Baixa massa óssea em crianças e adolescentes

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and micro architectural alterations of bone tissue leading to enhanced bone fragility and increased fracture risk. Although research in osteoporosis has focused mainly on the role of bone loss in the elderly population, it is becoming increasingly clear that the amount of bone that is gained during growth is also an important determinant of future resistance to fractures. Thus, considerable interest is being placed on defining preventive strategies that optimize the gain of bone mass during childhood and adolescence. Knowledge of the determinants accounting for the physiologic and genetic variations in bone accumulation in children will provide the best means toward the early diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis. This article reviews the techniques available for bone mass measurements in children and the major determinants and diseases influencing bone accretion during childhood and adolescence.Osteoporose é uma doença caracterizada pela baixa massa óssea e alterações de micro arquitetura do tecido ósseo, levando ao aumento da fragilidade óssea e aumento do risco de fratura. Apesar da pesquisa em osteoporose ter focalizado principalmente no papel da perda óssea na população idosa, está começando a ficar claro que a quantidade de osso que é ganho durante o crescimento é também um determinante importante de resistência futura para fraturas. Portanto, interesse considerável está sendo colocado na definição de estratégias preventivas que otimizam o ganho de massa óssea durante a infância e adolescência. O conhecimento dos determinantes responsáveis pelas variações fisiológicas e genéticas, na acumulação óssea nas crianças, irá levar aos melhores meios para o diagnóstico precoce e tratamento da osteoporose. Este artigo revê as técnicas disponíveis para a medida da massa óssea em crianças e os maiores determinantes e doenças que influenciam a aquisição óssea durante a infância e adolescência.Universidade Catolica de BrasiliaFederal University of São Paulo EPM Division of EndocrinologyFleury - Diagnostic MedicineUNIFESP, EPM, Division of EndocrinologySciEL

Identification of Aspergillus cryptic species in hospital environment

Selected hospital wards, housing patients at higher risk to develop invasive fungal infections, were screened in order to understand the epidemiology and distribution of Aspergillus, especially regarding the presence of cryptic species.Aspergillus species were identified by b-tubulin and calmodulin sequencing, and a high percentage of cryptic species (i.e., not sensu stricto) was found (59%). Sections Usti, Versicolores and Circumdati harbored the highest proportion of cryptic species [100% (4/4), 95% (19/20) and 90% (9/10), respectively].The high number of cryptic species found raises concerns about the possible reduced susceptibility to antifungals of hospital environmental Aspergillus isolates. These data reinforce the importance of hospital air and surface monitoring, mainly in immunocompromised patients’ wards

Clinical education reflective ecological model for health science majors

The clinical education is an integral part of the Health Science majors’ curriculum programs of the University of Aveiro’s School of Health (i.e., Nursing, Physical Therapy, Radiology, Radiotherapy and Speech-Language Pathology) and aims to develop clinical competences in order to generate excellent health care professionals. The organization was based on the Ecological Model of Clinical-Reflective Training, which was characterized by inter-institutional interaction and student’s reflection on actions on a professional setting. This study encompassed two moments of clinical internships in the Nursing, Physical Therapy, Radiology and Radiotherapy majors. The Clinical Internship I provided the 123 students with a global view of the health care professional activities. The Clinical Internship II, with 119 students, developed competences of each health professional. Questionnaires with categorical scales from 1 to 5 evaluated the organization and efficiency of the two internships. The results revealed averages over 3 in all items. In conclusion, the Ecological Model of Clinical-Reflective Training was well accepted by students and clinical supervisors. Applications in the health care area were demonstrated

A landscape genetics approach to unravel the complex evolutionary history of the Iberian honey bee hybrid zone

While landscape genetics is in its infancy, it is a rapidly growing research field in part owing to the increasing availability of powerful molecular and analytical tools. By integrating landscape ecology, spatial statistics and population genetics, landscape genetics is allowing an unprecedented understanding of the microevolutionary processes shaping genetic variation, which has important implications for the advance of ecological and evolutionary knowledge. The Iberian honey bee provides a great model system to address evolutionary questions using a landscape genetics framework. First, previous studies suggest that the Iberian honey bee has a hybrid origin and hybrid zones have been favored by evolutionary biologists as powerful natural laboratories to study evolutionary processes. Second, with the publication of the honey bee genome and development of high‐density SNP markers, powerful tools are now available to dissect the relative importance of neutral and adaptive forces in shaping the Iberian honey bee hybrid zone, a goal of central importance as it leads to more robust inferences of demographic history and to identification of adaptive divergence. Herein, we will present an ongoing research project on the Iberian honey bee hybrid zone where the tools of landscape genetics and population genomics will be combined to unravel the challenging evolutionary history of the Iberian honey bee

Pathogenic fungi: an unacknowledged risk at coastal resorts? New insights on microbiological sand quality in Portugal

Whilst the potential impact on beach users from microorganisms in water has received considerable attention, there has been relatively little investigation into microbial contaminants in sand. Thirty three beaches across Portugal were analyzed during a five year period (2006–2010) to determine the presence of yeasts, pathogenic fungi, dermatophytes, total coliforms, Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci in sand. Our results showed that 60.4% of the samples were positive for fungi and that 25.2% were positive for the bacterial parameters. The most frequent fungal species found were Candida sp. and Aspergillus sp., whereas intestinal enterococci were the most frequently isolated bacteria. Positive associations were detected among analyzed parameters and country-regions but none among those parameters and sampling period. Regarding threshold values, we propose 15 cfu/g for yeasts, 17 cfu/g for potential pathogenic fungi, 8 cfu/g for dermatophytes, 25 cfu/g for E. coli, and 10 cfu/g for intestinal enterococci

Wegener Granulomatosis

A granulomatose de Wegener corresponde a uma vasculite sistémica com atingimento das artérias de pequeno e médio calibre, em particular das vias aéreas superiores e inferiores e do rim, incluindo-se no diagnóstico diferencial das síndromas pulmão-rim. Os AA apresentam o caso clínico de uma senhora de 59 anos, internada na Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Polivalente (UCIP) do Hospital Fernando da Fonseca com um quadro de insuficiência respiratória, hemoptises e insuficiência renal. Descreve-se o estudo etiológico desta situação, concluindo tratar-se de um caso de granulomatose de Wegener. A propósito deste caso são discutidos aspectos relevantes do diagnóstico, terapêutica e seguimento destes doentes

In Vitro Toxicity of Industrially Relevant Engineered Nanoparticles in Human Alveolar Epithelial Cells: Air-Liquid Interface versus Submerged Cultures

This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineered Nanomaterials Exposure and Risk Assessment: Occupational Health and SafetyDiverse industries have already incorporated within their production processes engineered nanoparticles (ENP), increasing the potential risk of worker inhalation exposure. In vitro models have been widely used to investigate ENP toxicity. Air-liquid interface (ALI) cell cultures have been emerging as a valuable alternative to submerged cultures as they are more representative of the inhalation exposure to airborne nano-sized particles. We compared the in vitro toxicity of four ENP used as raw materials in the advanced ceramics sector in human alveolar epithelial-like cells cultured under submerged or ALI conditions. Submerged cultures were exposed to ENP liquid suspensions or to aerosolised ENP at ALI. Toxicity was assessed by determining LDH release, WST-1 metabolisation and DNA damage. Overall, cells were more sensitive to ENP cytotoxic effects when cultured and exposed under ALI. No significant cytotoxicity was observed after 24 h exposure to ENP liquid suspensions, although aerosolised ENP clearly affected cell viability and LDH release. In general, all ENP increased primary DNA damage regardless of the exposure mode, where an increase in DNA strand-breaks was only detected under submerged conditions. Our data show that at relevant occupational concentrations, the selected ENP exert mild toxicity to alveolar epithelial cells and exposure at ALI might be the most suitable choice when assessing ENP toxicity in respiratory models under realistic exposure conditions.This research was funded by CERASAFE (www.cerasafe.eu; accessed on 26 October 2021), with the support of ERA-NET SIINN (project id:16) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; SIINN/0004/2014). This work was also supported by the NanoBioBarriers project (PTDC/MED-TOX/31162/2017), co-financed by the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) through European Regional Development Funds (FEDER/FNR) and FCT; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (projects PCIN-2015-173-C02-01 and CEX2018-000794- S-Severo Ochoa), and by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation (CCCDI-UEFISCDI, project number 29/2016 within PNCDI III). M.J. Bessa (SFRH/BD/120646/2016) and F. Brandão (SFRH/BD/101060/2014) are recipients of FCT PhD scholarships under the framework of Human Capital Operating Program (POCH) and European Union funding. The Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences, of the ICBAS—University of Porto, offered additional funds. S. Fraga thanks FCT for funding through program DL 57/2016–Norma transitória (Ref. DL-57/INSA-06/2018). Thanks are also due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to EPIUnit (UIDB/04750/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In vitro toxicity of industrially relevant engineered nanoparticles in human alveolar epithelial cells: air–liquid interface versus submerged cultures

Diverse industries have already incorporated within their production processes engineered nanoparticles (ENP), increasing the potential risk of worker inhalation exposure. In vitro models have been widely used to investigate ENP toxicity. Air–liquid interface (ALI) cell cultures have been emerging as a valuable alternative to submerged cultures as they are more representative of the inhalation exposure to airborne nano-sized particles. We compared the in vitro toxicity of four ENP used as raw materials in the advanced ceramics sector in human alveolar epithelial-like cells cultured under submerged or ALI conditions. Submerged cultures were exposed to ENP liquid suspensions or to aerosolised ENP at ALI. Toxicity was assessed by determining LDH release, WST-1 metabolisation and DNA damage. Overall, cells were more sensitive to ENP cytotoxic effects when cultured and exposed under ALI. No significant cytotoxicity was observed after 24 h exposure to ENP liquid suspensions, although aerosolised ENP clearly affected cell viability and LDH release. In general, all ENP increased primary DNA damage regardless of the exposure mode, where an increase in DNA strand-breaks was only detected under submerged conditions. Our data show that at relevant occupational concentrations, the selected ENP exert mild toxicity to alveolar epithelial cells and exposure at ALI might be the most suitable choice when assessing ENP toxicity in respiratory models under realistic exposure conditions

Patrones y procesos de variación (neutral y adaptativa) de la abeja ibérica en el área de hibridación

Se presenta en esta comunicación un proyecto de investigación financiado por la Fundación para la Ciencia y la Tecnología del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Educación Superior de Portugal, para el periodo 2010-2012. El objetivo general de este proyecto es examinar los patrones y procesos de variación (neutral y adaptativa) de la abeja Apis mellifera iberiensis de la península Ibérica, usando para ello las más avanzadas herramientas moleculares

Beach sand and the potential for infectious disease transmission: observations and recommendations

Recent studies suggest that sand can serve as a vehicle for exposure of humans to pathogens at beach sites, resulting in increased health risks. Sampling for microorganisms in sand should therefore be considered for inclusion in regulatory programmes aimed at protecting recreational beach users from infectious disease. Here, we review the literature on pathogen levels in beach sand, and their potential for affecting human health. In an effort to provide specific recommendations for sand sampling programmes, we outline published guidelines for beach monitoring programmes, which are currently focused exclusively on measuring microbial levels in water. We also provide background on spatial distribution and temporal characteristics of microbes in sand, as these factors influence sampling programmes. First steps toward establishing a sand sampling programme include identifying appropriate beach sites and use of initial sanitary assessments to refine site selection. A tiered approach is recommended for monitoring. This approach would include the analysis of samples from many sites for faecal indicator organisms and other conventional analytes, while testing for specific pathogens and unconventional indicators is reserved for high-risk sites. Given the diversity of microbes found in sand, studies are urgently needed to identify the most significant aetiological agent of disease and to relate microbial measurements in sand to human health risk