Leaving no stone unturned: the search for stroke associated with atrial fibrillation

© 2022 The Authors. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Neurological Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.The diagnosis of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) continues to be a main priority in stroke patients. After the clinical trials that evaluated anticoagulation versus antiplatelet treatment in patients with embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS) showed that there is no benefit of anticoagulation in the absence of a diagnosis of AF, diagnosing paroxysmal AF continues to be an essential part of the etiological investigation of stroke patients. However, finding paroxysmal AF may be challenging.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gout flare and cardiovascular events

© 2023 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Update on biomarkers associated to cardioembolic stroke: a narrative review

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Background: In the last years, several studies were conducted that evaluated biomarkers that could be helpful for cardioembolic stroke diagnosis, prognosis, and the determination of risk of stroke recurrence. Methods: We performed a narrative review of the main studies that evaluated biomarkers related to specific cardioembolic causes: atrial fibrillation, patent foramen ovale, atrial cardiomyopathy, and left ventricular wall motion abnormalities. Results: BNP and NT-proBNP are, among all biomarkers of cardioembolic stroke, the ones that have the highest amount of evidence for their use. NT-proBNP is currently used for the selection of patients that will be included in clinical trials that aim to evaluate the use of anticoagulation in patients suspected of having a cardioembolic stroke and for the selection of patients to undergo cardiac monitoring. NT-proBNP has also been incorporated in tools used to predict the risk of stroke recurrence (ABC-stroke score). Conclusions: NT-proBNP and BNP continue to be the biomarkers most widely studied in the context of cardioembolic stroke. The possibility of using other biomarkers in clinical practice is still distant, mainly because of the low methodological quality of the studies in which they were evaluated. Both internal and external validation studies are rarely performed for most biomarkers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A construção da disciplina na Educação: pré-escolar e escolar. Desafios e estratégias

O presente artigo incide sobre uma temática estudada no âmbito da elaboração do Relatório Final, referente à Prática Profissional Supervisionada, desenvolvido no âmbito do Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar. A temática estudada remete para a importância da disciplina, assim como para os maiores desafios que se colocam aos profissionais de educação no dia-a-dia da sua atividade profissional, nomeadamente na gestão das dinâmicas pedagógicas na presença de crianças que apresentam “problemas de comportamento”. Assim sendo, serão abordados, neste artigo, aspetos como: a importância da elaboração de um plano de ação por parte do profissional de educação, quando se depara com situações inesperadas; a clarificação de conceitos como a disciplina e a indisciplina; a importância da construção da disciplina no desenvolvimento sociomoral das crianças; algumas das principais estratégias de intervenção para a existência de um “clima tranquilo” no âmbito pré-escolar e escolar; entre outros aspetos. Acima de tudo, este artigo pretende “familiarizar” os profissionais de educação com alguns aspetos que poderão, por vezes, interferir na construção de uma “saudável” relação pedagógica. É, assim, uma reflexão em torno da “melhor” intervenção pedagógica, que deverá ser aplicada no sentido da criação de um clima relacional que seja estimulante, tranquilo, segurizante e satisfatório para todos os intervenientes do processo educativo (Carita & Fernandes, 1997)

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and its role in the investigation of stroke : an update

© Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature 2021Recent advances in complementary diagnostic exams have helped to clarify stroke etiology, not only by helping to confirm established stroke causes but also by unveiling new possible stroke mechanisms. Etiological investigation for cardioembolic stroke has benefited in the last years from information provided by studies analysing serum biomarkers, heart rhythm monitoring and imaging methods like cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. CMR has been particularly important for the characterization of possible new cardioembolic stroke mechanisms including atrial cardiomyopathy, silent myocardial infarction and cardiomyopathies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Loss of proteostasis induced by amyloid beta peptide in brain endothelial cells

AbstractAbnormal accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide in the brain is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In addition to neurotoxic effects, Aβ also damages brain endothelial cells (ECs) and may thus contribute to the degeneration of cerebral vasculature, which has been proposed as an early pathogenic event in the course of AD and is able to trigger and/or potentiate the neurodegenerative process and cognitive decline. However, the mechanisms underlying Aβ-induced endothelial dysfunction are not completely understood. Here we hypothesized that Aβ impairs protein quality control mechanisms both in the secretory pathway and in the cytosol in brain ECs, leading cells to death. In rat brain RBE4 cells, we demonstrated that Aβ1–40 induces the failure of the ER stress-adaptive unfolded protein response (UPR), deregulates the ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS) decreasing overall proteasome activity with accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins and impairs the autophagic protein degradation pathway due to failure in the autophagic flux, which culminates in cell demise. In conclusion, Aβ deregulates proteostasis in brain ECs and, as a consequence, these cells die by apoptosis

A relação da perceção de autoeficácia na intenção de saída da profissão docente: O papel da satisfação profissional e do stress no trabalho

Este estudo procura compreender o que leva os docentes portugueses a sair da sua profissão, tendo em conta a perceção de autoeficácia , mediante a satisfação profissional. Especificamente, se o stress no trabalho pode moderar esta relação, sendo associado à diminuição da satisfação profissional e à maior intenção de saída da profissão docente. Foi realizado um questionário através da plataforma Qualtrics a 192 docentes portugueses, da zona metropolitana de Lisboa, com idades compreendidas entre os 21 e 68 anos (M = 50.04; DP = 8.57), sendo 81.8% do sexo feminino, dos quais 28.6% lecionava o Ensino Básico – 3º Ciclo, encontrando-se os restantes distribuídos pelo Ensino Secundário (23.4%), Ensino Básico – 2º Ciclo (16.1%), Ensino Básico – 1º Ciclo (13.5%), Ensino Superior (11.5%) e Ensino Pré-escolar (6.8%). Os resultados indicam que quando os professores se percecionam como autoeficazes tendem a sentir-se mais satisfeitos profissionalmente e, por isso, não evidenciam intenção de saída da profissão docente, mostrando um efeito mediador da satisfação profissional que permite explicar a relação entre a perceção de autoeficácia e a intenção de saída da profissão. Porém, não se verifica nenhum efeito significativo da variável moderadora stress no trabalho na relação entre a perceção de autoeficácia docente e a satisfação profissional, uma vez que os resultados revelam baixos níveis de stress no trabalho associados a altos níveis de perceção de autoeficácia, influenciando, assim, a não intenção de saída da profissão docente.This study aims to understand what leads Portuguese teachers to leave their profession, considering a perception of self-efficacy upon a professional satisfaction. Specifically, if job stress has a moderator effect in this relationship, being associated with decreased professional satisfaction and greater intention to leave the teaching profession. A questionnaire was conducted through the Qualtrics platform in 192 Portuguese teachers, living in Lisbon, aged between 21 and 68 years (M = 50.04; SD = 8.57), of which 81.8% are female. 28.6% taught Basic Education – 3rd Cycle, and the remaining were distributed by Secondary Education (23.4%), Basic Education – 2nd Cycle (16.1%), Basic Education – 1st Cycle (13.5%), Higher Education (11.5%) and Preschool Education (6.8%). The results show that when teachers have self-efficacy perception, they feel more job satisfaction and, therefore, do not show the intention of leaving the teaching profession, showing a mediating effect of job satisfaction that allows us to display a relationship between self-efficacy perception and the intention to leave the profession. However, the results show a non-significant effect of the moderator variable, job stress, on the relationship between teacher self-efficacy perception and job satisfaction, given that the results reveal low levels of job stress are associated with high levels of self-efficacy perception. That influences the non-intention of leaving the teaching profession