Epidemiologic profiles, major complications, and mortality rate at a burn treatment center in the Amazon

INTRODUCTION: Despite complex multidisciplinary treatment, many burn patients die. This study aimed to determine epidemiologic profiles of burn patients, highlighting major complications. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed the medical records of burn patients managed at the Metropolitan Hospital for Urgent and Emergent Care, Pará State, between January 2007 and December 2012. RESULTS: most patients were males (69.1%) aged 18 to 30 years (35.5%), referred from other hospitals (35.8%), and employed as construction workers (21.2%). The most frequent complications were respiratory (69.4%) and renal failure (57.1%), followed by sepsis (38.8%). CONCLUSIONS: The data obtained were similar to those reported in national and international literature, highlighting the need for burn prevention and inspection of construction sites, as well as implementation of treatment protocols to improve care for burn patients

Maternidade precoce: variáveis sociodemográficas e aspectos reprodutivos de adolescentes gestantes / Early maternity: sociodemographic variables and reproductive aspects of gestant adolescents

OBJETIVO: Caracterizar o perfil sociodemográfico e reprodutivo das gestantes adolescentes, de 10 aos 19 anos de idade, atendidas pelo Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) em Belém- PA. MÉTODO: A pesquisa é de caráter observacional, descritivo e transversal. Os dados foram obtidos na base de dados secundária DATASUS. RESULTADOS: Das adolescentes gestantes comutados pela base de dados, a maioria possuíam entre 15 e 19 anos (95,3%), eram solteiras (50,7%), frequentaram a escola por 8 a 11 anos (55,6%), realizaram o pré natal (95,6%) e 81% tiveram de 37 a 41 semanas de gestação (81%). CONCLUSÃO: Foi concluído que, apesar de toda a problemática que norteia a gravidez precoce, a grande maioria teve a duração adequada da gestação e o acesso a um número ótimo de consultas no período pré-natal. No entanto, observa-se ainda que a gravidez na adolescência ainda está relacionada com a falta de planejamento familiar, baixo grau de instrução e abandono escolar.

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Background Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for death and disability, but its overall association with health remains complex given the possible protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption on some conditions. With our comprehensive approach to health accounting within the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, we generated improved estimates of alcohol use and alcohol-attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 195 locations from 1990 to 2016, for both sexes and for 5-year age groups between the ages of 15 years and 95 years and older. Methods Using 694 data sources of individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use, we produced estimates of the prevalence of current drinking, abstention, the distribution of alcohol consumption among current drinkers in standard drinks daily (defined as 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol), and alcohol-attributable deaths and DALYs. We made several methodological improvements compared with previous estimates: first, we adjusted alcohol sales estimates to take into account tourist and unrecorded consumption; second, we did a new meta-analysis of relative risks for 23 health outcomes associated with alcohol use; and third, we developed a new method to quantify the level of alcohol consumption that minimises the overall risk to individual health. Findings Globally, alcohol use was the seventh leading risk factor for both deaths and DALYs in 2016, accounting for 2.2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1.5-3.0) of age-standardised female deaths and 6.8% (5.8-8.0) of age-standardised male deaths. Among the population aged 15-49 years, alcohol use was the leading risk factor globally in 2016, with 3.8% (95% UI 3.2-4-3) of female deaths and 12.2% (10.8-13-6) of male deaths attributable to alcohol use. For the population aged 15-49 years, female attributable DALYs were 2.3% (95% UI 2.0-2.6) and male attributable DALYs were 8.9% (7.8-9.9). The three leading causes of attributable deaths in this age group were tuberculosis (1.4% [95% UI 1. 0-1. 7] of total deaths), road injuries (1.2% [0.7-1.9]), and self-harm (1.1% [0.6-1.5]). For populations aged 50 years and older, cancers accounted for a large proportion of total alcohol-attributable deaths in 2016, constituting 27.1% (95% UI 21.2-33.3) of total alcohol-attributable female deaths and 18.9% (15.3-22.6) of male deaths. The level of alcohol consumption that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero (95% UI 0.0-0.8) standard drinks per week. Interpretation Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss. We found that the risk of all-cause mortality, and of cancers specifically, rises with increasing levels of consumption, and the level of consumption that minimises health loss is zero. These results suggest that alcohol control policies might need to be revised worldwide, refocusing on efforts to lower overall population-level consumption.Peer reviewe

A intenção de doar órgãos é influenciada pelo conhecimento populacional sobre morte encefálica?

OBJETIVO: Avaliar a influência do conhecimento sobre morte encefálica relacionada à doação de órgãos dos pacientes do Centro de Saúde Escola do Marco, órgão vinculado à Universidade do Estado do Pará. MÉTODOS: Foram entrevistados 136 pacientes, com base em um protocolo de pesquisa, no qual foi analisado o conhecimento sobre morte encefálica e doação de órgãos, além de dados sociodemográficos. RESULTADOS: A maioria por pacientes era do gênero feminino e favorável à doação de órgãos, apresentando média de idade de 39 anos. Apenas 19,9% souberam informar o que era morte encefálica, 85,3% acreditavam que o médico pode se equivocar na firmação do estado de morte encefálica de um paciente e 18,4% confiavam no diagnóstico de morte encefálica. Observou-se relação estatisticamente significante (p<0,01) entre o grau de confiança no diagnóstico de morte encefálica e a pessoa aceitar doar seus órgãos após sua morte. CONCLUSÃO: A maioria da população estudada não compreendia o significado da morte encefálica e apresentava um baixo grau de confiança no diagnóstico de morte encefálica, sendo que esse perfil influência negativamente o desejo de doar órgãos

Análise bioética dos anteprojetos de um CEP universitário

Objetivo: Verificar o perfil bioético dos anteprojetos do curso de Medicina da Universidade do Estado do Pará enviados ao Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa. Metodologia: Foram estudados os anteprojetos de pesquisa do curso de Medicina enviados entre o período de janeiro de 2006 a novembro de 2010, os quais foram submetidos a um protocolo de pesquisa, no intuito de analisar se os anteprojetos respeitavam a bioética principialista e sigilo, além de verificar-se qual o principal motivo de desrespeito desses princípios bioéticos. Resultados: Foram estudados 488 anteprojetos de pesquisa O sigilo e a justiça foram os quesitos éticos mais desrespeitados. A principal causa do não seguimento da autonomia dos sujeitos da pesquisa foi a de não informar o direito de desistência da pesquisa aos participantes, mesmo após a assinatura do TCLE. Com relação ao princípio da beneficência, o maior equívoco foi o de não informar os benefícios provenientes da pesquisa; quanto à não maleficência, ela foi desrespeitada concernente a não comunicar, aos participantes, os riscos provenientes da pesquisa; o princípio da justiça foi desacatado exclusivamente por não ter sido citado o direito a reparações legalmente estabelecidas no caso da efetivação dos riscos da pesquisa; com relação ao sigilo, a maior dificuldade foi principalmente pela não informação do destino do material coletado após a realização da pesquisa. Conclusão: Após a análise, foram identificados como a maior falha seguir os princípios do sigilo e da justiça, quando comparados em relação aos outros princípios. Bioethics review of papers of a university CEP Objective: This paper aims to verify the bioethical profile of the drafts of medicine sent to the Research Ethics Committee at the State University of Para. Methodology: Was studied the drafts of medicine sent between the period January 2006 to November 2010, which were submitted to a research protocol in order to examine whether the drafts respected bioethics principlism and secrecy, and to identify which is the main reason for failure of these bioethical principles. Results: Was studied 488 drafts.  The secrecy and justice were the most unrespected bioethical principles.  The main cause of failure to respect the autonomy on the drafts was not informing the right to withdraw from the research participants, even after signing the Informed Consent. With regard to the principle of beneficence, the biggest mistake was not to inform the benefits from research; about the not-malfeasance, it was disrespected concerning not communicate to the participants, the risks from the project. The principle of justice was exclusively unrespect because have not been cited the legally established right to reparations in the case of happen the risks of research, with respect to confidentiality, the greatest difficulty was mainly for not informing the destination of the material collected after the research. Conclusion: After the analysis, were identified as the biggest failure to follow the principles of confidentiality and justice, when compared against other principles. Keywords: Bioethics, Ethics, Research Ethics Committee

Conhecimento de estudantes de medicina sobre o testamento vital

Resumo A terminalidade da vida levanta cada vez mais dilemas éticos. Dada a importância do tema e a recente regulamentação do testamento vital pelo Conselho Federal de Medicina, é de grande valor o conhecimento dessa problemática por parte dos futuros médicos. Assim, buscou-se aferir a compreensão dos estudantes de medicina da Universidade do Estado do Pará acerca do testamento vital e das decisões envolvendo o final da vida. O estudo qualiquantitativo descritivo e transversal entrevistou 238 estudantes por meio de questionário com 10 questões. Apenas 8% dos estudantes demonstraram ter uma noção clara sobre o significado do termo “testamento vital”. Apesar disso, após ouvirem a definição das diretivas antecipadas de vontade fornecida pelos pesquisadores, 92% deles declararam que respeitariam o previsto no testamento vital. Portanto, conclui-se que, embora boa parte dos entrevistados tenha pouco entendimento sobre o tema “testamento vital”, a grande maioria posicionou-se a favor de sua aceitação

Does impact factor influence the ethics of the instructions provided to journal authors?

OBJECTIVE: Verify whether a journal's impact factor is a mechanism that modifies the ethi cal requirements described in the instructions provided to authors of articles published in Brazilian medical journals. METHODS: 48 selected journals were divided into two groups: impact-factor (n = 24), and no impact-factor (n = 24). The number of ethical requirements was compared between both groups based on a specific research protocol, ranging from zero to six points, analyzing the presence of an approval by a research ethics committee; reference to the fact that the research follows the precepts of the Declaration of Helsinki and the rules of Resolution 196/96; use of an informed consent; information about the authors' conflicts of interest; and a request for registration of clinical trials in the Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry. RESULTS: The average score of the impact-factor group was significantly higher than that of the no-impact-factor group (3.12 ± 1.03 vs. 2.08 ± 1.64, p = 0.0121). When each ethical requirement was compared between the groups, there was significant difference only between the requirement of an informed consent and the disclosure of conflicts of interest (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The impact factor is a determinant factor on the ethics included in the instructions to authors of articles in scientific journals, showing that higher-quality journals seek better-designed articles that are conscientious at the beginning of the research.OBJETIVO: Verificar se o fator de impacto de um periódico é um mecanismo modificador dos quesitos éticos descritos nas instruções aos autores de revistas médicas nacionais. MÉTODOS: Foram selecionadas 48 revistas divididas em dois grupos: grupo com fator de impacto (n = 24), e grupo sem fator de impacto (n = 24). Foi comparada a quantidade de quesitos éticos entre os dois grupos baseados num protocolo de pesquisa próprio, variando de zero a seis pontos, analisando a presença de aprovação por Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa; citação de que a pesquisa segue os preceitos da Declaração de Helsinque e as normas da resolução 196/96; uso de Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido; informação sobre os conflitos de interesse dos Pesquisadores; e solicitação para que os estudos clínicos sejam cadastrados no Registro Brasileiro de Estudos Clínicos. RESULTADOS: A média da pontuação do grupo com fator de impacto foi significativamente maior que o grupo sem fator de impacto (3,12 ±1,03 vs. 2,08 ±1,64, p = 0,0121). Quando cada quesito ético foi comparado entre os grupos, houve diferença significativa apenas entre a solicitação do TCLE e o conflito de interesses (p < 0,05). CONCLUSÃO: O fator de impacto é um fator determinante na ética contida nas instruções aos autores das revistas científicas, mostrando que as revistas de maior qualidade buscam artigos com melhores desenhos e que sejam criteriosos quando do início da pesquisa