Pacientes com neuromielite óptica apresentam doença mais incapacitante que pacientes com esclerose múltipla, incluindo maior chance de falecerem de uma doença desmielinizante

Although neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is known to be a more severe disease than relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), few studies comparing both conditions in a single center have been done.Methods: Comparison of our previously published cohort of 41 NMO patients with 177 RRMS patients followed in the same center, from 1994 to 2007. Results: Mean age of onset was 32.6 for NMO and 30.2 for RRMS (p=0.2062) with mean disease duration of 7.4 years for NMO and 10.3 years for RRMS. Patients with NMO had a higher annualized relapse rate (1.0 versus 0.8, p=0.0013) and progression index (0.9 versus 0.6, p≪0.0001), with more patients reaching expanded disability status scale (EDSS) 6.0 (39 versus 17%, p=0.0036). The odds ratio for reaching EDSS 6.0 and being deceased due to NMO in comparison to RRMS were, respectively, 3.14 and 12.15. Conclusion: Patients with NMO have a more severe disease than patients with RRMS, including higher risk of dying of a demyelinating disease.Embora a neuromielite óptica (NMO) seja reconhecida como mais grave que a esclerose múltipla remitente recorrente (EMRR), existem poucos estudos comparando as duas doenças em um único centro.Métodos: Comparação de nossa coorte publicada de 41 pacientes com NMO com 177 pacientes com EMRR seguidos no mesmo centro, de 1994 a 2007. Resultados: A média de idade inicial foi de 32,6 anos em NMO e 30,2 anos em EMRR (p=0,2062), com tempo médio de doença de 7,4 anos para NMO e 10,3 anos EMRR. Pacientes com NMO apresentaram maior taxa anualizada de surtos (1,0 versus 0,8, p=0,0013) e índice de progressão (0,9 versus 0,6, p≪0,0001), com mais pacientes atingindo EDSS 6,0 (39 versus 17%, p=0,0036). Os riscos relativos de se alcançar 6,0 EDSS e falecer em decorrência de NMO em comparação com EMRR, foram, respectivamente, 3,14 e 12,15. Conclusão: Pacientes com NMO têm uma doença mais grave do que os pacientes com EMRR, incluindo maior risco de morrer de uma doença desmielinizante.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Setor de NeuroimunologiaHospital Universitari Vall d?Hebron Center d?Esclerosi Múltiple de Catalunya-CEMcatUNIFESP, Setor de NeuroimunologiaSciEL

Prevalence and patterns of dietary supplement use in elite Spanish athletes.

Background: Dietary supplementation is a common strategy to achieve a specific health status or performance benefit. Several investigations have focused on the prevalence of dietary supplement use by athletes. However, information on how athletes manage the use and purchase of dietary supplements is scarce. Methods: Five hundred and twenty-seven high-performance athletes (346 males and 181 females), participating in individual and team sports, completed a validated questionnaire about use and purchase patterns of dietary supplements. The dietary supplements were categorized according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) consensus. Results: Sixty four percent of the athletes (n = 337) used dietary supplements (median = 3; range 1 to 12). Age, sex, type of sport, level of competition, and professionalism influenced the prevalence of dietary supplement use (all p < 0.05). The most prevalent dietary supplement consumed was proteins (41%; n = 137), followed by amino acids/BCAA-based supplements (37%; n = 124). Additionally, as per group of supplements according to IOC consensus, 18% of the supplements were rated as having a low level of scientific evidence (e.g., glutamine, HMB, L-carnitine, etc). Most athletes (45%, n = 152) purchased dietary supplements in a store and 24% (n = 81) obtained them from a sponsor. Most athletes also (42%, n = 141) reported a self-organization of supplementation and did not consult with any professional. Last, 81% (n = 273) of athletes consuming supplements did not know any platform to check supplement safety/quality. For those who do not use dietary supplements (36% of the total sample, n = 190), most reported that they do not consider supplements necessary (72%, n = 137). Conclusion: Dietary supplementation appears to be widely used in sport with a considerable proportion of athletes consuming supplements with low level of scientific evidence. Additionally, athletes seem to rely on inadequate sources of information and may be largely unaware of sources to detect supplement contamination.post-print795 K

Gender Differences in Prevalence and Patterns of Dietary Supplement Use in Elite Athletes.

Purpose: Dietary supplement use by athletes has been the topic of previous research; however, the lack of homogeneity among published studies makes it difficult to analyze the differences, if any, in the patterns of use between male and female athletes. The aim of this study was to determine gender differences in the patterns of dietary supplement use by elite athletes. Methods: A total of 504 elite athletes (329 males and 175 females) participating in individual and team sports completed a validated questionnaire on dietary supplement use during the preceding season. The dietary supplements were categorized according to the latest IOC consensus statement. Results: A higher proportion of male versus female athletes (65.3 versus 56.5%, p < .05) consumed dietary supplements. Both male and female athletes reported a similar mean consumption of dietary supplements (3.2 ± 2.1 versus 3.4 ± 2.3 supplements/season, respectively; p = .45). Protein supplements were the most commonly consumed supplements in male athletes (49.8%) and their prevalence was higher than in female athletes (29.3%, p < .01). In females, multivitamins (39.4%) and branched-chain amino acids (39.4%) were the most commonly consumed supplements and iron supplementation was more prevalent than in males (22.2% versus 10.2%, p = .01). A higher proportion of male athletes relied on themselves to plan dietary supplements use (48.0%), while female appeared to rely more on doctors (34.0%, p < .01). Conclusion: In summary, male athletes had a slightly higher prevalence in the use of supplements than their female counterparts, specifically regarding protein supplements, and were more involved in the self-prescription of supplements.pre-print1459 K

Relevance and perception of thermal comfort in the classroom learning process.

Este estudo tem como objetivo demonstrar a relev?ncia do conforto t?rmico e seu impacto sobre a aprendizagem segundo a percep??o dos estudantes na sala de aula. Como m?todo, realizou-se breve revis?o bibliogr?fica sobre o conforto t?rmico em edifica??es escolares. Em seguida, aplicou-se question?rio entre alunos de uma institui??o de ensino superior de Belo Horizonte nas salas de aula em dias das quatro esta??es do ano. O desconforto t?rmico, para 70% dos estudantes, prejudicou a atividade de estudo e a aten??o ao conte?do das aulas, causando impaci?ncia.This study aims to demonstrate the relevance of thermal comfort and its impact on learning according to students? perception in the classroom. As a method, a brief bibliographical review was carried out on thermal comfort in school buildings. Then, a questionnaire was applied among students of a higher education institution in Belo Horizonte in the classrooms on days of the four seasons. The thermal discomfort, for 70% of the students, impaired study activity and attention to the content of the classes, causing impatience

Differences in breast cancer risk after benign breast disease by type of screening diagnosis

Neoplàsies de mama; Detecció precoç del càncer; Factors de riscNeoplasias de mama; Detección precoz del cáncer; Factores de riesgoBreast neoplasms; Early cancer detection; Risk factorsIntroduction: We aimed to assess differences in breast cancer risk across benign breast disease diagnosed at prevalent or incident screens. Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study with data from 629,087 women participating in a long-standing population-based breast cancer screening program in Spain. Each benign breast disease was classified as non-proliferative, proliferative without atypia, or roliferative with atypia, and whether it was diagnosed in a prevalent or incident screen. We used partly conditional Cox hazard regression to estimate the adjusted hazard ratios of the risk of breast cancer. Results: Compared with women without benign breast disease, the risk of breast cancer was significantly higher (p-value ¼ 0.005) in women with benign breast disease diagnosed in an incident screen (aHR, 2.67; 95%CI: 2.24e3.19) than in those with benign breast disease diagnosed in a prevalent screen (aHR, 1.87; 95%CI: 1.57e2.24). The highest risk was found in women with a proliferative benign breast disease with atypia (aHR, 4.35; 95%CI: 2.09e9.08, and 3.35; 95%CI: 1.51e7.40 for those diagnosed at incident and prevalent screens, respectively), while the lowest was found in women with non-proliferative benign breast disease (aHR, 2.39; 95%CI: 1.95e2.93, and 1.63; 95%CI: 1.32e2.02 for those diagnosed at incident and prevalent screens, respectively). Conclusion: Our study showed that the risk of breast cancer conferred by a benign breast disease differed according to type of screen (prevalent or incident). To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the impact of the screening type on benign breast disease prognosisThis study was supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III FEDER (grant numbers: PI15/00098 and PI17/00047), and by the Research Network on Health Services in Chronic Diseases (RD12/0001/0015

MUC1 aptamer-capped mesoporous silica nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery and radio-imaging applications

[EN] Mucin 1 (MUC1) is a cell surface protein overexpressed in breast cancer. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) loaded with safranin O, functionalized with aminopropyl groups and gated with the negatively charged MUC1 aptamer have been prepared (S1-apMUC1) for specific targeting and cargo release in tumoral versus non-tumoral cells. Confocal microscopy studies showed that the S1-apMUC1 nanoparticles were internalized in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells that overexpress MUC1 receptor with subsequent pore opening and cargo release. Interestingly, the MCF-10-A non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cell line that do not overexpress MUC1, showed reduced (S1-apMUC1) internalization. Negligible internalization was also found for S1-ap nanoparticles that contained a scrambled DNA sequence as gatekeeper. S2-apMUC1 nanoparticles (similar to S1-apMUC1 but loaded with doxorubicin) internalized in MDA-MB-231 cells and induced a remarkable reduction in cell viability. Moreover, S1-apMUC1 nanoparticles radio-labeled with Tc-99m (S1-apMUC1-Tc) showed a remarkable tumor targeting in in vivo studies with MDA-MB-231 tumor-bearing Balb/c mice. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Financial support from the Spanish Government and FEDER funds (Project MAT2015-64139-C4-1) and the Generalitat Valenciana (Project PROMETEOII/2014/047) is gratefully acknowledged.Pascual, L.; Cerqueira, C.; García-Fernández, A.; De Luis-Fernández, B.; Soares, E.; Souza, M.; Missailidis, S.... (2017). MUC1 aptamer-capped mesoporous silica nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery and radio-imaging applications. Nanomedicine Nanotechnology Biology and Medicine. 13(8):2495-2505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nano.2017.08.006S2495250513

Monitoring sugar content in infant foods

High sugar consumption increases the chance of developing diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cancer, as well as cavities and bacterial plaque between teeth. Considering the increase in health problems related to sugar intake in the population, the objective of this work was to monitor the presence and amount of sugar in baby food based on fruits and vegetables from different companies sold in Brazil. Titrimetric methods (Lane-Eynon) and total sugar content were used, based on total soluble solids (TSS) in degrees Brix. In the titration method, it was possible to quantify reducing and non-reducing sugars and total sugar by the redox reaction of Fehling's liquor. Baby food with the highest levels of total sugars, presented 22.72% (assorted fruits) and 21.84% (plum base). The lowest total sugars content was 2.50% (from pumpkin and coconut milk composition). TSS analysis confirmed the presence of sugars found in the titration method. We concluded that the baby foods evaluated had relevant sugar content and there is a need for constant monitoring to avoid excesses by children, as well as careful attention to their nutritional information declared on the label, considering that high sugar consumption causes risks to the health