High Blood Pressure and Self-Reported Systemic Hypertension in Elderly Enrolled in the Family Health Strategy Program.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of high blood pressure (HBP), self-reported hypertension, and associated factors among in elderly enrolled in the Family Health Strategy (FHS) Program. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study with in elderly enrolled in the FHS Program of Campina Grande/Paraíba/Brazil. This study determined the prevalence of HBP and self-reported hypertension and their associations with demographic, socioeconomic variables, lifestyle, and number of self-reported morbidities. Three blood pressure measurements were performed, and the average value was used for analysis. To control possible confounding factors, data were modeled by the method of linear models generalized with Poisson log modeling to determine prevalence ratios and confidence intervals. The SPSS 22.0 statistical application was used, and 5% significance level was adopted. RESULTS: High prevalence of HBP (80.9%) was observed, which was associated with the number of self-reported morbidities, both in the univariate and multivariate analyses. High prevalence of self-reported hypertension (66.4%) was also observed. In the final model, positive association between hypertension and demographic and socioeconomic variables and lifestyle was verified. DISCUSSION: Monitor hypertension should be a priority action given its association with genetic, social and behavioral conditions presented by individuals.

Genotoxic responses of juvenile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) exposed to florfenicol and oxytetracycline.

Florfenicol (FLC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) are the two most commonly used antibiotics for bacterial treatment in fish farming in Brazil, and because of their intensive use, the potential harmful effects on aquatic organisms are of great concern. This study evaluated the effects of environmental concentrations of FLC and OTC on the genetic material of juvenile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) erythrocytes by using the comet assay and the occurrence of micronuclei (MN) and other erythrocytic nuclear abnormalities (ENAs) after exposure to 96hour. The comet assay showed that fish erythrocytes exhibited significantly higher DNA damage after exposure to environmental concentrations of FLC and OTC. Although MN was not observed, ENAs were significantly higher after exposure to FLC, indicating that ENAs are a better biomarker for FLC than MN. The results showed that environmental concentrations of FLC and OTC were genotoxic to erythrocytes of O. niloticus; however, future studies on DNA damage recovery are needed.

Evaluation of surface water quality using an ecotoxicological approach: a case study of the Piracicaba River (São Paulo, Brazil).

A long-term study was conducted to evaluate Piracicaba River water (São Paulo state, Brazil) using different methodologies and organisms. During 1 year (February 2011 to January 2012), water samples were collected monthly at six different locations and exposed under laboratory conditions to the microcrustaceans Ceriodaphnia dubia and Ceriodaphnia silvestrii for 7 days and to the fish Danio rerio for 4 days to evaluate effects on reproduction and on gill morphology, respectively. Physical-chemical parameters of the water were also measured. Physical-chemical characteristics demonstrated decreasing water quality from upstream to downstream of the river. Effects on the reproduction of C. dubia and C. silvestrii were observed in 3 months (February and March 2011 and January 2012) and occurred in samples collected close to industrialized cities like Americana and Piracicaba. Evaluation of the gills showed normal function of the organ during all months, except in February, September, and October for some locations.

Efficiency of bioaugmentation in the removal of organic matter in aquaculture systems.

Several techniques are currently used to treat effluents. Bioaugmentation is a new bioremediation strategy and has been employed to improve effluent quality by treating the water during the production process. This technology consists basically of the addition of microorganisms able to degrade or remove polluting compounds, especially organic matter and nutrients. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of bioaugmentation on some parameters of organic matter and on the performance of juvenile tilapias in an intensive aquaculture production system. The combination of two bacterial consortiums in a complete randomized design was employed in a factorial analysis with two factors. Statistical differences between treatments were analyzed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey test at the 5% level. One of the treatments, heterotrophic bacterial supplementation, was able to reduce biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) by 23%, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by 83.7% and phytoplanktonic biomass by 43%. On the other hand, no damage was done to either the physical-chemical indicators of water quality or to the growth performance of juvenile tilapias assessed in this study.