Psychological well-being and social participation assessment in visually impaired subjects playing Torball: a controlled study.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in psychological well-being, symptomatic psychological disorders and social participation, between blind Torball players and non-players. Thirty blind male participants were recruited, 17 Torball players (aged 36.27±3.46) and 13 non-players (aged 34.80±2.53), and evaluated for social participation level, psychological well-being and symptomatic psychological disorders, using three validated self-report questionnaires: Participation Scale (PS), Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS) and Symptom Checklist 90 R (SCL-90-R) respectively. ANOVA showed significant overall differences between the two groups. The social restriction score in the non-player group was significantly higher (p<0.01) than the player group. The Torball player group showed significant better scores than non-player group in 5 of the 6 dimensions of the PWB Scale (p<0.01) and in 8 of the 10 dimensions of the SCL-90-R (7 dimensions p<0.01; 1 dimension p<0.05) and in the three global scores of the SCL-90-R (p<0.01). The results of this study showed a relationship between psychological well-being and social skills of visually impaired people and their Torball practice.

Is menstrual delay a serious problem for elite rhythmic gymnasts?

AIM: The aim of this study was to identify the influence of training workloads and dietary habits on the menstrual status of elite rhythmic gymnasts. In many sports disciplines, it has long been assumed that menstrual disorders among elite female athletes are related to intense physical effort and insufficient energy intake. Potential consequences of this condition include reduced fertility and decreased bone density. METHODS: Eighty-one female gymnasts (age 15.9±3.1) completed two self-administered questionnaires: the Menstrual History Questionnaire (MHQ), and the Semiquantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Eighty female athletes (age 16.3±3.7), who participated in basketball, volleyball, tae kwon do and fitness activity served as a control group. Physical characteristics, menstrual cycles, training workloads and dietary habits were compared and the relationship between physical training and menstrual cycle characteristics was assessed for the two groups. RESULTS: Fifty percent of the gymnasts declared themselves amenorrheic. Age was significantly and positively correlated (P<0.01) with menarche and menstrual irregularities, and negatively correlated with amenorrhea. The percentage of variance for age at menarche, explained by training hours/week and body mass, was 43%, (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The present study, which examined and compared different age groups of gymnasts, showed that young rhythmic gymnasts who trained intensively, had a delayed onset of menarche of more than two years, thus favouring secondary amenorrhea. Nonetheless, almost all athletes, even though with significant delay, reached cycle regularity, thus minimizing the effect of menstrual disorders on fertility and bone density.

Characterization and epidemiologic subtyping of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli strains isolated from hemolytic uremic syndrome and diarrhea cases in Argentina.

Argentina has a high incidence of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS); 12.2 cases per 100,000 children younger than 5 years old were reported in 2002. Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is the primary etiologic agent of HUS, and STEC O157 is the predominant serogroup isolated. The main objective of the present work was to establish the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of the STEC strains in general isolated from Argentine children during a prospective study and the clonal relatedness of STEC O157:H7 strains using subtyping techniques. One hundred and three STEC strains isolated from 99 children were included. The phenotypic and genotypic features were established, and a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCRRFLP) was performed to determine stx2 variants. The clonal relatedness of E. coli O157 isolates was established by phage typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The 103 STEC strains belonged to 18 different serotypes, and 59% were of serotype O157:H7. Stx2 was identified in 90.3%, and stx1 in 9.7%. Among the 61 STEC O157 strains, 93.4% harbored the stx2/stx2vh-a genes; PT4 (39.3%) and PT2 (29.5%) were the predominant phage types. Using PFGE with the enzyme XbaI, a total of 41 patterns with at least 80% similarity were identified, and seven clusters with identical profiles were established. Some of the clusters were further split by PFGE using BlnI as the second enzyme. Isolates with indistinguishable PFGE patterns were with one exception also indistinguishable by phage typing and stx genotyping. These findings confirmed that some isolates were genetically related. However, no epidemiological linkages were identified. STEC strains with different genotypes and belonging to diverse serotypes were isolated in Argentina. Some STEC O157 strains could not be distinguished by applying subtyping techniques such as PFGE and phage typing.

Malaria in Maremma, Italy.

BACKGROUND: In August, 1997, a woman with no history of travel to malarious regions developed Plasmodium vivax malaria. She lived in a rural area of Italy where indigenous Anophyles labranchiae mosquitoes were present. METHODS AND FINDINGS: An environmental investigation was done within a 3 km radius of the patient's house. Adult mosquitoes and larvae were collected and examined by PCR with the gene for plasmodium circumsporozoite protein as target. About 200 people living in the area were interviewed to detect possible carriers of P. vivax. FINDINGS: None of the mosquitoes captured were carrying any malarial organisms. The house-to-house investigation identified a 7-year-old girl who had had a feverish illness a few days after her arrival in Italy from India, and who, 3 months later, still had P. vivax in her blood; she and her mother had antimalarial antibodies. INTERPRETATION: These investigations suggest that the index case of malaria was caused by local anopheline mosquitoes infected with exogenous P. vivax.