Mobile Application Increased Nutrition Knowledge Among Brazilian Physicians.

Objective: To assess whether using a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet recommendation application increases primary care physicians' knowledge and dietary counseling skills.

Design: A randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Brazilian public primary care service.

Troponin elevation as a marker of short deterioration and one-year death in a high-risk surgical patient cohort in a low and middle income country setting: a postoperative approach to increase surveillance.

Purpose: Myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery is common and mostly asymptomatic. The ideal target population that will benefit from routine troponin measurements in low and middle income countries (LMICs) is unclear. This study aims to evaluate the clinical outcomes of a cohort of high-risk surgical patients according to high-sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT) in an LMIC setting.

The brief measure of preoperative emotional stress screens preoperative maladaptive psychological features and predicts postoperative opioid use: an observational study.

Background: The Brief Measure of Preoperative Emotional Stress (B-MEPS) is a suitable screening tool for Preoperative Emotional Stress (PES). However, personalized decision-making demands practical interpretation of the refined version of B-MEPS. Thus, we propose and validate cut-off points on the B-MEPS to classify PES.

Measuring emotional preoperative stress by an app approach and its applicability to predict postoperative pain.

Background: The Brief Measure of Emotional Preoperative Stress (B-MEPS) was developed to evaluate the preoperative individual vulnerability to emotional stress. To obtain a refined version of B-MEPS suitable for an app approach, this study aimed: (i) to identify items with more discriminant properties; (ii) to classify the level of preoperative emotional stress based on cut-off points; (iii) to assess concurrent validity through correlation with the Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI) score; (iv) to confirm whether the refined version of B-MEPS is an adequate predictive measure for identification of patients prone to intense postoperative pain.

Methods: We include 1016 patients who had undergone surgical procedures in a teaching hospital.

Evaluation of Polymorphisms in Toll-Like Receptor Genes as Biomarkers of the Response to Treatment of Erythema Nodosum Leprosum.

Erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) is an inflammatory complication caused by a dysregulated immune response to . Some Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been identified as capable of recognizing antigens from , triggering a wide antimicrobial and inflammatory response. Genetic polymorphisms in these receptors could influence in the appearance of ENL as well as in its treatment.

Portuguese validation of the Regret Intensity Scale (RIS-10) for measuring the intensity of regret associated with the provision of attention in health.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to adapt and validate the Regret Intensity Scale-10 (RIS-10) for Brazilian health professionals.

Methods: The validation study took place in two phases, in which the first was the translation of the instruments and the second, the field validation using psychometric properties validity and reliability of the scale with 341 professionals (doctors, nurses and physiotherapists) linked to hospitals. Validity was assessed using content validities (six judges evaluation), criteria (correlation with the Life Satisfaction Scale - SWLS and Self-Reporting Questionnaire 20 -SRQ-20) and construct (exploratory analysis using the rotation method Promax, based on the slope graph and the Kaiser criterion and confirmatory using the structural equation model) after applying the questionnaire to professionals.

Derivation and validation of a national multicenter mortality risk stratification model - the ExCare model: a study protocol.

Introduction: Surgical care is essential for proper management of various diseases. However, it can result in unfavorable outcomes. In order to identify patients at higher risk of complications, several risk stratification models have been developed.

Validation of the Family Health Behavior Scale for the Brazilian population.

Objective: To validate the Family Health Behavior Scale (FHBS) for Brazilian families.

Methods: The sample included 272 children aged 5 to 12 years old. Caregivers and their healthy answered the FHBS and questions about physical activity.

Validation of the Brazilian version of the child pain catastrophizing scale and its relationship with a marker of central sensitization.

Objectives: The Pain Catastrophizing Scale-Child version (PCS-C) allows to identify children who are prone to catastrophic thinking. We aimed to adapt the Brazilian version of PCS-C (BPCS-C) to examine scale psychometric properties and factorial structure in children with and without chronic pain. Also, we assessed its correlation with salivary levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Few and feasible preoperative variables can identify high-risk surgical patients: derivation and validation of the Ex-Care risk model.

Background: The development of feasible preoperative risk tools is desirable, especially for low-middle income countries with limited resources and complex surgical settings. This study aimed to derive and validate a preoperative risk model (Ex-Care model) for postoperative mortality and compare its performance with current risk tools.

Methods: A multivariable logistic regression model predicting in-hospital mortality was developed using a large Brazilian surgical cohort.

The Brief Measure of Emotional Preoperative Stress (B-MEPS) as a new predictive tool for postoperative pain: A prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Preoperative patients' vulnerabilities such as physical, social, and psychological are implicated in postoperative pain variability. Nevertheless, it is a challenge to analyze a patient's psychological profile in the preoperative period in a practical and consistent way. Thus, we sought to identify if high preoperative emotional stress, evaluated by the Brief Measure of Emotional Preoperative Stress (B-MEPS) scale is associated with higher postoperative pain levels and poor rehabilitation in patients submitted to intermediate or major surgery.

BDNF and serum S100B levels according the spectrum of structural pathology in chronic pain patients.

Central sensitivity syndrome (CSS) consists of adaptive pathophysiological changes associated with neuroplasticity in some chronic pain disorders. It could be grouped in two main conceptual conditions: one includes those chronic pain patients without overt structural pathology such as fibromyalgia, and the other subgroup includes conditions with recognizable structural abnormalities, both somatic (osteoarthritis) and visceral (endometriosis). In order to understand the role of neuromodulators in CCS we aim to determine whether brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and S100B are associated to specific chronic pain disorders.

Assessment of biosecurity practices and development of a scoring system in swine farms using item response theory.

Brazil is the fourth largest producer and exporter of pork in the world, but has never reported yet the occurrence of some economically important diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED). Most of the swine farms in Brazil are characterized by intensive production being part of large integrated companies, where biosecurity practices help to prevent the introduction and spread of disease-causing infectious agents. The assessment of biosecurity in farms is not straightforward because of the large number of practices that constitute an on-farm biosecurity program.

Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Attention Bias Modification for Childhood Anxiety Disorders: A Factorial Randomized Trial of Efficacy.

Background: The objective of this study is to assess group differences in symptom reduction between individuals receiving group cognitive behavioral therapy (G-CBT) and attention bias modification (ABM) compared to their respective control interventions, control therapy (CT), and attention control training (ACT), in a 2 × 2 factorial design.

Methods: A total of 310 treatment-naive children (7-11 years of age) were assessed for eligibility and 79 children with generalized, separation or social anxiety disorder were randomized and received G-CBT (n = 42) or CT (n = 37). Within each psychotherapy group, participants were again randomized to ABM (n = 38) or ACT (n = 41) in a 2 × 2 factorial design resulting in four groups: G-CBT + ABM (n = 21), G-CBT + ACT (n = 21), CT + ABM (n = 17), and CT + ACT (n = 20).

Genuine sildenafil tablets sold in Brazil disguised as MDMA.

MDMA and sildenafil are two examples among many substances consumed in "raves", as well as in other types of "recreative" social events nowadays. During the first six months of 2017, five cases of supposedly MDMA tablets seized by local law enforcement forces in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and brought to our forensic laboratory for examination, attracted our attention among dozens of others, as the tablets apprehended in these cases were, in fact, colorfully painted versions of genuine, pentagon-shaped, sildenafil tablets, freely available for sale in local pharmacies and drugstores. Physical profiling, together with ATR-FTIR spectral matching, multi-component/deconvolution analysis and correlation were employed to prove that these tablets were genuine sildenafil tablets from a specific manufacturer, painted in a colorful way so that they could be marketed as MDMA tablets to unsuspecting buyers.

Analysis of ineffective breathing pattern and impaired spontaneous ventilation of adults with oxygen therapy.

Objective: to analyze the manifestation of the defining characteristics of the nursing diagnoses of ineffective breathing pattern and impaired spontaneous ventilation, of the NANDA International and the defining characteristics identified in the literature for the concept of "ventilation" in adult patients hospitalized in an intensive care unit with use of oxygen therapy.

Method: clinical diagnostic validation study, conducted with 626 patients in intensive care using oxygen therapy, in three different modalities. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to verify the discriminative capacity of the defining characteristics and latent class analysis to determine the diagnostic accuracy of them, based on the severity level defined by the ventilatory mode used.

Derivation and validation of a preoperative risk model for postoperative mortality (SAMPE model): An approach to care stratification.

Ascertaining which patients are at highest risk of poor postoperative outcomes could improve care and enhance safety. This study aimed to construct and validate a propensity index for 30-day postoperative mortality. A retrospective cohort study was conducted at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil, over a period of 3 years.

Multianalytical Method Validation for Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Solvents of Abuse in Oral Fluid by HS-GC/MS.

The use of oral fluid as a biological matrix to monitor the use of drugs of abuse is a global trend because it presents several advantages and good correlation to the blood level. Thus, the present work aimed to develop and validate an analytical method for quantification and detection of solvents used as inhalants of abuse in oral fluid (OF), using Quantisal™ as collector device by headspace and gas chromatography coupled with a mass detector (HS-GC/MS). Chromatographic separation was performed with a ZB-BAC1 column and the total time of analysis was 11.

Differential item functioning in the beck depression inventory.

Introduction: There are several studies showing the presence of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) in some items of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), when comparing men and women. The presence of a large number of items with DIF in BDI is a severe threat to the validity of measurement of the intensity of depressive symptoms obtained by Item Response Theory (IRT) and to the conclusions based on the scores derived from the items with or without DIF.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to identify these items from the BDI, adjust the IRT model for embarrassing items (model 2), which accommodates items with the presence of DIF, and compare these results with the fit of the traditional two-parameter logistic IRT model (model 1).

Degree of knowledge of health care professionals about pain management and use of opioids in pediatrics.

Objective: To evaluate the degree of knowledge about pain management and opioids use by professionals working at three pediatric units.

Design: This is a cross-sectional study.

Setting: This study was carried out at three pediatric units (pediatrics, intensive care unit, and oncology) of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, which is a university hospital located in southern Brazil.

Item response theory applied to the Beck Depression Inventory.

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), a scale that measures the latent trait intensity of depression symptoms, can be assessed by the Item Response Theory (IRT). This study used the Graded-Response model (GRM) to assess the intensity of depressive symptoms in 4,025 individuals who responded to the BDI, in order to efficiently use the information available on different aspects enabled by the use of this methodology. The fit of this model was done in PARSCALE software.

Validation of a new method developed to measure the height of adult patients in bed.

Unlabelled: We present the performance of a new instrument developed to measure the height of patients in bed (Luft Ruler).

Methods: Standing height was the gold standard measured in 116 hospitalized adults with a stadiometer, compared with measurements from the Luft Ruler and calculated estimates.

Results: Using the Luft Ruler in women, men, <60 years old, and >60 years old, the mean difference from the gold standard was, respectively, 1.