Serological screening for Chagas disease in an endemic region of Northern Minas Gerais, Brazil: the SaMi-Trop project

Chagas disease (CD) is still a neglected disease. Infected individuals are diagnosed late, being treated in worse clinical conditions. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the prevalence and the factors associated with new confirmed cases of CD identified by serological screening in an endemic region of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. This is an analytical cross-sectional study with data from a project of the Research Center in Tropical Medicine of Sao Paulo- Minas Gerais (SaMi-Trop) conducted in two municipalities. Data collection included a questionnaire with closed questions, a venous blood collection and an ELISA serological test for CD. A total of 2,038 individuals with no previous diagnosis of CD participated in the study. The result of the serological test for CD was adopted as the dependent variable. The independent variables addressed personal issues, health conditions and lifetime housing. A descriptive analysis of individual variables was performed. Subsequently, a bivariate analysis was performed using the Pearson’s chi-square test. Households sheltering individuals positive for CD were georeferenced, and the analysis of spatial distribution was performed using the quartic function to estimate the density of the nucleus. Among the participants, 188 (9.2 %) were positive for CD. The profile of participants with CD was associated with place of residence, age, relative/family member with CD and living conditions. It is noteworthy that there are still patients with CD who are unaware of their diagnosis in both, rural and urban areas

Adult users’ satisfaction in relation to attention to oral health in the family health strategy

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os níveis de satisfação dos usuários adultos do município de Lauro de Freitas, no Estado da Bahia, em relação aos serviços de saúde bucal oferecidos pela Estratégia de Saúde da Família (ESF). É um estudo descritivo, quantitativo, com a aplicação de dois instrumentos validados: o Questionário de Avaliação da Satisfação dos Usuários com os Serviços Públicos de Saúde Bucal (QASSaB) e parte do Questionário do Projeto SBBrasil 2010. A amostra foi de 418, com erro amostral de 5%. Foi feita a distribuição de frequência das variáveis quantitativas e de medidas de tendência central e de dispersão, por meio do programa estatístico SPSS. Os resultados mostraram que a maior parte dos entrevistados era do sexo feminino (78,2%), da raça/cor preta (47,0%) e solteira (46,1%). Em relação à morbidade bucal referida, a maioria reportou a necessidade de tratamento odontológico (91,4%). Dor de dente nos últimos seis meses foi relatada por 52,5%. Em relação às dimensões ambiente físico, aceitabilidade, eficiência, equidade, relações humanas e qualidade técnico-científica dos equipamentos, observou-se um bom grau de satisfação. Concluiu-se que, apesar de ainda persistirem muitos desafios para a melhoria da qualidade da atenção em saúde bucal na ESF, a satisfação dos usuários adultos foi alta.The objective of this study was to evaluate the levels of satisfaction of the adult users of the municipality of Lauro de Freitas, state of Bahia, Brazil in relation to the oral-health services offered by the Family Health Strategy - ESF. This quantitative, descriptive study applied two validation instruments, the User-Satisfaction-Evaluation Questionnaire in conjunction with the Public Oral-Health Service and one part of the questionnaire from theSB Brasil2010Project. The sample size was 418 individuals, with a sampling-error rate of 5%. The quantitative variables and measurement of central tendencies and dispersion were distributed using the SPSS statistics program. The results demonstrated that most of those interviewed were women (78.2%), African descent (47.0%), and single (46.1%). In terms of the aforementioned oral morbidity, the majority reported the need for odontological treatment (91.4%). 52.5% reported toothache in the previous six months. A high degree of satisfaction was observed in relation to the dimensions of the physical environment, acceptability, efficiency, equality, human relations, and the technical-scientific quality of the equipment. In conclusion, despite the many challenges that persist to improving the quality of the oral-health services of the ESF, the level of satisfaction of adult users was high

LC‐HRMS for the Identification of β‐Carboline and Canthinone Alkaloids Isolated from Natural Sources

β-carboline and canthinone alkaloids are widely distributed in the Angiosperms. Due to their diverse biological activities, the structures of these alkaloids have been used as important models for the synthesis of novel therapeutic drugs. Combining high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) has provided a valuable tool in the analysis of these alkaloids in, for example, plants, insects, marine creatures, human tissues and body fluids. In this review, we summarized the main β-carboline and canthinone alkaloids studied by liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) associated with mass analyzers, molecular weight information, mass fragmentation and biological activities, presenting an overview of increasing interest for carboline alkaloids study by LC-HRMS

SEVERE CHRONIC PERIODONTITIS AND C-REACTIVE PROTEIN LEVELS

This study aims to analyze the relationship between chronic periodontitis and C-reactive protein (CRP), taking certain associated factors into consideration. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 75 adults of both sexes. After the participants had been interviewed, they underwent physical and dental examinations and blood collection. CRP levels were evaluated by means of nephelometry. A periodontal clinical examination was conducted by trained examiners and the diagnosis of chronic periodontitis was established when at least 30% of the individual’s teeth presented clinical attachment loss ≥ 5 mm. The analysis procedures consisted of descriptive analysis and linear regression. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in CRP levels between the groups with and without periodontitis. The median CRP level in the group with periodontitis was 2.3 mg/l (25-75% interquartile range, IQR = 0.74-5.4) and in the group without periodontitis, 1.8 mg/l (25-75% IQR = 0.79-4.54) (p = 0.417). Log CRP was significantly correlated only with the individual’s body mass index (BMI). The main findings from this study indicate that there is no association between severe chronic periodontitis and CRP, and factors like BMI need to be analyzed carefully in studies on this topic

Maternal anemia and birth weight : a prospective cohort study

Objective To investigate the association between maternal anemia and low/insufficient birth weight. Design A prospective cohort study of pregnant women who underwent prenatal care at the healthcare units in a municipality of northeast Brazil together with their newborn infants was carried out. The pregnant women were classified as having anemia when the hemoglobin level was below 11 g/dl. Infants who were born full term weighing less than 2500 grams were classified as low birth weight, and those weighing between 2500 and 2999 grams were classified as insufficient weight. The occurrence of maternal anemia and its association with birth weight was verified using crude and adjusted Relative Risk (RR) estimates with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs). Results The final sample was comprised of 622 women. Maternal anemia was considered a risk factor for low/insufficient birth weight, after adjusting the effect measurement for maternal age, family income, urinary infection, parity, alcoholic beverage consumption during pregnancy and gestational body mass index: RRadjusted = 1.38 [95% CI: 1.07 to 1.77]. Conclusions Maternal anemia was associated with low/insufficient birth weight, representing a risk factor for the gestational outcomes studied

AUTOAVALIAÇÃO DA CONDIÇÃO DE SAÚDE DA POPULAÇÃO BAIANA

Objetivo: Descrever a autoavaliação da condição de saúde da população baiana, de acordo com alguns fatores sociodemográficos. Método: Estudo de caráter transversal, cujo banco de dados utilizado foi da Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde (PNS). Foram levantados dados de 6153 pessoas, de ambos os sexos, com faixa etária acima de 18 anos, residentes na Bahia. As variáveis selecionadas foram sexo, raça/cor, estado civil, plano de saúde, diagnóstico de doença crônica, presença de depressão nas últimas semanas, nível de instrução, faixa etária e condição de saúde. Aplicou-se o teste qui-quadrado na análise dos dados, por meio do pacote estatístico Stata 15. Resultados: Definiram seu estado de saúde como bom: 56,88% dos homens, 68,87% dos indivíduos com faixa etária entre 18 e 29 anos, união estável/livre (56,24%), com plano de saúde (58,27%), ensino médio incompleto (73,66%). Em contrapartida, a maior parte das pessoas deprimidas a mais de uma semana (59,44%) e aquelas com doenças crônicas (54,48%) classificaram seu estado de saúde como regular. Conclusão: A maioria das pessoas relatou seu estado de saúde como bom. Destaca-se que essa definição foi mais frequente em pessoas do sexo masculino, jovens, com companheiro, que possuem plano de saúde e maior escolaridade