Influence of Obesity and Metabolic Disease on Carotid Atherosclerosis in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease (CordioPrev Study)

Background Recent data suggest that the presence of associated metabolic abnormalities may be important modifiers of the association of obesity with a poorer prognosis in coronary heart disease. We determined the influence of isolated overweight and obesity on carotid intima media thickness (IMT-CC), and also assessed whether this influence was determined by the presence of metabolic abnormalities. Methods 1002 participants from the CordioPrev study were studied at entry. We determined their metabolic phenotypes and performed carotid ultrasound assessment. We evaluated the influence of obesity, overweight and metabolic phenotypes on the IMT-CC. Results Metabolically sick participants (defined by the presence of two or more metabolic abnormalities) showed a greater IMT-CC than metabolically healthy individuals (p = 4 * 10−6). Overweight and normal weight patients who were metabolically healthy showed a lower IMT-CC than the metabolically abnormal groups (all p<0.05). When we evaluated only body weight (without considering metabolic phenotypes), overweight or obese patients did not differsignificantly from normal-weight patients in their IMT-CC (p = 0.077). However, obesity was a determinant of IMT-CC when compared to the composite group of normal weight and overweight patients (all not obese). Conclusions In coronary patients, a metabolically abnormal phenotype is associated with a greater IMTCC, and may be linked to a higher risk of suffering new cardiovascular events. The protection conferred in the IMT-CC by the absence of metabolic abnormality may be blunted by the presence of obesit

Reducción 5-log De Listeria monocytogenes en alimentos ácidos.

Listeria monocytogenes es un patógeno que produce listeriosis cuando se consume en alimentos por personas vulnerables como estado de gravidez, adultos inmunocomprometidos, con trasplantes, enfermos con HIV y adultos mayores. Es una bacteria cosmopolita y oportunista que puede ser tolerante a la acidez, característica que algunos productos presentan y que les confiere estabilidad. La bacteria requiere un pH óptimo de 7 para su crecimiento; sin embargo, se ha reportado que puede sobrevivir a pH hasta de 3.3 en alimentos ácidos como salsas de escabeche, vegetales acidificados, etc., por lo que para verificar su inocuidad se realizó un reto microbiológico utilizando salsas de tipo guacamole, roja y verde de tres marcas inoculadas con L. monocytogenes (con pH 3.45 a 4.08) a temperatura ambiente (25 °C) con el fin de medir la sobrevivencia del patógeno hasta su reducción 5-log durante 7 días consecutivos (T1-T7). Se obtuvo que L. monocytogenes se redujo desde el tiempo 1 (T1) en los 3 tipos de salsas de la marca 1 y la marca 3 y en la salsa guacamole de la marca 2; sin embargo, se redujo a partir del T4 en la salsa roja y a partir del T2 de la salsa verde de la marca 2. Estos resultados pueden ser utilizados en relación a marcos regulatorios internacionales en las industrias que deseen exportar estos productos

Determinación de dosis infectiva vía oral de la cepa neolonesa de formas de Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas, 1909) a nivel experimental en modelo. murino.

Trypanosoma cruzi es el agente causal de la enfermedad de Chagas, la cual se descubrió por primera vez en Brasil en 1909. El protozoario puede infectar al humano mediante diferentes tipos de transmisión, tales como vectorial, de transfusión sanguínea, congénita y oral, ésta última es el enfoque del estudio. Para comprobar esto, se realizó la preparación de jugos naturales de naranja y se inocularon las muestras con formas epimastigotes de T. cruzi, los cuales sobrevivieron después de 21 h, confirmándose así, la sobrevivencia del parásito. Posteriormente, se suministraron los jugos contaminados a los roedores con diferentes concentraciones; debido a que no se observaron los tripomastigotes en sangre de ratón en fase aguda se extrajo el ADN del parásito para después confirmar la infección molecularmente por PCR. Asimismo, se realizaron cortes histológicos a partir de tejido infectado de los ratones que murieron y los que fueron sacrificados y se observaron nidos de amastigotes de T. cruzi en el tratamiento de mayor concentración (1.5 millones de células/mL), por lo que se logró confirmar la infección vía oral, por las dos técnicas mencionadas. Mediante un análisis de varianza con la prueba de Tukey se determinó que no existe diferencia significativa en los tratamientos

The value of the continuous genotyping of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis over 20 years in Spain

Molecular epidemiology of circulating clinical isolates is crucial to improve prevention strategies. The Spanish Working Group on multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a network that monitors the MDR-TB isolates in Spain since 1998. The aim of this study was to present the study of the MDR-TB and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) patterns in Spain using the different recommended genotyping methods over time by a national coordinated system. Based on the proposed genotyping methods in the European Union until 2018, the preservation of one method, MIRU-VNTR, applied to selected clustered strains permitted to maintain our study open for 20 years. The distribution of demographic, clinical and epidemiological characteristics of clustered and non-clustered cases of MDR/XDR tuberculosis with proportion differences as assessed by Pearson’s chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test was compared. The differences in the quantitative variables using the Student's-t test and the Mann–Whitney U test were evaluated. The results obtained showed a total of 48.4% of the cases grouped in 77 clusters. Younger age groups, having a known TB case contact (10.2% vs 4.7%) and XDR-TB (16.5% vs 1.8%) were significantly associated with clustering. The largest cluster corresponded to a Mycobacterium bovis strain mainly spread during the nineties. A total of 68.4% of the clusters detected were distributed among the different Spanish regions and six clusters involving 104 cases were grouped in 17 and 18 years. Comparison of the genotypes obtained with those European genotypes included in The European Surveillance System (TESSy) showed that 87 cases had become part of 20 European clusters. The continuity of MDR strain genotyping in time has offered a widespread picture of the situation that allows better management of this public health problem. It also shows the advantage of maintaining one genotyping method over time, which allowed the comparison between ancient, present and future samples