The objective of this study consisted in assessing the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) and other sexual dysfunctions in a group of men who attended a prostate awareness week campaign. In total, 2715 men attended to 'Semana de la Prostata 2001' campaign and received an additional questionnaire on sexual health. The prevalence of ED, desire and ejaculatory disorders was of 41.7, 33.8 and 49.3%, respectively; however, not all of them lived these difficulties as a real sexual problem because only 918 men (37.8%) acknowledged having 'any sexual difficulty'. Only 13.7% of the attendees consulted a physician for this reason in the past. This first Argentinean study proves the high prevalence of sexual dysfunctions in our population.

Giving difficult news to patients represents a common dilemma for health care professionals. Based on three decades of research, various authors have proposed guidelines outlining the ideal setting, delivery, and timing. Existing publications focus on patients of European descent and may not be applicable in cross-cultural settings. We explored perceptions of Spanish-speaking mothers who have a child with Down syndrome and how they preferred to receive the news of their child's diagnosis. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 14), which were coded and analyzed by thematic networks to identify common themes. Six significant themes emerged: Cultural Belief System, Communication, Support/Lack of Support, Feelings Engendered, Medical Issues, and Medical System. One overarching theme of mother-child bonding encompassed all sub-themes. The mothers desired the news in a more positive, balanced light and with more complete explanations about the condition. Mothers felt excluded from the diagnostic process and wanted to be better informed about the need for diagnostic studies. Participants used religious beliefs to explain the reason for their child's condition. Many factors influenced Latina mothers' ability to bond initially with their children with Down syndrome. Ideally, these factors should be acknowledged during informing interviews to assist Latino families in adjustment.

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RESUMEN El presente artículo plantea un enfoque para la determinación del riesgo que la vivienda urbana precaria conlleva para la salud desde una concepción holística fundamentada en el pensamiento complejo, la salud colectiva y la vulnerabilidad global, centrando el análisis en la vulnerabilidad sociodemográfica desde una perspectiva que integra las nociones de capital social, humano y físico a partir de los activos sociales y la estructura de oportunidades que poseen los hogares. Se propone un modelo conceptual que requiere la aplicación de una lógica de análisis compleja y no lineal para la determinación del

Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs) comprise 13 hereditary neurodegenerative pathologies of very low frequency that affect individuals of all ages around the world. All NCLs share a set of symptoms that are similar to other diseases. The exhaustive collection of data from diverse sources (clinical, genetic, neurology, ophthalmology, etc.) would allow being able in the future to define this group with greater precision for a more efficient diagnostic and therapeutic approach. Despite the large amount of information worldwide, a detailed study of the characteristics of the NCLs in South America and the Caribbean region (SA&C) has not yet been done. Here, we aim to present and analyse the multidisciplinary evidence from all the SA&C with qualitative weighting and biostatistical evaluation of the casuistry. Seventy-one publications from seven countries were reviewed, and data from 261 individuals (including 44 individuals from the Cordoba cohort) were collected. Each NCL disease, as well as phenotypical and genetic data were described and discussed in the whole group. The CLN2, CLN6, and CLN3 disorders are the most frequent in the region. Eighty-seven percent of the individuals were 10 years old or less at the onset of symptoms. Seizures were the most common symptom, both at onset (51%) and throughout the disease course, followed by language (16%), motor (15%), and visual impairments (11%). Although symptoms were similar in all NCLs, some chronological differences could be observed. Sixty DNA variants were described, ranging from single nucleotide variants to large chromosomal deletions. The diagnostic odyssey was probably substantially decreased after medical education activities promoted by the pharmaceutical industry and parent organizations in some SA&C countries. There is a statistical deviation in the data probably due to the approval of the enzyme replacement therapy for CLN2 disease, which has led to a greater interest among the medical community for the early description of this pathology. As a general conclusion, it became clear in this work that the combined bibliographical/retrospective evaluation approach allowed a general overview of the multidisciplinary components and the epidemiological tendencies of NCLs in the SA&C region.

Background Life expectancy of individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) is currently 60 years. From age 40 they have an increased risk of dementia and almost all of them have histopathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in their brains. Also, it is known that the ε4 allele of the APOE gene and the R47H variant of TREM2 increase the risk of AD. DS is also associated with a group of clinical manifestations of accelerated aging. DNA methylation‐based biomarkers of ageing (epigenetic clocks) can be assessed by different models. It is known that DNA methylation age (DNAm) has a positive correlation with chronological age in disomic individuals while DS subjects exhibit an age acceleration effect in blood and brain. Method We determined the DNAm age of a cohort of seven participants with chromosome 21 trisomy (confirmed by G‐banding karyotyping). Median age was 49 years. Their cognitive status was assessed by clinical and neuropsychological evaluations. AD risk variants in APOE and TREM2 were analyzed by RFLP‐PCR. DNAm age was assessed in peripheral blood leukocytes, using the Illumina 850K platform. We used the Horvath’s epigenetic clock, based on the DNAm levels of 353 specific CpG sites. Result Five participants exhibited the ε3/ε3 genotype in APOE and two of them the ε3/ε4 genotype. We did not observe the R47H risk variant in TREM2 in this group. Five participants showed a significant biological age acceleration and one participant’s DNAm age was similar to his chronological age. Of note, one participant showed a deceleration in the DNAm age. This participant also had multiple myeloma. It is known that the DNA methylation profile of multiple myeloma cells differs from normal plasma cells. On the other hand, we did not find a trend towards a greater presence of the risk allele ε4 or cognitive impairment in participants with a significant DNAm age acceleration. Conclusion The majority participants presented an acceleration in their biological age, but this fact was not correlated with a greater presence of the risk allele ε4 or cognitive impairment. This is the first dataset of DNA methylation ages of a cohort of people with Down Syndrome in Latin America.

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Computer Science has contributed to social sciences since decades ago: connecting people that build virtual communities where the interactions can be investigated, developing tools for statistically analytics, designing models that allow the analysis and simulation of the most diverse types, among many others. In this article, we describe an artificial neural network to model a theoretical framework for risk, housing, and health problematic, called DRVS (Diagnostic methodology for risk determination of urban housing for health), which uses a holistic approach for community and environmental health. The methodology also exposes digital clinic history for families and communities, developed to support the acquisition of necessary data. This software has advantages for the transference and application of the DRVS in different locations since it constitutes an expert system for the determination of local social indexes and supports the quantitative validation process for the underlying social theory. On the other hand, as many artificial intelligence techniques, it has constraints: unlike explicit logic inferences, artificial neural networks work as «black boxes», not explaining how they got the result; they have a strong dependency of the representativeness of training data and introducing new knowledge that may improve their results and performance is difficult (new data, addition or remotion of determining factors for the underlying social model, weighting factors, etc.). This article also shows some techniques and ideas on how to deal with the identified constraints.