[Behavioral factors and sensorial identificatory deficits as predictors for dementia of the Alzheimer's type]. / Factores de comportamiento y déficit sensoriales identificatorios como predictores de la demencia tipo Alzheimer.

INTRODUCTION: Several behavior factors had been studied as associated to Alzheimer, but not its prediction power. AIM: To examine whether five behavior variables (psychosocial introversion, coping deficit, apathy, demotivation and perception blockade) could predict the beginning of dementia in mild cognitive impairment initially non dementia cases, after a six-year follow-up period. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 197 mild cognitive impairment non dementia cases (mean: 72.6 years) and an equal number age, gender, schooling and familial income matched normal cases (mean: 73.0 years) were selected to participate from an university data base of older than 60 year people initiated at 1994 for epidemiologic multifactorial studies. Behavior variables were recovery by means of a protocol, applied directly or with the help of relative caregivers, and designed under the hypothetical theory of Alzheimer as a conclusion of a progressive psychosocial capsuletion's process. RESULTS: Introversion, coping deficit, apathy and demotivation appear as frequently and progressive but not necessarily simultaneously or unchained factors, but with possibility of reversion or taking a different way. Perception blockade (three identificatory component of senses impairment at least) seems like the irreversible phase in the process, with near 100% of previous detection for the final diagnostic of Alzheimer's cases. CONCLUSION: Perception blockade, in spite of its great fluctuation and individual variations, appears as more objective, easy, non invasive and firmly as reveille and predictor of this dementia, and we suggest that it appears as the immediate cause of the wide reported histopathological disorders by way of a disintegration of neural net owing to the normal reinforcement deficit.

Isolation and characterization of strains of Flavobacterium columnare from Brazil.

Flavobacterium columnare is an important pathogen of freshwater fish, implicated in skin and gill disease, often causing high mortality. An outbreak of skin disease in fingerling and adult Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (L.), cultivated in a recirculation system, was investigated. Four strains were isolated and characterized by biochemical reactions, enzyme production, fatty acid profile and analysis of the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region. All strains were identified as F. columnare. Experimental infection assays with one of these strains (BZ-5-02) were conducted and pathogenicity (by intramuscular route) was demonstrated in Nile tilapia and channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque). This is the first report of characterization of Brazilian strains of F. columnare.