Caracterização sorológica e detecção molecular do HTLV em amostras de pacientes com distúrbios neurológicos no Estado do Pará, Brasil (1996-2005)

ABSTRACT: Human T-lymphotropic virus tipe 1 is recognized as the etiologic agent of tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM). A very similar clinical disease has been increasingly associated to HTLV-2, whose pathogenicity still requires further assessments. This transversal, retrospective epidemiological survey aimed to determine the prevalence of HTLV among individuals with neurological disturbances and further evaluate cases of inconclusive serology using molecular biology methods. The present study involved patients inhabitants of Pará State and/or admitted at health institutions of the and who were referred to the Virology Section of Instituto Evandro Chagas (IEC) by local doctors between January of 1996 and December 2005, to search for the presence of HTLV-1/2 serum antibodies. Of these patients 353 were selected, with age between 9 months and 79 years, who presented at least one signal or symptom of the Marsh’s Complex (1996), as well as had HTLV-1/2 positive serology at screening and confirmatory ELISA. The overall prevalence of HTLV antibodies by ELISA as 8,8% (31/353), with rates of 10,6% (19/179) and 6,9% (12/174) for female and male patients, respectively. Among HTLV-1/2 the 31 ELISA-positive patients it was noted that 15 (48.4%) of 31 had paresis (n = 8), parestesis (n = 5), and paraplegia (n = 3). Of these 31 HTLV ELISA positive patients, 25 could be submitted to WB for assessment of viral types, which were distributed as follow: 80% (20/25) were HTLV-1, 12% (3/25) were HTLV-2, one case was of HTLV-1+HTLV-2 infection (4%), and serum from one patient yielded an indeterminate profile (4%). Only 14 of these 25 patients could be re-localised for collection of an additional sample for molecular analysis. It was observed that 78.6% of samples typed by WB had the proviral TAX region successfully amplified by nested-PCR. In addition, types were confirmed as based on results obtained from the amplification of the POL region using real-time PCR; this denoted good specificity and sensitivity of the WB used in this study. The sample defined as HTLV-1+HTLV-2 infection by WB was amplified in its TAX region but real time PCR confirmed HTLV-1 infection only. The patient with WB indeterminate profile and one of samples typed as HTLV-2 by WB were amplified by nested-PCR but the real time PCR was negative for HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 in both samples. One patient presenting clinical manifestations of crural myalgia and parestesia with duration of about 7 years reacted HTLV-2-positive by both WB and real-time PCR, a denoting a clear HTLV-2- related chronic myelopathy. This study has identified a case of possible vertical transmission in two distinct situations: a patient whose mother presented antibodies for HTLV-1 by WB and two sisters who reacted HTLV-1-positive by WB and real-time PCR. Although of epidemiological relevance, results from this study warrant further and broader analyses concerning the molecular epidemiology of HTLV types and subtypes HTLV. In addition, a more complete clinical assessment of neurological symptoms should be further performed, in order to better characterise cases of HTLV-related chronic myelopathy in our region.

Aspectos microbiológicos e epidemiológicos da doença diarréica aguda no município de Juruti, Pará

O presente estudo descreveu os aspectos epidemiológicos e etiológicos da diarréia aguda no município de Juruti, Pará, Brasil. Foram avaliadas 261 amostras de fezes (170 diarréicas e 91 controles) de pacientes atendidos em Unidades de Saúde Pública, no período de fevereiro a julho de 2009. Para o isolamento de bactérias enteropatogênicas, utilizou-se meios seletivos indicadores e de enriquecimento. A caracterização bioquímica foi realizada utilizando os Sistemas API-20E e a sorologia, através de antisoros polivalentes e monovalentes. Para a detecção das categorias de E. coli diarreiogênicas foram executados dois ensaios de PCR multiplex. A pesquisa de Campylobacter jejuni e Campylobacter coli e Rotavírus foi executada através da técnica de ELISA, nas amostras de fezes. No exame parasitológico foram utilizados os métodos diretos (salina/Lugol) e sedimentação espontânea. Das 154 amostras positivas (118 diarréicas e 36 controles), 75,4% eram de infecções únicas e 24,6% de infecções mistas. A maioria dos casos incluiu crianças menores de 10 anos de idade (55,9%), sem diferença significante entre os sexos feminino e masculino. Os enteropatógenos mais frequentes no grupo diarréico foram E. histolytica/E. dispar (26%), Shigella spp (15,7%), G. lamblia (13,3%) e E. coli diarreiogênicas (12,8%), com Shigella spp associada à diarréia aguda (p = 0,0028). Quanto às categorias patogênicas de E. coli, a ETEC (7,2%) foi o tipo mais frequente nos casos de diarréia aguda, seguido de EAEC (5,9%). Os agentes menos frequentes nos casos diarréicos foram representados por C. jejuni/C. coli (4,7%), Rotavírus (2,8%), Salmonella Panama, A. hydrophila e A. sóbria (0,5%). Os resultados encontrados fornecem subsídios importantes para a vigilância epidemiológica e ambiental da doença diarréica aguda, no município de Juruti.

Passiflora na alimentação de codornas de postura

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Biologia de Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: pseudococcidae) e de seu parasitóide Acerophagus papayae (Hymenoptera: encyrtidae ) em diferentes plantas hospedeiras e levantamento de inimigos naturais em Barbados

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Efeito da utilização de antioxidante no diluidor para a criopreservação de sêmen bovino avaliado através de testes complementares, inseminação artificial e fecundação in vitro

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Validação de método não-invasivo para análise de hormônios ligados ao estresse em papagaio-verdadeiro(Amazona aestiva)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Processo de diferenciação gonodal em Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum e tentativa de feminilização com 17β-estradiol

Pós-graduação em Aquicultura - FCAV

Comparação de ajustes do modelo de Gompertz a dados de crescimento

Pós-graduação em Biometria - IBB

Caracterização de lesões desportivas no basquetebol

INTRODUCTION: Basketball is characterized with high injury rate. In the literature it's not defined whether or not there are differences between the sexes. OBJECTIVE: Characterize and analyze the incidence of athletic injuries in basketball players, comparing the sexes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen under-23 category athletes of each sex were interviewed with the reported morbidity inquire. RESULTS: The age of the female and male teams, in average, was 18 ± 0.65 and 18.20 ± 1.57 years respectively. The male team had more injuries than the female one (respectively 2.6 ± 1.45 against 1.2 ± 1.18, p < 0.05). The joint damage was the most common injury in the male team, representing 58.97%, and the second most common in the female team (33.33%). The lower limbs were the most common injured sites (80.95% in the female and 69.23% in the male). The most frequent injury mechanism in the male team was the landing (43.59%), and in the female was the vertical jump (28.57%). In both teams the most injuries occurred during the training (61.9% in the female and 71.8% in the male). The absence was necessary in 47.62% (female) and 56.41% (male). Great part of the athletes didn't received any treatment (61.9% and 51.28% in the female and male team respectively). The return to the activities was mostly symptomatic, in both female and male team (85.71% and 84.62% respectively). CONCLUSION: The incidence of injuries in basketball is higher in the lower limbs. The male team is more likely to suffer injuries, and the main injury mechanisms were different between male and female team.

Pregnancy Monitoring of In Vitro Produced Embryos in Buffaloes

In the present study, pregnancies obtained from 115 in vitro produced embryos were monitored by ultrasonography on days 30 and 60 after embryo transfer (ET), and at calving. Additionally, the health of newborns and recipients were also evaluated. On day 30 after ET, positive pregnancy was diagnosed in 50 animals (43.5%). A total of 8 fetal mortalities (16.0%) were verified from 30 days until calving, in which 2 occurred from 30 to 60 days after ET (4.0%), and 6 occurred from 60 days until calving (12.0%). In this last period of pregnancy, 3 pregnancy losses were due to abortion, and the other 3 were stillbirth. One additional animal was eliminated from the study, remaining 41 pregnancies. From these 41 pregnancies, a total of 20 female calves (48.8%) and 21 male calves (51.2%) were born. Pregnancies from female and male calves had a mean length of 309.8 and 310.9 days, respectively (range 300 to 328 days, and 297 to 320 days, respectively). Weight at calving was a mean of 31.4 and 33.8 kg for female and male calves, respectively. All calving occurred without intervention and dystocia was not observed in any case. No large offspring syndrome, hydramnios, hydroallantois, or umbilical cord anomalies were observed in calves. Delivery was normal in all recipients, and no puerperal infections, or retained placenta occurred. Suckling assistance was not necessary in any newborn. All genetic pedigree was confirmed later by DNA tests.

Influência da ingestão do triptofano dietético sobre a preferência na escolha do macho pela fêmea, auto-balanceamento da dieta e desempenho zootécnico em tilápia-do-Nilo e Pirapitinga

Pós-graduação em Aquicultura - FCAV

Morpho-structural characterization of rabbits of both sexes in the southeastern region of Brazil

Several studies have highlighted the importance of the correlation between body size and body weight. The objective of this study was to characterize the morphological structure of New Zealand White rabbits, phenotypically correlating body shape traits with body weight. For this purpose, forty rabbits, weaned at 35 days of age, were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design, consisting of two treatments (female and male) with twenty replicates each. At 88 days of age, animals were weighed to determine body weight (B W), and then the following body measures were determined using a measuring tape: ventral perimeter, thoracic perimeter, wither height, croup height, ear length, and body length. Average BW was 2,220 g, and average body measures were 34.4 cm, 28.4 cm, 8.95 cm, 10.4 cm, 10.6 cm, and 36 cm respectively. No significcmt differences between sexes were found relative to the studied traits. There was no negative correlation between body measures and BW, and, except for body length, all measures were significantly correlated with BW, with ear length and ventral perimeter presenting the highest values.

Diga-me quem tu és: o léxico-marketing na publicidade e o comportamento de gêneros sociais

It is unanimous among lexicologists that lexical units present deep marks in the representativeness of cultural and behavioral issues. Thus, some scholars have been proposing methodologies in order to enable the verification, scientifically, of mechanisms to systematize the lexicon within a specific time/space. In this way, it would be possible to promote discussions about its relations with social matters. These lexical contents can be analyzed, for instance, in the publicity having in mind its power of extending the desires of its receiver/customer to the acquisition of products/services since it is a media outlet that provide aids, by means of verbal texts produced by advertising editors, in order to deal with issues of our society, as those related to female and male genders. From all of this, the present article aims at organizing lexical items in market segments, here referred to lexicon-marketing, so as to make possible observation of social behaviors in the universes of both women and men.

Perfil da fluência e frequência da gagueira do desenvolvimento persistente familial

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Prevalência de alterações locais e sistêmicas em indivíduos com disfunção temporomandibular

Temporomandibular disorder describes a variety of conditions including joint and muscle in the stomatognathic system, characterized by pain, TMJ sounds, functions irregular jaw and represent the leading cause of nondental pain in the orofacial region. The objective of this research was to evaluate the prevalence of ophthalmological, otological and cognitive-behavioral changes, parafunctional habits in individuals with temporomandibular disorders (TMD). A total of 117 medical records of female and male individuals, aged 18 to 60 years, from the Occlusion, Temporomandibular Dysfunction and Orofacial Pain of the Ribeirão Preto School of Dentistry – USP, between 2010 and 2011. The anamnesis index proposed by Helkimo was used to classify the individuals according to TMD severity degree and to divide them into two groups: AiI (mild to moderate) with 69 individuals and AiII (severe) with 48 individuals. The groups were then subdivided with respect to gender (72.64% female and 27.36% male) and age. There was predominance in the 18-40 year age group (60.68%) when compared to the 41-60 year age group (39.32%). Data were collected through an interview with questions about the presence of parafunctional habits, otological, ophthalmological and behavioral changes. Data were subjected to the statistical analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The prevalence of each change was also evaluated. The results showed statistically significant for all groups according to gender, age and degree of severity. Individuals with temporomandibular disorders exhibited high prevalence of systemic and local dysfunctions.