Publications by authors named "Peralta A"

Background: The Movement Disorder Society Non-Motor Rating Scale (MDS-NMS) serves as a comprehensive clinical assessment tool for non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) OBJECTIVES: This study aims to validate the Portuguese version of the MDS-NMS, addressing the critical need for culturally adapted rating scales in Portuguese-speaking populations.

Methods: This multicenter, cross-sectional study engaged native Portuguese-speaking PD patients from 16 Movement Disorders Centers across Portugal and Brazil. We conducted a meticulous translation process into Portuguese, including forward-backward translation and cognitive pretesting.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Marijuana poisoning in canines is still considered a taboo topic. Poisoning in pets is becoming increasingly common, in many cases resulting in severe clinical signs, such as ataxia, urinary incontinence, mydriasis, depression, and hyperesthesia. Colombia does not have any reliable test for the diagnosis of exposure to cannabis in animals, and it is not an obligation to report this kind of poisoning to the authorities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a rare and often difficult postoperative complication to manage. This case series describes a bronchoscopic technique using a bone plug for closure of BPFs.

Methods: Six patients at Henry Ford Hospital from 2014 to 2021, who had a postoperative BPF after lung resection with curative intent for non-small cell lung cancer, underwent bronchoscopic placement of a customized bone plug.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions affected the emotional well-being of people with type 2 diabetes and/or hypertension in Ecuador and Spain, considering their unique sociopolitical and economic contexts.
  • - Through 36 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2020, researchers found a notable decline in emotional health among participants, driven by pandemic-related stresses and pre-existing concerns about their chronic conditions, leading to feelings like fear and depression.
  • - A conceptual framework was developed to show the interplay between COVID-19 control measures, economic and social factors, and existing inequalities, suggesting that tailored social policies are needed to address emotional well-being during future health crises.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although the greatest delays in cancer diagnosis in Latin America occur in the provider interval little is known about the related factors. This study aims to analyze factors influencing access to cancer diagnosis -from initial contact with health services to confirmation- from institutional stakeholders' perspective in public healthcare networks of Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. A qualitative, descriptive-interpretative study was conducted in two networks per country, using semi-structured individual interviews (n = 118; 23 to 58, per country) with a criterion sample of health professionals and administrative personnel from primary care (PC) (n = 41) and secondary/tertiary care hospitals (n = 47), network managers and policymakers (n = 30).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is linked to increased mortality rates, particularly from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), across various states in the U.S. between 2000 and 2016.
  • The study used statistical models to assess the impact of PM2.5 levels on several mortality outcomes, finding significant associations even at levels below the new EPA standard.
  • Notably, the research revealed that Black individuals, particularly those with higher education, have a higher risk of CVD mortality related to PM2.5 exposure compared to other demographic groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Exposure to blue-enriched light from electronic devices is an emergent disruptor of human sleep, especially at particular times of day. Further dissection of this phenomenon necessitates modeling in a tractable model organism.

Methods: Thus, we investigated the effects of light color on sleep in .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A significant portion (34.7%) of the azithromycin-resistant isolates were also resistant to ciprofloxacin, and the analysis indicated a male-dominated trend, with 97.2% of azithromycin-resistant cases occurring in males, many of whom had international travel histories.
  • * The study highlights concerning plasmid-borne resistance patterns linked to global outbreaks, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM),
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Protected areas such as national parks constitute an increasing land mass globally, but these areas are under increasing threat from climate change events such as drought, flooding, and bushfires. The recent Yosemite National Park fires in California provide an example of this issue. After any such disaster, authorities will need to restore those protected areas to their former state at significant costs within any public funding cycle.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study aims to review the proposed methodologies and reported performances of automated algorithms for seizure forecast. A systematic review was conducted on studies reported up to May 10, 2024. Four databases and registers were searched, and studies were included when they proposed an original algorithm for automatic human epileptic seizure forecast that was patient specific, based on intraindividual cyclic distribution of events and/or surrogate measures of the preictal state and provided an evaluation of the performance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the risk of acute symptomatic seizures in patients who experience recurrent strokes compared to those having their first stroke, looking at data from stroke patients over a 5-year period.
  • The findings revealed that the risk of seizures was similar for both groups, with 5.1% for recurrent stroke patients and 4.5% for first-time patients, suggesting prior stroke history doesn’t increase seizure risk.
  • Other factors like age, sex, and hemorrhagic changes were linked to seizures only in first-time stroke patients, indicating different risk profiles between the two groups; further research in larger studies is encouraged to validate these results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Patients continue to face challenges accessing medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) despite attempts to loosen prescribing restrictions and streamline service provision. Past research has mainly focused on potential barriers surrounding prescribing practices for buprenorphine, but has had limited investigation into the role of pharmacies.

Objective: This study investigates the role of both pharmacists and pharmacies in creating or circumventing barriers to accessing buprenorphine for individuals in Georgia seeking medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study addresses the urgent need to understand the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems by demonstrating how to use the SWAT+ model to assess the effects of sea level rise (SLR) on agricultural nitrate export in a coastal watershed. Our framework for incorporating SLR in the SWAT+ model includes: (1) reclassifying current land uses to water for areas with elevations below 0.3 m based on SLR projections for mid-century; (2) creating new SLR-influenced land uses, SLR-influenced crop database, and hydrological response units for areas with elevations below 2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • High-frequency low-tidal-volume (HFLTV) ventilation is more effective than standard ventilation (SV) during radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) for treating paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF), as it enhances procedural efficiency and patient outcomes.
  • A study analyzed 70 patients who underwent pulmonary vein isolation with either HFLTV or SV, revealing that HFLTV led to shorter ablation durations, higher contact force, and better impedance reduction while maintaining the same ablation index.
  • Overall, HFLTV ventilation resulted in significant reductions in total procedural time, ablation time, and RF time compared to SV, indicating its advantages in improving ablation parameters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is commonly associated with cardiac structural abnormalities including mitral regurgitation (MR). Contemporary guidelines recommend consideration of early rhythm control strategies including catheter ablation (CA) for AF. However, the long-term efficacy of CA is highly variable across studies and patient populations, and the effect of coexisting MR on AF recurrence remains unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objective: Interprofessional Education (IPE) is a necessary step in preparing a collaborative practice-ready health workforce that is better prepared to respond to local and global health needs. This study examined the status of IPE implementation in Asian nursing schools in the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region (WPR).

Methods: Descriptive online survey research design was utilized, supplemented by online interviews.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with societal and technological changes around the globe, demanded adaptations to nursing education. This educational case report is an idiographic narrative of an institution's experience of shifting to flexible learning in nursing education in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Various subjects, involving foundation, intervention, and intensive nursing courses, were implemented in flexible learning modes during the Academic Year 2020 to 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Circadian rhythms (CRs) orchestrate intrinsic 24-hour oscillations which synchronize an organism's physiology and behaviour with respect to daily cycles. CR disruptions have been linked to Parkinson's Disease (PD), the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder globally, and are associated to several PD-symptoms such as sleep disturbances. Studying molecular changes of CR offers a potential avenue for unravelling novel insights into the PD progression, symptoms, and can be further used for optimization of treatment strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: Significant changes in tricuspid regurgitation (TR) and mitral regurgitation (MR) post-cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are increasingly recognized. However, uncertainty remains as to whether the risk of CIED-associated TR and MR differs with right ventricular pacing (RVP) via CIED with trans-tricuspid RV leads, compared with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), conduction system pacing (CSP), and leadless pacing (LP). The study aims to synthesize extant data on risk and prognosis of significant post-CIED TR and MR across pacing strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Many studies have observed different characteristics among productive systems in the rural territories of Latin America. Therefore, understanding and characterizing them while they function plays an essential role in determining their relationship between development and environment. A study has been conducted in the Orellana province of NE Ecuador to determine their typology and then classify them according to the variables that describe their main traits or attributes using cluster analysis (CA).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A study examined the prevalence of advance directives in veterans aged 80 and older with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), highlighting the need for such directives among frail and cognitively impaired individuals.
  • Among 77 veterans evaluated, 68% had a healthcare proxy (HCP) and 48% had a living will or medical orders for life-sustaining treatment (LW/MOLST), with higher prevalence in frail individuals.
  • Findings suggest that while most veterans had advance directives, a notable percentage did not, indicating the importance of using simple screening tools to identify those who need these discussions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Glycosylation affects many vital functions of organisms. Therefore, its surveillance is critical from basic science to biotechnology, including biopharmaceutical development and clinical diagnostics. However, conventional glycan structure analysis faces challenges with throughput and cost.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Swirling spin textures, including topologically nontrivial states, such as skyrmions, chiral domain walls, and magnetic vortices, have garnered significant attention within the scientific community due to their appeal from both fundamental and applied points of view. However, their creation, controlled manipulation, and stability are typically constrained to certain systems with specific crystallographic symmetries, bulk or interface interactions, and/or a precise stacking sequence of materials. Recently, a new approach has shown potential for the imprint of magnetic radial vortices in soft ferromagnetic compounds making use of the stray field of YBaCuO superconducting microstructures in ferromagnet/superconductor (FM/SC) hybrids at temperatures below the superconducting transition temperature ().

View Article and Find Full Text PDF