Atrioventricular block related to liposomal amphotericin B

Atrioventricular block can occur in normal children, young adults or athletes. It is also associated with underlying heart disease or occurs as a drug adverse effect. Amphotericin B is used in the treatment of invasive fungal infections. Cardiac toxicity is a rare adverse reaction. We report the case of a 9-month girl, admitted in the paediatric intensive care unit with cytomegalovirus pneumonitis. During hospitalisation the patient developed a systemic fungic infection and was medicated with liposomal amphotericin B. On the third day of treatment she began repeated episodes of bradycardia with spontaneous reversion. The investigation revealed a second-degree atrioventricular block. We excluded the misplacement of the central catheter, myocarditis or structural cardiomyopathy and suspended amphotericin. After 8 days, the bradycardia episodes ceased what was consistent with the drug's half-life. Amphotericin cardiotoxic mechanism is still unclear. It may be related with alteration of myocardial membrane depolarisation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Procedimentos para o monitoramento populacional de Diaphorina Citri , vetor do Huanglongbing (HLB) dos citros.

Após o registro do agente etiológico do HLB, a bactéria Candidatus liberibacter spp. no Brasil em 2004, o inseto vetor Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) antes considerado uma praga secundária dos citros, ganhou o status de inseto-praga de grande importância

Congenital Volkmann ischemic contracture – A case report

A contractura isquémica congénita de Volkmann é uma entidade rara, observada em recém-nascidos logo após o parto, caracterizada clinicamente por uma placa necrótica que atinge, geralmente, um dos membros superiores e que se faz acompanhar de paralisia flácida. Ocorre no período intrauterino e surge devido a compressão mecânica do membro. O seu mau posicionamento, a constrição por banda aminiótica, a existência de oligoâmnios e de distocias são alguns dos possíveis factores implicados. A compressão conduz a um síndrome de compartimento que induz isquemia e necrose da pele, músculos e nervos. O tratamento é cirúrgico, implicando desbridamento da placa de necrose e eventual recurso a um enxerto cutâneo. Relatamos o caso clínico de um recém-nascido de 2 dias de vida com uma contractura isquémica congénita de Volkmann do membro superior esquerdo, induzida pela presença de oligoâmnios

Relations between Cardiac and Visual Phenotypes in Diabetes: A Multivariate Approach

Cardiovascular disease and diabetes represent a major public health concern. The former is the most frequent cause of death and disability in patients with type 2 diabetes, where left ventricular dysfunction is highly prevalent. Moreover, diabetic retinopathy is becoming a dominant cause of visual impairment and blindness. The complex relation between cardiovascular disease and diabetic retinopathy as a function of ageing, obesity and hypertension remains to be clarified. Here, we investigated such relations in patients with diabetes type 2, in subjects with neither overt heart disease nor advanced proliferative diabetic retinopathy. We studied 47 patients and 50 controls, aged between 45 and 65 years, equally distributed according to gender. From the 36 measures regarding visual structure and function, and the 11 measures concerning left ventricle function, we performed data reduction to obtain eight new derived variables, seven of which related to the eye, adjusted for age, gender, body mass index and high blood pressure using both discriminant analysis (DA) and logistic regression (LR). We found moderate to strong correlation between left ventricle function and the eye constructs: minimum correlation was found for psychophysical motion thresholds (DA: 0.734; LR: 0.666), while the maximum correlation was achieved with structural volume density in the neural retina (DA: 0.786; LR: 0.788). Controlling the effect of pairwise correlated visual constructs, the parameters that were most correlated to left ventricle function were volume density in retina and thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layers (adjusted multiple R2 is 0.819 and 0.730 for DA and LR), with additional contribution of psychophysical loss in achromatic contrast discrimination. We conclude that visual structural and functional changes in type 2 diabetes are related to heart dysfunction, when the effects of clinical, demographic and associated risk factors are taken into account, revealing a genuine relation between cardiac and retinal diabetic phenotypes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Epibiosis in decapod crustaceans by stalked barnacle Octolasmis lowei (Cirripedia: Poecilasmatidae)

Stalked barnacles Octolasmis lowei Darwin, 1851 are frequently found attached to decapod crustaceans. Their epibiotic association depends on many factors, which are mainly related to characteristics of the host's biology. This study evaluated the infestation and distribution of stalked barnacles in the branchial chambers of crabs, and analyzed the data with respect to the host's sex, maturity stage, molt cycle and size. The crab species Arenaeus cribrarius Lamarck, 1818, Callinectes danae Smith, 1869, Callinectes ornatus Ordway, 1863, Hepatus pudibundus Herbst, 1785, Libinia ferreirae Brito Capello, 1871, and Persephona punctata Linnaeus, 1758 were sampled and found to be infested by O. lowei. No juvenile crabs were infested. The prevalence of infestation by O. lowei was significantly different among C. danae, C. ornatus, and H. pudibundus males and females. All infested hosts were in the intermolt period. The mean size of infested crabs was larger than that observed for non-infested individuals. Internally, stalked barnacles were concentrated on the central gills or walls and floor of branchial chambers, suggesting that these gills provide more favorable conditions for the settlement and development of these epibionts. These results highlight the relationship between epibiont infestation and host biology, as well as the role of decapod crustaceans as a suitable substrate for the development of stalked barnacle O. lowei.30731

Monitoramento populacional de Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, 1908 (Hemiptera: Liviidae) em cinco municípios do Recôncavo da Bahia.

O psilídeo Diaphorina citri é um importante vetor da bactéria Candidatus liberibacter spp., causadora do HLB (Huaglongbing), doença mais devastadora dos citros, assumindo, assim, o status de principal praga nessa cultura. O agente etiológico do HLB foi registrado no Brasil em 2004, primeiramente em São Paulo e, posteriormente, em Minas Gerais e Paraná