Preparação de lectinas de Moringa oleifera com atividade coagulante

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Comparative study of impulsiveness and risk behaviors among infected individuals with hepatitis C virus and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1

Introduction and objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infections have chronic courses. HCV is primarily transmitted via the hematogenous route, whereas HTLV-1 is primarily transmitted sexually, although it can also be transmitted by blood. Individuals chronically infected with either HTLV-1 or HCV can differ in terms of behavioral characteristics and personality traits. This study compared the occurrence of risk behaviors and impulsivity aspects between HCV and HTLV-1 carriers. Materials and methods: Observational, comparative and cross-sectional study that involved a sample of outpatients who had HCV or HLTV-1, by way of a sociodemographic and behavioral questionnaire and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale – BIS-11. 143 individuals with HCV and 113 individuals with HTLV-1 were evaluated. Results: There was a difference with regards to gender among patients, with mostly males affected in the HCV group. Risk behaviors commonly mediated by impulsiveness were significantly more frequent in the HCV group. Similarly, overall impulsiveness and domain nonplanning were higher in the HCV group. Multivariate analysis showed that increased age, male gender, higher nonplanning scores and HCV infection were independent factors for the occurrence of risk behaviors. Both groups presented high rates of other sexually transmitted diseases and a low rate of condom use in sexual relations. Conclusions: This study confirms the higher rate of risk behaviors and the levels of impulsiveness commonly observed in patients with HCV, along with comparisons to patients with HTLV-1

Dengue-specific serotype related to clinical severity during the 2012/2013 epidemic in centre of Brazil

Abstract Multilingual abstracts Please see Additional file 1 for translations of the abstract into the five official working languages of the United Nations. Background Currently, in Brazil, there is a co-circulation of the four dengue (DENV-1 to DENV-4) serotypes. This study aimed to assess whether different serotypes and antibody response patterns were associated with the severity of the disease during a dengue outbreak, which occurred in 2012/2013 in centre of Brazil. Methods We conducted a prospective study with 452 patients with laboratory confirmed dengue in central Brazil, from January 2012 to July 2013. The clinical outcome was the severity of cases: dengue, dengue with warning signs, and severe dengue. The patients were evaluated at three different moments. Blood sampling for laboratory testing and confirmatory tests for dengue infection were performed. We performed a multinomial analysis considering the three categories of the dependent variable, as outlined above. The odds ratios (ORs) were calculated. A multinomial logistic regression model was applied for variables with a P-value <0.20. Statistical analysis was performed with STATA 12.0 software. Results Four hundred fifty-two patients (452/632, 71.5%) were diagnosed with dengue. The dengue virus (DENV) serotypes were identified in 243 cases. DENV-4 was detected in 135 patients (55.6%), DENV-1 in 91 (37.4%), DENV-3 in 13 (5.3%), and DENV-2 in 4 (1.6%). Patients with the DENV-1 serotype were more prone to present with several clinical and laboratory features as compared with DENV-4 patients, including spontaneous bleeding (P = 0.03), intense abdominal pain (P = 0.004), neurological symptoms (P = 0.09), and thrombocytopenia (P = 0.01). Secondary infection was more predominant among DENV-4 cases (80.0%) compared with DENV-1 cases (62.3%) (P = 0.03). The univariate analysis showed that females (OR = 2.12; 95% CI: 1.44–3.13; P < 0.01) had a higher risk of having dengue with warning signs. The multinomial analysis showed that severe dengue cases with secondary infection had an adjusted OR of 2.80 (95% CI: 0.78–10.00; P = 0.113) as compared with dengue fever with primary infection when adjusted for age and sex. Conclusion The current data show that 5.8% of patients recruited for treatment in healthcare centres and hospitals during the study period had severe dengue. DENV-4 was the predominant serotype, followed by DENV-1, in a large outbreak of dengue in central Brazil. Our findings contribute to the understanding of clinical differences and immune status related to the serotypes DENV-1 and DENV-4 in central of Brazil

The Portuguese Version of the Immunosuppressant Therapy Adherence Scale (ITAS) among Liver Transplant Recipient Patients: Translation and Psychometric Properties

Introduction and aim. Transplant recipients are chronically ill patients who rely on medical treatment throughout life to achieve positive results. Despite that, medication nonadherence after liver transplantation is extremely common. The self-report, one of several methods for measuring adherence, is easy to apply and low cost. Thus, this study aims to translate and validate the Immunosuppressant Therapy Adherence Instrument (ITAS) in Brazilian Portuguese for liver transplant recipients.Material and methods. A total of 139 liver transplant recipients were selected from a general hospital, who were assessed by using the Portuguese version of ITAS. The scale was translated based on the model proposed by Wild, et al. and its psychometric properties were assessed.Results. The average Cronbach’s a coefficient was 0.830. ITAS and Basel Assessment of Adherence with Immunosuppressive Medications Scale (BAASIS) presented significant correlation, with a Spearman’s p coefficient = 0.300 (S = 309,580; p < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was 0.638 (95% CI: 0.557 – 0.715). Factor analysis results indicated that the carelessness factor model was the optimal model, and the factor “feeling worse” was the lowest.Conclusion. The Portuguese version of ITAS has adequate psychometric properties to measure adherence to immunosuppressant therapy

sTREM-1 Predicts Disease Severity and Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: Involvement of Peripheral Blood Leukocytes and MMP-8 Activity

Uncontrolled inflammatory responses play a critical role in coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In this context, because the triggering-receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) is considered an intrinsic amplifier of inflammatory signals, this study investigated the role of soluble TREM-1 (sTREM-1) as a biomarker of the severity and mortality of COVID-19. Based on their clinical scores, we enrolled COVID-19 positive patients (n = 237) classified into mild, moderate, severe, and critical groups. Clinical data and patient characteristics were obtained from medical records, and their plasma inflammatory mediator profiles were evaluated with immunoassays. Plasma levels of sTREM-1 were significantly higher among patients with severe disease compared to all other groups. Additionally, levels of sTREM-1 showed a significant positive correlation with other inflammatory parameters, such as IL-6, IL-10, IL-8, and neutrophil counts, and a significant negative correlation was observed with lymphocyte counts. Most interestingly, sTREM-1 was found to be a strong predictive biomarker of the severity of COVID-19 and was related to the worst outcome and death. Systemic levels of sTREM-1 were significantly correlated with the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-8, which can release TREM-1 from the surface of peripheral blood cells. Our findings indicated that quantification of sTREM-1 could be used as a predictive tool for disease outcome, thus improving the timing of clinical and pharmacological interventions in patients with COVID-19