SYPHILIS AND HIV INFECTION: PROZONE EFFECT IN A PATIENT WITH NEUROSYPHILIS

É apresentado um caso de sífilis secundária prolongada com envolvimento neurológico assintomático em um paciente infectado pelo HIV. Paciente do sexo masculino, 26 anos de idade, com diagnóstico de infecção pelo HIV há três anos, apresentando há um ano lesões cutâneas nos pés e nas mãos, alopecia, febre, artralgia, perda ponderal de 8 Kg e VDRL negativo. Durante a internação, o VDRL foi de 1:1024 e VDRL positivo no líquor. Foi tratado com penicilina cristalina com excelente resposta clínica. O diagnóstico de sífilis deve ser considerado nos pacientes infectados pelo HIV com quadro clínico exuberante, mesmo quando o VDRL for negativo. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Doenças sexualmente transmissíveis; HIV; Neurossífilis; Sífilis. We report a case of prolonged secondary syphilis with asymptomatic neurological involvement in HIV- -infected patient. A 26-year-old male patient who was diagnosed three years earlier with HIV infection presented with skin lesions on the feet and hands, alopecia, fever, arthralgia, weight loss of 8 Kg which began one year before and had a negative VDRL. During hospitalization, his VDRL was 1:1024 and a CSF-VDRL positive. The patient had an excel- lent clinical response to treatment with crystalline penicillin. The syphilis diagnosis should be considered in HIV-infected patients with severe clinical disease, even when the VDRL is negative. KEYWORDS – Sexually transmitted diseases; HIV infections; Neurosyphilis; Syphilis.

Severe form of lymphocutaneous sporotrichosis: a case report

Sporotrichosis is the most frequent subcutaneous mycosis in Latin America. It is caused by species of the genus Sporothrix. Infection in humans occurs through the entry of the fungus into the skin. Zoonotic outbreaks involving cats in the transmission of the disease have been frequently reported. The lymphocutaneous form is the most commonly observed and the upper limbs are the most affected sites. We report a case of a 64-year-old healthy female patient with a lymphocutaneous form with rapid progression of lesions, which was refractory to initial treatment with itraconazole. Treatment with liposomal amphotericin B was performed with a satisfactory resolution, but aesthetic and functional sequelae in the left upper limb were installed

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

GESTÃO DIAGNÓSTICA DAS HEMOCULTURAS NAS FASES PRÉ-ANALÍTICA E PÓS-ANALÍTICA: PROTOCOLO DE REVISÃO DE ESCOPO

Ações de gestão diagnóstica das hemoculturas podem ser implementadas em qualquer etapa do processo. A maioria dos erros laboratoriais ocorrem na fase pré-analítica. Já a fase pós-analítica é componente essencial do diagnóstico e da gestão antimicrobiana. Objetivo: Mapear as evidências científicas disponíveis sobre as condutas adequadas que os profissionais da saúde devem adotar nas fases pré-analítica e pós-analítica para otimizar os resultados das hemoculturas. Método: Protocolo de revisão de escopo com base no método proposto pelo Joanna Briggs Institute. A revisão será realizada nas bases de dados PUBMED, SCOPUS, EMBASE, LILACS e literatura cinzenta BDTD correlacionando os descritores “Hemocultura”, “Infecção da Corrente Sanguínea”, “Bacteremia”, “Sepse”, “Fase Pré- Analítica” e “Valores Críticos Laboratoriais”. O processo de elaboração das estratégias de busca atenderá as recomendações do PRESS. Para a seleção dos estudos será utilizada o software Rayyan® por dois revisores de forma independente. As informações serão extraídas das publicações por meio de um instrumento elaborado pelos revisores. Os dados serão analisados para atender aos objetivos da pesquisa. Conclusão: Este protocolo visa auxiliar no desenvolvimento da revisão de escopo

Disseminated tuberculosis in an immunocompetent 15-year-old adolescent

Tuberculosis is one of the oldest known diseases and it remains one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality, especially in developing countries. It is associated with social inequalities and affects different age groups. Tuberculosis in children and adolescents should be considered a sentinel event, since it is linked to a recent infection through contact with bacilliferous adults. We report an immunocompetent 15-year-old adolescent with tuberculosis, exhibiting pulmonary, osteoarticular, and cutaneous involvement. Conventional treatment with tuberculostatic drugs for a year had satisfactory results without sequelae

Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

International audienceIntermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−105 M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc−3 yr−1 (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc−3 yr−1.Key words: gravitational waves / stars: black holes / black hole physicsCorresponding author: W. Del Pozzo, e-mail: [email protected]† Deceased, August 2020