Clinical Outcomes Among Elderly People With Burns.

Burns in the elderly are a public health concern. This study aimed to analyze etiology, clinical characteristics, and independent risk factors for outcomes of burns in elderly patients. This retrospective study included elderly patients (65 years and over) admitted to a major burn unit between 2006 and 2016. Demographic data, clinical characteristics and outcomes were analyzed. One hundred and thirty patients were included. Most were female (56.2%) and the highest incidence was among those aged 75-84 years. The median burn area was 10.5%. The incidence in winter (50%) was higher (p<0.001) and flame burns predominated (p<0.001). The mortality rate was 32.3%. Independent risk factors for death were older age, larger extent burns, need for escharotomy, and cardiac disease as comorbidity. Amongst the survivors, the median length of stay was 36 days. Development of pressure sores, need for skin grafts, larger extent burns, presence of full-thickness burns, and cardiac disease were shown to be significantly associated with increased length of stay amongst survivors. Preventive measures should target women aged between 75-84 years. Flame burns occurred more frequently in winter. Prognosis is related to age, extent of burns, need for escharotomy at admission, and cardiac disease.

Les brûlures du sujet âgé représentent un problème de santé publique. Cette étude rétrospective se penche sur les étiologies, les caractéristiques et l'évolution de cette pathologie. Elle concerne les 130 personnes de 65 ans et au-delà hospitalisés dans un CTB entre 2006 et 2016. Leur majorité (56,2%) étaient des femmes et la décennie 75-84 ans était la plus représentée. La surface touchée médiane était de 10,5%, les brûlures par flamme prédominaient (p<0,001) et il existait un pic hivernal (50% des brûlures, p<0,001). Les facteurs indépendants de mauvais pronostic étaient l'accroissement de l'âge et celui de la surface brûlée, la nécessité d'incision de décharge et les comorbidités cardiaques. La DMS médiane des survivants était de 36 jours. La survenue d'escarre, la présence de brûlure profonde (et corrélativement la nécessité de greffes), l'augmentation de la surface brûlée et l'existence d'une cardiopathie allongeaient la durée de séjour des survivants. La cible préférentielle des mesures préventive apparaît donc être la population féminine entre 75 et 84 ans. Les brûlures surviennent plus souvent en hiver et sont plus graves quand l'âge et la surface augmente, quand une incision de décharge est nécessaire et chez les "cardiaques".

Evaluation of a cross contamination model describing transfer of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes during grinding of pork and beef.

In a previous study, a model was developed to describe the transfer and survival of Salmonella during grinding of pork (Møller, C.O.A., Nauta, M.J., Christensen, B.B., Dalgaard, P., Hansen, T.B., 2012. Modelling transfer of Salmonella typhimurium DT104 during simulation of grinding of pork. Journal of Applied Microbiology 112 (1), 90-98). The robustness of this model is now evaluated by studying its performance for predicting the transfer and survival of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes during grinding of different types of meat (pork and beef), using two different grinders, different sizes and different numbers of pieces of meats to be ground. A total of 19 grinding trials were collected. Acceptable Simulation Zone (ASZ), visual inspection of the data, Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment (QMRA), as well as the Total Transfer Potential (TTP) were used as approaches to evaluate model performance and to access the quality of the cross contamination model predictions. Using the ASZ approach and considering that 70% of the observed counts have to be inside a defined acceptable zone of ±0.5 log10CFU per portion, it was found that the cross contamination parameters suggested by Møller et al. (2012) were not able to describe all 19 trials. However, for each of the collected grinding trials, the transfer event was well described when fitted to the model structure proposed by Møller et al. (2012). Parameter estimates obtained by fitting observed trials performed at different conditions, such as size and number of pieces of meat to be ground, may not be applied to describe cross contamination of unlike processing. Nevertheless, the risk estimates, as well as the TTP, revealed that the risk of disease may be reduced when the grinding of meat is performed in a grinder made of stainless steel (for all surfaces in contact with the meat), using a well-sharpened knife and holding at room temperatures lower than 4°C.

Assessing the growth of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in spinach, lettuce, parsley and chard extracts at different storage temperatures.

AIMS: The objective of this work was to study the growth potential of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. in leafy vegetable extracts at different temperature conditions. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cocktails of five strains of E. coli O157:H7 and of Salmonella enterica were used. Inoculated aqueous vegetable extracts were incubated at 8, 10, 16 and 20°C during 21 days. Microbial growth was monitored using Bioscreen C(®) . In spinach extract, results showed that for E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella significant differences (P < 0·05) for µabs (maximum absorbance rate) were obtained. For both pathogens, growth in chard was slightly lower. In contrast, iceberg lettuce and parsley showed the lowest values of µabs , below 0·008 h(-1) . The coefficients of variance (CoV) calculated for the different replicates evidenced that at low temperature (8°C) a more variable behaviour of both pathogens is expected (CoV > 180%). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that aqueous extracts from vegetable tissues can result in distinct growth niche producing different response in various types of vegetables. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Finally, these results can be used as basis to establish risk rankings of pathogens and leafy vegetable matrices with relation to their potential growth.

Genetic population data of 12 STR loci of the PowerPlex Y system in the state of São Paulo population (Southeast of Brazil).

Allele frequency distributions and population data for 12 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) included in the PowerPlex Y Systems (Promega) were obtained for a sample of 200 healthy unrelated males living in São Paulo State (Southeast of Brazil). A total of 192 haplotypes were identified, of which 184 were unique and 8 were found in 2 individuals. The average gene diversity of the 12 Y-STR was 0.6746 and the haplotype diversity was 0.9996. Pairwise analysis confirmed that our population is more similar with the Italy, North Portugal and Spain, being more distant of the Japan.

Avaliação de diferentes métodos no diagnóstico laboratorial de Giardia lamblia / Avaliation of differents methods diagnostics applied to Giardia lamblia

Giardia lamblia é um enteroparasita de prevalência significativa no mundo inteiro. Estudou-se a reprodutibilidade diagnóstica laboratorial por meio dos métodos Coprotest®, Direto modificado, Faust e Hematoxilina Férrica, para o protozoário G. lamblia, segundo a associação com algumas características da população de estudo tais como grupo etário, gênero e distribuição dos casos segundo a variação sazonal nos meses em que se desenvolveu a pesquisa. Fezes de 200 crianças da região de Araraquara-SP, foram examinadas pelos quatro métodos, e os resultados comparados. Verificou-se que 8% delas, encontravam-se parasitadas por G. lamblia. Não houve associação com o gênero; quanto à idade ocorreram mais casos no grupo de três a cinco anos e a maior freqüência de casos foi no mês de janeiro. Em relação ao diagnóstico laboratorial concluiu se que os resultados mais confiáveis podem ser obtidos quando se utiliza duas metodologias associadas de ótima reprodutibilidade que neste estudo foram Coprotest - Faust; Direto-Faust e Coprotest-Direto (k maior que 0,81).

Avaliação da eficiência dos métodos Direto, COPROTEST e Rugai no diagnóstico da estrongiloidíase / Evaluation of the efficiency of the Direct, COPROTEST and Rugai methods on the diagnosis of Strongyloidiasis

Estrongiloidíase, parasitose intestinal relativamente comum em áreas tropicais e subtropicais, resulta da infecção causada pelo nematódeo, Strongyloides stercoralis. O homem pode ser infectado pelo parasita, que possui em seu ciclo vital machos e fêmeas capazes de viver no solo, porém com outra parte do ciclo obrigatoriamente parasitária na parede intestinal. O diagnóstico da infecção é rotineiramente realizado pela observação microscópica da larva em amostras de fezes e a alta sensibilidade de um método sobre outro, nos leva a um diagnóstico mais confiável e eficiente. Foi avaliado a eficiência dos três métodos (Direto, COPROTEST e Rugai), empregados no setor de Parasitologia do NAC-LACAL (Núcleo de Atendimento à Comunidade - Laboratório de Análises Clínicas Prof. Dr. Antônio Longo) na cidade de Araraquara - SP, no diagnóstico da estrongiloidíase. Um total de 2346 amostras fecais provenientes de pacientes do NAC-LACAL (1597) e do Hospital Nestor Goulart Reis (749) foram analisadas no período entre agosto e dezembro de 2002. O método Rugai com 65% de positividade mostrou ser o mais eficiente entre os três

Tibial dyschondroplasia in growing chickens experimentally intoxicated with tetramethylthiuram disulfide.

Graded levels of tetramethylthiuram disulfide (0, 30, 60, 120, and 240 ppm) were incorporated into a broiler starter ration fed to chickens from one day old to 8 weeks of age. Clinical signs of leg abnormalities were observed as early as 5 days after the beginning of the trial. After the 3rd week, the joints were shown to present lesions, especially in the femorotibial articulation, comparable to the ones found in perosis. Tibiotarsus and other organs from the birds were examined for pathological changes at weekly intervals. Histologically, the tibiotarsus has shown an osteochondrodystrophy identical to that of tibial dyschondroplasia (TD), although it varied according to the level of tetramethylthiuram disulfide. The histopathology of the thyroid gland of the chickens involved in the present experiment will be reported in a separate manuscript.