Diseño y desarrollo de una intervención dietética en niños con prediabetes / Design and development of a dietary intervention in children with prediabetes

Introducción La prediabetes es una condición patológica donde la concentración de glucemia se presenta en valores más elevados a las concentraciones normales, pero menores a las consideradas en el diagnóstico de una diabetes mellitus tipo 2 (DM2). La condición de prediabetes hasta hace unos años se presentaba en adultos con unos factores de riesgo asociados como eran sobrepeso u obesidad, sedentarismo, malos hábitos alimenticios, problemas cardiovasculares, etc. En los últimos años se ha empezado a detectar en niños, cobrando cada vez una mayor importancia los hábitos familiares que estos niños tienen instaurados. Material y métodos En nuestro estudio se han evaluado 29 niños prediabéticos de Pedro Abad, Córdoba. para ello hemos realizado un ensayo aleatorizado cruzado con grupo de intervención (GI) y grupo de control (GC), empleando una intervención dietética con refuerzo nutricional. El objetivo principal del presente estudio fue determinar si los hábitos alimentarios de niños prediabéticos mejoraban con una intervención dietética basada en una educación nutricional. Resultados A través de una evaluación nutricional mediante diferentes test y visitas realizadas a los niños, los resultados correspondientes a la primera fase del estudio, relacionan una mejora en los hábitos alimentarios y en la adherencia a la dieta mediterránea por parte de los niños intervenidos. Conclusiones Los hábitos alimentarios de los niños prediabéticos mejoran con una intervención dietética basada en una educación nutricional, ya que al proveerles del conocimiento de los distintos alimentos y del aporte de nutrientes que estos nos proporcionan, pueden hacer una mejor selección de los alimentos (AU)

Introduction Prediabetes is a pathological condition where the blood glucose concentration is higher than normal concentrations, but lower than those considered in the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). Until a few years ago, the prediabetes condition occurred in adults with associated risk factors such as overweight or obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits, cardiovascular problems, etc. In recent years it has begun to be detected in children, with the family habits that these children have established becoming increasingly important. Material and methods In our study, 29 pre-diabetic children from Pedro Abad, Córdoba, have been evaluated. For this, we have carried out a randomized crossover trial with an intervention group (IG) and a control group (CG), using a dietary intervention with nutritional reinforcement. The main objective of the present study was to determine if the eating habits of pre-diabetic children improved with a dietary intervention based on nutritional education. Results Through a nutritional evaluation through different tests and visits made to the children, the results corresponding to the first phase of the study, relate an improvement in eating habits and adherence to the Mediterranean Diet by the intervened children. Conclusions The eating habits of pre-diabetic children improve with a dietary intervention based on nutritional education, since by providing them with knowledge of the different foods and the contribution of nutrients that they provide us, they can make a better selection of foods (AU)

[Design and development of a dietary intervention in children with prediabetes]. / Diseño y desarrollo de una intervención dietética en niños con prediabetes.

INTRODUCTION: Prediabetes is a pathological condition where the blood glucose concentration is higher than normal concentrations, but lower than those considered in the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). Until a few years ago, the prediabetes condition occurred in adults with associated risk factors such as overweight or obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits, cardiovascular problems, etc. In recent years it has begun to be detected in children, with the family habits that these children have established becoming increasingly important. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In our study, 29 pre-diabetic children from Pedro Abad, Córdoba, have been evaluated. For this, we have carried out a randomized crossover trial with an intervention group (IG) and a control group (CG), using a dietary intervention with nutritional reinforcement. The main objective of the present study was to determine if the eating habits of pre-diabetic children improved with a dietary intervention based on nutritional education. RESULTS: Through a nutritional evaluation through different tests and visits made to the children, the results corresponding to the first phase of the study, relate an improvement in eating habits and adherence to the Mediterranean Diet by the intervened children. CONCLUSIONS: The eating habits of pre-diabetic children improve with a dietary intervention based on nutritional education, since by providing them with knowledge of the different foods and the contribution of nutrients that they provide us, they can make a better selection of foods.

Analysis of health habits, vices and interpersonal relationships of Spanish adolescents, using SEM statistical model.

The objective of this article is to know the state of health of a sample of adolescents and how it relates to toxic habits and personal relationships. Likewise, it is presented how can influence eating habits, sports practice and interpersonal relationships in their general health status. The research has carried out through a survey of 56 questions to 470 adolescents, between 13 and 18 years old, of both sexes, of different schools in the province of Cordoba, Spain. These results have been subjected to a statistical model widely used in health and social sciences in general, called Structural Equations Model (SEM), through the SPSS program, v. 23 and AMOS. SEM is widely used in the social sciences to estimate regression models (usually multi-equational). The estimated model shows a significant global acceptability based on the usual statistical tests and goodness-of-fit measures. In this regard, these results are: CMIN = 17.554 with 33 degrees of freedom (DF) and a probability level, p = 0.987, which is higher than any reasonable level of significance (α = 0.05, 0.10, even 0.20). Likewise, FMIN = 0.038, CFI = 1.000 and RMSEA = 0.000. The main recommendation of this research aimed at improving good eating and healthy habits, and to avoid toxic habits of adolescents, is to begin the education in the family, in coordination with their school and high school.

Community Acquired Spondylodiscitis caused by Escherichia Coli; Case Report and Literature Review.

Vertebral osteomyelitis, or spondylodiscitis, is a rare disease with increasing prevalence in recent years due to a greater number of spinal surgical procedures, nosocomial bacteraemia, an aging population and intravenous drug addiction. Haematogenous infection is the most common cause of spondylodiscitis. We report a 47-year-old man diagnosed with Escherichia coli spondylodiscitis. The patient initially presented with a 4-day history of inflammatory, mechanical pain in the lower back suggesting sciatica. Treatment included NSAIDs and opioids. Two days after discharge from hospital following an admission due to an upper GI bleeding, the back pain intensified, precipitating a new attendance to the emergency department; during which lumbosacral radiography showed marked reduction of L2/L3 intervertebral space. After a new admission to the rheumatology unit due to worsening of symptoms and raised inflammatory markers, an expedited MRI showed loss of intervertebral disc space at L2/L3, with an irregular high intensity area at L2; suggesting a fluid collection extending to adjacent soft tissues. Fluoroscopy-guided core needle bone biopsies were reported positive for Escherichia coli sensitive to ceftriaxone. The patient was treated (received treatment) with a three week course of ceftriaxone following a formal diagnosis of E. coli spondylodiscitis. Follow-up MRI demonstrated complete recovery with the patient able to return (has returned) to normal activity. In this case we highlight the importance of correct and timely diagnosis of spondylodiscitis. Diagnosis of spondylodiscitis is often difficult, delayed or even missed due to the rarity of the disease but can lead to devastating consequences. Therefore a high index of suspicion is needed for prompt diagnosis to ensure improved long-term outcomes.

Densidad asimétrica neuronal inter-hemisférica de la corteza insular en ratones FMR1 knock-out / Interhemispheric neural density asymmetry of insular cortex in FMR1 knock-out mice

El síndrome X frágil en los seres humanos es causado por una mutación en el gen FMR1 y se asocia con grave retraso mental, hiperactividad y ansiedad. Hemos comparado ratones FMR1-KO con ratones Control en la densidad neuronal de la corteza insular, área del cerebro asociada con el procesamiento del dolor y manejo de la ansiedad. Los ratones también fueron sometidos a una prueba de aprendizaje espacial en un entorno de ansiedad. Los resultados muestran asimetría significativa entre la densidad neuronal entre ínsula izquierda y derecha en KO en comparación con ratones de tipo Control. En cuanto al comportamiento, a pesar de los ratones KO no mostraron marcados déficits en la realización de tareas mostraron una velocidad superior a la de sus homólogos de tipo Control. Por otra parte, la asimetría de densidad insular se correlaciona con una mayor velocidad a nivel individual. Estos resultados sugieren que la asimetría de la densidad neuronal insular en FMR1 ratones KO se puede considerar como un correlato anatómico de las anormalidades de comportamiento observados.

Fragile X syndrome in humans is caused by a mutation in the FMR1 gene and it is associated with severe mental retardation, hyperactivity and anxiety. Here we compare FMR1 Knock-Out mice, a model of Fragile-X syndrome, and wild-type mice with respect to the neuronal density of the insular cortex, a brain area associated with pain processing and anxiety management. Mice were also subjected to a spatial learning test in an anxiogenic environment. Results show significant asymmetry between neuronal density between left and right insula in knock out as compared to wild type mice. Behaviorally, although knock-out mice did not show deficits in task completion they explored the maze at a higher velocity than their wild-type counterparts. Furthermore, insular density asymmetry correlated with higher velocity during one of the spatial navigation tasks at the individual mouse level. These results suggest that insular neuronal density asymmetry in FMR1 Knot-Out mice may be considered as an anatomical correlate of the observed behavioral abnormalities.

Gradient induced artifacts in simultaneous EEG-fMRI: Effect of synchronization on spiral and EPI k-space trajectories.

The nature of the gradient induced electroencephalography (EEG) artifact is analyzed and compared for two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) pulse sequences with different k-space trajectories: echo planar imaging (EPI) and spiral. Furthermore, the performance of the average artifact subtraction algorithm (AAS) to remove the gradient artifact for both sequences is evaluated. The results show that the EEG gradient artifact for spiral sequences is one order of magnitude higher than for EPI sequences due to the chirping spectrum of the spiral sequence and the dB/dt of its crusher gradients. However, in the presence of accurate synchronization, the use of AAS yields the same artifact suppression efficiency for both pulse sequences below 80Hz. The quality of EEG signal after AAS is demonstrated for phantom and human data. EEG spectrogram and visual evoked potential (VEP) are compared outside the scanner and use both EPI and spiral pulse sequences. MR related artifact residues affect the spectra over 40Hz (less than 0.2 µV up to 120Hz) and modify the amplitude of P1, N2 and P300 in the VEP. These modifications in the EEG signal have to be taken into account when interpreting EEG data acquired in simultaneous EEG-fMRI experiments.

Dynamic gamma frequency feedback coupling between higher and lower order visual cortices underlies perceptual completion in humans.

To perceive a coherent environment, incomplete or overlapping visual forms must be integrated into meaningful coherent percepts, a process referred to as "Gestalt" formation or perceptual completion. Increasing evidence suggests that this process engages oscillatory neuronal activity in a distributed neuronal assembly. A separate line of evidence suggests that Gestalt formation requires top-down feedback from higher order brain regions to early visual cortex. Here we combine magnetoencephalography (MEG) and effective connectivity analysis in the frequency domain to specifically address the effective coupling between sources of oscillatory brain activity during Gestalt formation. We demonstrate that perceptual completion of two-tone "Mooney" faces induces increased gamma frequency band power (55-71Hz) in human early visual, fusiform and parietal cortices. Within this distributed neuronal assembly fusiform and parietal gamma oscillators are coupled by forward and backward connectivity during Mooney face perception, indicating reciprocal influences of gamma activity between these higher order visual brain regions. Critically, gamma band oscillations in early visual cortex are modulated by top-down feedback connectivity from both fusiform and parietal cortices. Thus, we provide a mechanistic account of Gestalt perception in which gamma oscillations in feature sensitive and spatial attention-relevant brain regions reciprocally drive one another and convey global stimulus aspects to local processing units at low levels of the sensory hierarchy by top-down feedback. Our data therefore support the notion of inverse hierarchical processing within the visual system underlying awareness of coherent percepts.

Topological measure locating the effective crossover between segregation and integration in a modular network.

We introduce an easily computable topological measure which locates the effective crossover between segregation and integration in a modular network. Segregation corresponds to the degree of network modularity, while integration is expressed in terms of the algebraic connectivity of an associated hypergraph. The rigorous treatment of the simplified case of cliques of equal size that are gradually rewired until they become completely merged, allows us to show that this topological crossover can be made to coincide with a dynamical crossover from cluster to global synchronization of a system of coupled phase oscillators. The dynamical crossover is signaled by a peak in the product of the measures of intracluster and global synchronization, which we propose as a dynamical measure of complexity. This quantity is much easier to compute than the entropy (of the average frequencies of the oscillators), and displays a behavior which closely mimics that of the dynamical complexity index based on the latter. The proposed topological measure simultaneously provides information on the dynamical behavior, sheds light on the interplay between modularity and total integration, and shows how this affects the capability of the network to perform both local and distributed dynamical tasks.

Integration versus segregation in functional brain networks.

We propose a new methodology to evaluate the balance between segregation and integration in functional brain networks by using singular value decomposition techniques. By means of magnetoencephalography, we obtain the brain activity of a control group of 19 individuals during a memory task. Next, we project the node-to-node correlations into a complex network that is analyzed from the perspective of its modular structure encoded in the contribution matrix. In this way, we are able to study the role that nodes play I/O its community and to identify connector and local hubs. At the mesoscale level, the analysis of the contribution matrix allows us to measure the degree of overlapping between communities and quantify how far the functional networks are from the configuration that better balances the integrated and segregated activity.

Biomagnetic profiles of verbal memory success in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

The risk of cognitive decline after mesial temporal lobe (MTL) resection in the dominant hemisphere for treatment of epilepsy has been assessed with the intracarotid amytal procedure and functional neuroimaging. In this study we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to analyze memory profiles in patients with left hippocampal sclerosis (HS). Biomagnetic brain activity related to successful memory was compared in nine patients with left HS and nine age-matched controls. Patients manifested a higher number of activity sources over the right inferior parietal lobe in the late portion of the time window, and higher activity in the right than in the left MTL between 400 and 800 ms. This was reinforced by a -0.46 MTL laterality index, which indicates right MTL dominance. Controls showed a higher number of dipoles in the left anterior ventral prefrontal region, between 400 and 600 ms, and in the left MTL across the whole time window. Three patients who underwent a left temporal lobectomy, were seizure free, and who did not exhibit memory impairment after left temporal lobectomy, showed no activity in the left MTL presurgically. These results could support the ability of MEG to describe the time-modulated brain activity related to memory success in patients with epilepsy with left HS.

Manejo de la insuficiencia respiratoria aguda con ventilación mecánica no invasiva en urgencias y emergencias / Management of acute respiratory failure with non invasive ventilation in the emergency department

La ventilación mecánica no invasiva (VMNI) es un instrumento terapéutico que puesto en manos del urgenciólogo como apoyo inicial al paciente con insuficiencia respiratoria aguda (IRA) puede marcar de forma definitiva la evolución de ese cuadro clínico. Múltiples ventajas que avalan la VMNI frente a las formas invasivas de ventilación: preserva mecanismos como la tos, permiten al paciente hablar o alimentarse, sin invadir la vía aérea y evita las complicaciones que ello comporta. En los últimos años han aparecido multitud de estudios que apoyan su aplicación precoz en pacientes adecuadamente seleccionados. Tras los documentos de consenso de 2001 de la American Thoracic Society, y en 2002 de la British Thoracic Society en que consideraban la VMNI como un elemento más en el manejo inicial de la IRA, tanto hipoxémica como hipercápnica, en sus diferentes modos ventilatorios, cada vez se encuentra más extendido su uso en los servicios de urgencias hospitalarios, en los equipos de emergencias, así como su aplicación domiciliaria en pacientes crónicos. En un futuro inmediato el reto es la formación de los profesionales que integran los equipos asistenciales de urgencias y emergencias, adiestrándolos en manejo de la IRA y sus bases fisiopatológicas, sin dejara un lado el desarrollo y consolidación de la cadena asistencial en ventilación no invasiva, mediante el establecimiento de documentos de consenso interservicios (AU)

Non invasive ventilation (NIV) offers the emergency physician a way to provide initial support for the patient with acute respiratory failure. Application of NIV in emergency care settings can have a decisive effect on clinical course. Clear advantages that conclusively support the use of NIV over invasive mechanical ventilation include the preservation of the cough reflex and the patient’s ability to talk and eat; further more, NIV avoids invasion of the airway, with all the associated complications that implies. Recent years have seen the publication of many studies whose results encourage the early application of NIV in appropriately selected patients. Following the appearance of the consensus statements of the American Thoracic Society in 2001 and the British Thoracic Society in 2002, in which various modes of NIV were included in the therapeutic arsenal for managing either hypoxemic or hypercapnic acute respiratory failure, NIV use has spread in hospital emergency and ambulance services. Likewise, it is being used increasingly for home treatment of patients with chronic respiratory failure. In the immediate future, the challenge will be to train emergency department staff, to equip them with essential pathophysiologic concepts and the skills formanaging acute respiratory failure, while preserving the chain of care by creating consensus on protocols to governinter departmental responsibilities (AU)

Manejo de una vía aérea difícil en el medio prehospitalario / No disponible

El manejo óptimo de la vía aérea y ventilación de pacientes críticos sigue siendo un pilar básico en la supervivencia, evolución y pronóstico; la intubación orotraqueal (IOT) es el gold standard en estas situaciones. Conocer la posición, lasmaniobras y el material “facilitador” de la IOT, así como realizar una oxigenación-ventilación previa y una sedorrelajación adecuadas, aumentará de forma significativa las posibilidades de éxito.Hay ocasiones en las que, aun siendo ortodoxos en la realización de la técnica, no conseguimos el fin deseado (no intubación, no ventilación), definiéndose tal situación como vía aérea difícil (VAD). Los médicos y enfermeros de Atención Primaria deben estar preparados ante tal eventualidad y disponer del material y la formación necesarios para hacer frente a este momento crítico en el manejo de pacientes graves.Basándonos en las directrices y guía clínicas de las principales sociedades científicas en el manejo de la vía aérea (Grupo Español para el Manejo de la Vía Aérea [GEMVA], Sociedad Americana de Anestesiología [ASA] y el Colegio Americano de Cirujanos), presentamos una revisión de las alternativas recomendadas, centrándonos en una somera descripción del material y una más amplia exposición de la técnica

Optimum management of the airway and ventilation incritical patients continues to be a basic cornerstone in survival, evolution and prognosis. orotracheal intubation (OTI) is the “gold standard” in these situations. Knowing the position, maneuvers and material that “facilitate” the OTI and how to perform previous adequate oxygen-ventilation and sedoanalgesia will significantly increase the possibilities ofsuccess.There are times when, although being orthodox in thetechnique performance, we do not achieve the desired purpose (no intubation, no ventilation), defining such a situation as difficult airway (DAW). Primary Health Care physicians and nurses should be prepared for this and have the necessary material and training to face this critical moment in the management of severe patients.Taking the clinical guidelines of the principal scientific societies into account in the management of the airway (Spanish Group for the Management of the Airway [GEMVA], American Society of Anesthesiology [ASA], and the American College of Surgeons), we present a review of the alternatives recommended, focusing on a brief description of the material and a more extensive presentation of the technique

Urgencias/emergencias: ¿una especialidad médica? / Urgent care/emergency care: a medical speciality?

No disponible

No disponible

Tissue consistency perception in laparoscopy to define the level of fidelity in virtual reality simulation.

BACKGROUND: What degree of fidelity must a laparoscopic simulator have to achieve a training objective? This difficult question is addressed by studying the sensory interaction of surgeons in terms of a surgical skill: tissue consistency perception. METHODS: A method for characterizing surgeon sensory interaction has been defined and applied in an effort to determine the relative importance of three components of perceptual surgical skill: visual cues, haptic information, and previous surgical knowledge and experience. Expert, intermediate, and novel surgeons were enrolled in the study. Users were asked to rank tissue consistency in four different conditions: a description of the tissue alone (Q), visual information alone (VI), tactile information alone (TI), and both visual and tactile information (VTI). Agreement between these stages was assessed by a coefficient of determination (R2). RESULTS: Tissue is a determinant factor (p < 0.001) in the perception of tissue consistency, whereas the expertise of the surgeon is not (p = 0.289). Tissue consistency perception is based mainly on tactile information (TI-VTI agreement is high, R2 = 0.873), although little sensory substitution is present (VI-VTI agreement is low, R2 = 0.509). Agreement of Q-VI increases with experience (R2 = 0.050, 0.290, and 0.573, corresponding with to novel, intermediate, and expert surgeons), which has been associated with the "visual haptics" concept. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual reality simulators need haptic devices with force feedback capability if tissue consistency information is to be delivered. On the other hand, the visual haptics concept has been associated with a kind of tactile memory developed by surgical experience.

Integrated care prevents hospitalisations for exacerbations in COPD patients.

Hospital admissions due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations have a major impact on the disease evolution and costs. The current authors postulated that a simple and well-standardised, low-intensity integrated care intervention can be effective to prevent such hospitalisations. Therefore, 155 exacerbated COPD patients (17% females) were recruited after hospital discharge from centres in Barcelona (Spain) and Leuven (Belgium). They were randomly assigned to either integrated care (IC; n = 65; age mean+/-sd 70+/-9 yrs; forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)) 1.1+/-0.5 L, 43% predicted) or usual care (UC; n = 90; age 72+/-9 yrs; FEV(1) 1.1+/-0.05 L, 41% pred). The IC intervention consisted of an individually tailored care plan upon discharge shared with the primary care team, as well as accessibility to a specialised nurse case manager through a web-based call centre. After 12 months' follow-up, IC showed a lower hospitalisation rate (1.5+/-2.6 versus 2.1+/-3.1) and a higher percentage of patients without re-admissions (49 versus 31%) than UC without differences in mortality (19 versus 16%, respectively). In conclusion, this trial demonstrates that a standardised integrated care intervention, based on shared care arrangements among different levels of the system with support of information technologies, effectively prevents hospitalisations for exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Towards e-Health device interoperability: the Spanish experience in the telemedicine research network.

The expansion of e-Health solutions is hindered by the high costs and low flexibility of home and mobile telemonitoring systems. This situation may be improved by the use of standards to design open, plug-and-play and interoperable devices. This work describes the joint efforts of three research groups in Spain towards the interoperability of their telemonitoring solutions based on the ISO11073/IEEE1073 family of standards.

Interoperability of a mobile health care solution with electronic healthcare record systems.

Mobile health care solutions involving patient monitoring are an increasingly accepted element in chronic disease management strategies. When used in healthcare systems with different providers, it is essential that the information gathered from the patient is available at each of these providers information repositories. This paper describes the design of a connectivity interface based on the HL7 standard that allows the MOTOHEALTH mobile health care solution to communicate with external electronic healthcare record systems supporting HL7.

Analysis of information and communication needs in rural primary health care in developing countries.

This article presents three studies dealing with information and communication needs in rural primary health care from Peru and Nicaragua. Results show that primary health-care systems in rural areas of developing countries are very inefficient. Among the main reasons we found factors related to communication infrastructure, information sharing, and continuous training of health professionals. We conclude that telemedicine systems can improve this situation, but the lack of infrastructures, low income levels, and other conditions, impose strong limits to the introduction of new technologies. The main conclusion is that differences in needs and conditions between developing countries and industrialized ones force to use different solutions and approaches. This article presents some proposals on technology requirements and how to deal with the use of telemedicine in rural areas of developing countries. These proposals can be useful to all kind of actors (national public administrations, multilateral institutions, industry, academy, civil society, etc.) in order to promote really relevant and sustainable proposals in telemedicine for rural regions of developing countries.