Embarazo y nuevo coronavirus: experiencia global reportada / Pregnancy and novel coronavirus: worldwide reported experience

INTRODUCCIÓN: La Organización Mundial de La Salud ha reportado recientemente que el nuevo foco de la pandemia global de la enfermedad Covid-19 es el continente americano. OBJETIVO: Realizar una revisión de la literatura sobre la experiencia internacional de la pandemia Covid 19 y embarazo. MÉTODO: Se realiza una búsqueda de la base de datos PubMed para las palabras clave Pregnancy / Pregnant / Novel Coronavirus / SARS-CoV-2 / Covid-19, desde el 1 de noviembre 2019 hasta el 21 de mayo 2020. RESULTADOS: Un total de 365 artículos fueron inicialmente seleccionados de acuerdo con la estrategia de búsqueda diseñada. El total de artículos revisados de acuerdo con los criterios fueron 42. Las series clínicas seleccionadas acumularon un total de 1098 embarazadas y enfermedad de Covid-19. Las co-morbilidades mas frecuentes fueron hipertensión arterial, diabetes mellitus, obesidad y asma. La mortalidad en relación con el total de pacientes fue de un 1,2 % y la transmisión al recién nacido de 1,7% (15 de 875). CONCLUSIÓN: La información obtenida permite inferir que la presentación clínica de la enfermedad es a lo menos equivalente a la de mujeres de la misma edad no embarazadas. Dada la severidad de la enfermedad por SARS-CoV-2 reportada, las lecciones aprendidas deben ser rápidamente asimiladas y utilizadas en el contexto de la situación nacional epidémica.

INTRODUCTION: The World Health Organization has recently reported that the new focus of the global pandemic of Covid-19 disease is the American continent. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a literature review on the international experience of the Covid 19 pandemic and pregnancy. METHOD: A PubMed database search is performed for the keywords Pregnancy / Pregnant / Novel Coronavirus / SARS-CoV-2 / Covid-19, from November 1, 2019 to May 21, 2020. RESULTS: A total of 365 articles were initially selected according to the designed search strategy. The total of articles reviewed according to the criteria was 42. The selected clinical series accumulated a total of 1098 pregnant women and Covid-19 disease. The most frequent comorbidities were hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and asthma. Mortality in relation to the total number of patients was 1.2% and transmission to the newborn was 1.7% (15 of 875). CONCLUSION: The information obtained allows us to infer that the clinical presentation of the disease is at least equivalent to that of non-pregnant women of the same age. Given the severity of the reported SARS-CoV-2 disease, the lessons learned must be quickly assimilated and used in the context of the national epidemic situation.

Medical and surgical treatment of nonallergic asthma associated with gastroesophageal reflux.

Patients presenting to a chest clinic because of adult-onset wheezing with no history of allergy had a 90 percent prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux, even though reflux symptoms were mild or absent. Ninety patients were randomly assigned to receive cimetidine or an identical placebo or to undergo antireflux surgery. During a six-month period, all groups improved clinically; the cimetidine and surgical groups improved more than the placebo group. The intake of pulmonary medication decreased significantly in both cimetidine and surgical groups. Pulmonary function test results improved in the cimetidine- and surgically treated patients; improvement was not statistically significant. At long-term follow-up, the surgical group maintained clinical improvement and decreased pulmonary medication intake, whereas the placebo group worsened. We conclude that gastroesophageal reflux can play a significant role in some patients with nonallergic pulmonary disease and that its treatment can improve pulmonary symptoms and objective measurements of pulmonary function.

Dermatitis de contacto alérgica secundaria a implantes ortopédicos metálicos. A propósito de un caso clínico / Contact dermatitis secondary to metallic implants

La Dermatitis de Contacto secundaria a metales tiene una alta prevalencia en Chile y el mundo, sin embargo estas reacciones han sido poco estudiadas, pese a que podrían verse hasta en un21 por ciento de personas previamente sensibilizadas. Níquel, Cobalto y Cromo son los metales mayormente implicados. La mayoría corresponde a reacciones eccematosas. Test de parche es el gold standard para el estudio de alergia a metales, no obstante, rara vez se utiliza debido principalmente al bajo índice de sospecha de estas reacciones y a la dificultad para disponer de la aleación exacta del metal utilizado. El tratamiento muchas veces consiste en retirar el implante, puesto que el cuadro se torna inmanejable. Se presenta un caso clínico altamente sospechoso de alergia a implantes metálicos, al que se le realizó el estudio completo de alergia a metales, si bien esta no se demostró. Se realiza una revisión de la literatura existente.

Contact dermatitis secondary to metals has a high prevalence in Chile and around the world. Nevertheless, these reactions have been slightly studied, even though they might be found inpreviously sensitized people, with a percentage of 21 percent. Nickel, cobalt and chromium are the most involved metals. The majority of them correspond to eczematous reactions. Patch test is the gold standard for the study of metal allergies; however, specific tests to the implant material are rarely performed, mainly because of the low index of suspicion for these reactions and the difficulty to have the exact alloy of the metal used. Treatment often consists on removing the implant, since the situation becomes unmanageable. A highly suspicious clinical case of allergy to metallic implants is presented, a complete study of allergy to metals was made, although it couldn’t be demonstrated. A review of the existing literature was conducted.

Enfermedades hereditarias de la dermis: revisión de la literatura / Hereditary diseases of the dermis: literature review

Nuestra piel tiene propiedades de elasticidad y firmeza, dada por las fibras del tejido conectivo ubicadas en la dermis. La elasticidad está dada principalmente por pequeñas fibraselásticas compuestas de elastina, mientras que la firmeza se explica por las redes de fibrillas de colágeno tipo I, III y V. La relevancia de estos componentes de la matriz extracelular, junto con otras fibras, como fibrilina y fibulina, se ha reflejado en el reconocimiento de diferentes enfermedades hereditarias causadas por mutaciones en estas proteínas. Muchas de éstas pueden tener características comunes, constituyendo un espectro de alteraciones, dependiendo de la proteína alterada, dando un pronóstico particular tanto en morbilidad y mortalidad. En esta revisión se desarrollarán las principales patologías de la dermis de importancia en dermatología.

Our skin is flexible and firm due to the fibers of the connective tissue in the dermis. Flexibility is mainly given by little elastic elastine fibers, meanwhile firmness is expressed by fibers networks made of collagen type I, III and V. The importance given to these components, including other fibers like fibrillin and fibulin in the extracellular matrix has been displayed in the recognition of different hereditary diseases caused by mutations in these proteins. Many of them have common characteristics, that build a wide spectrum of disorders depending on the altered protein, and give a particular prognostic in morbidity as well as in mortality. The main pathologies of the dermis with an importance in dermatology will be considered in this review.

Evaluation of three larval instars of the midge Chironomus petiolatus as bioassay tools using a computationally intensive statistical algorithm.

Sensitivity to toxicants is a major criterion for selecting organisms for bioassay testing. If a sensitive species is also abundant and occupies a role as prey for many other species within a community, then the species become a valuable tool in environmental monitoring. These features apply to larval midge Chironomus petiolatus in freshwater environments of central Chile. The youngest larval instar is the most sensitive and presents the additional feature of lower survival within control arenas, making it more difficult to discern toxicant-related mortality from background mortality. In this work, we perform acute bioassays with the three larval stages of C. petiolatus and K2Cr2O7 as reference toxicant, with the goal of selecting a particular instar as the best bioassay tool using two criteria: sensitivity and background mortality. Sensitivity is evaluated through Monte Carlo estimation of LC50 and background mortality through bootstrap resampling, and a final Bioassay Performance Index as the product of LC50 and background mortality. For this task we developed a new computationally intensive statistical algorithm. Results show that the best bioassay tool is not the youngest and most sensitive instar but an intermediate one.

Long-term clinical, radiological and manometric follow-up of patients with achalasia of the esophagus treated with esophagomyotomy.

Twenty adult patients with achalasia of the esophagus were treated with an anterior esophagomyotomy and fundic patch. A significant decrease in resting gastroesophageal sphincter pressure was obtained immediately after surgery (p less than 0.001). One case was lost and the rest were followed up for 34 months. Patients had no esophageal symptoms and resting gastroesophageal sphincter pressure remained in low values. Surgical procedure is an adequate and definitive treatment for this disease.

Surgical correction of reflux. An effective therapy for esophageal strictures.

An effective antireflux operation, posterior gastropexy with cardiac calibration, was performed on 24 patients with well established peptic strictures of the esophagus. Without intraoperative or postoperative dilation, the diameter of the strictures went from a mean of 6.3 mm to a postoperative mean diameter of 13.0 mm. Significant increases in sphincter pressure were recorded and endoscopic evaluation showed a return to normal. Preoperative dysphagia was relieved. It is concluded that an adequate antireflux operation will obviate the need for postoperative dilations or more formidable operations such as interposition.

Esophageal reflux--an unrecognized cause of recurrent obstructive bronchitis in children.

Forty-three children with recurrent obstructive bronchitis but without prominent gastrointestinal symptoms were studied for esophageal reflux roentgenographically and by manometry. Roentgenographic evidence for reflux was shown in 26; these patients had a mean lower esophageal sphincter pressure of 6.3 mm Hg as compared to a mean LES pressure of 21.9 mm Hg in normal control infants. The remaining 17 patients had a mean LES pressure of 10.0 mm Hg, also significantly lower than that of control subjects. Fifteen of 20 patients with recurrent obstructive bronchitis noted alleviation of their pulmonary symptoms after medical treatment of their reflux. Sequential studies of another group with radiologically demonstrated reflux showed increases in sphincter pressures and disappearance of radiologically observed reflux in one third of the patients. It is suggested that esophageal reflux should be sought in patients with recurrent bronchitis: if found, antireflux therapy might be expected to improve the pulmonary symptomatology.