Tinea Corporis Causada por Trichophyton Benhamiae de Transmissão Canina: Primeiro Relato em Portugal

Dermatophytoses are superficial and contagious infections caused by dermatophyte fungi. They are the most fre-quent infectious dermatosis in clinical practice, and can affect the skin, hair and nails. Its correct diagnosis allows the understanding of clinical, ecological and epidemiological aspects associated with these microorganisms. Clinical presentation is variable and depends on the habitat (human, animal or soil origin), virulence of the fungus and on the host’s immune status.We report the clinical case of a 62-year-old man with tinea corporis, which stands out for its exuberant clinical pres-entation and by the isolated agent, Trichophyton benhamiae (formerly known as Arthroderma benhamiae), an etiologi-cal agent of dermatophytosis that has not been scientifically reported in Portugal yet.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Leishmania (Viannia) spp. dissemination and tissue tropism in naturally infected dogs (Canis familiaris).

First evidence is presented for Leishmania (Viannia) spp. dissemination and tissue tropism in the domestic dog. Using PCR and histology, parasites were detected in the conjunctiva, lung, lymph nodes and ovaries of 2 naturally infected Peruvian dogs. The detection of parasites in the blood indicates that parasite dissemination to those organs may have been haematogenous

Fungal contamination in one hotel room: Does carpet coating in the floor enhance fungal contamination?

Study developed in order to know the carpet influence when used in the floor of a hotel room. Twelve air samples of 250L (six in a room with carpet and six more in a room with wood floor) were collected through an impaction method with a flow rate of 140 L/min onto malt extract agar (MEA) supplemented with chloramphenicol (0.05%), using the Millipore air Tester (Millipore), during cleaning activities. Outdoor sample was also performed to be used as a reference. Surface samples from floor and desks, taken at the same time, were collected by the swabbing method. to 7 days. Besides fungal contamination, we also assessed particulate matter contamination in both rooms during the same cleaning tasks. In the analyzed sur- faces, isolates belonging to Aspergillus fumigatus complex were the only fungi found in the carpeted room, whereas in the other room we found Penicllium sp. (63.6%) and Aspergillus sp. (13.6%) as the most frequent genera. In the case of particles the room with carpet obtained significant higher values for both metrics (PMC and PNC), showing that carpet may has influence on particles’ contamination of the room

Are air-borne mycotoxins a public health concern in Portugal?

Introduction - Microscopic filamentous fungi, under suitable environmental conditions, can lead to the production of highly toxic chemical substances, commonly known as mycotoxins. The most widespread and studied mycotoxins are metabolites of some genera of moulds such as Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium. Quite peculiar conditions may influence mycotoxin biosynthesis, such as climate, geographical location, cultivation practices, storage and type of substrate. Toxicity has been extensively investigated for the most important mycotoxins, such as aflatoxins, ochratoxin A and Fusarium toxins, and much information derived from toxicokinetics in animal models has also been obtained. The adverse effects are mainly related to genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, teratogenicity and immunotoxicity. Aim of the study - To identify fungal species able to produce important mycotoxins in different Portuguese settings

Comparison of indoor and outdoor fungi and particles in poultry units

A descriptive study was developed in order to compare indoor and outdoor air contamination caused by fungi and particles in seven poultry units. Twenty eight air samples of 25 litters were collected through the impaction method on malt extract agar. Air sampling and particles concentration measurement were done in the interior and also outside premises of the poultries’ pavilions. Regarding the fungal load in the air, indoor concentration of mold was higher than outside air in six poultry units. Twenty eight species / genera of fungi were identified indoor, being Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (40.5%) the most commonly isolated species and Rhizopus sp. (30.0%) the most commonly isolated genus. Concerning outdoor, eighteen species/genera of fungi were isolated, being Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (62.6%) also the most isolated. All the poultry farms analyzed presented indoor fungi different from the ones identified outdoors. Regarding particles’ contamination, PM2.5, PM5.0 and PM10 had a statistically significant difference (Mann-Whitney U test) between the inside and outside of the pavilions, with the inside more contaminated (p=.006; p=.005; p=.005, respectively). The analyzed poultry units are potential reservoirs of substantial amounts of fungi and particles and could therefore free them in the atmospheric air. The developed study showed that indoor air was more contaminated than outdoors, and this can result in emission of potentially pathogenic fungi and particles via aerosols from poultry units to the environment, which may post a considerable risk to public health and contribute to environmental pollution

Yellow fever vaccine viremia following ablative BM suppression in AML

Univ São Paulo, Sch Med, Dept Infect & Parasit Dis, São Paulo, BrazilHosp Sirio Libanes, São Paulo, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Sch Med, Div Clin Immunol & Allergy, São Paulo, BrazilFundacao Prosangue Hemoctr São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Infect Dis Div DIPA, São Paulo, BrazilFundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Infect Dis Div DIPA, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

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

Depression and conservative surgery for breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Depression is prevalent among women and associated with reduced quality of life, and therefore it is important to determine its incidence in adult women, especially in those with breast cancer. OBJECTIVE: To determine the occurrence of depression in women who underwent conservative surgery for breast cancer with or without breast reconstruction. METHODS: Seventy-five women aged between 18 and 65 years were enrolled. Patients had undergone conservative surgery for breast cancer with immediate breast reconstruction (n = 25) or without breast reconstruction (n = 25) at least one year before the study. The control group consisted of 25 women without cancer, but of similar age and educational level distribution as the other two groups. The Beck Depression Inventory was used to measure depression. The collected data were assessed using analysis of variance and the χ2 test. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between groups in age (p = 0.72) or educational level (p = 0.20). A smaller number of patients had undergone the menopause (p = 0.02) in the control group than in other groups. There were no significant differences in occurrence of depression between groups (χ2=9.97; p = 0.126). CONCLUSÍON: Conservative surgery for breast cancer did not affect the occurrence of depression in women, regardless of whether breast reconstruction was performed

Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies from second order gravitational perturbations

This paper presents a complete analysis of the effects of second order gravitational perturbations on Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies, taking explicitly into account scalar, vector and tensor modes. We also consider the second order perturbations of the metric itself obtaining them, for a universe dominated by a collision-less fluid, in the Poisson gauge, by transforming the known results in the synchronous gauge. We discuss the resulting second order anisotropies in the Poisson gauge, and analyse the possible relevance of the different terms. We expect that, in the simplest scenarios for structure formation, the main effect comes from the gravitational lensing by scalar perturbations, that is known to give a few percent contribution to the anisotropies at small angular scales.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, no figures. Version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Constraining Primordial Non-Gaussianity with High-Redshift Probes

We present an analysis of the constraints on the amplitude of primordial non-Gaussianity of local type described by the dimensionless parameter $f_{\rm NL}$. These constraints are set by the auto-correlation functions (ACFs) of two large scale structure probes, the radio sources from NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and the quasar catalogue of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Release Six (SDSS DR6 QSOs), as well as by their cross-correlation functions (CCFs) with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature map (Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect). Several systematic effects that may affect the observational estimates of the ACFs and of the CCFs are investigated and conservatively accounted for. Our approach exploits the large-scale scale-dependence of the non-Gaussian halo bias. The derived constraints on {$f_{\rm NL}$} coming from the NVSS CCF and from the QSO ACF and CCF are weaker than those previously obtained from the NVSS ACF, but still consistent with them. Finally, we obtain the constraints on $f_{\rm NL}=53\pm25$ ($1\,\sigma$) and $f_{\rm NL}=58\pm24$ ($1\,\sigma$) from NVSS data and SDSS DR6 QSO data, respectively.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication on JCA