Alcohol and drug abuse and risky sexual behaviours in young adult women

Objective: To assess alcohol abuse as a predictor of risky sexual behavior among adolescents and young adult women, a high-risk population for unintended pregnancies.

Subjects: Totally 3163 adolescent and young adult women, 18–29 years, were assessed on sociodemographics, alcohol and drug use and risky sexual behaviors.

Interventions: Participants answered a structured questionnaire on their leisure habits, drug and alcohol consumption, contraception and sexual behaviors.

Results: Most of the young adult women perceive that sexuality is an important part of their life but not a main concern (77.6%) and that alcohol removes the barriers to have sex (62.3%). Additionally, 77.0% claimed that contraception had “a lot” (53.4%) and “quite” (23.6%) influence on the quality of their sexuality. However, up to a 38.4% of the interviewed women had had sex without using any contraception and 29.6% of them acknowledged that had taken alcohol and of these, 40.7% said that alcohol was responsible for not using contraception. Alcohol abuse predicted an increase in risky sexual behaviours (4.45 CI: 2.01–9.75, p?Conclusions: These findings suggest that contraception-related behavioural interventions for young adult women should discuss the link between alcohol and sexual risk behavior.     

Flunarizine- and cinnarizine-induced extrapyramidal reactions

Cinnarizine and flunarizine are selective calcium blockers that have been used to treat and prevent vertigo. We studied 15 patients who had extrapyramidal syndromes after taking these drugs. Eleven patients had parkinsonism, one with persistent akathisia as well; one had an orofacial tremor; one, acute akathisia alone; and one an acute dystonic reaction. All but one improved when the drug therapy was discontinued. Seven patients were also depressed during treatment. Cinnarizine and flunarizine must therefore be added to the list of potentially risky drugs known to induce extrapyramidal reactions and depression.     

Acquired and Inherited Porphyria:

Inheritance in 30 cases of porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) and their relatives was investigated. Seventeen families were studied using the clinical criteria, quantitation and thin layer chromatography of urinary porphyrins. Thirteen families (13 propositus and 48 relatives) were investigated by using the above criteria and in vitro porphyrin biosynthesis by erythrocytes from δ-aminolevulinic acid. Three different types of PCT were identified: overt, subclinical and latent. Among 61 members examined, 13 had overt PCI. In six families, ten members had subclinical PCT and six latent PCT showing that in these six families PCT was a hereditary disorder. In seven other families inheritance could not be demonstrated.     

Adsorption of omeprazole on latex particles and characterization of the complex

Omeprazole is an antisecretory drug used against gastric ulcers. It quickly decomposes in an acid medium, however, therefore making it a matter of great interest to protect it in these conditions and determine the ideal adsorption conditions for this drug on latex particles for formulation designs--oral suspensions--containing polymers with the aim of delivering different drugs in a sustained and controlled action. Time, pH, and concentration of the active ingredient for which maximum adsorption occurs, were determined. The findings suggest that adsorption is evidently greatest at an acid pH 4-5, that the adsorption of Omeprazole rises concomitantly with the increase in latex particles, and the time is the least influential factor.     

Heterotopic perineal intestinal mucosa —a variant of the exstrophy-epispadias complex

We report two cases of sequestration of a segment of intestinal mucosa in the perineal area. In one patient this was associated with a mildly ectopic anus. No abnormalities were identified in the bladder, urethra, vagina, or rectum. The lesions were treated by excision following complete anatomical mapping.     

A bacteriophage lambda-based genetic screen for characterization of the activity and phenotype of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) resistance to antiretroviral drugs is the main cause of patient treatment failure. Despite the problems associated with interpretation of HIV-1 resistance testing, resistance monitoring should help in the rational design of initial or rescue antiretroviral therapies. It has previously been shown that the activity of the HIV-1 protease can be monitored by using a bacteriophage lambda-based genetic assay. This genetic screening system is based on the bacteriophage lambda regulatory circuit in which the viral repressor cI is specifically cleaved to initiate the lysogenic to lytic switch. We have adapted this simple lambda-based genetic assay for the analysis of the activities and phenotypes of different HIV-1 proteases. Lambda phages that encode HIV-1 proteases either from laboratory strains (strain HXB2) or from clinical samples are inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by the HIV-1 protease inhibitors indinavir, ritonavir, saquinavir, and nelfinavir. Distinct susceptibilities to different drugs were also detected among phages that encode HIV-1 proteases carrying different resistance mutations, further demonstrating the specificity of this assay. Differences in proteolytic processing activity can also be directly monitored with this genetic screen system since two phage populations compete in culture with each other until one phage outgrows the other. In summary, we present here a simple, safe, and rapid genetic screening system that may be used to predict the activities and phenotypes of HIV-1 proteases in the course of viral infection and antiretroviral therapy. This assay responds appropriately to well-known HIV-1 protease inhibitors and can be used to search for new protease inhibitors.     

Male pseudohermaphroditism

Diagnosis of ambiguous genitalia in a newborn is an emergency that can be difficult to manage, not only because salt wasting entities must be ruled out, but also due to the importance of gender assignment before psychological gender is established. We report two cases of male pseudohermaphroditism, a true hermaphroditism and a 5-alfa-reductase deficiency. The physiology of sexual differentiation and diagnosis, as well as the management of these infants, are discussed.