Clinical standards for the assessment, management, and rehabilitation of post-TB lung disease

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence suggests that post-TB lung disease (PTLD) causes significant morbidity and mortality. The aim of these clinical standards is to provide guidance on the assessment and management of PTLD and the implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). METHODS: A panel of global experts in the field of TB care and PR was identified; 62 participated in a Delphi process. A 5-point Likert scale was used to score the initial ideas for standards and after several rounds of revision the document was approved (with 100% agreement). RESULTS: Five clinical standards were defined: Standard 1, to assess patients at the end of TB treatment for PTLD (with adaptation for children and specific settings/situations); Standard 2, to identify patients with PTLD for PR; Standard 3, tailoring the PR programme to patient needs and the local setting; Standard 4, to evaluate the effectiveness of PR; and Standard 5, to conduct education and counselling. Standard 6 addresses public health aspects of PTLD and outcomes due to PR. CONCLUSION: This is the first consensus-based set of Clinical Standards for PTLD. Our aim is to improve patient care and quality of life by guiding clinicians, programme managers and public health officers in planning and implementing adequate measures to assess and manage PTLD

Genetic resources of vegetable crops: a survey in the Brazilian germplasm collections pictured through papers published in the journals of the Brazilian Society for Horticultural Science Recursos genéticos de hortaliças: as atividades nas coleções brasileiras de germoplasma retratadas nas publicações da Associação Brasileira de Horticultura

The research on plant genetic resources is essential for the conservation of genetic diversity and accessions' divergence studies, as a basis for plant breeding. Aiming to know the state of art in this subject, a historical survey was carried out in Revista de Olericultura and in Horticultura Brasileira, from 1961 to 2006, searching for papers dealing with vegetable crops genetic resources. In each of the papers, the species studied, first author institution, publication year, applied software, number of accessions and descriptors, and the multivariate techniques used were registered. Based on these characteristics, papers were grouped using multivariate analysis. Sixty-one papers dealt somehow with genetic resources in the time covered by the survey, from which 91.8% were published after 1990 (60.7% from 2001 to 2005). The use of multivariate analysis was reported in 57.3% of the papers, with an average of 2.3 and maximum of 6 multivariate procedures per paper. The Tocher Method, reported in 34% of the papers, was the most frequently used multivariate analysis. Twenty-five species were studied. Capsicum was the most frequently studied genus, either considering number of papers (seven) or accessions (664). Research institutions located in the Southeast region concentrated the highest number of papers. UFV (Federal University of Viçosa), UENF (North Fluminense State University Darcy Ribeiro), Embrapa Vegetables, and UNESP (São Paulo State University) Campus of Jaboticabal responded for 45% of the papers. There was an improvement in the adequacy of the statistical techniques used along time, due mainly to the development of free-access software. The software Genes was the most frequently reported in the papers surveyed. Nevertheless, almost 50% of the authors did not mention the software used for data analysis. Quantitative morphoagronomic and evaluation descriptors were the most often used. The multivariate analysis allowed grouping the papers in nine clusters.<br>A pesquisa com recursos genéticos vegetais é essencial tanto para a conservação da diversidade genética, quanto para o estudo da divergência entre acessos, base para programas de melhoramento. Com objetivo de conhecer o estado-da-arte nesse tema, foram identificados os trabalhos relacionados a recursos genéticos de hortaliças publicados na " Revista de Olericultura" e " Horticultura Brasileira" , de 1961 a 2006. Foram anotadas as espécie(s) estudada(s), a instituição de origem do primeiro autor, o ano de publicação, os softwares utilizados, o número de acessos, o número de descritores e o número de técnicas multivariadas aplicadas em cada artigo. Com base nessas caraterísticas, os artigos foram agrupados utilizando análise multivariada. No período pesquisado, 61 artigos trataram, sob algum aspecto, de recursos genéticos. Desses, 91,8% foram publicados a partir de 1990, com concentração de 2001 a 2005 (60,7%), com 57,3% deles utilizando pelo menos uma técnica multivariada, com média de 2,3 e máximo de seis técnicas por artigo. O método de agrupamento de Tocher foi o mais utilizado, relatado em 34% dos artigos. Os artigos cobriram 25 espécies. Dentre elas, Capsicum foi o gênero mais pesquisado, tanto em relação ao número de artigos (sete), quanto em número de acessos estudados (664). As instituições de pesquisa da região Sudeste concentraram o maior número de artigos. Se somadas, UFV, UENF, Embrapa Hortaliças e UNESP Campus de Jaboticabal foram responsáveis por 45% dos trabalhos publicados no tema. Houve um aprimoramento das técnicas estatísticas utilizadas na análise dos dados, sobretudo devido ao desenvolvimento e uso de softwares de fácil compreensão. O programa GENES foi o mais referenciado. Entretanto, quase a metade dos autores não citou o programa estatístico utilizado para a análise dos dados. Os descritores de caracterização morfoagronômica quantitativos e de avaliação foram os mais estudados. A análise multivariada permitiu classificar os artigos em nove grupos