Subclinical thyroid dysfunction and the risk of heart failure events: an individual participant data analysis from 6 prospective cohorts.

BACKGROUND: American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for the diagnosis and management of heart failure recommend investigating exacerbating conditions such as thyroid dysfunction, but without specifying the impact of different thyroid-stimulation hormone (TSH) levels. Limited prospective data exist on the association between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and heart failure events. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a pooled analysis of individual participant data using all available prospective cohorts with thyroid function tests and subsequent follow-up of heart failure events. Individual data on 25 390 participants with 216 248 person-years of follow-up were supplied from 6 prospective cohorts in the United States and Europe. Euthyroidism was defined as TSH of 0.45 to 4.49 mIU/L, subclinical hypothyroidism as TSH of 4.5 to 19.9 mIU/L, and subclinical hyperthyroidism as TSH <0.45 mIU/L, the last two with normal free thyroxine levels. Among 25 390 participants, 2068 (8.1%) had subclinical hypothyroidism and 648 (2.6%) had subclinical hyperthyroidism. In age- and sex-adjusted analyses, risks of heart failure events were increased with both higher and lower TSH levels (P for quadratic pattern <0.01); the hazard ratio was 1.01 (95% confidence interval, 0.81-1.26) for TSH of 4.5 to 6.9 mIU/L, 1.65 (95% confidence interval, 0.84-3.23) for TSH of 7.0 to 9.9 mIU/L, 1.86 (95% confidence interval, 1.27-2.72) for TSH of 10.0 to 19.9 mIU/L (P for trend <0.01) and 1.31 (95% confidence interval, 0.88-1.95) for TSH of 0.10 to 0.44 mIU/L and 1.94 (95% confidence interval, 1.01-3.72) for TSH <0.10 mIU/L (P for trend=0.047). Risks remained similar after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors. CONCLUSION: Risks of heart failure events were increased with both higher and lower TSH levels, particularly for TSH ≥10 and <0.10 mIU/L.

Parâmetros de produtividade de um centro de material e esterilização

O estudo identifica parâmetros de produtividade no Centro de Material e Esterilização, com base em documentos, observação e cronometragem do processamento de duas amostras: caixa de herniorrafia e pacote de curativo. A produção média mensal foi de 30.466,42 artigos, a capacidade de produção, por hora, foi de 10,3 artigos por funcionário. O tempo de processamento do curativo do expurgo ao armazenamento foi, em média, de 295 minutos; o processo manual utilizou 46 minutos e o automatizado, 88 minutos. O tempo da caixa de herniorrafia foi de 329 minutos; o processo manual utilizou 60 minutos e o automatizado, 98 minutos. O processamento manual do curativo utilizou 59,23% horas produtivas no expurgo; 26,31% guarda e distribuição; 10,94% esterilização e 3,28% preparo. Quanto à caixa de herniorrafia: no preparo 16,20%; no expurgo 11,84%; na guarda e distribuição 7,47% e na esterilização 1,89%. Este estudo possibilitou aferir resultados e analisar o processo de trabalho no CME.

Ser trabalhador de enfermagem da Unidade de Centro de Material: uma abordagem fenomenológica

Este estudo buscou compreender a experiência dos trabalhadores de enfermagem da Unidade de Centro de Material (UCM) de um hospital de Londrina, utilizando a pesquisa qualitativa femomenológica. Foram realizadas dez entrevistas. A análise dos discursos permitiu construir quatro categorias: 1. Falando do ingresso na UCM - situa as diferentes formas de ingresso nesta unidade; 2. Falando sobre o trabalho desenvolvido na UCM - discorre sobre a rotatividade, o trabalho concomitante e a predileção por determinadas áreas; o ambiente fechado; a evolução tecnológica e o relacionamento interpessoal; 3. Vivenciando as dificuldades - descreve a rotina diária; o trabalho repetitivo e monótono, o cansaço físico, a falta de materiais e equipamentos; o período de adaptação, o desconhecimento, a desvalorização e a discriminação vivenciada; 4. Superando os obstáculos - revela a tomada de consciência do seu papel na unidade reconhecendo a sua importância.

Financial constraints and the failure of innovation projects

Theoretical and empirical approaches have stressed the existence of financial constraints in innovative activities of firms. This paper analyses the role of financial obstacles on the likelihood of abandoning an innovation project. Although a large number of innovation projects are abandoned before their completion, the empirical evidence has focused on the determinants of innovation while failed projects have received little attention. Our analysis differentiates between internal and external barriers on the probability of abandoning a project and we examine whether the effects are different depending on the stage of the innovation process. In the empirical analysis carried out for a panel data of potential innovative Spanish firms for the period 2004-2010, we use a bivariate probit model to take into account the simultaneity of financial constraints and the decision to abandon an innovation project. Our results show that financial constraints most affect the probability of abandoning an innovation project during the concept stage and that low-technological manufacturing and non-KIS service sectors are more sensitive to financial constraints. Keywords: barriers to innovation, failure of innovation projects, financial constraints JEL Classifications: O31, D21

O HIV e o trabalhador de enfermagem frente ao acidente com material perfurocortante

O estudo tem como objetivo identificar a produção científica sobre o acidente de trabalho do profissional de enfermagem com material biológico contaminado por HIV e caracterizar os fatores predisponentes aos acidentes de trabalho, assim como os procedimentos realizados pós-exposição ao material perfurocortante potencialmente contaminado pelo HIV. É uma revisão de literatura, cuja busca bibliográfica por palavras-chave foi realizada por meio da base de dados LILACS a partir de 2000. Constatou-se que os fatores predisponentes à ocorrência dos acidentes de trabalho com perfurocortantes estão relacionados tanto às condições de trabalho, como as condições individuais. Frente a estes acidentes, os trabalhadores de enfermagem têm necessidade de conhecer as condutas pós-exposição ao material perfurocortante potencialmente contaminado pelo HIV. Concluímos que a adoção das precauções-padrão no trabalho em saúde é condição fundamental para a segurança dos trabalhadores, independente da área de atuação, pois o número de casos de HIV é crescente.

Experimental and computational study on the synthesis and characterization of self-assembling meso/macroporous materials in highly concentrated emulsions

Report for the scientific sojourn carried out at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center-Harvard Medical School, Estats Units, from 2010 to 2011. The project aims to study the aggregation behavior of amphiphilic molecules in the continuous phase of highly concentrated emulsions, which can be used as templates for the synthesis of meso/macroporous materials. At this stage of the project, we have investigated the self-assembly of diblock and triblock surfactants under the effect of a confined geometry being surrounded by the droplets of the dispersed phase. These droplets limit the growth of the aggregates, deeply modify their orientation and hence alter their spatial arrangement as compared to the self-assembly taking place far enough from any boundary surface, that is in the bulk. By performing Monte Carlo simulations, we have showed that the interface between the dispersed and continuous phases as well as its shape has a significant impact on the structural order of the resulting aggregates and hence on the potential applications of highly concentrated emulsions as reaction media, drug delivery systems, or templates for meso/macroporous materials. Due to the combined effect of symmetry breaking and morphological frustration, very intriguing structures, such as square columnar liquid crystals, twisted X-shaped aggregates, and helical phases of cylindrical aggregates, never observed in the bulk for the same model surfactant, have been found. The presence of other more conventional structures, such as micelles and cubic and hexagonal liquid crystals, formed at low and high amphiphilic concentrations, respectively, further enhance the interest on this already rich aggregation behavior.

Distributed all-atom simulations of intrinsically unstructured proteins

The Computational Biophysics Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (GRIB-UPF) hosts two unique computational resources dedicated to the execution of large scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations: (a) the ACMD molecular-dynamics software, used on standard personal computers with graphical processing units (GPUs); and (b) the GPUGRID. net computing network, supported by users distributed worldwide that volunteer GPUs for biomedical research. We leveraged these resources and developed studies, protocols and open-source software to elucidate energetics and pathways of a number of biomolecular systems, with a special focus on flexible proteins with many degrees of freedom. First, we characterized ion permeation through the bactericidal model protein Gramicidin A conducting one of the largest studies to date with the steered MD biasing methodology. Next, we addressed an open problem in structural biology, the determination of drug-protein association kinetics; we reconstructed the binding free energy, association, and dissaciociation rates of a drug like model system through a spatial decomposition and a Makov-chain analysis. The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and become one of the few landmark papers elucidating a ligand-binding pathway. Furthermore, we investigated the unstructured Kinase Inducible Domain (KID), a 28-peptide central to signalling and transcriptional response; the kinetics of this challenging system was modelled with a Markovian approach in collaboration with Frank Noe’s group at the Freie University of Berlin. The impact of the funding includes three peer-reviewed publication on high-impact journals; three more papers under review; four MD analysis components, released as open-source software; MD protocols; didactic material, and code for the hosting group.

Acidentes ocupacionais por exposição a material biológico entre a equipe multiprofissional do atendimento pré-hospitalar

Estudo transversal, tipo survey, realizado com a equipe multiprofissional de Atendimento Pré-hospitalar (APh) de Belo Horizonte, entre junho e dezembro de 2006. Objetivou-se determinar a incidência dos acidentes ocupacionais por exposição a material biológico, condutas pós-acidente, e fatores demográficos determinantes. Utilizou-se questionário estruturado, análise descritiva, cálculo de incidências e regressão logística. A incidência de acidentes com material biológico foi de 20,6%: 40,8% por pérfuro-cortantes e 49,0% por fluidos corporais; 35,3% entre médicos e 24,0% entre enfermeiros. Condutas pós-acidente: sem avaliação médica, 63,3%; subnotificação, 81,6%; nenhuma conduta, 55,0%; e, sem acompanhamento sorológico, 61,2%. Estiveram associados ao acidente: tempo na instituição (Odds ratio-OR 2,84; Intervalo de confiança-IC 95% 1,22-6,62), lotação na Unidade de Suporte Avançado (OR 4,18; IC 95% 1,64-10,64); interação: tempo na instituição e lotação na Unidade de Suporte Básico (OR 0,27; IC 95% 0,07-1,00). Sugere-se a implantação de protocolos pós-acidentes, visando a sua redução; a subnotificação e o aumento do acompanhamento pós-acidente.

General practitioners can evaluate the material, social and health dimensions of patient social status

OBJECTIVE: To identify which physician and patient characteristics are associated with physicians' estimation of their patient social status.DESIGN: Cross-sectional ulticentric survey. SETTING: Fourty-seven primary care private offices in Western Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: Random sample of 2030 patients ≥ 16, who encountered a general practitioner (GP) between September 2010 and February 2011. MAIN MEASURES: PRIMARY OUTCOME: patient social status perceived by GPs, using the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, ranging from the bottom (0) to the top (10) of the social scale.Secondary outcome: Difference between GP's evaluation and patient's own evaluation of their social status. Potential patient correlates: material and social deprivation using the DiPCare-Q, health status using the EQ-5D, sources of income, and level of education. GP characteristics: opinion regarding patients' deprivation and its influence on health and care. RESULTS: To evaluate patient social status, GPs considered the material, social, and health aspects of deprivation, along with education level, and amount and type of income. GPs declaring a frequent reflexive consideration of their own prejudice towards deprived patients, gave a higher estimation of patients' social status (+1.0, p = 0.002). Choosing a less costly treatment for deprived patients was associated with a lower estimation (-0.7, p = 0.002). GP's evaluation of patient social status was 0.5 point higher than the patient's own estimate (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: GPs can perceive the various dimensions of patient social status, although heterogeneously, according partly to their own characteristics. Compared to patients' own evaluation, GPs overestimate patient social status.

Validação de material informativo a pacientes em tratamento quimioterápico e aos seus familiares

O objetivo deste estudo foi a validação do conteúdo e a compreensibilidade do Material informativo a pacientes em tratamento quimioterápico e aos seus familiares. Para avaliar se as informações do material informativo sobre câncer, quimioterapia, cuidados com paciente, alimentação e medicação eram suficientemente esclarecedoras e claras, foram contatados 23 cuidadores principais de crianças com câncer. Os entrevistados responderam a um questionário contendo nove questões fechadas e uma aberta. A avaliação foi positiva e as informações foram consideradas esclarecedoras pela maioria dos participantes, dos quais alguns contribuíram com sugestões, que foram acrescentadas ao material. Após completa finalização, o material servirá como apoio aos pacientes com câncer e aos familiares. O intuito do material é melhorar a qualidade de assistência de enfermagem, pois acredita-se que, quando os responsáveis estão orientados sobre a maneira mais adequada de cuidar, a adesão do paciente ao tratamento aumenta, a informação os torna mais seguros, e colabora-se para o sucesso do tratamento.

Influence of physico-chemical material characteristics on staphylococcal biofilm formation--a qualitative and quantitative in vitro analysis of five different calcium phosphate bone grafts.

Various compositions of synthetic calcium phosphates (CaP) have been proposed and their use has considerably increased over the past decades. Besides differences in physico-chemical properties, resorption and osseointegration, artificial CaP bone graft might differ in their resistance against biofilm formation. We investigated standardised cylinders of 5 different CaP bone grafts (cyclOS, chronOS (both β-TCP (tricalcium phosphate)), dicalcium phosphate (DCP), calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA) and α-TCP). Various physico-chemical characterisations e.g., geometrical density, porosity, and specific surface area were investigated. Biofilm formation was carried out in tryptic soy broth (TSB) and human serum (SE) using Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213) and S. epidermidis RP62A (ATCC 35984). The amount of biofilm was analysed by an established protocol using sonication and microcalorimetry. Physico-chemical characterisation showed marked differences concerning macro- and micropore size, specific surface area and porosity accessible to bacteria between the 5 scaffolds. Biofilm formation was found on all scaffolds and was comparable for α-TCP, chronOS, CDHA and DCP at corresponding time points when the scaffolds were incubated with the same germ and/or growth media, but much lower for cyclOS. This is peculiar because cyclOS had an intermediate porosity, mean pore size, specific surface area, and porosity accessible to bacteria. Our results suggest that biofilm formation is not influenced by a single physico-chemical parameter alone but is a multi-step process influenced by several factors in parallel. Transfer from in vitro data to clinical situations is difficult; thus, advocating the use of cyclOS scaffolds over the four other CaP bone grafts in clinical situations with a high risk of infection cannot be clearly supported based on our data.

Estimation of inelastic seismic material properties of a surgical sea-bed from multi-component marine seismic data

To date, state-of-the-art seismic material parameter estimates from multi-component sea-bed seismic data are based on the assumption that the sea-bed consists of a fully elastic half-space. In reality, however, the shallow sea-bed generally consists of soft, unconsolidated sediments that are characterized by strong to very strong seismic attenuation. To explore the potential implications, we apply a state-of-the-art elastic decomposition algorithm to synthetic data for a range of canonical sea-bed models consisting of a viscoelastic half-space of varying attenuation. We find that in the presence of strong seismic attenuation, as quantified by Q-values of 10 or less, significant errors arise in the conventional elastic estimation of seismic properties. Tests on synthetic data indicate that these errors can be largely avoided by accounting for the inherent attenuation of the seafloor when estimating the seismic parameters. This can be achieved by replacing the real-valued expressions for the elastic moduli in the governing equations in the parameter estimation by their complex-valued viscoelastic equivalents. The practical application of our parameter procedure yields realistic estimates of the elastic seismic material properties of the shallow sea-bed, while the corresponding Q-estimates seem to be biased towards too low values, particularly for S-waves. Given that the estimation of inelastic material parameters is notoriously difficult, particularly in the immediate vicinity of the sea-bed, this is expected to be of interest and importance for civil and ocean engineering purposes.

Acidente ocupacional por material perfurocortante entre profissionais de saúde de um Centro Cirúrgico

O acidente ocupacional por material perfurocortante constitui uma preocupação para instituições e trabalhadores de saúde, devido à elevada frequência de procedimentos invasivos, e a dinâmica do trabalho. Objetivou-se identificar a incidência dos acidentes, dos materiais envolvidos, dos fatores contribuintes e das condutas tomadas pós-acidente. Participaram de um estudo transversal 127 funcionários do centro cirúrgico. Registraram-se 23,6% (30/127) acidentes com envolvimento de agulha (73,3%), lâmina de bisturi (6,7%) e eletrocautério (6,7%). Os fatores contribuintes para o acidente foram: falta de atenção (36,7%), más condições de trabalho (20,0%), descuido (13,3%), pressa (10%) e acaso/azar (6,7%). Somente 15,4% dos acidentes foram registrados. A subnotificação deveu-se à irrelevância do acidente, desconhecimento do protocolo de rotina, displicência e sobrecarga de trabalho. Os resultados alertam para a importância de se implementar estratégias para adoção/revisão de protocolos pós-acidentes, visando a redução dos acidentes e de sua subnotificação.

Renal failure after high-dose methotrexate in a child homozygous for MTHFR C677T polymorphism

We report the case of an 11-year-old female treated for mediastinal T-cell lymphoma who presented renal failure following the second cycle of high-dose methotrexate (HDMTX). Because of life threatening plasma methotrexate (MTX) levels, carboxypeptidase G2 (CPDG2) was administered resulting in a dramatic decrease within 1 hr. The patient recovered from renal failure and no other side effects were observed. Homozygosity for the methylentetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism diagnosed by molecular genetic analysis was the only explanation for this toxicity.

Gerenciamento de custos: aplicação do método de Custeio Baseado em Atividades em Centro de Material Esterilizado

Esta pesquisa exploratória descritiva, na modalidade de estudo de caso, teve por objetivo a aplicação do Custeio Baseado em Atividades (ABC) em Centro de Material e Esterilização (CME) de um hospital de ensino de capacidade extra. A coleta de dados ocorreu durante o ano de 2006, utilizando-se as técnicas de análise documental e observação direta não participante. A análise de processos possibilitou o conhecimento dos custos do ciclo/carga de desinfecção química ($9.95) e física ($12.63), e esterilização por vapor saturado sob pressão ($31.37) e por vapor de Baixa Temperatura e Formaldeído Gasoso ($255.28). As informações geradas pelo ABC resultaram na compreensão do processo gerador de custos e forneceram base para a mensuração de desempenho e melhorias de processos do CME.