Cutaneous Polyarteritis Nodosa Presented with Digital Gangrene: A Case Report

Cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa (CPAN) is an uncommon form of vasculitis involving small and medium sized arteries of unknown etiology. The disease can be differentiated from polyarteritis nodosa by its limitation to the skin and lack of progression to visceral involvement. The characteristic manifestations are subcutaneous nodule, livedo reticularis, and ulceration, mostly localized on the lower extremity. Arthralgia, myalgia, peripheral neuropathy, and constitutional symptoms such as fever and malaise may also be present. We describe a 34-yr-old woman presented with severe ischemic change of the fingertip and subcutaneous nodules without systemic manifestations as an unusual initial manifestation of CPAN. Therapy with corticosteroid and alprostadil induce a moderate improvement of skin lesions. However, necrosis of the finger got worse and the finger was amputated

Electromyographic Study Of The Flexor Muscles Of The Elbow Articulation In Weightlifting Trained Subjects.

The purpose of this work was to register the electromyography data of the muscles brachialis, biceps brachii long portion, biceps brachii short portion and brachioradialis in the movements of elbow flexion, in the Larry Scott bench, in supination and pronation positions, in weightlifting trained subjects. Ten male right-handed subjects were selected, with at least one-year experience in weightlifting exercises, without previous neuromuscular diseases, age between 21 and 26 years. After taking the Maximum Load (M.L.) test, or a maximum repetition, we had the percent pattern to establish the loads used in the tests, which was 80%0 of the M. L. For the electromyography records was used a six-channel electromyography (lynx) and the AqDados software in four different moments for each subject: an isometric phase lasting five seconds in supination (1), keeping a 90 degrees angle between the arm and forearm; another one in isometric pronation (2); ten repetitions lasting fifty seconds in supination (3); and ten repetitions in pronation (4). The results of the normalization showed a level of similar activation between the involved muscles in one same moment, as much in supination as in pronation. From the analysis of variance ANOVA, having as level of significance p < 0,05, concludes that it did not have significant difference in the performance of these muscles. When compared between itself all the values of p were bigger than 0,05. Of this form we can perceive a joint action of all the flexion muscle of the elbow to resist the load imposed during the effort.4749-5

Short report: Application of an alternative Aedes species (Diptera : Culicidae) surveillance method in Botucatu City, São Paulo, Brazil

One of the main problems with dengue is the control of Aedes aegypti, its major vector. In Brazil, the current control program for Ae. aegypti and Aedes albopictus populations includes larval density surveys. An interesting alternative is the use of a distinct index, the Premise Condition Index (PCI). This tool relates conditions of property, such as houses and yards, and the degree of shade with the occurrence of Aedes sp. oviposition, and is calculated as scores from 3 to 9. The lowest score indicates property in good condition and an unfavorable breeding environment, while the highest score indicates property at high risk for infestation by Aedes sp. The present study is based on the application of the PCI in an urban area of Botucatu, Brazil to confirm its effectiveness

Hacia el establecimiento de una qPCR consensuada en tiempo real para monitorear la parasitemia por Trypanosoma cruzi en pacientes con miocardiopatía crónica por enfermedad de Chagas: un subestudio del ensayo BENEFIT

Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is an accurate method to quantify Trypanosoma cruzi DNA and can be used to follow-up parasitemia in Chagas disease (CD) patients undergoing chemotherapy. The Benznidazole Evaluation for Interrupting Trypanosomiasis (BENEFIT) study is an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of benznidazole (BZ) treatment in patients with chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCC). One important question to be addressed concerns the effectiveness of BZ in reducing overall parasite load in CCC patients, even in the absence of parasitological cure. This report describes the evaluation of multiple procedures for DNA extraction and qPCR-based protocols aiming to establish a standardized methodology for the absolute quantification of T. cruzi DNA in Guanidine-EDTA blood (GEB) samples. A panel of five primer sets directed to the T. cruzi nuclear satellite DNA repeats (Sat-DNA) and to the minicircle DNA conserved regions (kDNA) was compared in either SYBR Green or TaqMan systems. Standard curve parameters such as, amplification efficiency, coefficient of determination and intercept were evaluated, as well as different procedures to generate standard samples containing pre-established T. cruzi DNA concentration. Initially, each primer set was assayed in a SYBR Green qPCR to estimate parasite load in GEB samples from chronic Chagas disease patients. The results achieved from Bayesian transmutability analysis elected the primer sets Cruzi1/Cruzi2 (p = 0.0031) and Diaz7/Diaz8 (p = 0.0023) coupled to the QIAamp DNA Kit extraction protocol (silica gel column), as the most suitable for monitoring parasitemia in these patients. Comparison between the parasite burden of 150 GEB samples of BENEFIT patients from Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, prior to drug/placebo administration, was performed using Cruzi1/Cruzi2 primers in a SYBR Green approach. The median parasitemia found in patients from Argentina and Colombia (1.93 and 2.31 parasite equivalents/mL, respectively) was around 20 times higher than the one estimated for the Brazilian patients (0.1 parasite equivalents/mL). This difference could be in part due to the complexity of T. cruzi genetic diversity, which is a factor possibly implicated in different clinical presentations of the disease and/or influencing parasitemia levels in infected individuals from different regions of Latin America. The results of SYBR Green qPCR assays herein presented prove this methodology to be more cost efficient than the alternative use of internal fluorogenic probes. In addition, its sensitivity and reproducibility are shown to be adequate to detect low parasitemia burden in patients with chronic Chagas disease

Observation of the Hanle effect in giant magnetoresistance measurements

International audienc