Sistema multimídia educacional para o ensino de geociências: uma estratégia atual para a divulgação da paleontologia no ensino fundamental e médio

The knowledge and diffusion of palaeontology concepts is of extreme importance for a more complete understanding of biological, geological and environmental aspects. However, it is well-known that didactic resources are still necessary to their diffusion and to stimulate the interest of first degree students. In order to develop strategies allowing the transference of palaeontological knowledge in a more dynamic and attractive manner, an educational CD-ROM about the São José de Itaboraí Basin, in the Rio de Janeiro State, South-Eastern Brazil has been elaborated and is presented here. It is the first major project aimed at the diffusion of palaeontology, through the presentation of the main fossil-related Basins of Brazil, using computing resources applied to education. This multimedia system contains geological and palaeontological information about the São José de Itaboraí Basin, using texts, fossil pictures and their present representatives, maps, outline drawings, references, glossary, palaeoenvironmental reconstitutions and fixation exercises. This didactic resource shall provide college (future teachers) and first degree students and teachers with a dynamic resource to complete and improve their knowledge about geology and palaeontology. This CD-ROM is an important virtual tool for the diffusion of the scientific and cultural importance of the São José de Itaboraí Basin to pupils at local schools, stimulating the preservation of this important natural monument of the Rio de Janeiro State.O conhecimento e a divulgação da paleontologia é de suma importância para uma compreensão mais abrangente sobre aspectos biológicos, geológicos e ambientais, entretanto, ainda é notória a necessidade de recursos didáticos que auxiliem na sua divulgação e estimulem o interesse do aluno para esta ciência no ensino fundamental e médio. Com o objetivo de desenvolver estratégias que permitam a transmissão do conhecimento paleontológico de forma mais dinâmica e atraente, foi elaborado um CD-rom educacional sobre a Bacia de São José de Itaboraí, localizada no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Sudeste do Brasil. Este software aqui apresentado é o primeiro trabalho de um projeto maior que visa a divulgação paleontológica, através do conhecimento das principais bacias fossilíferas brasileiras, utilizando recursos da informática aplicada à educação. Este sistema multimídia oferece informações sobre a geologia e a paleontologia da Bacia de São José de Itaboraí, utilizando textos, fotografias dos fósseis e seus representantes atuais, mapas, desenhos esquemáticos, referências bibliográficas, um glossário, reconstruções paleoambientais e exercícios de fixação. Este recurso didático desenvolvido disponibilizará aos estudantes de licenciatura (futuros professores) e aos alunos e professores de ensino fundamental e médio um recurso dinâmico para complementar e melhorar o conhecimento geológico e paleontológico. O CD-Rom é uma ferramenta importante para a divulgação virtual da importância científica e cultural da Bacia de São José de Itaboraí aos alunos de escolas locais, estimulando a preservação deste importante monumento natural do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Fatal complication after transsphenoidal surgery of pituitary adenoma: case report

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to report a rare fatal complication in the postoperative period of transsphenoidal surgery of the pituitary gland (adenoma), with a brief review of the subject. The patient was a 54-year-old white man with acromegaly and severe heart failure, who after microsurgery developed blood pressure instability within 32 hours after the procedure and died. The autopsy revealed: hypertrophy and ventricular dilation with myocarditis, pericarditis and myocardial fibrosis; mesenteric ischemia with transmural coagulation necrosis of the intestinal loops; acute tubular necrosis; and hepatic steatosis. The findings are consistent with cardiogenic shock and abdominal sepsis due to necrosis of the intestinal loops

Entwicklung einer Systemstruktur zur einheitlichen Verwaltung von entitätsbezogenen Lebenszyklusdaten

Pericarditis is the inflammatory process involving the pericardium as a result of a systemic disease or a primary pericardium disorder.1 The actual incidence of pericarditis is difficult to ascertain,2 most probably because of under-reported or misdiagnosed cases. In the 19th century, Sir William Osler stated that pericarditis was one of the most serious diseases overlooked by practitioners.3 Even so, the rate of hospitalization by this diagnosis is estimated in 3.32 cases per 100,000 person-years, which corresponds to 0.2% of all causes of hospitalization in cardiology centers,4 with an incidence of 1.06% found in autopsy case series.5 Didactically, pericarditis can be morphologically classified in five types: (i) fibrinous; (ii) serous; (iii) purulent; (iv) hemorrhagic; or (v) caseous.6 The image presented herein refers to a typical fibrinous pericarditis, also known as “bread and butter” pericarditis.7 In such an entity, the pericardium, which is regularly smooth and bright, becomes opaque and granular, and macroscopically resembles two pieces of buttered bread pressed together then pulled apart. The histology shows the deposition of fibrin and leukocytic exudate involving the pericardial leaflets. 8 Antonio Benivieni (1443-1502), a Florentine physician and a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, was assigned the first description of fibrinous pericarditis. However, René Laennec (1781-1826), also known for creating the stethoscope, was the first to register the analogy of this type of pericarditis with “buttered bread”9 in his book, A Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest and on Mediate Auscultation.10 The image presented in Figure 1 was obtained during the autopsy of a 25-year-old man who presented a 5-day history of high-grade fever, odynophagia, chest pain, and bloody sputum. He was hospitalized presenting marked leukocytosis with blasts in the peripheral blood smear and died 14 days later due to multiple organ failure. The autopsy revealed fibrinous pericarditis with a brighter yellow exudate than usual (probably due to hyperbilirubinemia, with direct and indirect bilirubin levels of 4.61 mg/dL and 2.07 mg/dL, respectively), lungs with “beefy red consolidation” due to alveolar edema, hemorrhage, hyaline membrane, and diffuse neutrophilic infiltrate. The patient’s bone marrow was hypercellular at the expense of immature myeloid cells with areas of necrosis. The immunohistochemical study evidenced diffuse positivity for myeloperoxidase; CD117-positivity for 30% of the viable cells; CD34-positivity for 1% of the viable cells; and negativity for the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–all of which were consistent with the diagnosis of M3 acute myeloid leukemia (French-American-British classification).11 Acute myocardial infarction, trauma/surgery, infection, uremia, systemic diseases, and neoplasia are among the most common causes of fibrinous pericarditis. Among the neoplasia, lung and breast malignancies stand out, followed by lymphomas and leukemia,12 although pericardial infiltration by nonlymphocytic leukemia is rarer.13 In a large case series of 420 postmortem examinations of the heart in acute leukemia,14 only 20 patients had symptoms of heart disease in life, and 9 of them had pericarditis at autopsy. In only 2 of the 9 patients, the pericarditis was the result of leukemic cell infiltrates into the pericardium; in 4 patients it was hemorrhagic; and in 2 it was pyogenic. Only 1 case remained with uncertain etiology, being fibrinous and unassociated with pericardial leukemic infiltrates, hemorrhages, or organisms, which also occurred in our case. The histopathologic study of the pericardium failed to reveal neoplastic cells, microorganisms, and viral inclusion; therefore, the precise etiology of the pericardial disease was not disclose