QUALIDADE DE VIDA DE MULHERES BRASILEIRAS COM CÂNCER DE MAMA: REVISÃO SISTEMÁTICA DA LITERATURA

Este trabalho busca discutir a qualidade de vida em mulheres brasileiras submetidas ao tratamento de câncer de mama. Para tanto foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura, incluindo artigos, no período de 2001 a 2010, cujos dados foram coletados por meio da leitura de artigos na íntegra, sendo preenchido um quadro com as seguintes informações: autor; ano de publicação; tipo, população e objetivo do estudo; instrumento utilizado e resultados. Foram identificados 11 artigos, sendo 06 estudos transversais, 01 ensaio clínico, 02 quase-experimentais e 02 séries de casos, em que  os autores utilizaram vários instrumentos que avaliam a qualidade de vida. O número de mulheres incluídas nos estudos variou de 03 (serie de casos) a 110. A maioria dos estudos encontrou pior qualidade de vida nas mulheres submetidas à mastectomia e com baixo nível socioeconômico. Foi observado que a fisioterapia atuou como preditora de uma melhor qualidade de vida em todos os estudos que avaliaram a realização dessa intervenção. Em relação aos domínios mais afetados em mulheres com câncer de mama, foi observada maior prevalência dos associados à funcionalidade, às questões emocionais, às dificuldades financeiras, à sexualidade e aos sintomas gerais

Graph4Med: a web application and a graph database for visualizing and analyzing medical databases

Background: Medical databases normally contain large amounts of data in a variety of forms. Although they grant significant insights into diagnosis and treatment, implementing data exploration into current medical databases is challenging since these are often based on a relational schema and cannot be used to easily extract information for cohort analysis and visualization. As a consequence, valuable information regarding cohort distribution or patient similarity may be missed. With the rapid advancement of biomedical technologies, new forms of data from methods such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) or chromosome microarray (array CGH) are constantly being generated; hence it can be expected that the amount and complexity of medical data will rise and bring relational database systems to a limit. Description: We present Graph4Med, a web application that relies on a graph database obtained by transforming a relational database. Graph4Med provides a straightforward visualization and analysis of a selected patient cohort. Our use case is a database of pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Along routine patients’ health records it also contains results of latest technologies such as NGS data. We developed a suitable graph data schema to convert the relational data into a graph data structure and store it in Neo4j. We used NeoDash to build a dashboard for querying and displaying patients’ cohort analysis. This way our tool (1) quickly displays the overview of patients’ cohort information such as distributions of gender, age, mutations (fusions), diagnosis; (2) provides mutation (fusion) based similarity search and display in a maneuverable graph; (3) generates an interactive graph of any selected patient and facilitates the identification of interesting patterns among patients. Conclusion: We demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of a graph database for storing and querying medical databases. Our dashboard allows a fast and interactive analysis and visualization of complex medical data. It is especially useful for patients similarity search based on mutations (fusions), of which vast amounts of data have been generated by NGS in recent years. It can discover relationships and patterns in patients cohorts that are normally hard to grasp. Expanding Graph4Med to more medical databases will bring novel insights into diagnostic and research

Prognostic factors associated with overall survival in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma

Low socioeconomic status, increasing age, and poor lifestyle behaviors are associated with poor survival in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC). To determine the overall survival (OS) and the risk of OCSCC death by tumor subsite. A retrospective cohort study of OCSCC patients diagnosed from 2007 to 2009 and treated at a single cancer center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Patient information was obtained from the Hospital Cancer Registry (HCR) database and complemented by individual search of physical and electronic medical records. Descriptive statistics of population characteristics were computed. OS was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to estimate the risk of death by tumor subsite. Seven hundred and three patients with OCSCC were identified. Most patients were men (77.4%) with low levels of education (67.5%), who drank (73.9%) and smoked (79.7%). The most prevalent tumor site was the tongue (45.4%), 73.4% of patients had advanced (clinical stage III or IV) OCSCC at diagnosis and 74.1% died during follow-up. For the entire cohort, the OS was 39.1% at two years and 27.9% at five years. The median survival time was 1.4 years (95%CI: 1.2?1.5). Non-operative treatment (HR: 3.11; 95%CI: 2.26?4.29; p 60 years at diagnosis (HR: 1.37; 95%CI: 1.15?1.64; p <0.001) were independently associated with the risk of death. However, these factors varied by tumour subsite. Analysis of specific subsites of the oral cavity revealed substantial differences in prognostic factors associated with poor survival in OCSCC

Fatores de risco para linfedema após câncer de mama: uma revisão da literatura

Arm lymphedema is one of the most frequent sequelae of breast cancer treatment. The purpose of this literature review was to discuss main risk factors of lymphedema after breast cancer treatment. The search in Medline and Lilacs databases, by means of key words breast neoplasms, lymphedema, upper extremity, arm, and risk factors, allowed selecting 26 studies published between January, 2000, and March, 2008. This review discusses factors linked to: clinic and the patient (smoking, education level, race/ethnicity, comorbidity, hypertension, diabetes, menopause, age, weight, body mass index, physical activity, handedness, impaired range of motion, infection, seroma and arm injuries); breast cancer treatment (type of surgery, breast reconstruction, number of axillary lymph nodes removed, level of axillary surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, tamoxifen treatment, and time-span after axillary lymph node dissection); tumour (size, grade, location, node status, number of positive nodes and stage of the tumour). This review shows that the axillary surgery, axillary radiotherapy and obesity are important risk factors of lymphedema.O linfedema representa uma das principais seqüelas do câncer de mama. Esta revisão da literatura visou discutir os principais fatores associados ao linfedema após o tratamento do câncer de mama. Foram selecionados 26 artigos publicados entre janeiro de 2000 e março de 2008 nas bases Medline e Lilacs, utilizando os descritores breast neoplasms, lymphedema, upper extremity, arm e risk factors. Sua revisão permitiu discutir os fatores relacionados ao linfedema, quanto a: clínica e paciente (tabagismo, escolaridade, etnia, comorbidades, hipertensão arterial, diabetes melito, menopausa, idade, peso corporal, índice de massa corporal, atividade física, membro dominante, restrição articular, infecção, seroma e trauma no membro superior); tratamento do câncer de mama (cirurgia, reconstrução mamária, número de linfonodos retirados, nível da linfadenectomia axilar, radioterapia, quimioterapia, hormonioterapia e tempo transcorrido após o tratamento); tumor (tamanho, grau, localização, comprometimento dos linfonodos axilares e estadiamento). A revisão feita indica que a linfadenectomia axilar, a radioterapia em cadeias de drenagem e a obesidade são fatores preponderantes do risco para desenvolvimento do linfedema

Outcome of Patients With Esophageal Atresia and Very Low Birth Weight (<= 1,500 g)

Introduction: Primary repair of esophageal atresia (EA) in infants with very low birth weight (VLBW) and extremely low birth weight (ELBW) has been widely performed in pediatric surgery. However, several studies have shown that complication rates in infants with VLBW are high. We hypothesize preterm children benefit from a shorter, less-traumatizing operation in the first days of life, as staged repair implies. Methods: Patients with EA and VLBW were retrieved from the database of a large national patient organization KEKS e.V. Structured questionnaires were sent to all the patients' families; the responses were pseudonymized and sent to our institution. Results: Forty-eight questionnaires from patients were analyzed. The mean birth weight was 1,223 g (720–1,500 g). Primary repair was performed in 25 patients (52%). Anastomotic insufficiency (AI) was reported in 9 patients (19%), recurrent fistula (RF) in 8 (17%), and anastomotic stenosis in 24 patients (50%). Although AI was almost twice as common after primary repair than after staged repair (24 vs. 13%; p = 0.5), the difference was not statistically significant. RF was more frequent after primary repair (28 vs. 4%; p = 0.04), gastroesophageal reflux was more frequent in the group after staged repair (78 vs. 52%; p = 0.04), and both correlations were statistically significant. Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) was reported in 11 patients (23%) and was observed in 7 of them (64%, p = 0.4) after primary repair. ICH was reported in 60% of patients with ELBW and 75% of patients when ELBW was paired with primary repair. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the complication rate in patients with VLBW is higher than the average of that in patients with EA. The study indicates that a staged approach may be an option in this specific patient group, as less RF and AI are seen after staged repair. ICH rate in patients with ELBW seemed to be especially lower after staged repair. Interestingly, gastroesophageal reflux was statistically significantly higher in the group after staged repair, and postoperative ventilation time was longer. It is therefore necessary to individually consider which surgical approach is appropriate for this special patient group

Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade na reabilitação profissional: instrumentos de avaliação da incapacidade laboral

OBJETIVO: Revisar os principais instrumentos de avaliação funcional e situação de saúde citados na literatura para avaliar trabalhadores brasileiros e verificar a compatibilidade de seus itens com o core set para reabilitação profissional. MÉTODOS: Foi realizada uma revisão da literatura nas principais bases de dados em busca de artigos que utilizaram instrumentos de avaliação em populações de trabalhadores entre 2007 e 2017. Posteriormente foram recuperados os conteúdos dos instrumentos identificados e dois avaliadores analisaram seus itens para verificar a compatibilidade com as categorias do core set da Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade para reabilitação profissional. O coeficiente kappa de Cohen foi utilizado para avaliar a concordância entre os avaliadores. RESULTADOS: Foram selecionados cinco instrumentos específicos e oito genéricos que avaliaram a funcionalidade de trabalhadores. A análise dos itens do total de instrumentos permitiu o preenchimento de 58 categorias (64,5%) do core set com o mínimo de sobreposição: 13 (76,5%) do componente funções corporais, 29 (72,5%) do componente de atividades e participação e 16 (49%) de fatores ambientais. CONCLUSÕES: A associação de vários instrumentos requer tempo e dificulta o uso da classificação. A elaboração de instrumentos com associação direta às suas categorias se faz essencial para operacionalizá-la.OBJECTIVE: To review the main instruments of functional assessment and health status cited in the literature to evaluate Brazilian workers and verify the compatibility of their items with the core set for professional rehabilitation. METHODS: A review of the literature was conducted in the main databases in search of articles that used assessment instruments in populations of workers between 2007 and 2017. Subsequently, the contents of the identified instruments were retrieved, and two evaluators analyzed their items to verify the compatibility with the categories of the core set of the International Classification of Functioning for professional rehabilitation. Cohen’s kappa coefficient was used to evaluate the agreement between the evaluators. RESULTS: Five specific and eight generic instruments were selected to evaluate the functioning of workers. The analysis of the items of the total instruments allowed the definition of 58 categories (64.5%) of the core set with minimal overlap: 13 (76.5%) of the body functions component, 29 (72.5%) of the activities and participation component and 16 (49%) environmental factors. CONCLUSIONS: The association of several instruments requires time and makes it difficult to use the classification. The development of instruments with direct association with its categories is essential to operationalize it