group I) and normal in 13 (group II) animals.

Effects of long term metoprolol administration on the electrocardiogram of rats infected with T cruzi.

Study Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of beta receptor antagonists in the evolution of experimental Chagas' disease.

Design: Rats were infected with T cruzi, 2000 parasites.g-1 body weight, soon after weaning.

Increased capacity of the coronary arteries in chronic Chagas' heart disease: further support for the neurogenic pathogenesis concept.

A postmortem study of the capacity of the coronary arteries is presented. The amount of injected Schlessinger's barium-gelatin mass taken up by the coronary arterial tree under standard conditions was used as a measure of coronary capacity. A total of 63 hearts, consisting of those with Chagas' cardiopathy, normal hearts, and hypertrophied hearts, were studied.

Non-potentiation of myocardial lesions by isoproterenol in T. cruzi-infected rats.

The existing controversies on the pathogenesis of Chagas' heart disease can be simplified into two theories: (1) "neurogenic" which is concerned with the denervation of the ganglion cells of the heart (chiefly parasympathetic), theoretically resulting in a relative sympathetic overdrive to the heart, and (2) "immunoallergic", concerned with myocarditis, evoked by antibodies related to myocardial and/or parasite products. It is known that both patients and animals with Chagas' disease exhibit such serologic antibodies. Heart-specific antibodies are known to potentiate myocardial lesions caused by isoproterenol.

Cardiac thrombosis and thromboembolism in chronic Chagas' heart disease.

A retrospective study of Chagas' heart disease was carried out by a review of 1,345 autopsy reports, with special reference to cardiac thrombus and thromboembolic phenomena. The incidence of cardiac thrombus was higher in cases of heart failure (36%) than in cases of sudden death (15%), higher in heavier hearts, and unrelated to age or sex. The left- and right-sided cardiac chambers were equally affected by thrombus.

[Morphological and biochemical changes of the heart in experimental hypochromic anemia in rats].

The effect of iron deficiency anemia on the catecholamine levels and morphology of the heart was studied in young male Wistar rats. The iron-deficient rats showed mild restriction of body weight gain and a striking lowering of blood hemoglobin concentration. In addition the present study demonstrated that the experimental iron deficiency anemia induces cardiac hypertrophy, as revealed by increased heart weight associated with increased size of cardiac muscle cells, as well as decreased myocardium catecholamine levels.