Spontaneous reports of hypersensitivity adverse drug reactions in Portugal: a retrospective analysis

ABSTRACT

Background

Hypersensitivity adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are usually serious, unpredictable, and associated with high morbidity and mortality. This study describes cases of hypersensitivity ADRs spontaneously reported in Central Portugal.     

Evaluation of environmental genotoxicity by comet assay in Columba livia

The concentrations of recognized or suspected genotoxic and carcinogenic agents found in the air of large cities and, in particular, developing countries, have raised concerns about the potential for chronic health effects in the populations exposed to them. The biomonitoring of environmental genotoxicity requires the selection of representative organisms as “sentinels,” as well as the development of suitable and sensitive assays, such as those aimed at assessing DNA damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate DNA damage levels in erythrocytes from Columba livia living in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico, compared with control animals via comet assay, and to confirm the results via Micronuclei test (MN) and DNA breakage detection–fluorescence in situ hybridization (DBD–FISH). Our results showed a significant increase in DNA migration in animals from the area assayed compared with that observed in control animals sampled in non-contaminated areas. These results were confirmed by MN test and DBD–FISH. In conclusion, these observations confirm that the examination of erythrocytes from Columba livia via alkaline comet assay provides a sensitive and reliable end point for the detection of environmental genotoxicants.     

Postoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio variation is associated with chronic subdural hematoma recurrence

Neurological Sciences - Chronic subdural haematoma (CSDH) is one of the most common neurosurgical pathologies. The recurrence of chronic subdural haematomas is an important concern, considering...     

Effect of the association of infra-red and red wavelength photobiomodulation therapy on the healing of post-extraction sockets of third lower molars: a split-mouth randomized clinical trial

Lasers in Medical Science - The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) with the association of red and infra-red laser therapy in the healing of the...     

Assessing Community Readiness for Preventing Youth Substance Use in Colombia: a Latent Profile Analysis

The growing use of evidence-based preventive interventions for youth substance use in Latin American countries has prompted governments, researchers, and practitioners to ask if communities are ready for implementing these interventions, especially in light of the elevated costs and long-term commitment necessary for successful implementation. This study explores the construct validity of a measure of community readiness for prevention, using confirmatory factor and latent profile analyses of 7 measures theorized to be indicators of community readiness for implementing preventive interventions for youth substance use. Data were obtained from 211 community leaders in 16 communities in Colombia. Results indicate that community readiness can be represented as a unidimensional construct with multiple profiles of varying levels of readiness. Findings suggest that community readiness can be measured adequately as a latent construct and that its indicators can be used diagnostically to assess areas where readiness could be improved for better implementation of evidence-based preventive interventions.

     

Oxytocin receptor signalling modulates novelty recognition but not social preference in zebrafish

Sociality is a complex phenomenon that involves the individual´s motivation to approach their conspecifics, along with social cognitive functions that enable individuals to interact and survive. The nonapeptide oxytocin (OXT) is known to regulate sociality in many species. However, the role of OXT in specific aspects of sociality is still not well understood. In the present study, we investigated the contribution of the OXT receptor (OXTR) signalling in two different aspects of zebrafish social behaviour: social preference, by measuring their motivation to approach a shoal of conspecifics, and social recognition, by measuring their ability to discriminate between a novel and familiar fish, using a mutant zebrafish lacking a functional OXTR. Although oxtr mutant zebrafish displayed normal attraction to a shoal of conspecifics, they exhibited reduced social recognition. We further investigated whether this effect would be social‐domain specific by replacing conspecific fish by objects. Although no differences were observed in object approach, oxtr mutant fish also exhibited impaired object recognition. Our findings suggest that OXTR signalling regulates a more general memory recognition of familiar vs novel entities, not only in social but also in a non‐social domain, in zebrafish.     

Pathways in the association between sugar sweetened beverages and child asthma traits in the 2nd year of life: Findings from the BRISA cohort

Studies on the exposure of children to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) at an early age may contribute to better understand the common causes and the temporal order of the relationships between obesity and asthma in early childhood. The objective of this study was to estimate the association between SSB and child asthma traits in the 2nd year of life, modeling direct and indirect pathways mediated by the highest BMI-z of the child and allergic inflammation. Data from the BRISA cohort, São Luís-MA, Brazil (n = 1140), were obtained from the baseline and from the follow-up performed at the 2nd year of life. The main explanatory variable was the calories from added sugars in SSBs as a percentage of the total daily energy intake. The outcome child asthma traits was a latent variable deduced from four indicators: medical diagnosis of asthma, wheezing, emergency visit due to intense wheezing, and medical diagnosis of rhinitis. A high percentage of daily calories from sugars added to SSBs was directly associated with higher values of child asthma traits (standardized coefficient (SC = 0.073; P = .030)). High levels of eosinophils were also directly associated with child asthma traits (SC = 0.118; P = .049). No mediation pathways were observed via greater BMI-z or eosinophil counts. Therefore, early exposure of children to SSB may contribute to increased risk of childhood asthma, preceding the link between sugar consumption and overweight/obesity, not yet evident in children in the first 2 years of life.     

Treatment of generalized infantile myofibromatosis with sorafenib and imatinib: A case report

Infantile myofibromatosis (IM) is characterized by solitary musculoskeletal nodules presenting during infancy but can manifest as multiple lesions with visceral involvement. Multicentric IM with visceral involvement carries a high risk of mortality and there is no consensus on treatment. We present a case of a patient with multicentric IM and pulmonary involvement who progressed on several chemotherapeutic regimens and subsequently had a complete response to sorafenib and later imatinib. This report describes the novel use of sorafenib and imatinib to treat generalized IM and the role of continued tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy to maintain remission.