Survival and echocardiographic evaluation of dogs with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy treated with carvedilol Avaliação ecocardiográfica e de sobrevida de cães com cardiomiopatia dilatada idiopática tratados com carvedilol

Sixty dogs with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy were randomly treated with traditional therapy - digitalis, diuretics, angiotensin-converting inhibitors - (group A) or treated with these drugs plus carvedilol (group B). Echocardiographic variables were measured before and after 3, 13, 26, and 52 weeks of treatment or until death. Comparisons between groups and time were performed. No significant differences between groups were found in the most of the echocardiographic variables. The left ventricular end-systolic diameter indexed to body surface area (LVESDi) increased significantly in the group A dogs compared to the group B animals. The survival of groups A and B dogs were not different (P-value=0.1137). In conclusion, the stability of the LVESDi observed in the group treated with carvedilol may represent the beneficial effect over the ventricular remodeling.Sessenta cães com cardiomiopatia dilatada idiopática receberam, aleatoriamente, tratamento convencional - digitálicos, diuréticos, inibidores da enzima conversora de angiotensina - (grupo A) ou esses fármacos mais carvedilol (grupo B). As variáveis ecocardiográficas foram avaliadas antes e depois de três, 13, 26 e 52 semanas de tratamento ou até o óbito. Não foram encontradas diferenças significativas entre os grupos de animais quanto à maioria das variáveis ecocardiográficas. O diâmetro sistólico final do ventrículo esquerdo indexado à superfície corpórea (DSVEi) aumentou de forma significativa no grupo A quando comparado ao grupo B. Não se observou diferença na sobrevida dos grupos A e B (P=0,1137). Concluiu-se que a estabilização do DSVEi no grupo tratado com carvedilol pode representar o efeito benéfico deste fármaco sobre o remodelamento ventricular

Emergence of the East-Central-South-African genotype of Chikungunya virus in Brazil and the city of Rio de Janeiro may have occurred years before surveillance detection

Brazil, which is hyperendemic for dengue virus (DENV), has had recent Zika (ZIKV) and (CHIKV) Chikungunya virus outbreaks. Since March 2016, CHIKV is the arbovirus infection most frequently diagnosed in Rio de Janeiro. In the analysis of 1835 syndromic patients, screened by real time RT-PCR, 56.4% of the cases were attributed to CHIKV, 29.6% to ZIKV, and 14.1% to DENV-4. Sequence analyses of CHIKV from sixteen samples revealed that the East-Central-South-African (ECSA) genotype of CHIKV has been circulating in Brazil since 2013 [95% bayesian credible interval (BCI): 03/2012-10/2013], almost a year before it was detected by arbovirus surveillance program. Brazilian cases are related to Central African Republic sequences from 1980’s. To the best of our knowledge, given the available sequence published here and elsewhere, the ECSA genotype was likely introduced to Rio de Janeiro early on 2014 (02/2014; BCI: 07/2013-08/2014) through a single event, after primary circulation in the Bahia state at the Northestern Brazil in the previous year. The observation that the ECSA genotype of CHIKV was circulating undetected underscores the need for improvements in molecular methods for viral surveillance.Peer Reviewe