Magnetic and elemental characterization of the particulate matter deposited on leaves of urban trees in Santiago, Chile.

Airborne particulate matter is a serious threat to human health, especially in fast-growing cities. In this study, we carried out a magnetic and elemental study on tree leaves used as passive captors and urban dust from various sites in the city of Santiago, Chile, to assess the reliability of magnetic and elemental measurements to characterize particulate matter pollution from vehicular origin. We found that the magnetic susceptibility and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization measured on urban tree leaves is a good proxy for tracing anthropogenic metallic particles and allow controlling the exposure time for particulate matter collection, in agreement with other studies carried out in large cities. Similar measurements on urban soil can be influenced by particles of detritic (natural) origin, and therefore, magnetic measurements on tree leaves can help to identify hotspots where fine particles are more abundant. Elemental particle-induced X-ray emission analysis of tree leaves showed the presence of a number of elements associated with vehicular emissions, in particular Cu, Zn, Fe, K and S which are present at every site, and As, Se, V, Ni, Sr, Zr, Mo and Pb identified at some sites. We observed a correlation between magnetic parameters and the concentrations of S and Br as well as Cu to a smaller extent. Moreover, this study shows the importance of selecting carefully the tree species as well as the location of trees in order to optimize phytoremediation.

[Review Articles]. / Artículos de Revisión.

This paper summarizes the main features of review articles in medical topics. Articles can be classified as narrative reviews, systematic reviews or meta-analysis. Narrative reviews are appropriate to update etiology, pathophysiology or clinical aspects of diseases, and advances in basic and preclinical sciences. In systematic reviews the authors define its purpose, limit its scope, describe the literature search, define the inclusion and exclusion criteria adopted to select primary studies, and the criteria applied to assess the quality of their results and conclusions. Meta-analysis are quantitative, statistically analysed systematic reviews that consider mainly primary studies conducted prospectively with simultaneous randomized controls, pooling the data obtained from each of these primary studies in order to get a single estimate of effect. Systematic analysis and meta-analysis are important to evaluate new diagnostic and therapeutic tools, and they are most relevant to evidence-based medicine, mainly for the design of clinical guidelines and the adoption of new health care policies. Review articles published in Revista Médica de Chile were compared in one or two-year periods separated by ten years in between: in the "2001 period" 26 reviews were all narrative; in the "2010 period" 30 reviews were narrative and another 4 were systematic reviews; in the "2019 period" 14 reviews were narrative and another 7 were systematic reviews. No meta-analysis had been published in these periods, in this journal. Meta-analysis including primary studies performed in Chile by Chilean investigators have been published in English language in other medical journals. The educational and professional role of review articles is recognised, with a word of caution on a strict adherence to ethical rules adopted by scientific and clinical publications, mainly with respect to authorship and potential conflicts of interest.

Children's recognition of emotion expressed by own-race versus other-race faces.

Adults are less accurate at recognizing emotions expressed by individuals from a different cultural background. However, the research with children is less clear; whereas some studies suggest better emotion recognition for own-race and own-culture faces, others have found no such relationship. The current study examined the influence of race on emotion recognition in children and adults who share a cultural background (i.e., Canadian). Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that participants would demonstrate better emotion recognition for own-race faces. We also hypothesized that emotion recognition would improve across the lifespan (from childhood to adulthood) and as a function of emotion, such that recognition would be better for happy faces than for the other emotions. Children (n = 69; ages 6-10 years; 41 female) and adults (n = 82; mean age = 19.94 years; 72 female) of Western European or South Asian descent were asked to complete a five-alternative forced-choice emotion recognition task (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral) in which expressions were displayed by White and South Asian faces. As predicted, adults performed better than older children, who performed better than younger children, and participants performed best on happy faces. South Asian participants, but not White participants, performed better when judging own-race faces compared with other-race faces. This finding only partially supports an own-race bias in emotion recognition and may reflect the tendency in the literature to conflate culture and race. More studies are needed to understand cross-race emotion recognition when individuals share the same culture.

[How can you succeed in having your manuscript published in a medical journal. Advices to inexpert authors that can also be useful to senior authors]. / Cómo tener éxito al empezar a publicar en revistas médicas. Consideraciones para autores inexpertos, que podrían interesar también a los expertos.

Young authors may benefit by some advices on how to proceed when they decide to write a manuscript and submit it to a medical journal. They should start by selecting the journal considering the topic and nature of their study, how relevant the results seem and the interest it may have in editors and readers. A reasonable choice should consider new journals that publish good papers selected after external peer review. Then they should study and follow the Instructions to Authors of the chosen journal. A strong call is given to recognize and avoid "predatory journals". Specific statements refer to Instructions to Authors and language requirements by the journal, the need to follow "ICMJE Recommendations", the correct assignment of authorship, and a strict observance of ethical regulations in biomedical and clinical research. Special mention is given to provide a good abstract, in English, either descriptive or structured depending on the nature of their study. These advices may be useful as well as a reminder to older authors on how to improve their manuscripts before submitting them to a mainstream medical journal.

Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 as biomarkers for lupus nephritis in Colombian SLE patients.

Background Information regarding urinary biomarkers in Mestizo and Afro-Latin-American patients is very limited. We investigated whether levels of urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) are good biomarkers to differentiate patients with lupus nephritis among Latin-American systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Methods SLE patients meeting the revised American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for SLE were recruited. Urinary levels of NGAL and MCP-1 were measured using a commercial ELISA kit. Serum anti-C1q antibodies were measured by ELISA. SLE activity was measured with the systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI). Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare data and Spearman's rank correlations were used to examine associations between continuous variables. In addition, receiver operating characteristic curves were performed. Results One hundred and twenty SLE patients were recruited (87% women) with a median age of 32.8 ± 12.1 years and median disease duration of 7.3 ± 6.9 years. Afro-Latin-Americans had a significantly higher prevalence of lupus nephritis and higher SLEDAI scores than Mestizos. The three biomarkers were significantly higher in patients with lupus nephritis than in patients without lupus nephritis. In addition, urinary NGAL and MCP-1 were significantly higher in patients with active lupus nephritis than in inactive lupus nephritis. Urinary NGAL levels were significantly higher in Afro-Latin-American patients. A receiver operating characteristic curve for urinary biomarkers for lupus nephritis in all SLE patients showed a good level of sensitivity and specificity. Conclusion In our cohort of SLE patients, we found that urinary NGAL and MCP-1 in addition to anti-C1q antibodies were useful biomarkers for the identification of renal involvement and discrimination of active lupus nephritis among patients with renal disease.

[Ethical problems in scientific publications]. / Problemas éticos en las publicaciones científicas.

Ethical problems have always been present in scientific publications. Since the founding of medical journals, in the XIX Century, until today they are a source of concern because one main purpose of medical scientific publications is to add new, reliable information that could guide or modify medical decisions and public health policies. Since 1997, Revista Médica de Chile has published several articles clarifying this situation and emphasizing the need to avoid ethical misbehavior. The present review reminds that the main sources of information dealing with publication ethics appear in the web sites of ICMJE, COPE and WAME. Misconduct have been detected in Revista Médica de Chile in a few cases of redundant publications, plagiarism, lack of recognition of conflicts of interest mainly with pharmaceutical companies, and one attempt of forging the publication of an article that had been previously rejected. In handling situations identified as ethical misbehavior, the editors of this journal have successfully followed rules established by COPE. This article reviews and reinforces recommendations to avoid ethical misbehavior in biomedical research and in manuscripts submitted for publication.

[History, purposes and characteristics of medical journals]. / Historia, propósitos y características de las revistas médicas.

Medical journals are fundamental elements in medical education, in professional life, in research and in academic careers. They communicate new scientific and clinical findings, legitimate and give credibility to biomedical and clinical investigation, are guarantors of the authors' intellectual property, are a useful forum for the discussion of relevant topics, distribute selected information to readers and are archives of their publications. Out of the numerous medical journals appeared before and during the XIXth Century, only 24 of them remain active until today and Revista Médica de Chile appears as number 20 in the list. Nowadays thousands of medical journals are published worldwide but only a small fraction are qualified as "mainstream journals", because they strictly apply an independent editorial process with clear criteria in manuscript selection based in external peer review, format requisites according to ICMJE Recommendations, are included in major databases, publish a high proportion of research articles, and other reasons. English language predominates in mainstream journals and abstracts in English become available in some databases. Electronic publications and open access are important tools to disseminate new information but the appearance of "predatory journals" is a threatening menace to the integrity of medical publications. Authors should identify and reject them. Some reflections may help those who intend to create new medical journals.

[Shortening undergraduate medical training: now and for all medical schools in Chile?]. / Acortar los estudios de pre título en Medicina, en Chile: ¿Ahora y para todos?

In Chile, undergraduate medical education starts after High School, it lasts seven years, with the final two dedicated to a rotary internship, taking to an M.D. degree that allows the graduate to enter working activities. The country needs more M.D.s in primary care, but there is also a shortage of specialists, mainly out of the main cities. In recent decades, post graduate programs leading to specialty titles have become competitively adopted by a large proportion of medical graduates. This is the case at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, stimulating its faculties and medical students to develop a collaborative review of their teaching programs, leading to a curricular reform with a new graduate profile and a new curriculum oriented to learning objectives, that will allow to obtain the M.D. degree in six instead of seven years of undergraduate education. This new program awakened expectations in other universities in Chile, that will have to face the attraction of this shortened program for future candidates to enter medical schools. However, any shortening of medical school careers should first consider the local conditions in quality of applicants, number of accepted students, the training of teachers in integrated teaching programs, the availability of adequate campuses. Furthermore, for students with different academic backgrounds and diverse personal and familial interests, the seven years programs may still be necessary to gain the expertise required to become medical doctors.

[The fascination of editing a medical journal and the nostalgic memories when departing]. / El encanto de editar una revista médica y los recuerdos nostálgicos al alejarme.

As of March 2016, Humberto Reyes, MD, FACP, steps down as Editor-in-Chief of Revista Médica de Chile. He joined its editorial team in 1971, as a part-time Assistant Editor. A few years later he became Associate Editor and since 1996, Editor-in-Chief. During his tenure the journal improved the peer review system and implemented a web platform to handle the editorial process, while following the recommendations established by acknowledged organizations such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Journal Editors (WAME) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Since 2010 he represented Revista Médica de Chile as an ICMJE Member. After an open contest, the Sociedad Médica de Santiago, founder and owner of Revista Médica de Chile since 1872, elected Fernando Florenzano MD as the new Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Reyes leaves this long lasting job with the satisfaction of having conducted an institution considered among mainstream medical journals in spite of being mostly published in Spanish. Revista Médica de Chile receives a high proportion of the research articles that have been generated in the country, subsequently handled by an enthusiastic and solid editorial team whose responsibilities go far beyond selecting the material to be published since they are medical educators striving to help authors to improve their papers before having them published. Conducting this journal has been a fascinating task for this Editor as well as an unforgettable experience.

[ProfessorHernán Alessandri, M.D. (1900-1980)]. / El Profesor Doctor Hernán Alessandri Rodríguez (1900-1980).

Hernán Alessandri M.D. was an outstanding clinician and a leading medical educator, born in Santiago in 1900 where he died in 1980 [corrected]. He received his medical degree at the University of Chile in 1923, became Professor of Clinical Medicine in 1932, Full Professor and Chair of Internal Medicine in 1944. At the Hospital del Salvador, in Santiago, he chaired a teaching Department and a Clinical Service that was an example for its academic environment and dedication to patients and students. From 1958 to 1962 he was Dean of the University of Chile Faculty of Medicine, conducting a reform of teaching curricula and organizing medical residency programs for the training of specialists, originally started in his own Service in 1952. The American College of Physicians awarded him the first foreign Honorary Membership. He was a founding Member of the Chilean Academy of Medicine (1964). In 1973 the University of Chile awarded him the Emeritus Professor status. He was considered by his peers, alumni and patients a brilliant clinician and an exceptional medical educator. Since 1980 a Social and Teaching Foundation bears his name and in 2014, with the occasion of the XXXV Chilean Congress of Internal Medicine, the Sociedad Médica de Santiago-Chilean Society of Internal Medicine created an annual lecture to render tribute to distinguished physicians and his name was one of the two selected to inaugurate them.

[An analysis of Chilean biomedical publications in PubMed in the years 2008-2009]. / Análisis de las publicaciones biomédicas chilenas indizadas en PubMed, en los años 2008 y 2009.

BACKGROUND: During the years 2008 and 2009, 1,191 biomedical articles authored by Chilean investigators working in Chile were indexed in PubMed. AIMS: To evaluate the potential visibility of those articles, according to scientometric indexes of the journals where they were published. METHODS: Those journals where the articles had been published were identified and each journal’s Impact Factor (JIF), 5-year JIF, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), SCImago Quartiles (Q) for 2010 and the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) for 2008-2009 were identified. RESULTS: Three hundred and twelve articles (26,2%) were dedicated to experimental studies in animals, tissues or cells and they were classified as “Biomedicine”, while 879 (73,8%) were classified as “Clinical Medicine”; in both areas the main type of articles were original reports (90% and 73.6%, respectively). Revista Médica de Chile and Revista Chilena de Infectología concentrated the greater number of publications. Articles classified in Biomedicine were published more frequently in English and in journals with higher scientometric indexes than those classified in Clinical Medicine. CONCLUSIONS: Biomedical articles dealing with clinical topics, particularly case reports, were published mostly in national journals or in foreign journals with low scientometric indexes. It can be partly attributable to the authors’ interest in reaching local readers. The evaluation of research productivity should combine several scientometric indexes, selected according to the field of research, the institution's and investigators’ interests, with a qualitative and multifactorial assessment.

[Clinical predictors of bacteremia in immunocompetent adult patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia]. / Predictores clínicos de bacteriemia en adultos inmunocompetentes hospitalizados por neumonía adquirida en la comunidad.

BACKGROUND: The clinical usefulness of blood cultures in the management of patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is controversial. AIM: To determine clinical predictors of bacteremia in a cohort of adult patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective cohort of 605 immunocompetent adult patients aged 16 to 101 years (54% male) hospitalized for CAP was studied. The clinical and laboratory variables measured at admission were associated with the risk of bacteremia by univariate and multivariate analysis using logistic regression models. RESULTS: Seventy seven percent of patients had comorbidities, median hospital stay was 9 days, 7.6% died in hospital and 10.7% at 30 days. The yield of the blood cultures was 12.6% (S. pneumoniae in 69 patients, H. influenzae in 3, Gram negative bacteria in three and S. aureus in one). These results modified the initial antimicrobial treatment in one case (0.2%). In a multivariate analysis, clinical and laboratory variables associated with increased risk of bacteremia were low diastolic blood pressure (Odds ratio (OR): 1.85, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.02 to 3.36, p < 0.05), leukocytosis e" 15,000/mm³ (OR: 2.18, 95% CI 1.22 to 3.88, p < 0.009), serum urea nitrogen e" 30 mg/dL (OR: 2.23, 95% CI 1.22 to 4.05, p < 0.009) and serum C-reactive protein e" 30 mg/dL (OR: 2.20, 95% CI 1.22 to 3.97, p < 0.01). Antimicrobial use before hospital admission significantly decreased the blood culture yield (OR: 0.14, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.46, p < 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Blood cultures do not contribute significantly to the initial management of patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia. The main clinical predictors of bacteremia were antibiotic use, hypotension, renal dysfunction and systemic inflammation.

Increased vulnerability of the brain norepinephrine system of females to corticotropin-releasing factor overexpression.

Stress-related psychiatric disorders are more prevalent in women than men. As hypersecretion of the stress neuromediator, corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) has been implicated in these disorders, sex differences in CRF sensitivity could underlie this disparity. Hyperarousal is a core symptom that is shared by stress-related disorders and this has been attributed to CRF regulation of the locus ceruleus (LC)-norepinephrine arousal system. We recently identified sex differences in CRF(1) receptor (CRF(1)) signaling and trafficking that render LC neurons of female rats more sensitive to CRF and potentially less able to adapt to excess CRF compared with male rats. The present study used a genetic model of CRF overexpression to test the hypothesis that females would be more vulnerable to LC dysregulation by conditions of excess CRF. In both male and female CRF overexpressing (CRF-OE) mice, the LC was more densely innervated by CRF compared with wild-type controls. Despite the equally dense CRF innervation of the LC in male and female CRF-OE mice, LC discharge rates recorded in slices in vitro were selectively elevated in female CRF-OE mice. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that this sex difference resulted from differential CRF(1) trafficking. In male CRF-OE mice, CRF(1) immunolabeling was prominent in the cytoplasm of LC neurons, indicative of internalization, a process that would protect cells from excessive CRF. However, in female CRF-OE mice, CRF(1) labeling was more prominent on the plasma membrane, suggesting that the compensatory response of internalization was compromised. Together, the findings suggest that the LC-norepinephrine system of females will be particularly affected by conditions resulting in elevated CRF because of differences in receptor trafficking. As excessive LC activation has been implicated in the arousal components of stress-related psychiatric disorders, this may be a cellular mechanism that contributes to the increased incidence of these disorders in females.

[Raúl B. Etcheverry, M.D. (1909-2014)]. / Dr. Raúl Etcheverry Barucchi (1909-2014).

Professor Raúl B. Etcheverry, M.D., was a founder of Chilean Hematology back in the 1940's and a practicing physician and teacher until an advanced age. Being a superb clinician, he was admired by his ability to unveil from the most common to the most difficult diagnosis of blood disorders and neoplasms by examining blood smears and cytology samples. He trained in Hematology a large number of physicians and technicians coming from several countries in Latin America as well as from Chile. Besides medicine, he conducted seminal studies to unveil ethnic characteristics of the original inhabitants of Chile identifying blood groups and other genetic markers in mummies and in current living descendants, from Northern and Southern Chile and from Easter Island. He was a prominent scholar that was awarded high titles and distinctions from the University of Chile, the Chilean Academy of Medicine, the Chilean Government, and several hematological societies from Chile and other countries. After 104 years of fruitful life, he passed away leaving a vast number of disciples and admirers.

[A tribute to Richard V. Lee, M.D]. / Homenaje al Dr. Richard V. Lee (1937-2013).

Richard V Lee, MD, MACP, FRGS, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Obstetrics, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Social and Preventive Medicine. Director, Division of Maternal & Adolescent Medicine, and Director, Division of Geographic Medicine, Department of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, passed away on May 7,2013. His academic degrees and university positions are a vivid testimony of his wide professional interests and capabilities. As a humanist and ecologist, he became involved in a broad range of medical and research activities in the Brazilian Amazon, the Chilean Southern Andes, the African deserts and highlands, India, the Himalayas, and China. His extensive bibliography on ecology, the health status of geographically isolated populations and the role of physicians on cultural and macro environmental factors, has been summarized in his posthumous book "Out of Bounds. Medicine and The Hundred Acre Wood", recently published by the Royal Society of Medicine, London. The Sociedad Médica de Santiago-Chilean Society of Internal Medicine and its journal Revista Médica de Chile are indebted to his enthusiastic contributions and advice.

[Revista Médica de Chile in the year 2012]. / La Revista Médica de Chile en el año 2012.

During the year 2012, 539 manuscripts were submitted to this journal, following an increasing trend in the recent decade. Rejection rate was 33%. This higher number of submissions demanded a larger number and wider scope of external reviews, retarding the editorial process. The mean time lapse from reception to acceptance (or rejection) was 6.3 months (range 2-14) and from acceptance to publication 5.3 months (range 3-7). Research articles were 43.9% of published manuscripts and the remaining articles were Reviews, Special Articles, Case Reports, articles on Medical Ethics, Medical Education, Evidence Based Medicine, Public Health, History of Medicine, Letters to the Editor and others. Thirty seven published manuscripts (14.6%) came from foreign countries and 9 of them were published with full text in English. The 2012 Impact Factor was 0.360, showing little variation from previous years, locating the journal in the upper part of quartil 4 in the ISI-JCR category "Medicine, General and Internal", while the SCImago Journal & Country Rank locates the Revista in quartil 2 of its category "Medicine (miscellaneous)". In contrast with the low citation rate, the number of visits to the open access electronic version in www.scielo.cl averages over 3 million visits per year, illustrating that the interest among readers outnumbers the country's expectable readership. Only 22% of articles declared to have received financial help from entities external to the institution where the work was performed, coming mainly from Chilean Governmental competitive funds. The aim of Revista Médica de Chile is to provide readers and authors a valuable source of information about current relevant topics in general and internal medicine, progress in related specialties and updates in basic sciences, rendering them available to Health professionals in Chile and worldwide, following international standards of ethical and scientific quality in medical publications.

Intracisternal rSV40 administration provides effective pan-CNS transgene expression.

Potential genetic treatments for many generalized central nervous system (CNS) diseases require transgene expression throughout the CNS. Using oxidant stress and apoptosis caused by HIV-1 envelope gp120 as a model, we studied pan-CNS neuroprotective gene delivery into the cisterna magna (CM). Recombinant SV40 vectors carrying Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase or glutathione peroxidase were injected into rat CMs following intraperitoneal administration of mannitol. Sustained transgene expression was seen in neurons throughout the CNS. On challenge, 8 weeks later with gp120 injected into the caudate putamen, significant neuroprotection was documented. Thus, intracisternal administration of antioxidant-carrying rSV40 vectors may be useful in treating widespread CNS diseases such as HIV-1-associated neurocognitive disorders characterized by oxidative stress.

[The 140th anniversary of Revista Médica de Chile]. / El aniversario 140 de la Revista Médica de Chile.

Revista Médica de Chile was founded in 1872 and thus is one of the oldest medical journals being published since the 19th Century. The sponsoring institution--"Sociedad Médica de Santiago", founded in 1869--initially was the only scientific society in Chile, gathering medical doctors from every existing specialty. With the splitting of independent organizations representing specific specialties, including subspecial-ties of internal medicine, Sociedad Médica de Santiago focused its scope of action to become the "Chilean Society of Internal Medicine". Its official journal -Revista Médica de Chile--is currently a general and internal medicine journal that also publishes articles on scientific and technological advances in many fields of medicine and health sciences. While initially all authors were Chilean, the journal is now open to submissions from abroad and since the year 2000 articles are published in English when the local language of authors is not Spanish. The number of articles received determines an increasing administrative and editorial burden and, together with the high cost of publishing, will require changes in publication policies. The journal will participate in continuing medical education programs as soon as reaccreditation of medical specialties becomes officially organized in Chile.

[Tradition and progress (1872-2012)]. / Tradición y Progreso (1872-2012).

The first issue of Revista Médica de Chile appeared in July, 1872. Since then it has been published monthly and thus it became one of the oldest medical journals being printed since the 19th Century. The opening Editorial in the first issue, labeled as "Prospecto"and written by the first editor, Germán Schneider, M.D., is reproduced. The current Editors comment the main statements found in that document establishing the purpose and scope of this journal. There are good reasons to sustain that through its 140 years of life, Revista Médica de Chile has fully accomplished the expectations of its founders and the owning institution: Sociedad Médica de Santiago-Chilean Society of Internal Medicine. The journal is serving well the medical community as a forum to present and discuss clinical experience, topics in scientific and technological advances related to medicine, medical education, medical ethics, and public health.