The national health system in Portugal: from expansion to crisis between 1970

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss the idea that governments should not take policy measures for the development and growth of National Health System (NHS) without taking into account their financial sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: This article is based on a review of existing theories, documents and statistics. findings: This article analyses the major developments in public health policy in Portugal between 1970 and 2012. It presents the measures that established the National Health Service (NHS) in 1976, signalling the start of an expansionary health policy that led to quality health care provision, but at the cost of very high spending. From 1990, governments have focussed on reducing public expenditure on health, due to growth-rates in this area outstripping increases in GDP. Paradoxically, despite this position, in practice, all the governments have increased the amount of infrastructure supporting the NHS, which in turn has been funded through public debt. This debt was extended in all areas of public administration and became unsustainable, obliging the Portuguese government to ask the European Commission for financial assistance in 2011. Due to the austerity measures imposed by lenders, for the first time since the creation of the NHS, there was a real reduction of public expenditure on health in 2011 and 2012.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Oral Self-Mutilation in Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome: A Case Report

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome (LNS) is an inherited recessive X-related disorder caused by a deficiency of the purine salvage enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase. It is characterized by dystonia and compulsive self-mutilation, in particular, biting behavior on the oral mucosa, tongue, lips, fingers, and shoulders, typically before one year of age. The majority of these patients require several procedures, including dental extractions, to prevent significant secondary lesions. This article aims to report a clinical case of a 12-year-old boy with an LNS diagnosis who was referred to the Paediatric Stomatology Department of Central Lisbon University Hospital. Since the age of eight, the patient had displayed self-harm behavior, with arm and oral injuries. On evaluation, he presented with deep ulcerated lesions on the lips and tongue, with substance loss associated with a significant decrease in food intake and consequent weight loss. The management included conservative therapy with gabapentin, lorazepam, and botulinum toxin injections. A successful reduction of self-mutilation with no signs of new lesions in the oral cavity and an improvement in nutritional status were reported. The therapeutic approach is essential to provide the best quality of life for patients and their caregivers. To delay radical treatments, multiple therapeutic options can be used. The oral pathology team considered that the most appropriate therapy was botulinum toxin A injections along with therapeutic adjustment, which was effective in wound healing and self-mutilation behavior ceasing at the two-month follow-up.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Case Report of a Sclerotic Fibroma of the Oral Mucosa

Sclerotic fibroma, also known as storiform collagenoma, is a rare benign tumor that grows on the skin, but it can also appear, less frequently, in the oral mucosa. It can present as part of Cowden syndrome manifestation, especially when multiple lesions are encountered, but it may also appear as a solitary, sporadic lesion in healthy individuals. We describe a patient, diagnosed with Cowden syndrome, who presented with a sclerotic fibroma in the oral mucosa, which is a very uncommon manifestation of Cowden syndrome.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Rare Case of Pleural Empyema Caused by Campylobacter Rectus

Campylobacter rectus is considered to be a primary periodontal pathogen that is rarely identified in extraoral specimens. We report a case of pleural empyema caused by Campylobacter rectus: the pathogen was isolated in the drained pleural fluid sample. Since the patient had previously undergone multiple antibiotic treatments, oral cultures were highly unlikely to be positive, although poor dental hygiene appears to be the leading risk factor for C. rectus systemic infections. The present case illustrates that C. rectus can be a cause of not only periodontal disease but also pulmonary infection.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

WDXRF Spectrometry for elemental impurities analysis in drug products and dietary supplements

Poster presented at the 2nd International Congress of CiiEM: Translational Research and Innovation in Human and Health Sciences. 11-13 June 2017, Campus Egas Moniz, Caparica, PortugalN/

Analysis of elemental impurities in dietary supplements for weight loss and assessment of potential risk to human health

Poster presented at the International Conference on Food Contaminants - ICFC2017. 13-14 July 2017, Braga, PortugalN/

Development and evaluation of smart home IoT systems applied to HVAC monitoring and control

This work describes the development and evaluation of two smart home-based Internet of Things (IoT) systems applied to HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) monitoring and control, including parameters such as temperature, humidity, air quality, smoke detection, and human presence. These systems are based on a flexible hybrid wireless network architecture combining Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi, in order to adapt to the requirements of different types of sensor and actuator devices. The original implemented network is based on Cypress PSoC 4 BLE boards and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), whereas the new network uses ESP32 boards and includes Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT), a lightweight messaging protocol suitable for IoT devices which provides additional quality of service (QoS) mechanisms to guarantee the delivery of messages. A smart temperature control system was implemented in the BLE/Wi-Fi gateway (Raspberry Pi) to keep the room temperature inside a user-defined range. An online database was also developed using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform, allowing the users to access the HVAC data and control the system parameters, through the Internet, using a mobile app developed for Android devices. Experimental tests were performed to validate the functionalities and performance of the developed systems. The obtained results demonstrate that the new network provides lower delay values compared with the original implementation.This work was supported by FCT national funds, under the national support to R&D units grant, through the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020