Aneurisma de aorta abdominal na infância

The authors report a case of an abdominal aortic aneurism involving all visceral branches minus the Inferior Mesenteric artery in a 4-year-old girl. There was sugestive evidence that the arterial disease had an inflamatory or infectious etiologic factor. The most probable etiological factors could be salmonelas infection of the arterial wall or Takayasu's disease secondary to tuberculosis. The treatment with antibiotic to salmonelas infection during ten days, followed by tuberculostatic therapy for six months was chosen. Concerning the age, the arteries involved and the inflamatory aspect of the aneurysm, the surgical option became an alternative to the clinic treatment in case of any future evidence of the aneurysm enlargement. The patient became asymptomatic as soon as the antibiotic has been started. The control of the aneurysm evolution will be made by ecography each three months.

Adenomioma da papila de vater em adulto jovem

The authors report a case of adenomyoma of papilla of Vater in a young adult, a rare pathology in this age and site. The commonest clinical findings are abdominal pain, dyspepsia and jaundice, as in this case in which the patient referred these symptoms for several months. The diagnosis is usually difficult before surgery, because the radiological and endoscopic appearances are difficult to interpret, since they may only show obstruction and enlargement of the biliary tract; in this way, the endoscopic biopsy may be useful. In the present case the computed tomography, abdominal scan and intraoperative cholangiography only demonstrated obstruction and enlargement of the biliary tract, without the presence of gallstones. The treatment is usually lesion resection according to its size, performing the total resection in those cases of extensive involvement of the digestive tract, as it was performed in this case, due to the dimension of the lesion and its malignant appearance. The patient was discharged from hospital on the thirteenth postoperative day, with a histological diagnosis of adenomyoma of papilla of Vater. Three months after the procedure the patient was asymptomatic.

Mucocele do apêndice

A case of benign appendiceal mucocele treated by appendectomy tony is reported. Appendiceal mucocele is a rare lesion of the appendix, characterized by a gross enlargement of the appendix from luminal accumulation of mucoid substance. It is a rare condition, detected in only 0.1-0.4% of all appendicectomies, with a female predominance and an average age at the time of diagnosis over 50 years. The possibility of a pre-operative diagnosis is examined. Abdominal ultrasound and CT scan of the abdomen or colonoscopy may suggest the diagnosis. However the diagnosis is often incidental. The pathogenesis and the different surgical strategies are discussed.

Condroma de laringe: apresentação atípica

The authors report a case of laryngeal chondroma , a rare benign larynx tumor in the cricoid and arytenoid cartilages. There are aproximately 250 cases previously described in literature. A male, 41 year-old patient, presented a severe and progressive dyspnea leading to tracheostomy. Direct microlaryngoscopy revealed arytenoid enlargement and subglottic stenosis and the endoscopical biopsy was inconclusive, since the tumor present a hard gnistency. We performed surgical excision by laringofissura and total resection of the tumor, with good result. The histopathological examination showed a chondroma with no malignance.

Mucocele de apêndice

Appendiceal mucocele is a rare entity characterized by a gross enlargement of the appendix from accumulation of mucoid substance within the lumen. It is encountered in only 0.1 - 0.4% of all appendicectomies with a female predominance (M/F: 1/4) and a mean age of more than 50 years at the time of presentation . Because of that, appendiceal mucocele is often incidentally discovered either during surgery or on radiologic examination. A case of benign appendiceal mucocele is reported here, in a 49 years old male. The pathogenesis and the different surgical strategies are discussed.

Evaluation of quality of life before and after videothoracoscopic simpathectomy for primary hyperhidrosis

Objective: To assess quality of life before and after thoracoscopic sympathectomy for treatment of primary hyperhidrosis.Methods: we conducted an observational, analytical, cross-sectional and quantitative study. We evaluated patients undergoing thoracoscopic sympathectomy for primary axillary hyperhidrosis, primary palmar hyperhidrosis, and axillary hyperhidrosis associated with palmar one. We applied a questionnaire on quality of life related to hyperhidrosis before and after the operation.Results: The questionnaire was administered to 51 patients with a mean age of 32.4 years, 45 women and six men. The average quality of life related to hyperhidrosis in a score of 0-100 before sympathectomy was 34.6 and after the operation it was 77.1. Compensatory hyperhidrosis occurred in 84.3% of patients.Conclusion: thoracoscopic sympathectomy improves the quality of life of patients with primary hyperhidrosis, with results supported over time. Compensatory hyperhidrosis occurred in most patients, but did not significantly influence the improved quality of life.

"Cara inchada" of cattle, an infectious, apparently soil antibiotics-dependant periodontitis in Brazil

The objective of this review on the investigation of "cara inchada" in cattle (CI), pursued over the last 30 years, was to elucidate the pathogenicity of the disease and come to proper conclusions on its etiology. CI has been widely considered to be of nutritional origin, caused primarily by mineral deficiency or imbalance. However, the disease consists of a rapidly progressive periodontitis, affecting the periodontal tissues at the level of the premolars and molars during the period of tooth eruption generally starting in young calves. The disease led to great economic losses for farmers in central-western Brazil, after the occupation of new land for cattle raising in the 1960s and 1970s. The lateral enlargement of the maxillary bones of affected calves gave the disease the popular name of "cara inchada", i.e., swollen or enlarged face. The enlargement was found to be due to a chronic ossifying periostitis resulting from the purulent alveolitis of CI. Black-pigmented non-saccharolytic Bacteroides melaninogenicus, always together with Actinomyces (Corynebacterium) pyogenes, were isolated in large numbers from the periodontal lesions. B. melaninogenicus could be isolated in small numbers also from the marginal gingiva of a few healthy calves maintained on CI-free farms. "In vitro"-assays showed that streptomycin and actinomycin, as well as the supernatants of cultivates of actinomycetes from soils of CI-prone farms, applied in subinhibitory concentrations to the bacteria tested, enhanced significantly (up to 10 times) the adherence of the black-pigmented B.melaninogenicus to epithelial cells of the bovine gingiva. The antibiotics are apparently produced in large quantities by the increased number of soil actinomycetes, including the genus Streptomyces, that develop when soil microflora are modified by cultivating virgin forest or "Cerrado" (tree-savanna) for the first time for cattle grazing. The epidemiology of CI now provides strong evidence that the ingestion with the forage of such antibiotics could possibly be an important determinant factor for the onset and development of this infectious periodontitis. The antibiotic enhanced adherence of B.melaninogenicus to the sulcus-epithelium of the marginal gingiva, is thought to allow it to colonize, form a plaque and become pathogenic. There is experimental evidence that this determinant factor for the development of the periodontitis is present also in the milk of the mothers of CI-diseased calves. It has been shown that the bacteria isolated from the periodontal CI-lesions produce enzymes and endotoxins capable of destroying the periodontal tissues. The epidemiology of CI, with its decline in incidence and its disappearance after several years, could be explained by the fact that the former equilibrium of the microflora of the once undisturbed virgin soil has been reached again and that the number of antibiotic producing actinomycetes has been anew reduced. By this reasoning and all the data available, CI should be considered as a multifactorial infectious disease, caused primarily by the anaerobic black-pigmented non-saccharolytic Bacteroides melaninogenicus, always together with the micro-anaerobic Actinomyces pyogenes. Accordingly, the onset and development of the infectious periodontitis is apparently determined by ingestion with the forage of subinhibitory concentrations of antibiotics produced in recently cultivated virgin soils. This hypothesis is supported by the recent observation of renewed outbreaks of CI-periodontitis in former CI-prone areas, following fresh cultivation after many years. The infectious nature of CI is confirmed by trials in which virginiamycin was used efficiently for the oral treatment of CI-diseased cattle. Previously it has been shown, that spiramycin and virginiamycin, used as additives in mineral supplements, prevented CI-periodontitis.

Comparative pathogenicity of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) subtypes 1 (BHV-1.1) and 2a (BHV-1.2a)

The study aimed to examine the capacity of two bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1) isolates of different subtypes (EVI 123/96, BHV-1.1; SV265/98, BHV-1.2a) to induce respiratory disease in calves. These two isolates are representative of the BHV-1 subtypes prevalent in Brazil. Viral subtypes were confirmed by monoclonal antibody analysis and by restriction enzyme digestion of viral genomes. The viruses were inoculated intranasally into seven 3 months old calves (four with BHV-1.1, three with BHV-1.2a). Three other calves of identical age and condition were kept as uninfected controls. In both groups of infected calves, the clinical signs observed were consistent with typical infectious bovine rhinothracheitis (IBR), including pyrexia, apathy, anorexia, nasal and ocular mucopurulent discharges, erosions on the nasal mucosa, conjunctivitis, lachrymation, redness of nasal mucosa, dyspnoea, coughing, tracheal stridor and enlargement of retropharingeal, submandibular and cervical lymphnodes. No significant differences were observed between the clinical scores attributed to both groups. Virus shedding in nasal and ocular secretions were also similar, apart from a significant difference in nasal virus shedding on day 1 to 3 post-inoculation, which was higher for BHV-1.1 than for BHV-1.2a. Following corticosteroid induced reactivation of the latent infection, recrudescence of clinical signs was also observed, with no significant differences on both groups. It was concluded that both subtypes BHV-1.1 and BHV-1.2a were able to induce clinically undistinguishable respiratory disease in calves, either subsequent to a primary infection or following reactivation.

Interdependence of Emerging Eastern European stock markets

One of the main developments in the global economy during the past decades has been the growth of emerging economies. Projections for their long-term growth, changes in the investment climate, corporate transparency and demography point to an increasing role for these emerging economies in the global economy. Today, emerging economies are usually considered as financial markets offering opportunities for high returns, good risk diversification and improved return-to-risk ratios. However, researchers have noted that these advantages may be in decline because of the increasing market integration. Nevertheless, it is likely that certain financial markets and specific sectors will remain partially segmented and somewhat insulated from the global economy for the year to come. This doctoral dissertation investigates several stock markets in Emerging Eastern Europe (EEE), including the ones in Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovenia. The objective is to analyze the returns and financial risks in these emerging markets from international investor’s point of view. This study also examines the segmentation/integration of these financial markets and the possibilities to diversify and hedge financial risk. The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first includes a review of the theoretical background for the articles and a review of the literature on EEE stock markets. It includes an overview of the methodology and research design applied in the analysis and a summary of articles from the second part of this dissertation and their main findings. The second part consists of four research publications. This work contributes to studies on emerging stock markets in four ways. First, it adds to the body of research on the pricing of risk, providing new empirical evidence about partial stock market segmentation in EEE. The results suggest that the aggregate emerging market risk is a relevant driver for stock market returns and that this market risk can be used to price financial instruments and forecast their performance. Second, it contributes to the empirical research on the integration of stock markets, asset prices and exchange rates by identifying the relationships between these markets through volatility and asset pricing. The results show that certain sectors of stock markets in EEE are not as integrated as others. For example, the Polish consumer goods sector, the Hungarian telecommunications sector, and the Czech financial sector are somewhat isolated from their counterparts elsewhere in Europe. Nevertheless, an analysis of the impact of EU accession in 2004 on stock markets suggests that most of the EEE markets are becoming increasingly integrated with the global markets. Third, this thesis complements the scientific literature in the field of shock and volatility spillovers by examining the mechanism of spillover distribution among the EU and EEE countries. The results illustrate that spillovers in emerging markets are mostly from a foreign exchange to the stock markets. Moreover, the results show that the effects of external shocks on stock markets have increased after the enlargement of the EU in 2004. Finally, this study is unique because it analyzes the effects of foreign macroeconomic news on geographically closely related countries. The results suggest that the effects of macroeconomic announcements on volatility are significant and have effect that varies across markets and their sectors. Moreover, the results show that the foreign macroeconomic news releases, somewhat surprisingly, have a greater effect on the EEE markets than the local macroeconomic news. This dissertation has a number of implications for the industry and for practitioners. It analyses financial risk associated with investing in Emerging Eastern Europe. Investors may use this information to construct and optimize investment portfolios. Moreover, this dissertation provides insights for investors and portfolio managers considering asset allocation to protect value or obtain higher returns. The results have also implications for asset pricing and portfolio selection in light of macroeconomic news releases.

Proliferative enteropathy (Lawsonia intracellularis) outbreak in rabbits in Brazil

An outbreak of Lawsonia intracellularis infection in rabbits, which occurred in 1988 in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, is reported. The disease had an acute course (24-48 hours) with clinical signs characterized by brownish or green diarrhea and dehydration. Occasionally, the animals died one day after the onset of diarrhea, without showing any other clinical signs. At necropsy, the ileum was prominent, firm and had a thickened wall; it was dilated in the caudal direction and had a somewhat reticulated appearance, perceptible through the serosa. The thickened mucous membrane had finely corrugated aspect and a shiny surface. The ileocecal valve and surrounding areas were slightly edematous and irregular. The Peyer's patches were sometimes more evident. There was moderate enlargement of the mesenteric lymph nodes. The histological examination revealed different degrees of hyperplasia of the epithelial cells of intestinal crypts consisting of poorly differentiated, hyperchromatic cells with high mitotic index, arranged in a pseudostratified layer which, in some cases, reached the apical portions of the villi. The inflammatory infiltrate between the hyperplastic epithelial cells was composed of lymphocytes, plasma cells, macrophages, some eosinophils and globular leukocytes. Silver impregnation revealed large numbers of bacteria with morphology of the genus Lawsonia in the apical pole of cryptal enterocytes. These bacteria reacted positively to a Lawsonia intracellularis polyclonal antibody by the avidin-biotin immunohistochemistry method.

Facial paralysis and vestibular syndrome in feedlot cattle in Argentina

This paper reports 6 outbreaks of neurological disease associated with paralysis of the facial and vestibulocochlear nerves caused by intracranial space occupying lesions in feedlot cattle. The clinical signs observed were characterized by head tilt, uni or bilateral drooping and paralysis of the ears, eyelid ptosis, keratoconjunctivitis, and different degrees of ataxia. Morbidity and mortality rates ranged from 1.1 to 50% and 0 to 1%, respectively. Gross lesions observed included yellow, thickened leptomeninges, and marked enlargement of the roots of cranial nerves VII (facial) and VIII (vestibulocochlear). Histopathologically, there was severe, chronic, granulomatous meningitis and, in one case, chronic, granulomatous neuritis of the VII and VIII cranial nerves. Attempts to identify bacterial, viral, or parasitic agents were unsuccessful. Based on the morphologic lesions, the clinical condition was diagnosed as facial paralysis and vestibular syndrome associated with space occupying lesions in the meninges and the cranial nerves VII and VIII. Feedlot is a practice of growing diffusion in our country and this is a first report of outbreaks of facial paralysis and vestibular disease associated with space occupying lesions in Argentina.

Salmonella Yoruba infection in white-tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)

The aim of this study was to describe a fatal salmonellosis case in a non-human female primate (Callithrix jacchus), found in the illegal pet trade in Brazil. The marmoset was sent to the quarantine section of the Guarulhos City Zoo and died in the sequence of an episode of profuse diarrhea. Necropsy findings included mucous enteritis, and liver enlargement and necrosis. Feces and liver fragments were collected for bacteriological tests, which indicated the presence of Salmonella sp.; it was subsequently characterized as pertaining to the Yoruba serotype. The susceptibility profile demonstrated resistance to tetracycline only. The strain was positive for genes that encoded the virulence factors investigated (invA, sefC, pefA and spvC). The results indicated the risk of introduction of Salmonella pathogenic serotypes in primates in captivity.

Nutritional fibrous osteodystrophy in goats

Seven out of 25 goats from a southern Brazilian flock developed nutritional fibrous osteodystrophy. Affected animals were younger than 1 year of age and were confined in stalls and fed a concentrate ration containing 1:6 calcium:phosphorus ratio. The remaining flock (35 goats) was managed at pasture and showed no disease. Clinical signs were characterized by mandibular and maxillary enlargements, varying degrees of mouth opening and protruding tongue, dyspnea, apart of abnormalities of prehension and mastication. Affected animals had increased seric levels of phosphorus and parathormone, as well as higher alkaline phosphatase activity. Postmortem examination on three succumbed goats revealed bilateral enlargement of the maxilla and mandibula, and loose teeth, apart of multiple incomplete rib fractures in one of them. Severe diffuse proliferation of loose connective tissue surrounded the osteoid trabeculae, many of which were partially or completely non-mineralized. Mineralized osteoid trabeculae showed osteoclasts in the Howship's lacunae.

Molecular confirmation of ovine herpesvirus 2-induced malignant catarrhal fever lesions in cattle from Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Molecular findings that confirmed the participation of ovine herpesvirus 2 (OVH-2) in the lesions that were consistent with those observed in malignant catarrhal fever of cattle are described. Three mixed-breed cattle from Rio Grande do Norte state demonstrated clinical manifestations that included mucopurulent nasal discharge, corneal opacity and motor incoordination. Routine necropsy examination demonstrated ulcerations and hemorrhage of the oral cavity, corneal opacity, and lymph node enlargement. Significant histopathological findings included widespread necrotizing vasculitis, non-suppurative meningoencephalitis, lymphocytic interstitial nephritis and hepatitis, and thrombosis. PCR assay performed on DNA extracted from kidney and mesenteric lymph node of one animal amplified a product of 423 base pairs corresponding to a target sequence within the ovine herpesvirus 2 (OVH-2) tegument protein gene. Direct sequencing of the PCR products, from extracted DNA of the kidney and mesenteric lymph node of one cow, amplified the partial nucleotide sequences (423 base pairs) of OVH-2 tegument protein gene. Blast analysis confirmed that these sequences have 98-100% identity with similar OVH-2 sequences deposited in GenBank. Phylogenetic analyses, based on the deduced amino acid sequences, demonstrated that the strain of OVH-2 circulating in ruminants from the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Norte and Minas Gerais are similar to that identified in other geographical locations. These findings confirmed the active participation of OVH-2 in the classical manifestations of sheep associated malignant catarrhal fever.

Lactated Ringer's solution or 0.9% sodium chloride as fluid therapy in pigeons (Columba livia) submitted to humerus osteosynthesis

The study aimed to compare the effects of intraosseous infusion of lactated Ringer's and 0.9% sodium chloride solutions on the electrolytes and acid-base balance in pigeons submitted to humerus osteosynthesis. Eighteen pigeons were undergoing to isoflurane anesthesia by an avalvular circuit system. They were randomly assigned into two groups (n=9) receiving lactated Ringer's solution (LR) or 0.9% sodium chloride (SC), in a continuous infusion rate of 20mL/kg/h, by using an intraosseous catheter into the tibiotarsus during 60-minute anesthetic procedure. Heart rate (HR), and respiratory rate (RR) were measured every 10 min. Venous blood samples were collected at 0, 30 and 60 minutes to analyze blood pH, PvCO2, HCO3 -, Na+ and K+. Blood gases and electrolytes showed respiratory acidosis in both groups during induction, under physical restraint. This acidosis was evidenced by a decrease of pH since 0 min, associated with a compensatory response, observed by increasing of HCO3 - concentration, at 30 and 60 min. It was not observed any changes on Na+ and K+ serum concentrations. According to the results, there is no reason for choosing one of the two solutions, and it could be concluded that both fluid therapy solutions do not promote any impact on acid-base balance and electrolyte concentrations in pigeons submitted to humerus osteosynthesis.