Influência do chá da caá-heê, Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni, sobre o peso dos órgãos sexuais isolados de camundongos jovens

O chá das folhas secas da Cáa-heê reduziu o peso dos ôrgãos sexuais de comundongos machos e fêmeas principalmente. Este efeito foi mais nítido após administração do chá a 1% por período de 30 dias (nas fêmeas) e 60 dias (testículos dos machos). A influência inibitória da cáa-heê variou com a dose (concentração do chá) e com o tempo de duração do tratamento.

Trypanosoma cruzi infection in offspring born to chagasic C3H/He mice

This study reports the effects of Trypanosoma cruzi infection induced in C3H/He male and female mice born to chagasic mice. An experimental model was established infecting female C3H/He mice with a low virulent T. cruzi clone. In this model, mating, fertilization, pregnancy evolution and delivery was carried out successfully. The offspring was infected at four, six and eigth weeks of age. The results showed that the offspring born to chagasic mothers present decreased resistance to acquired T. cruzi infection. This decreased resistance was expressed by higher levels of parasitaemia and higher mortality rates in offspring born to chagasic mothers than in controls. Age and sex were shown to be important factors of this phenomenon. The results suggest that maternal immune system products can modulate the immune response of the offspring.

Natural Schistosoma mansoni infection in Nectomys squamipes: histopathological and morphometric analysis in comparison to experimentally infected N. squamipes and C3H/He mice

Histopathologic and morphometric (area, perimeter, major and minor diameters) analysis of hepatic granulomas isolated from twelve naturally infected Nectomys squamipes were compared to four experimentally infected ones and six C3H/He mice. Liver paraffin sections were stained for cells and extracellular matrix. Both groups of N. squamipes presented peculiar granulomas consisting predominantly of large macrophages, full of schistosome pigment, characterizing an exudative-macrophage granuloma type, smaller than the equivalent granuloma type in mouse. Naturally infected animals exhibited granulomas in different stages of development, including large number of involutional types. Morphometric analysis showed that all measurements were smaller in naturally infected animals than in other groups. The results demonstrated that both N. squamipes groups reproduced, with small variations, the hepatic granuloma aspects already described in cricetidium (Calomys callosus), showing a genetic tendency to set up strong macrophage responses and small granulomas. Unexpectedly, natural infection did not engender distinguished histopathological characteristics distinct from those derived from experimental single infection, showing changes predominantly secondary to the duration of infection. It appears that the variability of the inocula (and the number of infections?) interfere more with the quantity than with the quality of the pathological changes, denoting some morpho-functional determinism in the response to schistosomal infection dependent on the animal species.

A comparative parasitologic study on Biomphalaria glabrata snail and C3H/He mice infected with human and murine isolates of Schistosoma mansoni derived from Sumidouro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Experiments were carried out to analyze the biological characteristics of two sympatric isolates of Schistosoma mansoni derived from humans and murines in a low endemic transmission area (Sumidouro county, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Sympatric reared-laboratory Biomphalaria glabrata and C3H/He mice were used as experimental hosts. Parameters assessed comprised: precercarial period, infectivity and mortality (snails), prepatent period, infectivity (percentage of cercariae maturation into adult worm) and intestinal egg count (mice). The murine isolate showed a shorter precercarial period and higher infectivity than human isolate (p < 0.05). This biological heterogenicity did not correspond to the vertebrate data because any biological parameter presented significant difference (p > 0.05). These data suggest that both isolates are local sub-populations, providing support for the hypotheses that in a same biotope mixed populations or sub-populations circulate among their main host (human beings) and/or rodent as an anfixenous infection.

Influence of He-Ne laser therapy on the dynamics of wound healing in mice treated with anti-inflammatory drugs

We determined the effects of helium-neon (He-Ne) laser irradiation on wound healing dynamics in mice treated with steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. Male albino mice, 28-32 g, were randomized into 6 groups of 6 animals each: control (C), He-Ne laser (L), dexamethasone (D), D + L, celecoxib (X), and X + L. D and X were injected im at doses of 5 and 22 mg/kg, respectively, 24 h before the experiment. A 1-cm long surgical wound was made with a scalpel on the abdomens of the mice. Animals from groups L, D + L and X + L were exposed to 4 J (cm²)-1 day-1 of He-Ne laser for 12 s and were sacrificed on days 1, 2, or 3 after the procedure, when skin samples were taken for histological examination. A significant increase of collagen synthesis was observed in group L compared with C (168 ± 20 vs 63 ± 8 mm²). The basal cellularity values on day 1 were: C = 763 ± 47, L = 1116 ± 85, D = 376 ± 24, D + L = 698 ± 31, X = 453 ± 29, X + L = 639 ± 32 U/mm². These data show that application of L increases while D and X decrease the inflammatory cellularity compared with C. They also show that L restores the diminished cellularity induced by the anti-inflammatory drugs. We suggest that He-Ne laser promotes collagen formation and restores the baseline cellularity after pharmacological inhibition, indicating new perspectives for laser therapy aiming to increase the healing process when anti-inflammatory drugs are used.

Comparação da espessura da perimatriz, de colesteatomas adquiridos, entre pacientes pediátricos e adultos

Os colesteatomas podem ocorrer tanto em crianças como em adultos, porém nas crianças apresentam um crescimento mais agressivo e extenso. OBJETIVO: Comparar a espessura da perimatriz, em µm, entre colesteatomas adquiridos de crianças com o de adultos. FORMA DE ESTUDO: coorte transversal. MATERIAL E MÉTODO: Estudamos 74 colesteatomas, 35 pediátricos, coletados em cirurgias otológicas, fixados em formol 10% e preparadas uma lâmina em Hematoxilina-Eosina (HE) e outra em Picrossírios, para análise ao microscópio óptico. A leitura foi "cega", através de imagens digitais, no ImageProPlus. A análise estatística foi realizada através do coeficiente de Spearman, sendo considerados como estatisticamente significativos os valores de P.

Frequência e distribuição de Helicobacter spp. na mucosa gástrica de cães

A associação das helicobacterias com doença gástrica em humanos e em alguns animais domésticos e selvagens sugere a participação dessas na patogênese da gastrite em cães. Neste artigo procurou-se verificar a presença de Helicobacter spp. na mucosa gástrica de cães e avaliar sua associação com os achados macro e microscópicos, considerando a idade. Coletaram-se amostras das regiões cárdica, fúndica, do corpo e pilórica dos estômagos de 60 cães para a realização de exame histopatológico, utilizando-se as colorações pela hematoxilina-eosina (HE) e carbolfucsina (CF). Tais exames revelaram Helicobacter spp. em 96,7% dos animais, sendo observados infiltrados inflamatórios, predominantemente mononucleares (100%), hiperplasia de nódulos linfoides (98,3%), erosões/ulcerações (6,7%), hemorragia (5%) e hiperemia (95%) em amostras coradas por HE. Não houve correlação da infecção por helicobacter spp. com a idade do animal e da idade com alterações inflamatórias na presença da bactéria. As amostras das regiões do corpo e pilórica apresentaram maior presença de bactérias a histopatologia (CF) (ambos 95%), em seguida vindo as regiões fúndica (91,7%) e cárdica (56,7%). Houve correlação do número de Helicobacter spp. com o de células inflamatórias e nódulos linfoides nessas regiões, sugerindo que as bactérias encontradas na mucosa gástrica dos cães poderiam ser responsáveis pelas alterações que caracterizam a gastrite.

O planejamento econômico no Brasil: considerações críticas

In the past thirty years, a series of plans have been developed by successive Brazilian governments in a continuing effort to maximize the nation's resources for economic and social growth. This planning history has been quantitatively rich but qualitatively poor. The disjunction has stimulated Professor Mello e Souza to address himself to the problem of national planning and to offer some criticisms of Brazilian planning experience. Though political instability has obviously been a factor promoting discontinuity, his criticisms are aimed at the attitudes and strategic concepts which have sought to link planning to national goals and administration. He criticizes the fascination with techniques and plans to the exclusion of proper diagnosis of the socio-political reality, developing instruments to coordinate and carry out objectives, and creating an administrative structure centralized enough to make national decisions and decentralized enough to perform on the basis of those decisions. Thus, fixed, quantified objectives abound while the problem of functioning mechanisms for the coordinated, rational use of resources has been left unattended. Although his interest and criticism are focused on the process and experience of national planning, he recognized variation in the level and results of Brazilian planning. National plans have failed due to faulty conception of the function of planning. Sectorial plans, save in the sector of the petroleum industry under government responsibility, ha e not succeeded in overcoming the problems of formulation and execution thereby repeating old technical errors. Planning for the private sector has a somewhat brighter history due to the use of Grupos Executivos which has enabled the planning process to transcend the formalism and tradition-bound attitudes of the regular bureaucracy. Regional planning offers two relatively successful experiences, Sudene and the strategy of the regionally oriented autarchy. Thus, planning history in Brazil is not entirely black but a certain shade of grey. The major part of the article, however, is devoted to a descriptive analysis of the national planning experience. The plans included in this analysis are: The Works and Equipment Plan (POE); The Health, Food, Transportation and Energy Plan (Salte); The Program of Goals; The Trienal Plan of Economic and Social Development; and the Plan of Governmental Economic Action (Paeg). Using these five plans for his historical experience the author sets out a series of errors of formulation and execution by which he analyzes that experience. With respect to formulation, he speaks of a lack of elaboration of programs and projects, of coordination among diverse goals, and of provision of qualified staff and techniques. He mentions the absence of the definition of resources necessary to the financing of the plan and the inadequate quantification of sectorial and national goals due to the lack of reliable statistical information. Finally, he notes the failure to coordinate the annual budget with the multi-year plans. He sees the problems of execution as beginning in the absence of coordination between the various sectors of the public administration, the failure to develop an operative system of decentralization, the absence of any system of financial and fiscal control over execution, the difficulties imposed by the system of public accounting, and the absence of an adequate program of allocation for the liberation of resources. He ends by pointing to the failure to develop and use an integrated system of political economic tools in a mode compatible with the objective of the plans. The body of the article analyzes national planning experience in Brazil using these lists of errors as rough model of criticism. Several conclusions emerge from this analysis with regard to planning in Brazil and in developing countries, in general. Plans have generally been of little avail in Brazil because of the lack of a continuous, bureaucratized (in the Weberian sense) planning organization set in an instrumentally suitable administrative structure and based on thorough diagnoses of socio-economic conditions and problems. Plans have become the justification for planning. Planning has come to be conceived as a rational method of orienting the process of decisions through the establishment of a precise and quantified relation between means and ends. But this conception has led to a planning history rimmed with frustration, and failure, because of its rigidity in the face of flexible and changing reality. Rather, he suggests a conception of planning which understands it "as a rational process of formulating decisions about the policy, economy, and society whose only demand is that of managing the instrumentarium in a harmonious and integrated form in order to reach explicit, but not quantified ends". He calls this "planning without plans": the establishment of broad-scale tendencies through diagnosis whose implementation is carried out through an adjustable, coherent instrumentarium of political-economic tools. Administration according to a plan of multiple, integrated goals is a sound procedure if the nation's administrative machinery contains the technical development needed to control the multiple variables linked to any situation of socio-economic change. Brazil does not possess this level of refinement and any strategy of planning relevant to its problems must recognize this. The reforms which have been attempted fail to make this recognition as is true of the conception of planning informing the Brazilian experience. Therefore, unworkable plans, ill-diagnosed with little or no supportive instrumentarium or flexibility have been Brazil's legacy. This legacy seems likely to continue until the conception of planning comes to live in the reality of Brazil.

Health education: the role and functions of the specialist and the generalist

Education for health is a process in which all public health and medical care personnel are involved. People learn both formally (planned learning experiences) and informally (unplanned learning experiences). Since the patient, the client, the consummer and the community expect public health and medical care personnel to assist them with health and disease issues and problems, the response of the professional "educates" the customer whether the professional intends to educate or not. Therefore, it is incumbent on all public health and medical care professionals to understand their educational functions and their role in health education. It is also important that the role of the specialist in education be clear. The specialist, as to all other specialists, has an in-depth knowledge of his area of expertise, i.e., the teaching/learning process; s/he may function as a consultant to others to enhance the educational potential of their role or s/he may work with a team or with communities or groups of patients. Specific competencies and knowledge are required of the health education specialist; and there is a body of learning and social change theory which provides a frame of reference for planning, implementing and evaluating educational programs. Working with others to enhance their potential to learn and to make informed decisions about health/disease issues is the hallmark of the health education specialist.