Improvement of sexuality after hepatitis C cure with direct acting antivirals.

Despite rarely assessed, sexuality is a relevant domain in Quality of Life. We prospectively evaluated the impact of direct-acting antiviral therapy on sexuality in a cohort of 186 patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV). Sexual dysfunction was assessed by validated scales CSFQ-14/CSFQ-VAS at baseline and one year after treatment finalization. Median age was 55 years and 87% had mild liver disease. Basal prevalence of sexual dysfunction (62%) and fear of HCV transmission (25%) were high. After HCV cure, both sexual dysfunction prevalence and CSFQ-VAS improved (P = .058 and P < .01, respectively), and fear of HCV transmission dropped to 16% (P = .02). These changes were especially relevant in young men (<55), where sexual dysfunction decreased from 48.6% to 29.7% (P = .04) and among non-depressed patients in whom sexual dysfunction decreased from 54.6% to 47% (P < .01). Age and major depression remained as independent factors of sexual dysfunction persistence after HCV cure. Our data suggest that HCV eradication is associated with an improvement in sexuality, in those patients without depression.

Desarrollo léxico en el prematuro: medidas del vocabulario expresivo en el segundo año de vida / Lexical development in preterms: expressive vocabulary measures in the second year of life

Diversos trabajos previos han mostrado que el desarrollo léxico y gramatical puede estar comprometido en niños nacidos muy prematuramente, aunque los resultados de distintas investigaciones no siempre resultan coincidentes. Se presentan aquí los resultados de una muestra de niños sanos, nacidos muy prematuramente ≤ 32 semanas gestación y ≤ 1.500 g de peso al nacer), en los que se obtuvieron medidas del vocabulario expresivo a los 12, 18 y 24 meses (edad corregida por gestación) mediante el Inventario de Desarrollo Comunicativo MacArthur. Los datos de esta muestra se comparan con los obtenidos por tres grupos independientes de nacidos a término, procedentes del mismo hospital y comparables en lengua familiar y estatus socioeconómico. Los resultados muestran diferencias significativas en el vocabulario total expresivo alcanzado a los 18 y los 24 meses, pero no así en el primer nivel de edad analizado. En la composición del vocabulario, distinguiendo entre rutinas, nombres, predicados y palabras gramaticales, observamos diferencias significativas en todas las categorías a los 18 meses, aunque a los 24 meses sólo se mantienen las diferencias relativas a rutinas y nombres. En un segundo análisis de los datos, dividiendo la muestra según el sexo, se comprueba que, tanto a los 18 como a los 24 meses, las diferencias significativas entre prematuros y controles se sitúan exclusivamente en la muestra de niños y se manifestaban en todas las categorías analizadas. En conjunto, estos resultados apuntan a un ritmo inicial de crecimiento léxico (expresivo) más lento en el prematuro, sólo aparente a partir de los 18 meses y con mayor incidencia en la población masculina. Se discute el valor de estos datos en relación con el desarrollo lingüístico posterior en esta población de riesgo (AU)

Previous research has shown that lexical and grammatical development may be compromised in very preterm infants, although results from different studies are not always coincident. Expressive lexicon measures were obtained in a sample of healthy very preterm infants (≤ 32 gestation weeks and birth weight ≤ 1500 g), using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory at 12, 18 and 24 months of age (corrected for gestation). Data from this sample were compared with results from three independent groups of full term infants born in the same hospital and with comparable language background and socioeconomic status. Significant differences were found in total number of words produced at 18 and 24 months of age, but not at the first age level under analysis. Regarding vocabulary composition, significant differences were observed in all categories under study (social words, nouns, predicates and function words) at 18 months of age, but at 24 months significant differences were restricted to the categories of social words and nouns. Further analysis of the data by gender revealed that differences between full term and preterm infants reached significance in the male subgroup, both at 18 and 24 months of age and for all lexical categories. Taken together these results suggest an initially slower expressive lexicon development in the population of infants born preterm, but differences are only evident from age 18 months and with a higher incidence in the male subgroup. The paper discusses the predictive value of these data for later language outcomes in this at risk population (AU)