Low Quality of Life,Falls, and Pre-Frailty are Associated with Depressive Symptoms in Virologically Suppressed PLWHIV in Salvador,Brazil

AIDS and Behavior - Depression is the leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide and PLWHIV present a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms. We aimed to evaluate depressive...     

Muscular adaptations to training programs using the Nordic hamstring exercise or the stiff-leg deadlift in rugby players

Sport Sciences for Health - Muscular responses to training programs with the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) have been widely investigated to understand its preventive effects on muscle strain...     

Toxoplasma peritonitis in a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

Toxoplasma gondii was identified in a stained slide preparation of, and isolated from, peritoneal fluid specimens obtained from a patient with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). At the time of admission to the hospital, the patient's serologic tests were positive for Toxoplasma. Toxoplasma was isolated from samples of the patient's blood by mouse inoculation. Findings of newly developed methods for diagnosis of the presence of T gondii in body fluids by assay for Toxoplasma-specific antigen and by use of a DNA probe were positive.     

Chronic Chagas' heart disease in children and adolescents: a clinicopathologic study

A retrospective study of the medical records filed at the University Hospital from 1965 to 1983 and of 18456 autopsies carried out in the Department of Pathology of this Institution from 1953 to 1983, referring to patients aged less than 18 years was performed in an attempt to fully characterize chronic Chagas' heart disease in children and adolescents. Only 19 of these patients fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in the present study (12 cases with only clinical information and 7 cases with clinical and pathological information). We noted that the clinical manifestations of chronic Chagas' heart disease are congestive heart failure, thromboembolism and sudden death. Radiologic, electrocardiographic and anatomo-pathological findings demonstrated serious myocardial involvement. This set of alterations is also detected in adults with chronic Chagas' heart disease. Among adolescents, however, the disease exhibits relevant peculiarities such as rapid evolution to death within a short period of time (128 days), diagnostic difficulty related to the presence of significant mitral regurgitation (61% erroneous initial diagnosis), and low frequency of right bundle branch block (11% of cases). These findings suggest that among children and adolescents, chronic Chagas' heart disease may be of a peculiar type and therefore may be useful to clarify the pathogenetic mechanism of the disease.     

The first record of American visceral leishmaniasis in domestic cats from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This paper is the first to report visceral leishmaniasis in domestic cats (Felis catus domesticus) from an endemic area in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. A relatively high seroprevalence of 25% was observed although none of them have presented any symptom. Our results support the observation of previous authors, suggesting that cats may be considered as alternative domestic hosts of visceral leishmaniasis and should be included in serological investigations performed in endemic areas.     

Effect of 2'-deoxycoformycin on erythroid, granulocytic, and T- lymphocyte colony growth

The finding of elevated intracellular levels of adenosine deaminase (ADA) in some patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia has led to attempts to control this disease with the adenosine deaminase inhibitor 2'-deoxycoformycin (dCF). Because of clinical reports indicating its relative freedom from myelotoxicity, we have tested the effects of this drug on erythroid, granulocytic, and T-lymphocyte colony formation by normal marrow and peripheral blood cells. While clinically the drug has been found to be active at serum concentrations of approximately 10 microM, we have tested it at concentrations up to and including 1 mM. It was found that both erythroid and granulocytic colony growth was completely unaffected by 1 mM dCF, a concentration at least 2 magnitudes higher than that necessary to totally ablate intracellular ADA levels. T-lymphocyte colony growth was unaffected by 100 microM dCF, but at 1 mM some inhibition was observed. These findings therefore indicate that dCF, while able to cause leukemic cell lysis in vivo, has no inhibitory effect on the proliferative capacity of normal hematopoietic cells.     

Complete recovery from Cryptosporidium parvum infection with gastroenteritis and sclerosing cholangitis after successful bone marrow transplantation in two brothers with X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome

We describe two brothers who suffered from hyper-IgM syndrome (HIGM1) with similar clinical features: recurrent infections, especially cryptosporidium gastroenteritis with cholangitis. Their activated T cells did not express CD40L. Nucleotide sequencing revealed a mutation in both boys with respect to intron 4 and exon 5 boundaries of the CD40L gene in Xq26. They underwent successful bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from HLA-geno-identical siblings. The Cryptosporidium infection and cholangitis resolved thereafter. At 6 months after BMT, expression of CD40L on activated T lymphocytes was normal. After 1 year, both boys are well, and immune reconstitution has improved. Based on these two successful experiences, BMT with a genoidentical sibling seems a reasonable therapeutic approach for HIGM1, if Cryptosporidium infection occurs.     

Functional polymorphisms of DEFB1 gene in type 1 diabetes Brazilian children

We analyzed three functional 5′ un-translated region β-defensin 1 (DEFB1) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in a group of 170 type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients. In order to evaluate the SNPs influence on the disease onset and the development of other autoimmune disorder, such as celiac disease (CD) and autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), patients were stratified according to the presence of AITD, CD, and both AITD and CD. As control group, we studied 191 healthy children and adolescent not presenting a familiar historic of T1D, CD or AITD. DEFB1 SNPs were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium both in healthy controls and T1D patients, as well in the T1D patients stratified according to the presence of other autoimmune disorder(s). Allele, genotype, and haplotype frequencies of T1D patients globally considered were comparable to healthy controls ones. No evidence of any association of DEFB1 SNPs with the onset of AIDT, CD, and both AITD and CD on T1D patients was evidenced. Only a minor trend was found for an increased frequency of the ? 20 G allele in T1D patients only presenting AITD vs. T1D patients not presenting AITD or CD, as well as an increase of those haplotypes comprising the ? 20 G allele when compared with the GCA haplotype. We also evaluated the influence of functional DEFB1 SNPs on the age of T1D onset: no significant statistical conclusion was achieved. Further studies are envisaged, in order to elucidate the possible role of functional DEFB1 polymorphisms in the onset of TD1 and other autoimmune-related disorders.