The Bambuí health and aging study (BHAS). Prevalence of intermittent claudication in the aged population of the community of Bambuí and its associated factors

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of intermittent claudication in the aged population of Bambuí, Brazil, and to identify the factors associated with this disease. METHODS: Population-based cross-sectional study of the aged population ( > or = 60 years of age) of Bambuí. Participants were interviewed and examined, after written consent. Intermittent claudication was defined based on a standardized questionnaire. Analysis was performed using multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 1,742 elderly living in Bambuí, 1,485 (85.2%) were enrolled in the study. Thirty-seven individuals (2.5%) with intermittent claudication were identified: 28 (1.9%) males and 9 (0.6%) females. Their age brackets were: 16 (1.08%) individuals between 60 and 69 years of age, 17 (1.15%) between 70 and 79 years, and 4 (0.27%) > or = 80 years. A significant association between intermittent claudication and the following characteristics was found: male sex (OR=5.1; CI 2.4-11.0), smokers (OR=3.1; CI 1.2-8.5), ex-smokers (OR=3.4; CI 1.3-8.7), and more than 2 hospital admissions in the last 12 months (OR=2.8; CI 1.1-7.2). CONCLUSION: Disease prevalence was similar to that of other countries. The association between intermittent claudication and smoking strengthens the significance of tobacco in peripheral artery disease pathogenesis. The association of intermittent claudication and a higher number of hospital admissions suggests greater morbidity in the elderly affected.

Trends in the risk of mortality due to cardiovascular diseases in five Brazilian geographic regions from 1979 to 1996

OBJECTIVE - To analyze the trends in risk of death due to cardiovascular diseases in the northern, northeastern, southern, southeastern, and central western Brazilian geographic regions from 1979 to 1996. METHODS - Data on mortality due to cardiovascular, cardiac ischemic, and cerebrovascular diseases in 5 Brazilian geographic regions were obtained from the Ministry of Health. Population estimates for the time period from 1978 to 1996 in the 5 Brazilian geographic regions were calculated by interpolation with the Lagrange method, based on the census data from 1970, 1980, 1991, and the population count of 1996, for each age bracket and sex. Trends were analyzed with the multiple linear regression model. RESULTS - Cardiovascular diseases showed a declining trend in the southern, southeastern, and northern Brazilian geographic regions in all age brackets and for both sexes. In the northeastern and central western regions, an increasing trend in the risk of death due to cardiovascular diseases occurred, except for the age bracket from 30 to 39 years, which showed a slight reduction. This resulted from the trends of cardiac ischemic and cerebrovascular diseases. The analysis of the trend in the northeastern and northern regions was impaired by the great proportion of poorly defined causes of death. CONCLUSION - The risk of death due to cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and cardiac ischemic diseases decreased in the southern and southeastern regions, which are the most developed regions in the country, and increased in the least developed regions, mainly in the central western region.

Nota prévia sôbre a meiose de Corizus (Liorhyssus) hyalinus (Fabr.) (Hemiptera-Corizidae)

The main facts presented in this paper may be summarized as follows: 1) Corizus (Liorhyssus) hyalinus (Fabr.) has primary spermatocytes provided with 6 autosomal tetrads, one pair of microchromosomes and one sex chromosome. 2) The two microchromosomes present in this species sometimes appear at the primary metaphase as an unequal pair of minute elements. In the secondary spermatocytes the unique microchromosome present may be in the limit of visibility or entirely invisible. This invisibility may be partly due to a loss of colourability. 3) The sex chromosome divides transversely in the first division of the spermatocyte, passing undivided to one pole in the second one. In the latter it becomes fusiform in the beginning of anaphase revealing in this manner its dicentricity. In late anaphase it finishes by passing to one pole leaving in the other pole one of its kinetochores sometimes accompanied by a chromosomal fragment. 4) All the chromosomes divide transversely in both divisions, a diagram being enclosed to elucidate the question. 5) Spermatogonial chromosomes are provided with one kinetochore at each end, being curved toward the poles since the most beginning anaphase. 6) The following hypothesis is presented as an essay to explain the origin of microchromosomes: Since microchromosomes parallel sex chromosomes in most respects, as for instances in heteropycnosis and pairing modus, it seems highly probable that they originate from sex chromosomes. One may suppose that the ancestral form of a given species had a sex chromosome which used to lose a small centric fragment when it divided during meiosis. This fragment might well be at first an unstable one. Later, to compensate the effects of such a deficiency a mechanism arose through evolution which produced two useful results : a) the establishment of the fragment as a permanent structure of the cell nucleus and b) the acquirement by the sex chromosome of the faculty of passing to one pole without losing any of its ends.

Records of performance and sanitary status from a dairy cattle herd in southern Brazil

Over the last decades, the emphasis on the health of dairy cows has changed from an individual to a herd level. In this scenario, the role played by the recording system and its interpretation by veterinarians has gained primordial importance. The records of productive and reproductive performance and of sanitary status from a southern Brazilian dairy cattle herd have been presented and discussed. The period of study was 2000-2009. Mean values per lactation period were 349D 8436M 290F 275P 201SCS (D: days in lactation, M: kg of milk yield, F: kg of fat, P: kg of protein and SCS: somatic cell score in 1000 cells/ml of milk). Major indexes of reproductive efficiency included age at first calving (31 months), services per conception (2.1), intercalving interval (428 days), calving to conception interval (146 days), mean annual rates of parturitions (76.2%), fetal losses (9.8-19.0%), and stillbirths (3.6%), apart of voluntary waiting period (94 days). Main information on sanitary status of the herd was associated with the mean prevalence of common disorders of dairy cattle such as anaplasmosis (29.8%), mastitis (27.8%), digital diseases (26.3%), ovarian cysts (21.3%), placental retention (19.7%), postpartum uterine infections (10.6%), and calf diarrhea (23.7%) and pneumonia (16.8%), among others. In addition, culling reasons (low reproductive performance [56.3%] and udder/mastitis problems [33.6%]), causes of cattle deaths (anaplasmosis [16.4%] and leukosis [11.4]), and the impact of cattle diseases such as tuberculosis, leukosis, and neosporosis on the herd have also been presented and succinctly discussed. Numbers between brackets represent rates accumulated in the 10-year period.

Paisagens de ausência e de vazio

Este estudo procura evidenciar a natureza lacunar e intersticial da espacialidade própria à experiência sensível, segundo o último Merleau-Ponty, aquele da notas de trabalho de Le visible et l'invisible. Para tanto, são discutidos os momentos em que, no trato tanto com a perceptibilidade quanto com a intersubjetividade, Merleau-Ponty evoca a vida intencional a partir da analogia com a experiência estética em sua selvagem polissemia. O estudo especula que, apesar da evidência de que a plasticidade multimodal da arte moderna fornece renovado suporte para a interpretação da experiência sensorial, tarefa impossível para a racionalidade, a teoria do último Merleau-Ponty parece incapaz de propor uma noção consistente de negatividade.