Comparación del consumo de drogas en una población escolar de género masculino utilizando la metodología de pares y el cuestionario auto registrado estándar / Drug consumption in the masculine school population using the peer methodology and the standard self assessment questionnaire

El objetivo es comparar el consumo de drogas a través de dos metodologías, la metodología de pares (MP) y la metodología del cuestionario auto registrado (CAR). La población está compuesta por escolares de género masculino, que cursan entre 8° básico y 4° medio. La muestra alcanzó a 301 escolares. Los resultados obtenidos son, una tendencia a mayor consumo general con la MP que con el CAR; igualmente, en el último mes el consumo muestra una tendencia al aumento con la MP en comparación con el CAR. En ambos períodos no hubo significación estadística. Por otro lado, el consumo de drogas ilícitas en los últimos 12 meses, fue el doble con la MP. En cuanto al consumo de los últimos 30 días, también se duplica al indagar con la MP. La declaración del consumo de drogas ilícitas es significativamente mayor con la MP que con el CAR, en ambos períodos estudiados. El consumo de marihuana, en ambos períodos, es el de mayor consumo entre las drogas ilícitas. Todas las diferencias alcanzaron significación y por lo tanto, la hipótesis que indica utilizando la MP se obtiene mayor declaración del consumo de drogas ilícitas se ratifica.

The objective of this study is to compare the declared licit and illicit drug consumption, between paired methodology (MP) and self assessed questionnaire (CAR). We suggest that understatement of illicit drug use will be minimized with the use of peer methodology, and that licit drug understatement will not be affected using peer methodology. The population of this study is composed by male school students ranging between middle and high School. The sample reached to 301 students. The results obtained regarding illicit drug consumption in the year, tend to be higher using MP compared with the CAR. Similarly, last month consumption reached a higher prevalence using MP than using CAR. There are no significant differences in both samples, during both periods. Nevertheless, in the last 12 months, illicit drug consumption doubled the CAR report in comparison to MP. Regarding drug consumption in the last 30 days, the results also showed that CAR underestimated half of the rate stated using MP. Illicit drug consumption is significantly higher using MP, than CAR, in both periods that were studied. Illicit consumption rates of in the past year and in the last month are significantly higher using MP, particularly with Marihuana. There are no statistical differences in the same periods, regarding licit drug consumption rate, as alcohol and tobacco.

Chloroquine for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in Guyana.

At a public hospital in Georgetown, Guyana, 44 patients seeking treatment for symptomatic, slide-confirmed malaria were given standard chloroquine (CQ) therapy and followed for 28 days. The patients apparently had pure infections with Plasmodium falciparum (14), P. vivax (13) or P. malariae (one), or mixed infections either of P. falciparum and P. vivax (17) or of P. falciparum, P. malariae and P. vivax (two). Each received supervised treatment with 10 mg CQ base/kg on each of days 0 and 1, and 5 mg/kg on day 2. On the day of enrollment (day 0), the patients complained of fever (100%), headache (100%), malaise (94%), myalgia (79%), nausea (67%), vertigo (49%) and vomiting (33%). Many (39%) were ill enough to confine themselves to bed. On day 4, fewer of the subjects complained of fever (15%), headache (15%), malaise (6%), myalgia (21%), nausea (6%), vertigo (24%) or vomiting (0%) despite the relatively high (>48%) risk of therapeutic failure. The cumulative incidence of parasitological failure against P. falciparum was 15% at day 4, 33% at day 7 and 48% at day 14. All of the P. vivax and P. malariae infections cleared before day 4 and none recurred by day 7. Two infections with P. vivax recurred later (on day 14 or 28) but in the presence of less than adequate, whole-blood concentrations of CQ plus desethyl-chloroquine (i.e. <100 ng/ml). Taken together, the results indicate a high risk of therapeutic failure of CQ against P. falciparum but also indicate that resistance to CQ in P. vivax occurs infrequently in Guyana.

Susceptibility of Panamanian Aotus lemurinus lemurinus to sporozoite-induced Plasmodium falciparum (Santa Lucia) infection.

Aotus monkeys are good models for erythrocyte-induced Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax infections and have been extensively used in malarial drug and vaccine development. Recently, it has been shown that certain species of Aotus can be infected with sporozoites, and that the degree of susceptibility varies among species. We demonstrate here that Panamanian Aotus lemurinus lemurinus are susceptible to a sporozoite-induced infection, opening the possibility that this species of Aotus could be used as models for testing the efficacy of pre-erythrocytic P. falciparum vaccines and drug candidates directed at the pre-erythrocytic stages of P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria. In this species, we compared sporozoite infection rates. Two of four animals splenectomized prior to infection with sporozoites developed patent parasitemias. Seven of eight animals splenectomized either 7 or 35 days after infection became parasitemic. Additionally, we used a P. falciparum-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to detect the early appearance of parasitized erythrocytes in the blood prior to detection by conventional microscopy, and found that the parasitemia was detected first in five animals by the PCR method, first in three animals by blood film, with one parasitemia detected simultaneously. We also demonstrated the feasibility of infecting monkeys located in Panama with sporozoites isolated at an insectary in Atlanta, thus documenting the feasibility of similar studies where the insectary and monkey colony are not in the same location. A subsequent attempt to infect these monkeys using sporozoites was not successful, suggesting that this model of human malaria is not yet ready for routine use in vaccine or drug efficacy screening. This model merits further study because of the importance of testing pre-erythrocytic P. falciparum malaria vaccines and drugs in animals.

Interleukin 6 production in fetal rat long bone cultures is correlated with PGE2 release and does not correlate with the extent of bone resorption.

Reports from several laboratories have suggested that interleukin 6 (IL-6) may play a role in the process of bone resorption. We have extended these studies by examining the role of IL-6 in fetal rat long bone (FRLB) resorption stimulated by a variety of agents, including parathyroid hormone (PTH); 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3); interleukin 1 (IL-1); tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). This model of bone resorption does not require the generation of osteoclasts in order to elicit a resorptive response and allowed us to assess whether IL-6 can directly affect osteoclastic bone resorption. We confirmed previous studies which showed that exogenous recombinant murine or human IL-6 does not stimulate bone resorption and demonstrated that IL-6, when added prior to the addition of parathyroid hormone, caused a significant but somewhat variable inhibition at 120 hours. Exogenous PGE2 stimulated both IL-6 production and resorption in FRLB cultures in a concentration-dependent manner. Endogenous production of IL-6 in fetal rat long bone (FRLB) cultures was stimulus dependent and generally correlated with prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels in the same cultures. However, endogenous IL-6 production did not correlate with the extent of bone resorption, except when IL-1 and PGE2 were used as stimuli. Addition of indomethacin and diclofenac to IL-1 stimulated cultures demonstrated that both the IL-6 production and bone resorption were largely PGE-2 dependent. Neutralizing anti-IL-6 antibodies inhibited IL-6 activity in FRLB cultures but did not affect bone resorption, even in the IL-1 stimulated cultures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Further consideration of the clonal nature of Salmonella typhi: evaluation of molecular and clinical characteristics of strains from Indonesia and Peru.

We examined envelope protein profiles, chromosomal restriction endonuclease digest patterns, and immune responses to envelope proteins for collections of Salmonella typhi strains isolated in Peru and Indonesia. Only minor differences in envelope protein patterns were apparent among strains. Strains from 7 of 20 Indonesian patients had a distinct chromosomal digest pattern compared with patterns of Peruvian and other Indonesian strains. Strains with this pattern carried the gene for the j flagellar antigen (H1-j); differences in response to envelope proteins of j and d strains were noted on immunoblot analysis. Our data suggest that there are genotypic and phenotypic differences among S. typhi strains. The clinical importance of these differences remains to be fully evaluated; however, in this study it was not possible to show a clear correlation between strain characteristics and disease severity.

Eficacia do moxalactam no tratamento de meningites purulentas causadas por Haemophilus infuenzae e Neisseria meningitidis. / Efficacy of moxalactam in the treatment of purulent meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis

Foi avaliada a eficacia do moxalactam no tratamento de meningites em criancas, causadas por H. influenzae (27 casos) e N.meningitidis (6 casos). Dos 33 doentes tratados na dose de 100mg/Kg de peso (dose de ataque) e 50mg de 12/12 horas por via venosa, 32 curaram-se. A tolerancia ao produto foi muito boa, havendo alteracoes transitorias de transaminases e fosfatase alcalina; em um caso, houve hematoma posapendectomia, provavelmente relacionado ao uso deste antibiotico. Os niveis sericos e liquoricos do produto foram elevados; as concentracoes no liquor excederam de muito a concentracao bactericida minima dos germes infectantes. O moxalactam se mostrou seguro e eficaz como terapia primaria da meningite causada por H. influenzae e N.meningitidis em criancas

Choque anafilactico durante la anestesia / Anaphylactic shock during anesthesia

Se describe un caso de reaccion anafilactica ocurrido durante la intervencion quirurgica por quistes hidatidicos multiples, en pulmon, que determino su posterior muerte. Se discute las caracteristicas del choque anafilactico bajo anestesia y el tratamiento a instituir

Choque anafilactico durante la anestesia / Anaphylactic shock during anesthesia

Se describe un caso de reaccion anafilactica ocurrido durante la intervencion quirurgica por quistes hidatidicos multiples, en pulmon, que determino su posterior muerte. Se discute las caracteristicas del choque anafilactico bajo anestesia y el tratamiento a instituir