Current overview on hospitalization and surgery in inflammatory bowel disease

The incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are increasing globally, mainly in developing countries. Trends in rates of hospitalization and surgery over time can provide an overview about the progression of IBD worldwide and suggest the role of the introduction of new therapies in the modifying natural evolution of the disease, reducing structural damage, and consequently reducing hospitalizations and surgeries. This work demonstrated that all the advances observed, mainly in the last three decades, expressed through the reduction of hospitalization and surgery rates in most regions of the world, corroborate that the general management of patients with IBD has evolved, and postulate that drastic changes in pharmacotherapy could play a role

Standardization of in-house polymerase chain reaction for the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis at the reference tropical disease hospital in the State of Goiás, Brazil

This study compares smear, growth in Lowenstein-Jensen medium, and in-house polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A total of 72 specimens from 72 patients with clinical symptoms of tuberculosis, including 70 sputum and two bronchial aspirate samples, were tested in parallel by smear, culture, and in-house PCR techniques. From these, 48 (66.6%) were negative by the 3 methods, 2 (2.8%) were smear positive and negative by culture and in-house PCR, 11 (15.3%) were both smear and culture negative, and in-house PCR positive, 7 (9.7%) were positive by the 3 methods, 2 (2.8%) were positive by smear and culture, and negative by PCR, 2 (2.8%) were positive by culture and PCR, but smear negative. After the resolution of discrepancies in PCR results, the sensitivity and specificity for in-house PCR technique to M. tuberculosis relative to the culture, were 81.8% and 81.9%, respectively. These results confirm that this method, in-house PCR, may be a sensitive and specific technique for M. tuberculosis detection, occurring in both positive and negative smear and negative cultures

Notícias de uma guerra: estratégias, ameaças e orações

Neste artigo pretendo abordar algumas questões observadas durante as eleições municipais de 2004 na Baixada Fluminense, fundamentalmente em Nova Iguaçu, focalizando como a religião, em um momento específico, foi apropriada pelo discurso político objetivando sua potencialidade eleitoral. Assim, descreverei alguns conflitos (políticos) em torno de algumas personalidades da/na Baixada e em que medida o auxílio à temática religiosa, fundamentalmente a evangélica, foi importante para reconfigurar o campo político na região durante o segundo turno das eleições municipais.<br>In this article I propose analyze some questions observed in Baixada Fluminense's 2004 election, basically in Nova Iguaçu, giving emphasis on the religion dimension and how it was appropriated by a political discourse with electoral purposes. Then, I will describe some conflicts (political conflicts) about some Baixada's politicians and how the religion was important to reconfigure the political camp during the election