A Method to Identify New Needs for Medical Equipment.

This paper presents a Method to identify new needs for medical equipment based on the Availability Matrix proposed by the World Health Organization. This Matrix is an instrument to map new medical devices for the care of high incidence diseases. The Method considers information on the epidemiology of the patients attended, the demand for health care services and the available medical equipment. It was applied to the main cause of morbidity: congenital malformations, deformities, and chromosomal abnormalities, attended at the National Institute of Pediatrics from Mexico for 2014-2018 period. The four diseases with the highest incidence were chosen. The Method identified thirteen new medical equipment for the care of such diseases. Three for diagnosis and ten for rehabilitation.Clinical Relevance-Medical equipment purchase must solve clinical needs related with the highest incidence diseases. This is translated into effective and safe care for a greater number of patients with such diseases, and the hospital will have the most appropriate medical equipment to take care of patients with the best health technology.

Toxoplasma gondii in free-ranging wild small felids from Brazil: molecular detection and genotypic characterization.

Brazil harbors the largest number of wild Neotropical felid species, with ten of the twelve species recorded in the American continent. Although these animals are considered to be definitive hosts for Toxoplasma gondii, there are few descriptions of the parasite in these species. Here, we performed a molecular detection of T. gondii by amplification of the marker ITS-1 from tissue samples obtained from 90 free-ranging wild small Neotropical felids from Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil. Of the sampled animals, 34.4% (n=31) were positive including the species Puma yagouaroundi - jaguarondi (9/22), Leopardus geoffroyi - Geoffroy's cat (6/22), Leopardus tigrinus - oncilla (8/28), Leopardus wiedii - margay (6/10), Leopardus pardalis - ocelot (1/1) and Leopardus colocolo - Pampas cat (1/7). Toxoplasma DNA was detected with a frequency of 14.6% (63/433) in primary samples of tongue (16/56), brain (8/43), skeletal muscle (15/83), heart (7/63), diaphragm (3/56), vitreous humor (2/44), eye muscle (6/44) and eyeball (6/44). Multilocus PCR-RFLP genotyping of eleven small Neotropical felids using the molecular markers SAG1, 5'3'SAG2, alt. SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22-8, c29-2, L358, PK1, Apico and CS3 allowed the partial characterization of eight genotypes. We fully characterized two new genotypes that have not been described previously in Brazil (Lw#31Tn from L. wiedii and Py#21Sm from P. yagouaroundi) and one genotype Py#56Br from P. yagouaroundi that has been described previously in isolates from cats, dogs and capybaras from São Paulo state. This study constitutes the first detection and genotypic characterization of T. gondii in free-ranging felids in Brazil, demonstrating the occurrence of the parasite in wild populations and suggesting its potential transmissibility to humans and other domestic and wild animals.

Consumo de SPA, reflexiones académicas sobre estudios epidemiológicos realizados en Colombia / SPA consumption, academic reflections regarding epidemiological studies made in Colombia

El propósito del siguiente artículo es presentar 10 estudios epidemiológicos sobre consumo de sustancias psicoactivas realizadas en Colombia desde 1992 hasta 2001, identificando sus aportes en el control de consumo y las dificultades que puedan llegar a alterar la validez y generalización de los resultados, para ello se tuvieron en cuenta los siguientes aspectos: objetivo del estudio, diseño metodológico y resultados. Se busca que a partir de esta reflexión se diseñen y ejecuten otros estudios con miras a brindar respuestas eficaces y concretas ante esta problemática que cobra cada vez más víctimas especialmente en la población más joven. El propósito del siguiente artículo es presentar 10 estudios epidemiológicos sobre consumo de sustancias psicoactivas realizadas en Colombia desde 1992 hasta 2001, identificando sus aportes en el control de consumo y las dificultades que puedan llegar a alterar la validez y generalización de los resultados, para ello se tuvieron en cuenta los siguientes aspectos: objetivo del estudio, diseño metodológico y resultados. Se busca que a partir de esta reflexión se diseñen y ejecuten otros estudios con miras a brindar respuestas eficaces y concretas ante esta problemática que cobra cada vez más víctimas especialmente en la población más joven.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss our review of ten (10) epidemiological studies on the consumption of Psychoctives Subtances caried out in Colombia from 1992 to 2001. We identified their contribution to the control of consumption as well some methodological problems which could have affected their validity and the generalization of their results. We focused on the following characteristics of the studies: objectives, methodological desing and results. We hope, based on our review, to desing and to excuse more powerful studies and programs aimed to help in the solution to this problem.

Macrophages present exogenous antigens by class I major histocompatibility complex molecules via a secretory pathway as a consequence of interferon-gamma activation.

Macrophages can process and present exogenous antigens on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules through an alternative mechanism involving the internalization of antigens and the secretion of peptides loading MHC class I molecules at the cell surface. In this paper, we found that interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) -activated macrophages infected with Salmonella typhimurum secreted peptides able to load empty MHC Kb molecules on co-cultured TAP-2-deficient RMA-S cells, added as targets for peptide loading. The increase in class I Kb on the RMA-S cells, resulting from the macrophage-derived peptides, exhibited a comparable stability as the direct addition of an exogenous Kb-binding peptide (OVA257-264) to the RMA-S cells. In both cases, the Kb complexes were stable for at least 3 hr after separating the RMA-S cells from the macrophages. The endosomal inhibitors, leupeptin and ammonium chloride, did not inhibit the release of peptides and the increase in Kb staining on the RMA-S cells in the co-culture systems. Brefeldin A also had no effect. P815 cells previously co-cultured with Salmonella-infected macrophages became targets for cytotoxic T lymphocytes isolated from Salmonella-infected BALB/c mice. Taken together, our data suggest that IFN-gamma-activated macrophages process exogenous antigens in an intracellular compartment where serine proteases generate peptides released to the external environment for loading empty MHC class I molecules at the cell surface. This TAP-independent mechanism for the MHC class I presentation may be involved in priming cytotoxic T lymphocytes against intracellular pathogens in vivo.