Successful Aging in Colombia: The Role of Disease.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of successful aging (SA) and identify its predictive factors in a cohort of older people in the Colombian Andes Mountain. Data were drawn from a prospective longitudinal study of community-dwelling elderly people in Manizales. SA encompassed indicators in four domains: physical, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning.

Effects of different wavelengths of light on lignin peroxidase production by the white-rot fungi Phanerochaete chrysosporium grown in submerged cultures.

In this study, the effects of different wavelengths of light (UV, blue, green, yellow, red) and white light on lignin peroxidase (LiP), protein, biomass and exo-polysaccharide production and glucose uptake by Phanerochaete chrysosporium BKM-F-1767 were determined. The experiments were conducted under aerated (CS) and oxygenated (RS) culture conditions. The results showed that only green light significantly increased maximum LiP production (by 20% and 27% in CS and RS cultures respectively).

A Cross-Cultural Validation of VR Treatment System for Flying Phobia in the Mexican Population.

Anxiety as a symptom or disorder is affected by multiple variables such as antecedent events, interpretation of the events, psychological vulnerability, and individual differences in the reaction towards an event. Nowadays, virtual-reality therapy is used as therapeutic tool for patients suffering from some kind of anxiety disorder. In Mexico, the National Survey on Psychiatric Epidemiology [1] informed that anxiety disorders are the most common disorders followed by affective disorders, which are more prevalent in women than in men.

Systemic autoimmune diseases in patients with hepatitis C virus infection: characterization of 1020 cases (The HISPAMEC Registry).

Objective: To describe the clinical and immunologic characteristics of a large series of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases (SAD) associated with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Methods: The HISPAMEC Registry is a multicenter international study group dedicated to collecting data on patients diagnosed with SAD with serological evidence of chronic HCV infection. The information sources are cases reported by physicians of the HISPAMEC Study Group and periodic surveillance of reported cases by a Medline search updated up to December 31, 2007.

A systematic review of the off-label use of biological therapies in systemic autoimmune diseases.

In 2006, the Study Group on Autoimmune Diseases (GEAS) of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine created the BIOGEAS project, a multicenter study devoted to collecting data on the use of biological agents in adult patients with systemic autoimmune diseases (SAD). The information source is a periodic surveillance of reported cases by a MEDLINE search (last update before this writing: December 31, 2007). The analysis included a total of 19 SAD and 6 biological agents.

Hepatitis C virus and Sjögren's syndrome: trigger or mimic?

Patients who have chronic hepatitis C virus infection present some extrahepatic manifestations that may mimic the clinical, immunologic, and histologic manifestations of primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS). Various demographic, clinical, and immunologic features may aid differentiation between the two processes. Chronic hepatitis C virus infection should be considered an exclusion criterion for the classification of primary SS, not because it mimics primary SS, but because the virus may be implicated in the development of SS in a specific subset of patients.

Prevalence and clinical relevance of autoimmune neutropenia in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome.

Objective: To analyze the prevalence of neutropenia in a large cohort of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and its association with clinical and immunological disease expression and adverse outcomes.

Methods: The study cohort included 300 patients diagnosed with primary SS in our department between 1984 and 2002. The outcomes measured after the first laboratory evidence of neutropenia (<2.

Autoimmune diseases induced by TNF-targeted therapies: analysis of 233 cases.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-targeted therapies are increasingly used for a rapidly expanding number of rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. With this use and longer follow-up periods of treatment, there are a growing number of reports of the development of autoimmune processes related to anti-TNF agents. We have analyzed the clinical characteristics, outcomes, and patterns of association with the different anti-TNF agents used in all reports of autoimmune diseases developing after TNF-targeted therapy found through a MEDLINE search of articles published between January 1990 and December 2006.

Virtual reality applications to agoraphobia: a protocol.

Recently, educators and instructional designers have focused on the development and implementation of virtual learning environments that effectively combine theoretical and applied knowledge to teach university students. One of the trusts of the Psychology Virtual Teaching Laboratory in collaboration with the IXTLI observatory is to develop dissemination programs to promote the insertion of virtual reality (VR) technologies applied to rehabilitation in their clinical practice. This paper describes the development of (1) agoraphobia VR learning objects to be use as a teaching support tools in class and (2) a multimedia teaching program that incorporate digital video and VR scenarios address to students in the field of mental health.