Publications by authors named "Valeria Maria Augusto"

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic caused a negative impact on other infectious diseases control, prevention, and treatment. Consequently, low and middle-income countries suffer from other endemic diseases, such as tuberculosis. This study was designed to compare Covid-19 manifestations and outcomes between patients with previously treated tuberculosis and controls without this condition.

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Objective: To evaluate symptoms, lung function, and quality of life of a cohort of patients hospitalized for severe COVID-19 12 months after hospital admission.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. We included severe COVID-19 survivors hospitalized in one of three tertiary referral hospitals for COVID-19 in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

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Although control of Covid-19 has improved, the virus continues to cause infections, such as tuberculosis, that is still endemic in many countries, representing a scenario of coinfection. To compare Covid-19 clinical manifestations and outcomes between patients with active tuberculosis infection and matched controls. This is a matched case-control study based on data from the Brazilian Covid-19 Registry, in hospitalized patients aged 18 or over with laboratory confirmed Covid-19 from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022.

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Objective: A substantial number of people with COPD suffer from exacerbations, which are defined as an acute worsening of respiratory symptoms. To minimize exacerbations, telehealth has emerged as an alternative to improve clinical management, access to health care, and support for self-management. Our objective was to map the evidence of telehealth/telemedicine for the monitoring of adult COPD patients after hospitalization due to an exacerbation.

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The present observational study was designed to characterize the integrative profile of serum soluble mediators to describe the immunological networks associated with clinical findings and identify putative biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of active tuberculosis. The study population comprises 163 volunteers, including 84 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis/(TB), and 79 controls/(C). Soluble mediators were measured by multiplexed assay.

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Background: COVID-19 has been associated with persistent symptoms and functional changes, especially in those surviving severe disease.

Methods: We conducted a prospective multicenter study in patients with severe COVID-19 to determine respiratory sequelae. Patients were stratified into two groups: ward admission (WA) and intensive care unit (ICU) admission.

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Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has an appreciable socioeconomical impact in low- and middle-income countries, but most epidemiological data originate from high-income countries. For this reason, it is especially important to understand survival and factors associated with survival in COPD patients in these countries.

Objective: To assess survival of COPD patients in Brazil, to identify risk factors associated with overall survival, including treatment options funded by the Brazilian National Health System (SUS).

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Objective: Because SARS-CoV-2 infection can severely affect the lungs and persistent functional changes can occur after severe disease, we aimed to determine lung function parameters of COVID-19 patients at 45 days after hospital discharge and compare changes according to the severity of the disease.

Methods: This was a prospective descriptive analytical multicenter study. The participants were allocated into three groups: ward admission (WA) group; ICU admission not on mechanical ventilation (ICU/MV-) group; and ICU admission on MV (ICU/MV+) group.

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Tuberculosis continues to be a major public health problem. Although efforts to control the epidemic have reduced mortality and incidence, there are several predisposing factors that should be modified in order to reduce the burden of the disease. This review article will address some of the risk factors associated with tuberculosis infection and active tuberculosis, including diabetes, smoking, alcohol use, and the use of other drugs, all of which can also contribute to poor tuberculosis treatment results.

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Background: Advanced lung disease is a chronic non-neoplastic disease that compromises activities of daily living. Treatment includes pulmonary rehabilitation and inspiratory muscle training. Studies have shown the effectiveness of inspiratory muscle training in lung disease patients, but literature is scarce on the patients' perceptions about this topic.

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Background: The lung lesions in an individual infected with tuberculosis (TB) are surprisingly variable and independent of each other. However, there is no circulating biomarker yet able to segregate patients according to the extent of lung lesions.

Materials And Methods: In this study, the phenotypic and functional profile of leukocytes of patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and controls (CO) were fully scrutinized by immunophenotyping assays and in vitro short-term whole blood culture.

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Previously we showed that 65-kDa Mycobacterium leprae heat shock protein (Hsp65) is a target for the development of a tuberculosis vaccine. Here we evaluated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy individuals or tuberculosis patients stimulated with two forms of Hsp65 antigen, recombinant DNA that encodes Hsp65 (DNA-HSP65) or recombinant Hsp65 protein (rHsp65) in attempting to mimic a prophylactic or therapeutic study in vitro, respectively. Proliferation and cytokine-producing CD4 or CD8 cell were assessed by flow cytometry.

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