A Community Study of Factors Related to Poorly Controlled Asthma among Brazilian Urban Children

BACKGROUND: Asthma constitutes a serious public health problem in many regions of the world, including the city of Salvador, State of Bahia-Brazil. The purpose of this study was to analyse the factors associated with poor asthma control. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two definitions were used for asthma: 1) wheezing in the last 12 months; 2) wheezing in the last 12 months plus other asthma symptoms or asthma diagnosis ever. The definition of poorly controlled asthma was: at least one reported hospitalisation due to asthma and/or high frequency of symptoms, in the last year. Children with poorly controlled asthma (N = 187/374) were compared with wheezing children with controlled asthma regarding age, gender, atopy, parental asthma, rhinitis, eczema, exposure to second hand tobacco smoke, presence of moulds, pets and pests in the house, helminth infections and body mass index. Crude and logistic regression adjusted odds ratios were used as measures of association. There was a higher proportion of poorly controlled asthma among children with eczema (OR = 1.55; 95% CI 1.02; 2.37). The strength of the association was greater among children with eczema and rhinitis (42.6%, 53.4% and 57.7%, respectively, in children who had no rhinitis nor eczema, had only one of those, and had both (p = 0.02 for trend test). The presence of mould in the houses was inversely associated with poorly controlled asthma (OR = 0.54; 95% CI 0.34; 0.87). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicate an association between eczema and poor asthma control in this environment, but emphasize the role of various other individual and environmental factors as determinants of poor control

Medical residency in gynecology and obstetrics in times of COVID-19 : recommendations of the National Specialized Commission on Medical Residency of FEBRASGO

* Text prepared by the members of the National Specialized Commission on Medical Residency and endorsed by the Scientific Board and Presidency of the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Associations (FEBRASGO)

O processo de comunicação na Telenfermagem: revisão integrativa

RESUMO Objetivo: identificar as evidências científicas sobre o processo de comunicação na Telenfermagem e analisá-las. Método: revisão integrativa, realizada em março de 2014. A estratégia de busca, estruturada com os descritores "telenfermagem" e "comunicação", foi implementada nas bases de dados Medline, Bireme, Cinahl, Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo e Cochrane. Resultados: ao serem aplicados critérios de inclusão e exclusão, selecionaram-se 10 estudos. Os principais desafios ponderados foram: a condição clínica dos pacientes, a possibilidade de que comunicação inadequada gere erros de conduta, a ausência de referências visuais em interações sem recurso de vídeo, e dificuldade de compreensão do não verbal. Conclusão: a distância impõe barreiras comunicativas em todos os elementos: emissor, receptor e mensagem; e em ambas as maneiras de transmissão, verbal e não verbal. A principal dificuldade é compreender o não verbal. Para cuidar adequadamente neste contexto, o enfermeiro deve receber formação específica, para que desenvolva competências e habilidades comunicacionais

Atividade citotóxica e anti-inflamatória do extrato glicólico de Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze em macrófagos (RAW 264.7) estimulados por LPS / Cytotoxic and antiinflamatory activity of the glycolic extract of Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze in LPS-stimulated machrophages (RAW 264.7)

Plant extracts can be a source of diverse biologic activities, as anti-inflammatory action, which is an interesting characteristic for mouthwashes, toothpastes and intracanal medication. This study aimed to evaluate cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activity of Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze (green tea) glycolic extract in mouse macrophages (RAW 264.7).  Cytotoxic activity was measured by the metabolic activity of MTT test, macrophages were distributed in 96 wells and exposed to 11 serial dilutions of each extract (200 mg/mL to 0.20 mg/mL). After 5 min and 24 h of contact, cell viability was assessed. Then, the extract at concentrations of 3.13 mg / mL and 12.5 mg / mL, were chosen to verify antiinflammatory activity. For this, after exposure time of 5 min or 24 h to the extract, supernatants of LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cultures were collected to quantify pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α by immunoenzymatic test (ELISA). The results were evaluated with statistical analyses (ANOVA and Turkey test), with p ≤ 0.05. Results: In MTT test green tea promoted increase cell viability in all concentrations at 5 min. The cell viability was greater than 100% in concentration of 0,20mg/mL to 12,5 mg/mL, at the time of exposure of 24h. The concentration of 12.5 mg/mL was the highest concentration less cytotoxic. The extract showed anti-inflammatory potential evidenced by the production decrease of IL-1β and TNF-α with better results at a concentration of 12.5 mg/mL for both exposure times. These results indicate promising immunomodulatory features of green tea. Therefore, this plant extract showed to be an interesting alternative to be inserted in medical or oral products or even as a source of active compounds

Crude and adjusted odds ratios for the relation between study variables and poor control of asthma.

<p>Bolding indicates statistically significant results.</p

Characteristics of the subjects within the sample analysed and subjects excluded from analysis.

<p>Note:</p>1<p>p value based on <i>chi</i> square, and Fisher if the n in a cell <5;</p>2<p><i>t</i> test for age;</p>3<p>joint p value.</p>*<p>The second number refers to the total number of subjects with data for the corresponding variable.</p

Potential anti-inflammatory biomarkers from Myrtaceae essential oils revealed by untargeted metabolomics

Many species from Myrtaceae have traditionally been used in traditional medicine as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiarrheal, antioxidant and antirheumatic, besides in blood cholesterol reduction. In the present work, the anti-inflammatory activity of essential oils from eighteen Myrtaceae spp. were evaluated according to their ex-vivo anti-inflammatory activity in human blood, and the corresponding biomarkers were determined using untargeted metabolomics data and multivariate data analysis. From these studied species, six displayed anti-inflammatory activity with percentage rates of inhibition of PGE2 release above 70%. Caryophyllene oxide (1), humulene epoxide II (2), β-selinene (3), α-amorphene (4), α-selinene (5), germacrene A (6), β-bisabolene (7), α-muurolene (8), α-humulene (9), β-gurjunene (10), myrcene (11), β-elemene (12), α-cadinol (13), α-copaene (14), E-nerolidol (15) and ledol (16) were annotated as potential anti-inflammatory biomarkers. The results obtained in this study point to essential oils from species of the Myrtaceae family as a rich source of anti-inflammatory agents.</p