Determinantes sociales de la salud de distintos niveles por género: educación y hogar en España

Objective

To explore from a gender perspective the association with subjective health of the interaction between education and household arrangements within the framework of social determinants of health placed at the micro and mezzo levels.

Evidence for frequent divergence impairment in French dyslexic children: deficit of convergence relaxation or of divergence per se?

Aim There is a controversy as to whether dyslexic children present visuo-motor disabilities such as vergence and accommodative problems assessed with orthoptic tests. The purpose of this study is to re-examine this issue in a large population of children. Methods Extensive orthoptic evaluation was made in 57 dyslexic and 46 non-dyslexic (“normal”) age-matched children. Convergence and divergence capacities were evaluated at two distances (30 cm and 400 cm). Results Binocular vision measured with stereo-acuity tests was normal in dyslexics. In contrast, the near point of convergence was significantly more remote in dyslexics; most importantly, divergence at both far and near distance was significantly more reduced in dyslexics (median value 4 pD and 10 pD, respectively, at far and near) than in “normals” (median value 6 pD and 12 pD, at far and near). Conclusion The existence of the divergence deficit at far distance indicates the presence of deficit of divergence per se, independently from convergence and accommodation relaxation. This result is novel and corroborated by physiological studies indicating distinct control of convergence and divergence, both at the cortical and subcortical premotor level. We conclude that vergence deficits are frequently present in dyslexics, and that dyslexics should be re-educated; training should address distinctively convergence and divergence subsystems.     

33 factorial design-based optimization of the formulation of nitrofurantoin microcapsules

A microcapsule form of nitrofurantoin was prepared by a simple coacervation method with carboxymethylcellulose and aluminium sulfate. 3³ factorial design was performed for three independent variables, namely, the particle size of the drug, the size of the microcapsules and the pH of the dissolution medium. The dissolution tests with the formulated microcapsules were carried out according to the United States Pharmacopeia XXII rotating basket method at pH 1.2, 5 and 7.5, which represent the pH of gastrointestinal fluids. Release data were examined kinetically and the ideal kinetic models were estimated and t _63.2 values obtained from RRSBW distribution were used in the factorial design experiment. The influence of the independent variables on the dissolution of nitrofurantoin microcapsules could be expressed as the pH of the dissolution medium > particle size of the microcapsule > particle size of nitrofurantoin. The other aim of this study was to evaluate microcapsule formulation in terms of the United States Pharmacopeia criteria with a minimum of experiments. Our findings suggest that dosage forms which comply with the pharmacopoeia criteria for dissolution can be prepared and selected by factorial design.     

Obesity in youth and middle age and risk of colorectal cancer in men

To investigate an association between colon cancer and obesity during early adulthood—a potentially important period in the etiology of this disease—the authors assembled, by computer linkage, a population-based historical cohort of 52,539 men born between 1913 and 1927 residing in Hawaii (USA), for whom weight and height had been recorded in 1942–43 and 1972. Linkage of this cohort to the Hawaii Tumor Registry resulted in the identification of 737 incident cases of colorectal cancer for 1972–86. An average of 3.8 cancer-free controls were matched to each case on month and year of birth and ethnicity of the parents. A case-control analysis in each anatomic subsite of the large bowel revealed that both early and middle-age body mass increased the risk of sigmoid cancer in men in a dose-dependent fashion. The odds ratios (OR) for sigmoid cancer for the highest compared with the lowest tertiles of Quetelet index were: 2.1 (95 percent confidence interval [CI]=1.4–3.2) and 1.7 (CI=1.1–2.5), at ages 15–29 and in prediagnostic years, respectively. These associations were additive and idependent of socioeconomic status. Men who were above the median Quetelet index in 1942 and 1972 had an OR of 2.7 (CI=1.8–4.0), compared with those who were below the median in both periods. This study provides further evidence for an association of obesity with colon cancer in men and suggests that this association is limited to the sigmoid colon and may be related to both early and late events of colon carcinogenesis.The authors are with the Epidemiology Program, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii. Address correspondence to Dr Le Marchand, Epidemiology Program, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, 1236 Lauhala Street, Suite 407, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA. This work was supported in part by Public Health Service grant 5-R29-CA44503 and contract NO1-CN-55424 from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.     

Distribution of α-integrin subunits in fetal polycystic kidney diseases

An alteration in cell/matrix interactions is one of the suggested mechanisms leading to cyst formation in polycystic kidney diseases. Most of these interactions are mediated by β1-integrins, a subfamily of integrin receptors, formed by the association of the β1-chain with different α-subunits. To date, no study on α-integrin subunit distribution during the early stages of cyst development has been reported. Using immunofluorescence, we analyzed the distribution of α-integrin subunits (α1, α2, α3, α5, and α6) and basement membrane proteins in kidneys of fetuses with autosomal dominant (ADPKD) or autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD). The distribution was compared with that observed in normal fetal and post-natal kidneys, and in fetal cystic dysplasia and Meckel syndrome. Marked increase in α1-integrin staining was observed in normal and cystic collecting duct cells of both polycystic diseases (PKD), compared with normal and cystic controls. The distribution of integrin subunits α2, α3, and α6 was irregular in cyst epithelial cells of PKD and cystic controls. The increased expression of the α1-subunit specifically observed in PKD collecting duct cells may be an early consequence of the genetic defect in ARPKD. In ADPKD it parallels the reported expression of polycystin, the protein product of PKD1. The irregular expression of α2, α3, and α6 integrin subunits observed in all types of cysts suggests that cell/matrix interactions are altered early and may participate in the development of cysts, perhaps by contributing to the deregulation of cell survival in cystic diseases. Received May 28, 1996; received in revised form October 2, 1996; accepted October 25, 1996     

Study of antigen HBs and antivirus antibodies of hepatitis C during hepatopathies in Mali

A prospective study carried out in Bamako, Mali between July 1998 and January 1999 has assessed the seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 91 carrier patients of chronic hepatopathy at a cirrhrosis stage (53) or of hepato-cellular carcinoma (38) and to compare with in 92 blood donors as a control population. Only seroprevalence confirmed by a complementary test has been taken into account (RIBA). HCV seroprevalence reached 25% including all hepatopathies, 24% in cirrhrosis and 26% in hepato-cellular carcinomae (HCC) versus 4% in blood donors. Antigen HBs of hepatitis B virus has been found in 55% of patients, versus 25% of the control cases (p = 0.0006). On the whole, the two markers have been notified a little more often in HCC than in cirrhosis and the combination of the two markers has been more frequent during cirrhosis as well. The role of HCV played in cirrhosis and HCC onset in Mali appears to be important.     

Arbovirus surveillance from 1990 to 1995 in the Barkedji area (Ferlo) of Senegal, a possible natural focus of Rift Valley fever virus

Surveillance for mosquito-borne viruses was conducted in Barkedji area from 1990 to 1995, following an outbreak of Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus in southern Mauritania. Mosquitoes, sand flies, and midges were collected from human bait and trapped by solid-state U.S. Army battery-powered CDC miniature light traps baited with dry ice or animals (sheep or chickens) at four ponds. Overall, 237,091 male and female mosquitoes representing 52 species in eight genera, 214,967 Phlebotomine sand flies, and 2,527 Culicoides were collected, identified, and tested for arboviruses in 9,490 pools (7,050 pools of female and 331 of male mosquitoes, 2,059 pools of sand flies and 50 pools of Culicoides). Viruses isolated included one Alphavirus, Babanki (BBK); six Flaviviruses, Bagaza (BAG), Ar D 65239, Wesselsbron (WSL), West Nile (WN), Koutango (KOU), Saboya (SAB); two Bunyavirus, Bunyamwera (BUN) and Ngari (NRI); two Phleboviruses, Rift Valley fever (RVF) and Gabek Forest (GF); one Orbivirus, Ar D 66707 (Sanar); one Rhabdovirus, Chandipura (CHP); and one unclassified virus, Ar D 95537. Based on repeated isolations, high field infection rates and abundance, Culex appeared to be the vectors of BAG, BBK, Ar D 65239 (BAG-like), and WN viruses, Ae. vexans and Ae. ochraceus of RVF virus, Mansonia of WN and BAG viruses, Mimomyia of WN and BAG viruses, and Phlebotomine of SAB, CHP, Ar D 95537, and GF viruses. Our data indicate that RVF virus circulated repeatedly in the Barkedji area.