Changes in Left Ventricular Mechanics After Sleeve Gastrectomy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine echocardiographic parameters of left ventricle (LV) mechanics in obese patients before and after sleeve gastrectomy (SG). DESIGN AND METHODS: Twenty-five obese individuals submitted to laparoscopic SG were enrolled in this study. Echocardiography was performed before and after the procedure, and left ventricle mechanics were evaluated by speckle tracking imaging. RESULTS: Before surgery, altered global longitudinal strain (GLS) values were present in 56% of the patients. In a mean follow-up of 3.6 ± 0.5 months after surgery, there was an increase in GLS values (from 17.4 ± 3.2 to 19.3 ± 2.7%, P = 0.01). There was an inverse correlation between the absolute values of GLS in the preoperative period and the variation in the GLS at follow-up (r = 0.577, P = 0.002). Measurements of global circumferential strain (GCS), global radial strain (GRS), and LV twist were normal preoperatively and did not change after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Altered global longitudinal strain values were common in young obese patients. Sleeve gastrectomy increased global longitudinal strain even in the early postoperative phase without promoting changes in global radial strain, global circumferential strain, and left ventricle twist measurements.

Antiretroviral agents and acid-base balance at delivery of the neonate.

Limited evidence is available regarding antiretroviral (ARV) safety for uninfected infants exposed to these drugs in utero. Our objective was to determine if ARV administered to pregnant women is associated with decreasing umbilical arterial pH and base excess in uninfected infants. A prospective study was conducted on 57 neonates divided into three groups: ZDV group, born to mothers taking zidovudine (N = 20), triple therapy (TT) group, born to mothers taking zidovudine + lamivudine + nelfinavir (N = 25), and control group (N = 12), born to uninfected mothers. Umbilical cord blood was used to determine umbilical artery gases. A test was performed to calculate the sample by comparing means by the unpaired one-tailed t-test, with alpha = 0.05 and beta = 20%, indicating the need for a sample of 18 newborn infants for the study groups to detect differences higher than 20%. The control and ARV groups were similar in gestational age, birth weight, and Apgar scores. Values of pH, pCO2, bicarbonate, and base excess in cord arterial blood obtained at delivery from the newborns exposed to TT were 7.23, 43.2 mmHg, 19.5 mEq/L, and -8.5 nmol/L, respectively, with no significant difference compared to the control and ZDV groups. We conclude that intrauterine exposure to ARV is not associated with a pathological decrease in umbilical arterial pH or base excess. While our data are reassuring, follow-up is still limited and needs to be continued into adulthood because of the possible potential for adverse effects of triple antiretroviral agents.

Antiretroviral agents and acid-base balance at delivery of the neonate

Limited evidence is available regarding antiretroviral (ARV) safety for uninfected infants exposed to these drugs in utero. Our objective was to determine if ARV administered to pregnant women is associated with decreasing umbilical arterial pH and base excess in uninfected infants. A prospective study was conducted on 57 neonates divided into three groups: ZDV group, born to mothers taking zidovudine (N = 20), triple therapy (TT) group, born to mothers taking zidovudine + lamivudine + nelfinavir (N = 25), and control group (N = 12), born to uninfected mothers. Umbilical cord blood was used to determine umbilical artery gases. A test was performed to calculate the sample by comparing means by the unpaired one-tailed t-test, with a = 0.05 and ß = 20 percent, indicating the need for a sample of 18 newborn infants for the study groups to detect differences higher than 20 percent. The control and ARV groups were similar in gestational age, birth weight, and Apgar scores. Values of pH, pCO2, bicarbonate, and base excess in cord arterial blood obtained at delivery from the newborns exposed to TT were 7.23, 43.2 mmHg, 19.5 mEq/L, and -8.5 nmol/L, respectively, with no significant difference compared to the control and ZDV groups. We conclude that intrauterine exposure to ARV is not associated with a pathological decrease in umbilical arterial pH or base excess. While our data are reassuring, follow-up is still limited and needs to be continued into adulthood because of the possible potential for adverse effects of triple antiretroviral agents.

[The maximum systolic velocity increases in middle cerebral artery of normal fetus from 22nd to 38th week of gestation]. / A velocidade sistólica máxima aumenta na artéria cerebral média de fetos normais da 22.a a 38.a semana de gestação.

OBJECTIVE: To assess peak systolic velocity values in middle cerebral artery (PSMCA) of normal fetuses from 22nd to 38th week of gestation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We made a prospective study of 33 healthy fetuses from 22nd to 38th to determine peak systolic velocity by Doppler velocimetry. Doppler ultrasound was performed by a single observer, always using the same apparatus. The Doppler tracing was obtained with a sample volume of 1 mm; placement was on the anterior middle cerebral artery, as close as possible to the skullcap. The insonation angle was kept below 20 degrees and the wall filter was adjusted to a frequency of 50-100 Hz. The PSMCA increases from 26.3 cm/s to 57.7 cm/s in middle cerebral artery from 22nd to 38th week of gestation (p < 0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between PSMCA and the gestational values (p < 0.001, r2 = 60.5%). CONCLUSION: In normal fetuses, the PSMCA increases from 22nd to 38th week of gestation. The Doppler velocimetry values for normal fetuses could be compared with those obtained during fetal anemia.

Conforming strategies of public health campaigns to disease specificity and national contexts: Rockefeller Foundation's early campaigns against hookworm and malaria in Brazil.

The early experience of Rockefeller Foundation in Brazil, starting in 1915, reflected the idea of extending learned experience in Southern US to a wide international context. Health education and the creation of permanent local health services were expressed as main guidelines for cooperation with State and federal Brazilian agencies. Translating to the shaping of public health models the terms of scientific hygiene associated with the pastorian revolution, RF pictured different actions as part of a three step rationale of survey, experiment and demonstrations. In this paper we focus on Lewis Hackett's campaign, designed as a demonstration campaign of the "intensive method" of hookworm control, with the final purpose of enlisting local agencies in long-term action (1919-1924) and the malaria campaign in Rio de Janeiro State Lowlands (1922-1928) led initially by Mark Boyd as an "experimental control work" of field observation, campaign, control and maintenance to set guidelines to malaria control in tropical areas. The course and ultimate results of these experiences showed the need to adapt formal models to complex national and State-building context and to disease specificity, leading to pragmatic adaptations in the issue of control and eradication and on the shaping of vertical and horizontal health services. The failure of these two experiences in terms of disease control helped to strengthen the move, predominant in the next two decades, to vertical campaigns with least dependency on local social and political dynamics, as in the exemplar case of Frederick Soper's Anopheles gambiae eradication campaign (1938-1942).

From "forest malaria" to "bromeliad malaria": a case-study of scientific controversy and malaria control.

The article analyses the evolution of knowledge and rationale of control of a special case of malaria transmission based on Bromelia-Kerteszia complex. Since bromeliaceae function as a 'host of the carrier' and were previously associated with natural forests, the elucidation of bromeliad malaria historically elicited controversies concerning the imputation of Kertesziae as transmitters as well as over control strategies directed to bromelia eradication (manual removal, herbicides and deforestation), use of insecticides and chemoprophylaxis. Established authority, disciplinary traditions, conceptual premises and contemporary criteria for validating knowledge in the field partly explain the long time gap since Adolpho Lutz announced at the beginning of the century the existence of a new mosquito and breeding site as responsible for a 'forest malaria' epidemic occurring at a high altitude. The article brings attention to how economic, political and institutional determinants played an important role in redefining studies that led both in Trinidad and Brazil to the recognition of the importance of kerteszia transmission, including urban areas, and establishing new approaches to its study, most relevant of all the concurrence of broad ecological research. The article then describes the Brazilian campaign strategies which showed significant short-term results but had to wait four decades to achieve the goal of eradication due to the peculiar characteristics of this pathogenic complex. Finally, it brings attention to the importance of encompassing social values and discourses, in this case, environmental preservation, to understanding historical trends of malaria control programs.

A land filled with mosquitoes: Fred L. Soper, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Anopheles gambiae invasion of Brazil.

The success of Fred Soper and the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Division in eradicating the Anopheles gambiae mosquito from Northeast Brazil was a significant watershed in the history of malaria control. It revived faith in vector control strategies and paved the way for the application of eradication methods in the fight against malaria following World War II. Yet Soper's achievement needs to be re-examined from a wider analytical perspective that takes account of the longer epidemiological history of malaria in Northeast Brazil and the wider social and economic context within which malaria occurred. The wider perspective suggests that the origins of the 1938/39 malaria epidemic were much more complex than Soper acknowledged. By focusing narrowly on the Anopheles gambiae mosquito and its eradication, Soper failed to understand this broader context. This myopia, in turn, permitted Soper to make claims for both the scale of his achievement and its importance for the future of malaria control which were unjustified.

From "forest malaria" to "bromeliad malaria": a case-study of scientific controversy and malaria control

The article analyses the evolution of knowledge and rationale of control of a special case of malaria transmission based on Bromelia-Kerteszia complex. Since bromeliaceae function as a 'host of the carrier' and were previously associated with natural forests, the elucidation of bromeliad malaria historically elicited controversies concerning the imputation of Kerteszaie as transmitters as well as over control strategies directed to bromelia eradication (manual removal, herbicides and deforestation), use of insecticides and chemoprophylaxis. Established authority, disciplinary traditions, conceptual premises and contemporary criteria for validating knowledge in the field partly explain the long time gap since Adolpho Lutz announced as the beginning of the century the existence of a new mosquito and breeding site as responsible for a 'forest malaria' epidemic occurring at a high altitude. The article brings attention to how economic, political and institutional determinants played an important role in redefining studies that led both in Trinidad and Brazil to the recognition of the importance of kerteszia transmission, including urban areas, and establishing new approaches to its study, most relevant of all the concurrence of broad ecological research. The article then describes the Brazilian campaign strategies which showed significant short-term results but had to wait four decades to achieve the goal of eradication due to the peculiar characteristics of this pathogenic complex. Finally, it brings attention to the importance of encompassing social values and discourses, in this case, environmental preservation, to understanding historical trends of malaria control programs(AU)

Seminário Preparatório para a Conferência Mundial de Determinantes Sociais da Saúde, 2011 - abertura

O principal objetivo do seminário, foi debater os cinco temas: "Governança para enfrentar as causas das iniqüidades em saúde: implementação de açoes sobre os determinantes sociais da saúde"; "O papel do setor da saúde, incluindo programas de saúde pública, na redução das iniquidades em saúde"; "Promovendo a participação: liderança comunitária para as ações sobre os determinantes sociais"; "Ação global sobre os determinantes sociais: coordenando as prioridades e as partes interessadas"; "Monitorando o progresso: medição e análise para fundamentar as políticas sobre os determinantes sociais" que serão abordados na CMDSS que se realizará no Brasil, na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, de 19 a 21 de outubro de 2011. Arquivo disponível para audição e/ou download no ícone ao lado.

Seminário Internacional Direito e Saúde, 6º e Seminário Nacional Direito e Saúde, 10º, 2011 - abertura

Arquivo disponível para audição e/ou download no ícone ao lado.

Seminário Internacional Acesso Livre ao Conhecimento - solenidade de abertura

A abertura do Seminário Internacional Acesso Livre ao Conhecimento contou com as presenças do presidente da Fiocruz, Paulo Gadelha, da vice-presidente de Ensino, Informação e Comunicação da instituição, Nísia Trindade e do diretor da Escola, Antônio Ivo de Carvalho. Arquivos disponíveis: vídeos e gravação da solenidade de abertura para audição e/ou download nos ícones ao lado.