Inflammatory markers in prepubertal children and their associations with abdominal fat.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between inflammatory markers and abdominal fat assessed by ultrasound in prepubertal children with and without excess weight. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving 241 prepubertal children, 156 with obesity, 37 with overweight, and 48 with normal weight, aged five to ten years, who were followed at a research unit on Childhood Obesity from a teaching hospital belonging to a public health system. The concentration of interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α and C-reactive protein were assessed and regression analyses, considering outcome variables such as abdominal wall and intra-abdominal fat thickness measured by ultrasound, were performed. RESULTS: The findings highlighted an association between abdominal fat and inflammatory markers, even in children at this young age group. Subcutaneous fat showed a stronger association with inflammatory biomarkers compared to intra-abdominal fat when performing logistic regression, with a positive association between tumor necrosis factor-α and abdominal wall thickness equal to or greater than the 75th percentile in adjusted logistic regression (OR: 18.12; CI 95 %: 1.57: 209.55). CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal wall fat, in contrast to what is often observed in adults, appears to have a greater impact on chronic inflammation related to excessive weight in very young children.

Vertical transmission of HIV from 2007 to 2018 in a reference university hospital in Rio de Janeiro.

The aim of the study was to assess the factors associated with mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV. The study design is a retrospective cohort. The population consisted of 323 HIV-positive mothers and their newborns, attended at the Perinatal Nucleus/HUPE-UERJ, municipality of Rio de Janeiro, in the period of 2007-2018. The average age of mothers was 27 years (14-44), with 12.7% (41) of adolescents. The majority (66.8%) knew they were infected during pregnancy: 39.4% in the current pregnancy and 27.4% in a previous pregnancy. The incidence of MTCT was 2.7% in 2007-2009, 1% in 2010-2015 and 0 in 2016-2018. The viral load in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy was > 1.000 copies/mL or unknown in all mothers with positive newborns and in 19% (42/221) of mothers with negative newborns (p=0.003). The duration of antiretroviral use was > 4 weeks in 92.3% (264/286) of mothers with HIV-negative newborns and in 2 in the HIV-positive group (p=0.004). One of the 4 infected newborns and 2 of the negative ones did not use oral zidovudine (p=0.04). There was no association between amniorrhexis and MTCT (p=0.99), with the Apgar score in the 5th minute of life (p=0.96), with marital status (p=0.54), ethnicity (p=0.65), adolescence (p=0.42), mode of delivery (p=0.99), beginning of prenatal care (p=0.44) or with maternal comorbidities (p=0.48). The conclusion of the study points out that the main factors associated with MTCT are the elevated maternal viral load in the 3rd trimester, the time of use of ART and the non-administration of zidovudine for the newborns.

Prevalence of HTLV-1/2 in pregnant women living in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro.

BACKGROUND: HTLV-1/2 infection can cause severe and disabling diseases in children and adults. The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of HTLV-1/2 infection in pregnant women living in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 1,204 pregnant women were tested upon hospital admission for delivery in two public hospitals in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Mesquita, between November, 2012 and April, 2013. The samples were screened by chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA) and reactive ones were confirmed by Western blot (WB). Epi-info software was used for building the database and performing the statistical analysis. Eight patients had confirmed HTLV-1/2 infection (7 HTLV-1, one HTLV-2), equivalent to a prevalence rate of 0.66%. Two further reactive screening tests had negative Western blot results and therefore were considered negative in the statistical analysis. All HTLV-1/2-positive patients were born in Rio de Janeiro, most were non-Caucasian (87.5%), in a stable relationship (62.5%), had at least ten years of formal education (62.5%) and a monthly family income of up to US$600.00 (87.5%). There was only one case of coinfection with syphilis and none with HIV. The mean age of the infected women was 28.4 (SD = 6.3) years and of the seronegative ones was 24.8 (SD = 6.5) (p = 0.10). The median number of pregnancies were 3.0 and 1.0 (p = 0.06) and the median number of sexual partners were 3.5 and 3.0 (p = 0.33) in the seropositive and negative groups, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A significant prevalence of HTLV-1/2 was found in our population. The socio-epidemiological profile of carrier mothers was similar to the controls. Such findings expose the need for a public health policy of routine HTLV-1/2 screening in antenatal care, since counselling and preventive measures are the only strategies currently available to interrupt the chain of transmission and the future development of HTLV-1/2-related diseases.