Knowledge of open angle glaucoma questionnaire: Design and validation in Spanish-speaking patients of Peru. / Conocimientos sobre glaucoma primario de ángulo abierto: diseño y validación de un cuestionario en pacientes hispanohablantes de Perú.

OBJECTIVE: To design and validate a questionnaire on the knowledge of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in Spanish-speaking patients. METHODS: An observational study was conducted on adults with diagnosis of POAG and who received outpatient medical care in a national reference health care institute of Peru. The questionnaire was based on a literature review and expert judgment. A pilot study was carried out on 60 patients. The items were classified and weighted according to the expert judgment. The final questionnaire was completed by 314 patients and its overall score was scaled by tertiles. RESULTS: A total of 72 items were found by primary searching. The initial questionnaire was made up of 20 items, which was tested in a pilot study. A total of 14 items were selected that were then classified into 3weighted domains: risk factors (10%), clinical aspects (36%), and treatment (54%). The questionnaire has a score range from 0 to 100 points (lowest to highest level). In patients, the mean score was 62.6±14.1. The overall score was classified into 3categories of knowledge level: low (0 to 55 points), medium (56 to 69 points), and high (70 to 100 points). CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire provides evidence of validity to assess knowledge of POAG in Peruvian Spanish-speaking patients.

Post-traumatic intraocular ophthalmomyasis due to Phormia sp. / Oftalmomiasis intraocular postraumática por Phormia sp.

CLINICAL CASE: An 18 year-old male patient presented with an injury to the left eye caused by a firearm. He remained unconscious for 2 days in an agricultural area, had a visual acuity of non-perception of light, wounds with loss of substance in upper and lower eyelid, atalamia, hypotonia, corneal oedema, wound with uveal exposure and exit of larvae in zone II. He was subjected to evisceration of the left eye. DISCUSSION: An untreated open ocular traumatism is a risk factor for intraocular ophthalmomyiasis.

Fetal cells participate over time in the response to specific types of murine maternal hepatic injury.

BACKGROUND: In humans, fetal microchimeric cells transferred to maternal tissues during pregnancy can adopt a hepatocyte phenotype. Our objective was to determine whether fetal cells participate in the response to specific murine post-partum hepatic injuries. METHODS: Wild-type female mice were bred to males transgenic for the enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) (n = 42). Following delivery, we created models of chemical or surgical injury with carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) injection or by performing partial hepatectomy. Liver injury was assessed histologically. Fetal cells in maternal liver were detected and measured by real-time PCR amplification of the gfp transgene and by immunofluorescence using anti-GFP antibodies. RESULTS: PCR results showed that in chemical but not surgical injury, fetal GFP+ cells were detectable in maternal liver and spleen and that fetal cell presence was significantly increased over time following injury (4 versus 8 weeks, P = 0.006 for liver and P = 0.0006 for spleen). In some animals, following chemical injury, GFP+ cells were detected by immunofluorescence. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this preliminary study suggest that specific types of injury may elicit different fetal cell responses in maternal organs. There is a significant effect of time on fetal cell presence in liver and spleen. Furthermore, real-time PCR amplification is more sensitive than immunofluorescence for the detection of microchimeric fetal cells.

Comprehensive services at Fabella Center.

PIP: The Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital Comprehensive Family Planning Center was the 1st family planning center to conduct minilaparotomy in the Philippines. It was also the 1st center to conduct research on family planning and to offer training in family planning to nurses, doctors, midwives, and medical students. The center is funded by the Philippine government with about 85% of hospital funds going to salaries of the staff. Supplementing the funding are medicine, equipment, and subsidies for sterilization given by the Commission on Population (Popcom). Research on chemical sterilization requires patients to take oral contraception (OC) or use the condom while under observation for about 4 months. In the case of female patients, this means until the fallopian tubes have been blocked due to the injection of an opaque solution. The patients are then checked for effects on health, sexual practices, and the regularity of menstruation. Dr. Apelo expects to implement this new sterilization method within 5 years. The center's objective is to support the National Population Program in its effort to reduce the country's population growth rate and promote family welfare. When the center was started, it occupied only 1 room of the hospital and was staffed by 1 full time doctor, 4 nurses, 4 midwives, 2 social workers, and 3 support staff. After 1 year of operation, the center recruited only 75 family planning acceptors. Information about the center's family planning services spread solely by word of mouth. During the 1st half of 1982, the center recruited 3490 acceptors of surgical and nonsurgical contraception, representing 96.94% of its 3600 target for the period. Minilaparotomy had the highest number of acceptors, 1742 or 49.92% of the total number of acceptors during the period. This was followed by the IUD with 1356 acceptors, OC, 245 acceptors; and other methods, 147 acceptors. In information and education, the center had 1882 motivational activities consisting of group discussions, ward lectures, field lectures, and mothers' classes. In training, the center conducted 10 courses, representing 100% of its target for the whole year. It trained doctors in performing voluntary surgical contraception and paramedics in assisting doctors in sterilization operations. The training courses were conducted under a subsidized contract with Popcom. The center also offers training in IUD insertion. In research, the center is active in investigating prospects for new contraceptive applications in the Philippine setting.^ieng

Incidence of disseminated gonococcal infection correlated with the presence of AHU auxotype of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in a community.

Strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae requiring arginine, hypoxanthine, and uracil (AHU) may cause disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI). A significant epidemiologic association was noted between the incidence of disseminated gonococcal infection and the presence of gonococci of the AHU auxotype in the community over a nine-year period. Thirty-nine patients with DGI were identified from hospital records of January 1974-December 1982. During this interval, gonococcal isolates from patients in the community were collected at a venereal disease clinic and a hospital emergency room. The incidence of patients hospitalized for DGI dropped significantly after 1978. The year of highest incidence of DGI was 1977, when there were 429 cases of DGI per 100,000 cases of uncomplicated gonorrhea; the incidence of gonococcal isolates of the AHU auxotype in that year was 26.3%. In contrast, this auxotype accounted for only 4.6% of gonococcal isolates in 1980, when the incidence of DGI had decreased to 58 cases per 100,000 cases of uncomplicated gonorrhea. When DGI and gonococci of the AHU auxotype from the community were ranked for incidence by year, a significant correlation between the two was found (P less than .001). Thus the incidence of patients with DGI in the hospital reflected the presence of gonococci of the AHU auxotype in the community.

Nocardiosis in 30 patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection: clinical features and outcome.

A total of 30 patients (aged 6-56 years) with nocardiosis and infection due to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) were identified in our institution between January 1985 and June 1989. Eighteen patients had an AIDS-defining illness before or concurrently with nocardiosis. The mean CD4 lymphocyte count was 109/mm3. Pulmonary nocardiosis in 21 patients, extra-pulmonary nocardiosis in 8, and pulmonary and extrapulmonary nocardiosis in 1 patient was diagnosed. Chest radiographs showed alveolar patterns of infiltrates in 14 patients, reticulonodular patterns in 2, mixed alveolar and reticulonodular patterns in 6, cavitation in 4, and pleural effusion in 3. Of 27 patients treated, the conditions of 22 improved, but the extensive disease in 5 progressed. For 14 patients, recurrence was rapid after their treatment was discontinued. Nocardiosis caused or contributed to the death of 19 patients; in six patients, there was no evidence of nocardial infection at death. Nocardiosis can be a fatal complication of advanced HIV-1 disease. Delayed diagnosis, extensive disease, and early discontinuation of treatment were associated with poor outcome.

An outbreak of tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant tubercle bacilli among patients with HIV infection.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a nosocomial outbreak of tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli among patients with tuberculosis and HIV infection. DESIGN: A case-control study. PATIENTS: Patients with HIV infection and culture-proven tuberculosis. MEASUREMENTS: Patient characteristics, date of diagnoses of HIV infection and disease, date of diagnosis of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis susceptibility results, and medical center contact. RESULTS: Sixty-two patients who had tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli (cases) and 55 patients who had tuberculosis caused by susceptible or single-drug-resistant bacilli (controls) were identified. Controls were more likely to be black (odds ratio, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2 to 0.9) or Haitian (odds ratio, 0.2; CI, 0.1 to 0.6) compared with cases, who were more likely to be homosexual men (odds ratio, 2.9; CI, 1.3 to 6.4). Forty-four cases (71%) had previous contact with an HIV clinic compared with 15 controls (27%) (P less than 0.0001). Cases were more likely to have had AIDS (odds ratio, 7.7; CI, 1.5 to 53.7), to have been hospitalized on an HIV ward (odds ratio, 8.3; CI, 2.3 to 29.7), to have been seen in an HIV clinic (odds ratio, 7.8; CI, 3.4 to 18.1), to have received intravenous therapy in an HIV clinic (odds ratio, 13.0; CI, 4.6 to 37.0), or to have received inhalation pentamidine in an HIV clinic before a diagnosis of tuberculosis was made. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that a diagnosis of AIDS (odds ratio, 11.2; CI, 3.1 to 40.6) and HIV clinic visits (odds ratio, 13.0; CI, 2.7 to 63.7) before a diagnosis of tuberculosis were significantly associated with tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli. Using susceptibility patterns and appointment dates, we found that 22 cases had previous contact with a person who had tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli in the HIV clinic. CONCLUSIONS: Nosocomial transmission of M. tuberculosis from other HIV-infected patients with tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli can occur. These findings have serious public health implications and demand strict adherence to acid-fast bacilli isolation precautions.

Clinical presentation and outcome of patients with HIV infection and tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical manifestations of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli compared with those with single-drug-resistant or susceptible bacilli. DESIGN: Descriptive, case-control, and cohort studies. SETTING: A large urban teaching hospital. PATIENTS: Sixty-two patients with tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli (cases) and 55 patients with tuberculosis caused by single-drug-resistant or susceptible bacilli (controls). MEASUREMENTS: Characteristics of clinical presentation, radiographs, pathologic abnormalities, antituberculosis treatment, and clinical course. RESULTS: Twenty cases (32%) had concomitant pulmonary and extrapulmonary disease at presentation compared with 9 controls (16%; odds ratio, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.0 to 5.9). More cases had alveolar infiltrates (76%; odds ratio, 3.6; CI, 1.2 to 11.4), interstitial infiltrates with a reticular pattern (67%; odds ratio, 7.8; CI, 1.0 to 83.5), and cavitations (18%; odds ratio, 6.6; CI, 0.8 to 315.3) on initial chest radiographs compared with controls (49%, 19%, and 3%, respectively). Pathologic specimens from cases showed extensive necrosis, poor granuloma formation, marked inflammatory changes with a predominance of neutrophils, and abundant acid-fast bacilli. Twenty-five cases received two or more effective antituberculosis drugs for more than 2 months. Only 2 cases had three consecutive negative cultures for Mycobacterium tuberculosis; one patient died within 1 day of the last negative culture, and the other had positive cultures 496 days later. The remaining 23 cases had persistently or intermittently positive cultures despite therapy. The clinical course of these cases suggested overwhelming miliary tuberculosis with involvement of the lungs (77%), pleura (15%), stool (34%), meninges (13%), bone marrow (16%), blood (10%), lymph nodes (10%), and skin (8%). The median survival time was 2.1 months for cases compared with 14.6 months for controls (P = 0.001, log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS: Tuberculosis caused by multiple-drug-resistant bacilli in patients with HIV infection is associated with widely disseminated disease, poor treatment response with an inability to eradicate the organism, and substantial mortality.