Neonatal Brachial Plexus Palsy: Risk Factors and Its Prognostic Value

Introduction: Neonatal brachial plexus palsy affects 0.7 to 5.8 per 1,000 newborns and is characterised by upper limb paresis detected in the immediate neonatal period. Shoulder dystocia, instrumental delivery and foetal macrosomia are well-known risk factors. Most neonatal brachial plexus palsy evolve favourably, while 3%-27% of newborns have sequelae. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to characterise neonatal brachial plexus palsy in the newborn population of a hospital with differentiated perinatal support and to assess the rela - tionship between the risk factors and lesion prognosis. The authors reviewed the newborn medical records referred to the physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic between January 2006 and December 2016. Results: During the study period, 137 cases of neo- natal brachial plexus palsy were identified in 36,833 births, which translate into an incidence of 3.7/1,000 live births. Foetal macrosomia was found in 41% and shoulder dystocia in 40%. According to the Narakas clas- sification, 58% were included in group I, 30% in group II, 9% in group III and 3% in group IV. The majority of patients were discharged without sequelae. Newborns with group II, III and IV lesions as well as macrosomic newborns were more likely to develop sequelae (p < 0.05). Shoulder dystocia and operative delivery did not present a statistically significant relationship with the prognosis of the lesion. Discussion: The incidence of neonatal brachial plexus palsy in this population was similar to is described in other series. The relationship between macrosomia and neonatal brachial plexus palsy with sequelae found may be of importance in the attempt to prevent this lesioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sildenafil previne a nefropatia induzida por contraste em ratos Wistar

Apesar de ser uma das causas mais comuns de insuficiência renal aguda em pacientes hospitalizados, a nefropatia induzida por contraste (NIC) é um problema comum mas mal compreendido e não possui um tratamento adequado. Estudos têm demonstrado a ação antioxidante dos inibidores da fosfodiesterase-5. Portanto, nós investigamos se o sildenafil pode prevenir a disfunção renal de ratos submetidos ao meio de contraste. Ratos Wistar machos (250-350g) foram tratados, durante 7 dias, por gavagem, com sildenafil (50 mg/Kg/dia) ou veículo (2mL/Kg/dia). A NIC foi induzida através da restrição hídrica (24h), injeção i.p. (10mg/Kg) de L-NAME e indometacina, além da injeção i.v. (3mg/Kg) de meio de contraste (Iohexol) ou salina, resultando nos seguintes grupos experimentais: Controle, NIC e NIC + Sildenafil. Em seguida foi feita a análise hemodinâmica renal por padrões-ouro (clerarance de inulina e paraaminohipurato) aliando alterações funcionais acrescidas de investigações a nível molecular (citometria de fluxo). Dados expressos como Média ± EPM; ANOVA 1 via; post-hoc de Tukey; *p<0,05 vs. controle e #p<0.05 vs. NIC. A administração do contraste resultou em queda da taxa de filtração glomerular (controle: 8,53 ± 0,55; NIC: 3,77 ± 0,26* ; NIC + S: 6,77 ± 0,39*# mL/min/Kg), do fluxo plasmático renal (controle: 20,04 ± 0,9; NIC: 9,59 ± 0,38*; NIC + S: 13,18 ± 0,26*# mL/min/Kg ) e do fluxo sanguíneo renal (controle: 35,01 ± 2,02; NIC20,36 ± 0,67*; NIC + S: 22,46 ± 0,8 *# mL/min/Kg ) e aumento da resistência vascular renal (controle: 3,59 ± 0,46; NIC: 7,72 ± 0,31*; NIC + S: 4,86 ± 0,17# u.a), os quais foram prevenidos pelo tratamento com sildenafil. Portanto, o sildenafil pode ser um promissor agente terapêutico para a prevenção e / ou tratamento de disfunção renal induzida por contraste. Palavras-Chave: Sildenafil; Nefropatia induzida por contraste (NIC); Estresse oxidativo

Identifying the Azobenzene/Aniline reaction intermediate on TiO2-(110) : a DFT Study

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations, both with and without dispersion corrections, have been performed to investigate the nature of the common surface reaction intermediate that has been shown to exist on TiO2(110) as a result of exposure to either azobenzene (C6H5N═NC6H5) or aniline (C6H5NH2). Our results confirm the results of a previous DFT study that dissociation of azobenzene into two adsorbed phenyl imide (C6H5N) fragments, as was originally proposed, is not energetically favorable. We also find that deprotonation of aniline to produce this surface species is even more strongly energetically disfavored. A range of alternative surface species has been considered, and while dissociation of azobenzene to form surface C6H4NH species is energetically favored, the same surface species cannot form from adsorbed aniline. On the contrary, adsorbed aniline is much the most stable surface species. Comparisons with experimental determinations of the local adsorption site, the Ti–N bond length, the molecular orientation, and the associated C 1s and N 1s photoelectron core level shifts are all consistent with the DFT results for adsorbed aniline and are inconsistent with other adsorbed species considered. Possible mechanisms for the hydrogenation of azobenzene required to produce this surface species are discussed

Behaviour of NBD-head group labelled phosphatidylethanolamines in POPC bilayers: a molecular dynamics study

A complete homologous series of fluorescent phosphatidylethanolamines (diCnPE), labelled at the head group with a 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazo-4-yl(NBD) fluorophore and inserted in 1-palmitoyl, 2-oleoyl-snglycero- 3-phosphocholine (POPC) bilayers, was studied using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. The longer-chained derivatives of NBD-diCnPE, with n = 14, 16, and 18, are commercially available, and widely used as fluorescent membrane probes. Properties such as location of atomic groups and acyl chain order parameters of both POPC and NBD-diCnPE, fluorophore orientation and hydrogen bonding, membrane electrostatic potential and lateral diffusion were calculated for all derivatives in the series. Most of these probes induce local disordering of POPC acyl chains, which is on the whole counterbalanced by ordering resulting from binding of sodium ions to lipid carbonyl/glycerol oxygen atoms. An exception is found for NBD-diC16PE, which displays optimal matching with POPC acyl chain length and induces a slight local ordering of phospholipid acyl chains. Compared to previously studied fatty amines, acyl chain-labelled phosphatidylcholines, and sterols bearing the same fluorescent tag, the chromophore in NBD-diCnPE locates in a similar region of the membrane (near the glycerol backbone/carbonyl region) but adopts a different orientation (with the NO2 group facing the interior of the bilayer). This modification leads to an inverted orientation of the P–N axis in the labelled lipid, which affects the interface properties, such as the membrane electrostatic potential and hydrogen bonding to lipid head group atoms. The implications of this study for the interpretation of the photophysical properties of NBD-diCnPE (complex fluorescence emission kinetics, differences with other NBD lipid probes) are discussed