Análisis de la adhesión al tratamiento con antirretrovirales en pacientes con VIH/SIDA

Objetivo: Analisar a adesão de pacientes com HIV/AIDS à terapia antirretroviral. Método: 99 voluntários portadores do vírus HIV sob tratamento foram submetidos à entrevista social e demográfica semiestruturada e ao questionário para avaliação da adesão ao tratamento antirretroviral. Resultados: Na amostra analisada, 52,5% dos voluntários apresentaram boa/adequada adesão ao tratamento, enquanto 33,3% apresentaram baixa/insuficiente. Não houve diferença significativa entre homens e mulheres na pontuação do questionário, nem entre os diferentes graus de instrução. Conclusão: Os principais itens do questionário que contribuíram para aderência boa/adequada foram o impacto positivo do tratamento na saúde e na qualidade de vida, os poucos efeitos colaterais com o início da terapia e a autoavaliação positiva dos participantes quanto à própria adesão à terapia antirretroviral. As principais barreiras detectadas para a baixa/insuficiente adesão à terapia antirretroviral foram o desconhecimento sobre as medicações em uso e o relato de escassez de informação sobre os medicamentos da terapia antirretroviral.Objective: To analyze the compliance to antiretroviral therapy among HIV/AIDS patients. Method: 99 HIV-positive volunteers undergoing treatment responded to a semi-structured sociodemographic interview and to a questionnaire that assessed compliance to antiretroviral treatment. Results: In the sample analyzed, 52.5% of the volunteers presented good/adequate treatment compliance, while 33.3% presented low/insufficient compliance. There was no significant difference between men and women in the questionnaire score, nor between groups with different levels of education. Conclusion: The main items of the questionnaire that contributed to good/adequate compliance were: positive impact of treatment on health and quality of life, few side effects after initiation of therapy, and positive self-evaluation of participants regarding their compliance to antiretroviral therapy. The main barriers detected for compliance to antiretroviral therapy were the lack of knowledge about current medications and the lack of information on antiretroviral therapy drugs.Objetivo: analizar la adhesión de pacientes con VIH/SIDA a la terapia antirretroviral. Método: 99 voluntarios portadores del virus VIH en tratamiento se sometieron a entrevista social y demográfica semiestructurada y al cuestionario de evaluación de la adhesión al tratamiento antirretroviral. Resultados: en la muestra analizada, el 52,5% de los voluntarios presentaba buena/adecuada adhesión al tratamiento, mientras que el 33,3%, baja/insuficiente. No había diferencia significativa entre hombres y mujeres en la puntuación del cuestionario, ni entre los diferentes grados de instrucción. Conclusión: Los puntos principales del cuestionario que contribuyeron a la adherencia buena/adecuada fueron: impacto positivo del tratamiento de la salud y la calidad de vida, pocos efectos colaterales al principio de la terapia y una autoevaluación positiva de los participantes relativa a la propia adhesión a la terapia antirretroviral. Las principales barreras detectadas para la baja/insuficiente adhesión a la terapia antirretroviral fueron el desconocimiento sobre los remedios en uso y la escasez de información sobre los medicamentos de la terapia antirretroviral

What is the frequency of floor of the mouth lesions? A descritive study of 4,016 cases

The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of oral lesions in the floor of the mouth from representative oral pathology centres in Latin America. This study was conducted on biopsies obtained from January of 1978 to December of 2018 at nine Latin America oral and maxillofacial pathology centres. Gender, age and histopathological diagnosis were evaluated. Data were analysed using descriptive methods. Chi-square test was used for pairwise comparisons. From 114,893 samples, 4,016 lesions (3.49%) occurred in the floor of the mouth. Brazil showed 3,777 cases (94%), Mexico 182 cases (4.5%) and Argentina 57 cases (1.4%). Benign lesions represented 65.1% (2,617 cases), followed by 34.9% (1,404 cases) of malignant disorders. Lesions of epithelial origin were more frequent (1,964 cases; 48.9%), followed by salivary glands (1,245 cases; 31%) and soft tissue lesions (475 cases; 11.7%). The most common histological subtypes were oral squamous cell carcinoma (1,347 cases; 33.5%), ranula (724 cases; 18%), oral leukoplakia (476 cases; 11.8%) and inflammatory fibrous hyperplasia (239 cases; 5.9%). The lesion affected males in 2,129 cases and females in 1,897 cases. In the current study, lesions in the floor of the mouth represented 3.49% of biopsies submitted to oral pathology services and oral squamous cell carcinoma, ranula and leukoplakia were the most common lesions

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

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 understanding 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,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 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 underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities 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 organism 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 neglected 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 lost