Efeitos histológicos e bioquímicos séricos do alfa-tocoferol na lesão de isquemia e reperfusão em membro pélvico de ratos

PURPOSE: To evaluate the protective action of alpha-tocopherol in ischemia/reperfusion injuries of pelvic member of rats. METHODS: Thirty adult male rats of the Wistar strain were randomized into three experimental groups of 10: Group I - control group with no ischemia or reperfusion. Groups II and III - four hours of ischemia and of hours of reperfusion by means of clamping of the infrarenal aorta. The animals of Group II were treated with saline and those of Group III were treated with i.v. alpha-tocopherol (50 mg/kg). Parameters studied were biopsies of the soleus muscle, dosing of creatine phosphokinase, lactate dehydrogenase, potassium, calcium and arterial blood gasometry. RESULTS: The results of biopsies of the soleus muscles studied by optical microscopy, were not significant in terms of presence of edema among the three groups studied. Variables inflammation and necrosis were not observed, therefore cannot be statistically analyzed. As to dosing of calcium and lactate dehydrogenase, the pH, pO2 and pCO2 values were not significant for all groups studied. We observed that the levels of potassium (Group II > Group I, Fcalculated = 5.84; Fcritical = 3.33), creatine phosphokinase (Group II > Groups I and III, Hcalculated = 13.92; Hcritical = 5.99) and bicarbonate (Groups I and III > Group II, Hcalculated = 11.98; Hcritical = 5.99) presented significant results among groups. CONCLUSION: From the serum biochemical perspective, the treatment with alpha-tocopherol has attenuated the metabolic injuries in the ischemia/reperfusion syndrome in this experimental model.OBJETIVO: Avaliar ação protetora do alfa-tocoferol na lesão de isquemia e reperfusão em membro pélvico de ratos. MÉTODOS: Trinta ratos machos adultos da linhagem wistar foram distribuídos aleatoriamente, em três grupos experimentais, com 10 animais cada: Grupo I - Grupo controle sem isquemia ou reperfusão. Grupos II e III - quatro horas de isquemia e duas horas de reperfusão através clampeamento da aorta infra-renal. Os animais do grupo II foram tratados com solução salina e aqueles do grupo III, tratados com alfa-tocoferol 50 mg/kg por via endovenosa. Parâmetros estudados: Biópsias do músculo solear, dosagens da creatina fosfoquinase, da desidrogenasse láctica, do potássio, do cálcio e da hemogasometria arterial. RESULTADOS: Os resultados das biópsias dos músculos soleares estudados através da microscopia óptica, não foram significantes quanto a presença de edema entre os três grupos estudados. As variáveis inflamação e necrose não foram observadas e, portanto não analisáveis estatisticamente. Em relação às dosagens de cálcio e desidrogenase lática, pH, pO2, pCO2, não foram significantes em todos os grupos estudados. Observamos que os níveis de potássio (Grupo II > grupo I, F calculado = 5,84; F crítico = 3,33), creatina fosfoquinase (Grupo II > Grupo I e III, H calculado =13,92; Hcritico 5,99) , e bicarbonato (grupo I e III > grupo II, H calculado = 11,98; h critico 5.99 ) apresentaram resultados significantes entre os grupos. CONCLUSÃO: Tratamento com alfa-tocoferol do ponto de vista bioquímico sérico atenuou as lesões metabólicas na síndrome de isquemia e reperfusão neste modelo experimental.UNIFESP-EPMFaculty of Technology and ScienceUniversity of Sciences of AlagoasFederal University of BahiaOswaldo Cruz Foundation Histopathology UnitBahiana School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Experimental Surgery and Operative TechniqueUNIFESP-EPM Department of SurgeryGovernor Lamenha Filho University Foundation for Science and Health of Alagoas Department of SurgeryHeliopolis Hospital Vascular Surgery ServiceUNIFESP-EPM Department of Preventive MedicineUNIFESP, EPM, Department of SurgeryUNIFESP, EPM Department of Preventive MedicineSciEL

A multicentric evaluation of dipstick test for serodiagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Ethiopia and Spain

Author Correction: A multicentric evaluation of dipstick test for serodiagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Ethiopia and Spain PMID: 33574485Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the leading infectious diseases affecting developing countries. Colloidal gold-based diagnostic tests are rapid tools to detect blood/serum antibodies for VL diagnosis. Lack of uniformity in the performance of these tests in different endemic regions is a hurdle in early disease diagnosis. This study is designed to validate a serum-based dipstick test in eight centres of six countries, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Ethiopia and Spain with archived and fresh sera from 1003 subjects. The dipstick detects antibodies against Leishmania donovani membrane antigens (LAg). The overall sensitivity and specificity of the test with 95% confidence intervals were found to be 97.10% and 93.44%, respectively. The test showed good sensitivity and specificity in the Indian subcontinent (>95%). In Brazil, Ethiopia, and Spain the sensitivity and specificity of the dipstick test (83.78-100% and 79.06-100%) were better as compared to the earlier reports of the performance of rK39 rapid test in these regions. Interestingly, less cross-reactivity was found with the cutaneous form of the disease in Spain, Brazil, and Sri Lanka demonstrating 91.58% specificity. This dipstick test can therefore be a useful tool for diagnosing VL from other symptomatically similar diseases and against cutaneous form of leishmaniasis.S

Performance of recombinant chimeric proteins in the serological diagnosis of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in dogs.

Background: Dogs are considered sentinels in areas of Trypanosoma cruzi transmission risk to humans. ELISA is generally the method of choice for diagnosing T. cruzi exposure in dogs, but its performance substantially depends on the antigenic matrix employed. In previous studies, our group has developed four chimeric antigens (IBMP-8.1, 8.2, 8.3, and 8.4) and evaluated their potential for diagnosing T. cruzi exposure in humans. For human sera, these chimeric antigens presented superior diagnostic performances as compared to commercial tests available in Brazil, Spain, and Argentina. Therefore, in this study we have evaluated the potential of these antigenic proteins for detection of anti-T. cruzi IgG antibodies in dog sera. Methodology/Principal findings: The IBMP-ELISA assays were optimized by checkerboard titration. Subsequently, the diagnostic potential was validated through analysis of ROC curves and the performance of the tests was determined using double entry tables. Cross-reactivity was also evaluated for babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, dirofilariosis, anaplasmosis, and visceral leishmaniasis. Best performance was shown by IBMP-8.3 and IBMP-8.4, although all four antigens demonstrated a high diagnostic performance with 46 positive and 149 negative samples tested. IBMP-8.3 demonstrated 100% sensitivity, followed by IBMP-8.4 (96.7?100%), IBMP-8.2 (73.3?87.5%), and IBMP-8.1 (50?100%). The highest specificities were achieved with IBMP-8.2 (100%) and IBMP-8.4 (100%), followed by IBMP-8.3 (96.7?97.5%) and IBMP 8.1 (89.1?100%). Conclusions/Significance: The use of chimeric antigenic matrices in immunoassays for anti-T. cruzi IgG antibody detection in sera of infected dogs was shown to be a promising tool for veterinary diagnosis and epidemiological studies. The chimeric antigens used in this work allowed also to overcome the common hurdles related to serodiagnosis of T. cruzi infection, especially regarding variation of efficiency parameters according to different strains and cross-reactivity with other infectious diseases

Assessment of risk scores to predict mortality of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit

ObjectivesTo assess the ABC2-SPH score in predicting COVID-19 in-hospital mortality, during intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and to compare its performance with other scores (SOFA, SAPS-3, NEWS2, 4C Mortality Score, SOARS, CURB-65, modified CHA2DS2-VASc, and a novel severity score).Materials and methodsConsecutive patients (≥ 18 years) with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 admitted to ICUs of 25 hospitals, located in 17 Brazilian cities, from October 2020 to March 2022, were included. Overall performance of the scores was evaluated using the Brier score. ABC2-SPH was used as the reference score, and comparisons between ABC2-SPH and the other scores were performed by using the Bonferroni method of correction. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality.ResultsABC2-SPH had an area under the curve of 0.716 (95% CI 0.693–0.738), significantly higher than CURB-65, SOFA, NEWS2, SOARS, and modified CHA2DS2-VASc scores. There was no statistically significant difference between ABC2-SPH and SAPS-3, 4C Mortality Score, and the novel severity score.ConclusionABC2-SPH was superior to other risk scores, but it still did not demonstrate an excellent predictive ability for mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Our results indicate the need to develop a new score, for this subset of patients

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030