The impact of chronic diseases during pregnancy on the fetus and mother health: a literature review

The fetal malformations are sometimes consequences of certain diseases that a pregnant woman can submit, and can increase the risks in pregnancy and cause problems not only for the fetus as also for the pregnant. Aim: To determine the impact of chronic diseases in the development of the fetus, also evaluating their maternal complications. Methodology: This study refers to a literature review of studies published in the databases Web of Science and PubMed Search. For this research were selected a total of 27 articles, reports and books. This review was carried out from September to December 2015. Results: Asthma is a chronic disease may present variations as to its severity, however, the physician should always be attentive to functional and clinical parameters during pregnancy. In relation to the Arterial Hypertension, this is considered one of the most detrimental effects to the maternal, fetal and neonatal. Conclusion: chronic diseases, in particular asthma and arterial hypertension, reveal a great impact during pregnancy, causing complications at the fetal and maternal level.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Eating disorders and non-suicidal self-injury: cluster analysis considering eating pathology, emotion dysregulation, and negative urgency

Research on the interplay between eating pathology, emotion dysregulation and negative urgency is needed to inform intervention approaches for patients with eating disorders and non-suicidal self-injury. This study aimed to investigate the characterization of patients with eating disorders and non-suicidal self-injury considering eating pathology, emotion dysregulation and negative urgency. This cross-sectional study evaluated 73 outpatients with eating disorders and non-suicidal self-injury (14-55 years; 68 women). A cluster analysis was performed using eating pathology, emotion dysregulation and negative urgency. Differences between clusters were explored on sociodemographic/ psychological variables, eating disorder diagnostics and past/current non-suicidal self-injury engagement. Three clusters were identified. Cluster 1 (n=29) (moderate severity) was characterized by high levels of eating pathology, but moderate emotion dysregulation and negative urgency. Cluster 2 (n=29) (high severity) was characterized by the highest scores in eating pathology, emotion dysregulation and negative urgency, and included more patients with current non-suicidal self-injury. Cluster 3 (n=15) (low severity) was characterized by the lowest levels of eating pathology, emotion dysregulation and negative urgency, and included more patients with past non-suicidal self-injury. These profiles highlight the importance of emotion dysregulation and negative urgency as treatment targets for eating disorders patients with current non-suicidal self-injury.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Satisfação dos utentes com o atendimento prestado nas farmácias comunitárias

A satisfação dos utentes é considerada uma medida importante com efeitos nos resultados de cuidados de saúde. Objetivos: Determinar o grau de satisfação dos utentes com o atendimento nas farmácias comunitárias, e verificar se o grau de satisfação é igual, independentemente, da idade e do género do utente. Material e Métodos: Este estudo de caracter transversal, observacional e correlacional teve como base uma amostra não probabilística acidental, constituída por 525 inquiridos. O questionário foi aplicado no período de Outubro de 2012 a Janeiro de 2013 em quatro localidades seleccionadas por conveniência na zona norte de Portugal, foi utilizada a escala “Pharmacy Services Questionnaire” (FSQ) validada para a língua portuguesa, desenvolvida por Larson et al. (2002). Em relação ao género dos inquiridos, verificou-se que 60,62% pertenciam ao sexo feminino e 39,38% eram do sexo masculino. Com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 83 anos, com uma média de 41,81 anos (D.P.±16,262, o que permite concluir que a amostra não é homogénea relativamente à idade). Em relação à escolaridade dos inquiridos, 2,9% não possuíam estudos; 16,8% tinham entre 1 a 4 anos de escolaridade; 9,5% possuíam o 2º ciclo; 12,4% possuíam o 3º ciclo; 31,6% concluíram o ensino secundário e 23,2% possuíam habilitações superiores. Resultados: Os indicadores de validade da análise fatorial mostraram um KMO=0,972. Foram identificados duas dimensões, nomeadamente, o atendimento e acompanhamento farmacoterapêutico, que explicavam no conjunto 64,230% da variância total. O Alfa Cronbach total foi de 0,962, o que indica uma fiabilidade da consistência interna muito boa. A contribuição das dimensões para a satisfação global dos utentes foi por ordem de importância, o atendimento (r=0,864; p<0,01) e acompanhamento farmacoterapêutico (r=0,848; p<0,01). O grau de satisfação dos utentes com os serviços das farmácias comunitárias foi o seguinte: reduzido para 5,3%, médio para 39%, bom para 46,1% e muito bom para 9%. Tendo em conta o fator atendimento por género, o feminino registou um grau de satisfação mais elevado, enquanto que, no fator acompanhamento farmacoterapêutico não se verificou qualquer diferença entre géneros. Relativamente à classe etária, verificou-se que são os utentes com idades mais avançadas, que registam um grau de satisfação mais elevado. Discussão e Conclusão: Concluiu-se que, de um modo geral, os utentes se encontram satisfeitos com o atendimento nas farmácias comunitárias, sendo o sexo feminino e os utentes com idades mais avançadas, os que apresentam um grau de satisfação superior. O aspeto a melhorar para o aumento da satisfação dos utentes, relativamente ao acompanhamento farmacoterapêutico, é “O modo como o profissional de farmácia lhe explica os possíveis efeitos secundários”. Em relação ao atendimento o aspeto a melhorar é “O modo como o profissional de farmácia responde às suas perguntas”

Users satisfaction regarding the service provided in community pharmacies

During the last century, the pharmacy professionals have significantly being professionalized, the user is a high priority and not just limited to the sale of pharmaceuticals. As such, it is necessary to know the users, their needs and expectations, their opinions and preferences. This transversal study, observational, correlational, aimed to: determine the degree of satisfaction with the attendance in community pharmacies, if there is a relationship between factors of a personal nature (age and gender) and satisfaction, trying to identify which aspects improve in order to increase satisfaction levels. The sample consisted of 525 respondents. Data collection was conducted in the period from October 2012 to January 2013 in four locations in northern Portugal. It was used a questionnaire consisting of three parts: the first contained items of personal characterization, the second consisted of the scale "Pharmacy Services Questionnaire" (FSQ) validated for the Portuguese language, developed by Larson et al. (2002) and the last had questions about the respondents' opinion. The results showed that the degree of satisfaction with the services of community pharmacies was in majority an average to 39 % and good for 46,1% . Having in mind the factor by gender, females showed a higher degree of satisfaction. Regarding the age group, older users had the highest degree of satisfaction. It was concluded that, generally, community pharmacies bring a higher degree of satisfaction in the older and the female users. "How the pharmacy professionals explain possible side effects" and "how the pharmacy professional answers your questions.", are the two aspects that must be improved to achieve a higher degree of satisfaction. KEYWORDS Satisfaction, Users, Customer Service, Pharmacotherapy Monitoring, Community Pharmacie

High-level resistance to isoniazid and ethionamide in multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis of the Lisboa family is associated with inhA double mutations

Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of isoniazid and ethionamide resistance and to identify associated mutations in endemic multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal. Methods Seventeen clinical MDR tuberculosis (TB) strains were characterized by standard and semi-quantitative drug susceptibility testing to assess the level of isoniazid and ethionamide resistance. The genes katG, inhA, ethA and ndh were screened for mutations. All strains were genotyped by 24 loci mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number of tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR) analysis. Results All strains showed high-level resistance to both isoniazid (>1 mg/L) and ethionamide (>25 mg/L). MIRU-VNTR typing revealed the presence of two main clusters, Lisboa3 and Q1, in 16/17 strains, all of which showed the C−15T mutation in the promoter region of the inhA gene. The 16 strains belong to the Latino-American-Mediterranean (LAM) genotype and the other strain belongs to the Beijing genotype. Sequencing of the inhA open reading frame revealed that the 16 strains also had mutations in the structural region of the gene, leading to the S94A substitution in 9 strains and the I194T substitution in 7 strains. Conclusions The results reveal that the presence of a mutation in the inhA regulatory region together with a mutation in the inhA coding region can lead to the development of high-level isoniazid resistance and cross-resistance to ethionamide among the MDR-TB strains circulating in Lisbon. This mutational pattern also hints to a possible involvement of strain-specific factors that could be a feature of the Portuguese MDR-TB strains where the LAM family is the major circulating genotyp

Synthesis, photochemical and in vitro cytotoxic evaluation of new iodinated aminosquaraines as potential sensitizers for photodynamic therapy

In this work, several benzothiazole-based aminosquaraine dyes, displaying strong absorption within the so-called phototherapeutic window (650–800 nm), were synthesized. The ability, of all the new dyes, to generate singlet oxygen was assessed by determining the correspondent phosphorescence emission and through the comparison with a standard. The quantum yields of singlet oxygen generation were determined and exhibited to be strongly dependent on the nature of the amino substituents introduced in the squaric ring. The photodynamic activity of the synthesized dyes was tested against four human tumor cell lines: breast (MCF-7), lung (NCI-H460), cervical (HeLa) and hepatocellular (HepG2) carcinomas; and a non-tumor porcine liver primary cell culture (PLP2). All the compounds synthesized were found to be able to inhibit tumor cells growth upon irradiation more than in the dark, in most of the cases, very significantly. Considering the photodynamic activity exhibited and the low toxicity displayed for the non-tumor cells, some of the synthetized dyes can be regarded as potential candidates as photosensitizers for PDT.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER for CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013) and CQ-VR (UID/QUI/00616/2013) financial support, as also for R. Calhelha contract.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Stimuli-sensitive self-assembled tubules based on lysine-derived surfactants as nanocarriers for proteins

Drug delivery vectors based on amphiphilic molecules present considerable advantages, namely versatility in physicochemical properties and sensitivity to stimuli. Amino acid-based surfactants, in particular, are rather promising amphiphiles for this purpose1 because of their enhanced biocompatibility compared to conventional surfactants. In addition to forming micelles and vesicles, they can self-organize into other complex supramolecular structures, such as fibers, twisted ribbons, helical tapes and nanotubes.2,3 Herein, we have studied a family of novel anionic double-chained lysine-based surfactants, with variable degree of chain length mismatch. Because of their peculiar structure, these compounds are able to form in water tubular structures with assorted morphologies, as evidenced by video-enhanced light microscopy (VELM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM and cryo-SEM), cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).3 The loading ability of the tubules towards lysozyme, under varying experimental conditions, has been investigated inter alia by differential scanning microcalorimetry, gel electrophoresis and UV/VIS spectroscopy, with the goal of assessing the efficiency of these aggregates as pH- and temperature-sensitive nanocarriers for a model biomolecule. Results on the stability of the native and loaded tubules when in contact with different fluids (serum, artificial saliva, artificial sweat, blood), and on their toxicity in human cells, are also presented and discussed.FCT is gratefully acknowledged for financial support through Ph.D. grant SFRH/BD/108629/2015. CIQUP acknowledges financial support from FEDER/COMPETE and FCT through grants UID/QUI/00081/2013, POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 006980 and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000028

Carcinogenic Ability of Schistosoma Haematobium Possibly through Oncogenic Mutation of KRAS Gene

Schistosoma haematobium is a parasitic flatworm that infects millions of people, mostly in the developing world, and is associated with high incidence of bladder cancer, although why is not clear. Previously, we have used CD-1 mice to show that Schistosoma haematobium total antigen (Sh) has a carcinogenic ability. Sh intravesically instillation induced the development of several urothelial lesions, namely nodular hyperplasia and dysplasia (LGIUN—Low Grade Intra-Urothelial Neoplasia) after 40 weeks of treatment. These results suggested that Sh induce urothelium malignization. Bladder carcinoma frequently harbours gene mutations that constitutively activate the receptor tyrosine kinase-Ras pathway for this reason we studied activating mutations in KRAS gene. Twenty percent of the bladders with dysplasia presented a KRAS mutation in codon 12 of exon 2. We concluded from these results that the parasite extract of S. haematobium has carcinogenic ability possibly through oncogenic mutation of KRAS gene

Synthesis, photochemical and in vitro cytotoxic evaluation of benzoselenazole-based aminosquaraines

Squaraine dyes have recently attracted interest as potential second generation photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy. Several cationic aminosquaraine dyes bearing benzoselenazole terminal nuclei were synthezised and their cytotoxic activity was tested against four different human tumor cell lines – breast (MCF-7), non-small cell lung (NCI-H460), cervical (HeLa) and hepatocellular (HepG2) carcinomas – and against a non-tumor porcine liver primary cell line (PLP2), both in the absence of light and under irradiation. All dyes, which displayed strong absorption within the phototherapeutic window, were found to exhibit photodynamic activity and were shown to be, in most cases, more cytotoxic, both in the dark and upon irradiation, than their benzothiazole analogues.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and the FEDER for CIMO (UID/ AGR/00690/2013) and CQ-VR (UID/QUI/00616/2013) financial support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An MCDM approach to the selection of novel technologies for innovative in-vehicle information systems

Driving a car is a complex skill that includes interacting with multiple systems inside the vehicle. Today’s challenge in the automotive industry is to produce innovative In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) that are pleasant to use and satisfy the costumers’ needs while, simultaneously, maintaining the delicate balance of primary task vs. secondary tasks while driving. The authors report a MCDM approach for rank ordering a large heterogeneous set of human-machine interaction technologies; the final set consisted of hundred and one candidates. They measured candidate technologies on eight qualitative criteria that were defined by domain experts, using a group decision-making approach. The main objective was ordering alternatives by their decision score, not the selection of one or a small set of them. The authors’ approach assisted decision makers in exploring the characteristics of the most promising technologies and they focused on analyzing the technologies in the top quartile, as measured by their MCDM model. Further, a clustering analysis of the top quartile revealed the presence of important criteria trade-offs.Operational Competitiveness Program – COMPETE, QREN (Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional), European Regional Development Funds (European Union), R&D project in joint-promotion (HMIEXCEL-2013-2015 36265/2013) HMIEXCEL - I&D crítica em torno do ciclo de desenvolvimento e produção de soluções multimédia avançadas para automóvelStrategic program FCT-UID/EEA/00066/2013Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (IF/00217/2013)Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PD/BD/105966/2014