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Residual blood specimens collected at health facilities may be a source of samples for serosurveys of adults, a population often neglected in community-based serosurveys. Anonymized residual blood specimens were collected from individuals 15 – 49 years of age attending two sub-district hospitals in Palghar District, Maharashtra, from November 2018 to March 2019. Specimens also were collected from women 15 – 49 years of age enrolled in a cross-sectional, community-based serosurvey representative at the district level that was conducted 2 – 7 months after the residual specimen collection. Specimens were tested for IgG antibodies to measles and rubella viruses. Measles and rubella seroprevalence estimates using facility-based specimens were 99% and 92%, respectively, with men having significantly lower rubella seropositivity than women. Age-specific measles and rubella seroprevalence estimates were similar between the two specimen sources. Although measles seropositivity was slightly higher among adults attending the facilities, both facility and community measles seroprevalence estimates were 95% or higher. The similarity in measles and rubella seroprevalence estimates between the community-based and facility serosurveys highlights the potential value of residual specimens to approximate community seroprevalence.
Residual blood specimens provide a sample repository that could be analyzed to estimate and track changes in seroprevalence with fewer resources than household-based surveys. We conducted parallel facility and community-based cross-sectional serological surveys in two districts in India, Kanpur Nagar District, Uttar Pradesh, and Palghar District, Maharashtra, before and after a measles-rubella supplemental immunization activity (MR-SIA) from 2018 to 2019. Anonymized residual specimens from children 9 months to younger than 15 years of age were collected from public and private diagnostic laboratories and public hospitals and tested for IgG antibodies to measles and rubella viruses. Significant increases in seroprevalence were observed following the MR SIA using the facility-based specimens. Younger children whose specimens were tested at a public facility in Kanpur Nagar District had significantly lower rubella seroprevalence prior to the SIA compared to those attending a private hospital, but this difference was not observed following the SIA. Similar increases in rubella seroprevalence were observed in facility-based and community-based serosurveys following the MR SIA, but trends in measles seroprevalence were inconsistent between the two specimen sources. Despite challenges with representativeness and limited metadata, residual specimens can be useful in estimating seroprevalence and assessing trends through facility-based sentinel surveillance.
A positive association has been demonstrated between consumption of sucrose-sweetened beverages and the prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Since the administration of 30 % sucrose in the drinking water (sucrose-rich diet (SRD)) to rats has proven to be a good model of systemic insulin resistance, the aim of our study was to analyse the effect of caloric restriction applied on SRD-treated rats by switching back to a standard diet, on liver morphology, function and metabolism. Consumption of an SRD causes a metabolic shift towards gluconeogenesis and fatty acid synthesis leading to an increase in TAG levels in plasma and in the liver that were associated with a decrease in insulin sensitivity. Moreover, our results show that animals fed an SRD develop steatohepatitis characterised by the generation of oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, inflammation and apoptosis. Although no histological changes were observed after a 2-week caloric restriction, key pathways associated with the progression of MASLD as inflammation, ER stress and apoptosis were slowed down. Notably, this 2-week intervention also increased liver insulin sensitivity (evaluated by AKT activity in this tissue) and drove the lipid metabolic profile towards oxidation, thus lowering circulating TAG levels. In summary, the present study uncovers underlying mechanisms affected, and their metabolic consequences, during the first stages of the phenotypic reversal of steatohepatitis by switching back to a standard diet after receiving sucrose-sweetened water for several weeks.
Diagnostic stability is a controversial issue in first episode psychosis (FEP) due to heterogenous symptoms and unclear affective symptoms. Differencing affective and non-affective psychoses is important as treatment strategies are different. Initial affective symptomatology has low specificity for predicting the subsequent diagnosis of affective psychosis. Sex has proven to be relevant for clinical and functional outcomes but it remains unclear how sex may contribute to diagnosis switch of FEP.
Objectives
To determine the role of sex in diagnostic stability in a sample of FEP after 1-year follow-up.
Methods
Diagnoses of FEP patients from Hospital del Mar of Barcelona were assessed at baseline and 1 year after. Univariate analyses was perfomed for all diagnoses and dichotomic variable (affective/non-affective). Logistic regression model was perfomed to know which variables predict diagnosis switch.
Results
256 patients were enrolled. No differences were found at baseline between completers and non-completers (Table 1). No significant differences between men and women at baseline diagnosis were found, neither all diagnoses (p=0.274) nor the dichotomic variable affective/non-affective (p=0.829) (Table 2AB). Significant differences were found at 1-year follow-up between men and women, for all diagnoses (p=0.043) and the dichotomic variable (p=0.039). Sex was the only variable that predicted diagnosis switch (Figure 1), PANSS, CDSS, YMRS, GAF and cannabis did not.Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of participants
Completers (n=188)
Non-completers (n=68)
p
Women (n, %)
71 (37.8)
30 (44.1)
0.111
Age (M, IQR)
24 (20-28)
22 (20-28)
0.899
Cannabis use (M, IQR)
5.5 (0-18)
7 (0-21)
0.231
DUP (M, IQR)
45 (12.5-130)
36 (11.25-115.75)
0.213
PANSS (m, sd)
44.55 (10.17)
40.93 (10.42)
0.761
CDSS (M, IQR)
2 (0-7)
3 (0-5.5)
0.199
YMRS (m, sd)
19 (9.64)
17.6 (9.15)
0.845
GAF (M, IQR)
30 (25-50)
30 (25-35)
0.114
TABLE 2A and 2B.
Diagnosis comparison (n, %)
Baseline
1-year follow-up
Men
Women
Total
Men
Women
Total
Psychosis NOS
69 (59)
39 (54.9)
108 (57.4)
28 (23.9)
10 (14.1)
38 (20.2)
Schizophreniform disorder
22 (18.8)
16 (22.5)
38 (20.2)
14 (12
9 (12.7)
23 (12.2)
Induced psychosis
4 (3.4)
0 (0)
4 (2.1)
15 (12.8)
4 (5.6)
19 (10.1)
Affective psychosis
17 (14.5)
9 (12.7)
26 (13.8)
24 (20.5)
25 (35.2)
49 (26.1)
Schizophrenia
0 (0)
0 (0)
1 (0.4)
30 (25.6)
14 (19.7)
44 (23.4)
Brief psychotic disorder
5 (4.3)
7 (9.9)
12 (6.4)
6 (5.1)
8 (11.3)
14 (7.4)
Baseline
1-year follow-up
Men
Women
Total
Men
Women
Total
Affective psychosis
17 (14.5)
9 (12.7)
26 (13.8)
24 (20.5)
25 (35.2)
49 (26.1)
Non-affective psychosis
100 (85.5)
62 (87.3)
162 (86.2)
93 (79.5)
46 (64.8)
139 (73.9)
Image:
Conclusions
Sex has proven to be the main predictor of switching initial diagnosis of FEP.
Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) offer advantages for schizophrenic patients compared to oral antipsychotics: less frequent dosing, lower relapse rates, better adherence, and lower healthcare costs. LAIs include paliperidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, risperidone, and zuclopenthixol. Paliperidone palmitate is the only antipsychotic with two formulations with an administration interval longer than one month (3-monthly and 6-monthly), which could be better for the patient and help ensure treatment continuity, especially in cases of limited access to the health care system.
Objectives
To assess the satisfaction of patients under treatment with 6-month paliperidone palmitate compared to other long-acting injectable antipsychotics with a higher frequency of administration.
Methods
We analyzed the satisfaction level of a sample of patients receiving treatment with LAIs at the Mental Health Center of El Escorial. All patients had a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders (according to DSM-5). Patients who met the inclusion criteria completed the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM), a generic questionnaire of treatment satisfaction that measures four dimensions: side effects, treatment efficacy, comfort of use, and overall satisfaction. Other clinical and socio-demographic variables were collected, as well as the type of injectable, dose, and frequency of administration.
Results
Data from approximately 30 patients will be analyzed and discussed later.
Conclusions
Less frequent administration of LAIs may result in greater patient satisfaction and be just as beneficial clinically. Treatment satisfaction is positively associated with an improvement in psychotic symptoms and seems to be related to better adherence.
Children who have undergone an oncological process and have received treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy on the central nervous system may have significant neurocognitive sequelae. Some video games have shown neurocognitive benefits in people with impairments in different areas, such as attention or memory.
Objectives
This work aims to demonstrate the benefit of a video game-based training program to improve the neurocognitive profile in a child survivor of cancer.
Methods
The patient is a 9-year-old female who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 4 years. She received routine treatment of this disease by chemotherapy, including high-dose chemotherapy (with blood-brain barrier crossing) and intrathecal chemotherapy. She is currently 3 years after the end of treatment.
The Continuous Performance Test 3 (CPT-3) (sustained attention/vigilance) was administered before and after a multifaceted training program consisting of playing 3 video games for 12 weeks, as follows: a brain-training game (4 days per week, 7-12 minutes per day), a skill-training game (2 days per week, 10 minutes per day) and an exergaming game (2 days per week, 10 minutes per day).
Results
Prior to intervention, the patient had 3 atypical z-scores on the CPT-3 (z scores: mean = 0, S.D. = 1), with a pattern compatible with ADHD (omissions z = 1.2; hit reaction time z = 3.4; hit reaction time block change z = 1.2). After intervention, she had only an atypical z-score (hit reaction time z = 3.6), with a pattern compatible with slowing, without ADHD.
Conclusions
The neuropsychological evaluation of this patient showed an improvement in his attentional pattern on the CPT-3 after the video game-based training.
Childhood cancer survivors have neurocognitive sequelae that in most survivor follow-up programs are underdiagnosed and for which there is usually no treatment plan.
Video games have demonstrated various psychological and neurocognitive benefits in different subpopulations, such as patients with organic neurological deficits or children with ADHD. However, few studies have been carried out using video games-based interventions in the paediatric oncology population.
Objectives
The aim of this work is to present the WINNERS study protocol, the objectives of which are to diagnose the neurological and cognitive sequelae in child cancer survivors, and to demonstrate the benefit in these areas of a training program based on video games.
Methods
A randomized controlled and unblinded trial is presented. Fifty-six patients aged 8 to 17 years stratified into two age groups (8-12 and 13-17) who had received any of the following treatments 1 to 6 years before the enrolment will be selected: high-dose chemotherapy with blood-brain barrier crossing, intrathecal or intraventricular chemotherapy, CNS radiotherapy or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
A neuropsychological evaluation will be performed consisting of a battery of neuropsychological tests to assess parameters such as attention, memory, visuospatial ability or speed of response, as well as a neuroimaging evaluation by structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. The evaluation will be repeated 3 months and 6 months after the enrolment. Patients will be randomized to a treatment group or to a recycled waiting group. Intervention will consist on a 12-week training at home using 3 video games: a brain training game, an exergaming game and a skill training game.
Results
According to the hypotheses of this study, it is expected that the proposed program of videogame-based interventions will improve neurocognitive and other wellbeing parameters in the intervention group.
Conclusions
This study aims to improve the quality of care for patients who have survived a cancer disease by detecting sequelae that have so far been poorly attended, and by proposing a gamification-based intervention program that is effective and attractive for this population.
Psychotic disorders are strongly linked to a higher risk of mandatory hospitalization, often affecting men more, though some studies report the opposite. Recent investigations also show a higher rate of involuntary admissions in younger individuals. Knowledge in this area is still limited despite extensive research.
Objectives
Analyze whether there is an association between sex and age with involuntary admissions of individuals with psychotic disorders.
Methods
Retrospectively, 254 people with psychotic disorders admitted between 2018-2023 to the adult psychiatric inpatient unit at Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol were selected, collecting their nature of admission, sex, age, and discharge diagnosis. Comparisons between voluntary and involuntary admissions, with respect to sex and age variables, were conducted using independent sample t-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, Fisher’s exact test, and chi-square tests. A logistic regression model was used to identify variables significantly associated with mandatory admission.
Results
In both the male and female groups, there were no statistically significant differences in terms of the mean age at admission (p = 0.162) or the nature of admission (p = 0.586) (Table 1). When analyzing the voluntary nature of admission based on age and sex, statistically significant differences were only found in the female group (p = 0.01), resulting in a 9.18 year age difference among those admitted voluntarily (Table 2). The model that best predicted the probability of involuntary admission in individuals with psychotic disorders included the sex variable (OR = 4.88) and the interaction between sex and age (OR = 0.97) (Table 3).Table 1:
Differences between sex regarding voluntariness of patients with psychotic disorders.
Male
Female
p value
N (%)
122 (48%)
132 (52%)
Age, m (SD)
38.39 (16.64)
44.15 (18.44)
0.162
Admissions, N (%)
Voluntary
38 (31.1%)
37 (28.0%)
0.586
Involuntary
84 (68.9%)
95 (72.0%)
Table 2:
Analysis of voluntariness by sex and age.
Age, m (SD)
Voluntary
Involuntary
p value
Male
37.45 (16.38)
38.81 (16.84)
0.677
Female
50.76 (18.19)
41.58 (17.98)
0.01*
Total
44.01 (18.44)
40.28 (17.46)
0.127
Table 3:
Predictors of involuntariness in psychotic patients: Logistic regression model (ENTER METHOD).
Predictor
-2log likelihood
Nagelkerke R2
x2 (df*)
OR* (95% CI*)
p value
301.22
0.039
0.03 (1)
Age
1.01 (0.98; 1.03)
0.674
Sex
4.88 (1.15; 20.72)
0.032*
Age x Sex Interaction
0.97 (0.94; 0.99)
0.046*
Conclusions
Young women with psychotic disorders face a higher risk of involuntary admissions, emphasizing the need for gender-specific strategies to improve care of these patients.
Paediatric cancer survivors have a risk for neuropsychological impairment due to the disease and the treatment received. These affections have been neglected in the follow-up of these patients. It is important to identify the most valid outcomes in the evaluation of neurocognitive sequelae in childhood cancer survivors.
Objectives
This work aims to compare the results obtained between subjective perception of caregivers and objective cognitive performance based on validated attention tests.
Methods
In a randomized controlled and unblinded trial to demonstrate the benefit of video games on different neurocognitive areas in cancer survivors, we studied attention functioning before and after the intervention program. The attention deficit subscale from the Behavior Assessment System for Children 3rd edition (BASC-3), self- and parent-reported versions, and the Continuous Performance Test, 3rd edition (CPT 3) will be used as outcomes (z scores: mean = 0, S.D. = 1).
Results
We observed an improvement in attention after intervention using the CPT-3 (omissions z = 1.2; hit reaction time z = 3.4; hit reaction time block change z = 1.2 versus hit reaction time z = 3.6 without other atipycal z scores after intervention), changing the attentional pattern from “ADHD” to “slowed”. However, in the parent-reported version of the BASC-3, a worsening in the attention subscale is observed (z = 0.3 pre-intervention vs z = 1.0 post-intervention) while the self-reported version of the patient didn’t show any significant changes (z = 1.4 pre-intervention vs z = 1.1 post-intervention).
Conclusions
It is essential to use objective tests to measure neurocognitive sequelae in these patients. Subjective surveys can provide additional information, but not substitute the above.
Extensive evidence supports that the use of long-acting inyectable antipsychotics (LAIs) reduces the risk of relapses and maintains functional and symptomatic improvements in patients with schizophrenia, both in the initial stages and in chronic cases. Several LAIs are available but paliperidone palmitate is the only antipsychotic with formulations lasting 3 (PP3M) and 6 (PP6M) months. Longer-duration LAIs achieve stable treatment with fewer injections. Recent studies with PP3M support a reduction in hospitalizations and emergency room visits compared to monthly paliperidone and aripiprazole or oral antipsychotics.
PP6M seems to be at least as effective and well tolerated as other LAIs in preventing relapses in previously stabilized patients with schizophrenia.
Objectives
to assess efficacy and tolerability of PP6M in a real clinical practice compared to previous treatment (oral antipsychotics or other LAIs)
Methods
Patients with a diagnosis of psychotic disorder and treatment with PP6M have been recruited consecutively in a Mental Health Centre in the Community of Madrid (Spain). Clinical stability (CGI and emergency visits and hospitalizations since the start of treatment), tolerability (adverse effects), functionality (PSP scale) and satisfaction with treatment (TMSQ scale) have been studied.
Results
16 patients were included throughout the first 6 months of treatment with PP6M treated at a CSM in the Community (CSM) of Madrid, of which 2 abandoned the study. Among the 14 patients included, aged between 26 and 60 years, 13 had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and one of schizoaffective disorder (according to DSM5). No significant adverse effects were recorded, except for pain at the injection site. The majority were psychopathologically stable patients - 2 of them of recent onset (up to 36 months of evolution) and 7 psychopathological decompensations, measured as visits to the emergency room or psychiatric readmissions, have been detected during the first 6 months of follow-up in CSM. All patients had previously been admitted to treatment with PP6M (minimum 1 admission, maximum 20 admissions). The results of the baseline scores obtained on the psychometric scales applied were: CGI (15.35/35), PSP (62.78/100) and TMSQ (53.35/80).
Conclusions
The existing scientific evidence to date indicates that the application of PP6M is giving safe results in the first months of follow-up, with few side effects recorded, and a low rate of decompensations. This study based on data from real clinical practice in a CSM, despite the limitation due to the small sample size, obtains similar results consistent with those described in previous clinical trials.
Disclosure of Interest
I. Garcia Del Castillo Paid Instructor of: Training on drug use paid, A. Balaguer: None Declared, B. Esteban: None Declared, M. García del Castillo: None Declared, H. García del Castillo: None Declared, S. Castelao-Almodovar: None Declared, A. Arce de la Riva: None Declared, F. Neira Serrano: None Declared
The helminth community of the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, in the Sierra Espuña was characterized after a complete analysis of its helminth community component and infracommunity structure relative to host age, sex and year of capture. The helminth community comprised 13 species: one trematode, four cestodes and eight nematodes. The cestode Pseudocatenotaenia matovi and the nematode Syphacia frederici were the most prevalent and abundant helminth species, respectively. Sixty four percent of mice analysed presented helminths with a direct cycle and 42% presented helminths with an indirect cycle. The helminth community presents a low diversity with infracommunities usually made up of only one or two helminth species. Host age and year of capture seem to play a major role in determining species richness and helminth diversity, but not in determining the abundance of helminths. Host sex does not seem to affect the infection rate nor the diversity. Further studies on more samples of wood mice and other small mammal species in this regional park are needed to explore any possible interactions between helminth communities in the host populations.
The effect of ageing of adults of Echinostoma friedi (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) on the infectivity of miracidia yielded was analysed. Miracidia were obtained after hatching of eggs obtained from adult worms of E. friedi collected weekly during the course of experimental infections in golden hamsters. Miracidial infectivity, measured in terms of percentage of infection in Lymnaea peregra, was significantly influenced by the age of the adult worms from which the miracidia were derived. Infective miracidia only were obtained from adult worms in the age range from 4 to 9 weeks post-infection. Infectivity was maximal in those miracidia derived from adults collected 8 and 9 weeks post-infection. The results suggest that adult worms producing viable eggs require additional maturation to be able to yield eggs containing infective miracidia.
The infectivity of Echinostoma friedi (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) miracidia was studied experimentally in a range of laboratory-reared snails that coexist in the same natural locality, namely Radix peregra, Lymnaea fuscus, L. truncatula (Lymnaeidae), Gyraulus chinensis, Helisoma duryi (Planorbidae) and Physella acuta (Physidae), and snails from different geographical origins acting naturally or experimentally as intermediate hosts of Schistosoma spp., namely Planorbarius metidjensis (from Málaga, Spain), Biomphalaria glabrata (Guadeloupe), B. alexandrina (Egypt) (Planorbidae), Bulinus cernicus (Mauritius), B. globosus (Zambia), B. natalensis (South Africa) and B. truncatus (Niger) (Bulinidae). Six species of snails were found to be susceptible, with the rate of infection ranging from 0 to 36.7%. The highest infection was detected in R. peregra. The low host specificity of E. friedi might have an epidemiological significance as a requisite for a recent establishment in a new geographical area.
The survival characteristics of the cercariae of Hypoderaeumconoideum and Euparyphiumalbuferensis (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) at 20°C and 30°C are described, and the age dependency of their infectivity at 20°C is studied to determine their respective transmission efficiencies. Cercarial survival was found to be age-dependent and was higher at 20°C. For both cercariae, the maximum life-span was 26 h at 20°C and 16 h at 30°C, and their respective times to 50% mortality were similar at each temperature. Both cercariae seem to be well adapted to transmission in their natural habitat, though cercarial infectivity of H. conoideum was higher than that of E. albuferensis, this being correlated with their prevalences in nature. The age-dependency of cercarial survival may be related to steadily diminishing endogenous energy levels, though the delay in attaining maximum infectivity suggests that other factors not related to energy considerations are involved in the delimitation of the cercarial infective period. However, this latter observation may constitute an adaptative mechanism allowing cercarial dissemination.
The aim of this paper is to study supersoluble skew braces, a class of skew braces that encompasses all finite skew braces of square-free order. It turns out that finite supersoluble skew braces have Sylow towers and that in an arbitrary supersoluble skew brace B many relevant skew brace-theoretical properties are easier to identify: For example, a centrally nilpotent ideal of B is B-centrally nilpotent, a fact that simplifies the computational search for the Fitting ideal; also, B has finite multipermutational level if and only if $(B,+)$ is nilpotent.
Given a finite presentation of the structure skew brace $G(X,r)$ associated with a finite nondegenerate solution of the Yang–Baxter equation (YBE), there is an algorithm that decides if $G(X,r)$ is supersoluble or not. Moreover, supersoluble skew braces are examples of almost polycyclic skew braces, so they give rise to solutions of the YBE on which one can algorithmically work on.
There is limited information on the antibody responses against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in subjects from developing countries with populations having a high incidence of co-morbidities. Here, we analysed the immunogenicity of homologous schemes using the ChAdOx1-S, Sputnik V, or BNT162b2 vaccines and the effect of a booster dose with ChAdOx1-S in middle-aged adults who were seropositive or seronegative to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein before vaccination. The study was conducted post-vaccination with a follow-up of 4 months for antibody titre using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and pseudovirus (PV) neutralization assays (PNAs). All three vaccines elicited a superior IgG anti-receptor-binding domain (RBD) and neutralization response against the Alpha and Delta variants when administered to individuals with a previous infection by SARS-CoV-2. The booster dose spiked the neutralization activity among individuals with and without a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. The ChAdOx1-S vaccine induced weaker antibody responses in infection-naive subjects. A follow-up of 4 months post-vaccination showed a drop in antibody titre, with about 20% of the infection-naive and 100% of SARS-CoV-2 pre-exposed participants with detectable neutralization capacity against Alpha pseudovirus (Alpha-PV) and Delta PV (Delta-PV). Our observations support the use of different vaccines in a country with high seroprevalence at the vaccination time.
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious and chronic mental disease of mood. Lithium is used for treatment and studies have demonstrated that it is the most efficient drug, reducing suicide risk in a high percentage of patients. However, this drug has well known side effects, such as kidney damage. Lithium could cause chronic kidney disease, specially with the presence of other risk factors.
Objectives
Observational and retrospective study of creatinine levels and glomerular filtration rates observed in blood analysis (follow-up period of 11 years). Sample size of 263 patients diagnosed of BD I and BD II in treatment with lithium. We used socio-demographic (age, sex) and clinic variables (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and/or diuretics) to generate bivariate and multivariate analysis.
Methods
Our main objective is to analyze the deterioration of kidney function and the development of chronic kidney disease that chronic treatment with lithium can induce in patients with BD. Our secondary objective is to determine variables which could promote the development of chronic kidney disease, and to assess if these variables could be considered as risk factors during the treatment with lithium.
Results
11,3 % of patients in our study developed chronic kidney disease during monitoring. The deterioration of GFR in patients in treatment with lithium was significantly associated with female sex and NSAIDs consumption. A trend towards statistical significance was found regarding the use of diuretics (p=0,060). No statistical significance was found between diabetes mellitus, hypertension or type of BD and the deterioration of kidney function in our sample. An inverse association was found between the GFR decline and the age but no statistical significance was demonstrated.
Conclusions
We conclude that female sex and use of NSAIDs are predicting factors of GFR decline in patients with BD in chronic treatment with lithium. We must take into account these drugs or even avoid concomitant treatment (lithium and NSAIDs) in order to prevent chronic kidney disease. In addition to it, we should recommend careful use of diuretics during treatment with lithium because of risk of dehydration. Diabetes mellitus and hypertension have universally been associated to increase risk of development of chronic kidney disease. However, we have not found statistical significance in our study. Therefore, research should be done in order to determine specific risk factors in this group of patients and, consequently, optimize their treatment.
A key ingredient in the earliest evolutionary phase of high-mass (M>8 M⊙) star formation (HMSF) is the presence of a jet/outflow system. To study its role in HMSF, we have carried out high resolution (0.1″) VLA K-band (18-26.5 GHz) observations toward IRAS 19035+0641 A, identified as a high-mass protostellar jet candidate based on previous cm continuum data. Our observations resolve the continuum emission into an elongated structure in the NE-SW direction, confirming that the K-band continuum arises from an ionized jet. Furthermore, we detected several 22.2 GHz H2O maser spots aligned in a direction consistent with the jet axis. Zeeman splitting was detected in the strongest maser spot. In this paper, we present our results and discuss the implications of our findings.
The prevalence of allergies in children has grown in last few decades. Allergies are very often associated with physical, mental, and emotional problems that could be detected through child’s behaviour and feelings.
Objectives
to describe and compare children’s behaviour (internalizing and externalizing) across a sample of children aged 6–11 years with and without allergic diseases.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional observational case-control study. A survey to 366 families (194 allergic cases and 172 controls), including a child behaviour checklist (CBCL) and a socio-demographic questionnaire with questions related to family, school education, health conditions and allergy symptoms, was administered.
Results
Children with a diagnosis of allergy showed higher scores in the overall CBCL score (standardised mean differences [SMD]= 0.47; confidence intervals [CI]: 0.26–0.68) and in the internalizing and externalizing factors (SMD=0.52 and SMD=0.36, respectively) than non-allergic children. Odds ratio (OR) analyses showed a higher risk (OR=2.76; 95% CI [1.61 to 4.72]) of developing a behavioural difficulty in children diagnosed with allergies. Age and level of asthma appear as modulatory variables.
Conclusions
Children aged 6–11 years diagnosed with allergies showed larger behavioural problems than non-allergic children. This relationship is stronger in internalizing behaviours. These findings suggest the importance of attending to them and treating them in the early stages of diagnosis to avoid future psychological disorders.
Alpha-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP) is a synthetic cathinone with uneven distribution throughout the world. Its use is not uniformly regulated and its distribution is legal in some European countries. Easily accessible and available through different websites. Synthetic cathinones inhibit monoamine transporters which include dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, resulting in increased neurotransmitter synaptic concentration. Ways of administration show wide range regarding latency period. Onset and appearance of symptoms as well as their duration and intensity may fluctuate. A decreasing order of latency (oral, inhaled, sublingual and intravenous) has been reported. α-PHP can result in the appearance of psychiatric symptoms, include among others, intoxication with sensory perception disturbances and α-PHP -induced psychotic episodes.
Objectives
The aim of our study was to assess the epidemiology, clinical and legal features regarding Alpha-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP).
Methods
Review the current bibliography to upgrade the existing knowledge. -Present assorted cases with diverse clinical features. All cases include variability through psychopathological interview, symptoms assessment and treatment response according to rating scales (PANSS, YMRS). -Evaluate different treatment administration ways during acute phase and after hospital discharge.
Results
Differences were observed after hospitalization in the response using diverse rating scales. We used antipsychotics to treat intoxication with sensory perception disturbances and α-PHP -induced psychotic episodes. α-PHP had a negative impact on the quality of life of the patients.
Conclusions
α-PHP is a synthetic cathinone with potential risk to mental health and life of users. It is mandatory to implement common legislation all through the European Union to prevent its use and possible implications on population’s mental health.