Actividades de investigación y desarrollo en hospitales de América Latina y el Caribe, identificadas a través de sus sitios Web

The purpose of this work is to present the results of a study on the content analysis of hospital websites of nine Latin-American and Caribbean countries. The study was limited to the R&D activities reported in the websites of the hospitals. Hospital websites were selected through an internet search in three search engines. The term hospital(s) was used and intersected with each one of the countries selected. Only hospital websites reporting three or more indicators were selected in the study. Out of 454 hospital websites, only 38 (8.37%) reported three or more indicators of R&D activities. Mexico was head in the list with 17 hospitals; followed by Argentina (7); Peru (5); Cuba (3); Brasil (2); Colombia (2); and Chile (2). Venezuela and Costa Rica were excluded from the study since both countries could not meet the criteria of inclusion. The study allowed exploring on the difficulties faced to obtain those hospitals that develop R&D activities, and that reported on their websites information related to the above mentioned activity.El propósito de este estudio es presentar los resultados de una investigación sobre el análisis de los contenidos de los sitios Web de los Hospitales de nueve países de América Latina y el Caribe en relación con las actividades de investigación y desarrollo en salud. La selección de los sitios Web de los hospitales considerados se realizó consultando tres motores de búsqueda, utilizando el descriptor hospital(es) con la intersección de cada uno de los países seleccionados, limitada a aquéllos que contaran con tres o más indicadores de actividad científica. De 454 hospitales con sitio Web, sólo 38 (8.37%) calificaron con tres o más indicadores de actividad científica: México (17 hospitales); Argentina (7); Perú (5); Cuba (3); Brasil (2); Colombia (2); y Chile (2). Venezuela y Costa Rica fueron excluidos del estudio al no contar con los criterios mínimos de inclusión. Finalmente, este estudio permitió explorar y ponderar la dificultad que existe para identificar hospitales que conducen actividades de investigación y desarrollo, y que reportan en su sitio Web información relacionada con dicha actividad

Collaboration on HIV/AIDS research in Latin America and the Caribbean : comparison of regional and international databases

This paper presents the results of a research in progress on HIV/AIDS research in developing countries. In this case, the paper refers to the collaboration patterns found among researchers in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. A bibliographic search in both, regional (Latin American and Caribbean Database on the Health Sciences–LILACS) and international (MEDLINE) databases for the period 1982-2005 was conducted. The goal being to compare patterns of collaboration found among regional countries through both databases. Bibexcell 2001 was used to generate the registry files needed for the following indicators: authorship; country of publication; type of documents; subject content of the publications, and language. Results described that collaboration was more visible in MEDLINE than in LILACS. It was also found that the USA was the leading country in collaboration with all the 12 countries analysed. The paper further discusses on the implications of this type of research for developing countries and provides practical applications of the results derived from the study

Specific residues of the cytoplasmic domains of cardiac inward rectifier potassium channels are effective antifibrillatory targets

Atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias can be perpetuated by up-regulation of inward rectifier potassium channels. Thus, it may be beneficial to block inward rectifier channels under conditions in which their function becomes arrhythmogenic (e.g., inherited gain-of-function mutation channelopathies, ischemia, and chronic and vagally mediated atrial fibrillation). We hypothesize that the antimalarial quinoline chloroquine exerts potent antiarrhythmic effects by interacting with the cytoplasmic domains of Kir2.1 (IK1), Kir3.1 (IKACh), or Kir6.2 (IKATP) and reducing inward rectifier potassium currents. In isolated hearts of three different mammalian species, intracoronary chloroquine perfusion reduced fibrillatory frequency (atrial or ventricular), and effectively terminated the arrhythmia with resumption of sinus rhythm. In patch-clamp experiments chloroquine blocked IK1, IKACh, and IKATP. Comparative molecular modeling and ligand docking of chloroquine in the intracellular domains of Kir2.1, Kir3.1, and Kir6.2 suggested that chloroquine blocks or reduces potassium flow by interacting with negatively charged amino acids facing the ion permeation vestibule of the channel in question. These results open a novel path toward discovering antiarrhythmic pharmacophores that target specific residues of the cytoplasmic domain of inward rectifier potassium channels.—Noujaim, S. F., Stuckey, J. A., Ponce-Balbuena, D., Ferrer-Villada, T., López-Izquierdo, A., Pandit, S., Calvo, C. J., Grzeda, K. R., Berenfeld, O., Sánchez Chapula, J. A., Jalife, J. Specific residues of the cytoplasmic domains of cardiac inward rectifier potassium channels are effective antifibrillatory targets