Hematúria

Hematuria is a very frequent urinary abnormality in general medical practice. Etiologic diagnosis is made easier in patients who present other signs and symptoms that indicate the presence of a specific pathology. The presence of microscopic hematuria alone, however, presents a challenge to diagnosis. In this sense, in addition to patient history and medical examination, urinalysis can be an important ally in the investigation of the etiology and in differential diagnosis, providing important information that will guide the approach to the problem and avoiding unnecessary or invasive tests. Our objective was to review the etiology of, and diagnostic approach to hematuria especially in cases of adults with asymptomatic microscopic hematuria.Hematúria é uma anormalidade urinária muito freqüente na prática clínica. O diagnóstico da causa básica fica facilitado quando o paciente apresenta outros sinais e sintomas que sugiram uma patologia específica. Contudo, a presença de hematúria microscópica isolada constitui um verdadeiro desafio diagnóstico. Na investigação da etiologia, além da história e do exame físico, merece atenção especial a urinálise ou exame qualitativo de urina (EQU), que pode fornecer importantes informações para orientar a abordagem subseqüente e evitar a realização de exames desnecessários ou invasivos. O objetivo deste artigo é revisar a etiologia e a abordagem diagnóstica da hematúria, com ênfase  para hematúria microscópica assintomática em adultos

Hepatite C e nefropatia

OBJECTIVE: Many studies have associated hepatitis C virus infection with extra-hepatic manifestations, including glomerulopathies. Our objective is to present a brief review of the literature regarding renal manifestations of hepatitis C and the summarized results from a study aimed at evaluating the association of asymptomatic urinary abnormalities in anti-HCV positive blood donors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We carried out a cross- ectional, contemporary, controlled, open study from July 1997 to March 1998 at the Nephrology Services at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre in order to evaluate the prevalence of asymptomatic urinary abnormalities in hepatitis-C virus carriers. We included 58 blood donors positive for HCV and 128 donors negative for HCV (control group) without history of hepatic or renal disease and without other positive viral markers. We assessed prevalence of hematuria (> 5 red blood cells per high power field in urinary sediment); proteinuria (1 dipstick positive); microalbuminuria (microalbuminuria/creatinine ratio from an isolated sample >15.6 mg/g); and N-acetyl-beta-lucosaminidase (> 5.6 U/g creatinine). RESULTS: The data showed that the group positive for anti-HCV did not present significant urinary abnormalitiies when compared to a control group. The prevalence of hematuria and proteinuria in the HCV+ e HCV- groups was, respectively, 12.0% x 9.4% and 5.4% x 5.6% with no statistically significant differences. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of hematuria was similar to that found in the generalpopulation (3-20%).OBJETIVOS: Vários estudos associam a infecção crônica pelo vírus da hepatite C a manifestações extra-hepáticas, incluindo glomerulopatias. O objetivo deste artigo é fazer uma breve revisão da literatura sobre as manifestações renais da hepatite C e apresentar os resultados sumarizados de estudo que buscou avaliar a associação de alterações urinárias assintomáticas em doadores de sangue com anticorpos antiVHCHC positivo. MATERIAIS E MÉTODOS: Realizou-se um estudo transversal, contemporâneo, controlado e aberto no período de julho de 1997 a março de 1998 no Serviço de Nefrologia do HCPA para avaliar a prevalência de alterações urinárias assintomáticas em portadores do vírus da hepatite C. Foram incluídos no estudo os 58 doadores de sangue VHC+ e 128 doadores VHC- (grupo controle) que não apresentavam história de doença hepática ou renal ou outros marcadores virais positivos. Avaliou-se a prevalência de hematúria (> 5 hemácias/campo de grande aumento no E.Q.U), proteinúria [uma (+) no exame por fita do E.Q.U], microalbuminúria (índice microalbuminúria/creatininúria em amostra isolada > 15,6 mg/g), N-acetil-beta-D-glucosaminidase (> 5,6U/g creatinina).  RESULTADOS: Não foi constatada anormalidade urinária significativa no grupo VHC+, comparativamente com o grupo controle. A prevalência de hematúria e proteinúria nos grupos VHC+ e VHC- foi respectivamente 12,0% x 9,4% e 5,4% x 5,5% , sem diferença estatística entre os 2 grupos. CONCLUSÃO: A prevalência de hematúria foi semelhante à da população geral, que oscila entre 3-20%

Transmissão de doença de Chagas por transplante renal

Our objective is to report the case of a male patient submitted to kidney transplant from a living donor infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. The patient developed clinical manifestations of acute Chagas disease in the second post-transplant month and was successfully treated with benzonidazole. We discuss the possible means of transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, the importance of its transmission to transplantation of solid organs, and the approach to this situation.Paciente submetido a transplante renal com órgão de doador vivo infectado pelo Tripanossoma cruzi e que desenvolve manifestações clínicas de doença de Chagas aguda no segundo mês pós- transplante, sendo tratado com sucesso com benzonidazol. Discutem-se as vias de transmissão e relevância clínica na transplantação de órgãos sólidos assim como as atitudes a serem tomadas diante desta situação

Transmission of Chagas disease in renal transplantation

Paciente submetido a transplante renal com órgão de doador vivo infectado pelo Tripanossoma cruzi e que desenvolve manifestações clínicas de doença de Chagas aguda no segundo mês pós- transplante, sendo tratado com sucesso com benzonidazol. Discutem-se as vias de transmissão e relevância clínica na transplantação de órgãos sólidos assim como as atitudes a serem tomadas diante desta situação.Our objective is to report the case of a male patient submitted to kidney transplant from a living donor infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. The patient developed clinical manifestations of acute Chagas disease in the second post-transplant month and was successfully treated with benzonidazole. We discuss the possible means of transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, the importance of its transmission to transplantation of solid organs, and the approach to this situation

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio