Aims: To characterize the frequency and clinical characteristics of venomous animals’ accidents in Mâncio Lima, Acre. Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study took place in Mâncio Lima, Acre, Brazil, between 2013 and 2015. Methodology: We included a cohort of 350 households (estimated to be 1,500 people of all ages) in the urban area of Mâncio Lima. The following questionnaires were applied: I. Occurrence of accidents by venomous animals and clinical characterization of accidents; II. The detailed description of households. Results: There were 111 (8%) accidents with snakes, 138 (9.9%) accidents with scorpions, 108 (7.8%) accidents with spiders and 99 (7.1%) accidents with stingrays. Bothrops jararaca was the most cited snake, being edema (local and systemic) and muscular pain the main symptoms. In relation to scorpionism and arachnidism, the hands were the body site of the greatest number of injuries, with local pain/tingling and pain/blistering being the main symptoms, respectively. Accidents by stingrays occurred mostly in the shallow part of the river; feet and legs were the main body sites affected and local pain/bleeding were the main symptoms. Conclusion: In Mâncio Lima, there was a severe frequency of envenomation in the population, specifically in low-income brown/black male rural workers with low educational level. A counter action is required with public health measures that protects the inhabitants of the region, offering greater hospital care and wide application of serum for everyone who needs it. It is also important to educate rural workers on venomous animals and preventive measures to avoid accidents.
Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), once identified, soon spread globally, becoming a pandemic. Although patients present mainly with respiratory complaints, several neurological symptoms have been reported. Symptoms range from headache and nonspecific dizziness to seizures and cerebrovascular disease (CVD). It has also been shown that the severity of the infection is directly proportional to the development of neurological symptoms, especially CVD and changes in mental status. Objective: The present study aims to briefly review the neurological manifestations of COVID-19 and discuss the pathogenic mechanisms of Central Nervous System (CNS) involvement. Methods: This is an exploratory narrative review with a descriptive approach, consisting of an active search for scientific articles in the PubMed database. The descriptors “coronavirus infections”, “COVID-19” and “Nervous system” were used, with the Boolean operators “OR” and “AND”. Eighteen articles of systematic review and meta-analysis were included. Results: CNS manifestations included, among others: encephalitis, encephalopathy, consciousness decrease, headache, dizziness, acute myelitis, and stroke. As for the peripheral nervous system, skeletal muscle damage, chemosensory dysfunction, and Guillain-Barré syndrome were observed, with hyposmia being the most common symptom. CNS involvement may be related to a worse prognosis. Conclusion: The clinical involvement of the nervous system in COVID-19 is not uncommon, and can result in several neurological complications, especially in the most critical patients. The pathophysiological mechanisms of these events still need further investigation. In the meantime, physicians should value extra-respiratory symptoms ranging from hyposmia, to potentially fatal manifestations, such as stroke and encephalopathy.
Context: Septic Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis (CST) is a rare and potentially lethal illness that clinicians still occasionally see. We describe the evolution of a 6 months old infant patient who had a history of delayed vaccination and acquired a Pneumococcal Meningitis, leading to septic CTS. Case report: The patient was admitted with the complaint of constant crying and vomiting. The physical exam noticed: bulging of the bregmatic fontanelle, Glasgow Coma Score = 11, and bad general state. The clinical picture had begun one week before the hospitalization, but the fever had started just three days before. The vaccine neglection plus some pathological signs of meningeal infection guided the clinical thinking to meningitis, later confirmed by the lumbar puncture. Some days later, the patient presented paralysis of the third pair of cranial nerves, conducing to the inability to open the eyes, mydriatic non-photo reagent pupils, and bilateral swelling. A magnetic resonance confirmed thrombosis of traverse sinus along with the transition to the sigmoid one. Bilateral ptosis and exotropia were noticed. Antibiotic therapy resulted in progressive eye-opening and recurrence of photo reagent reflexes. The prognosis was great, pointed by the normotension and normal amplitude of the bregmatic fontanelle. Conclusion: The elimination of the meningeal infection focus was extremely important, since the pathophysiology of CST came from phlebitis of the cavernous sinuses, with consequent thrombus formation from the endothelial lesion. In addition, it is worth mentioning the omission of vaccination, which was concessive to the case.
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and cognitive dysfunction in old ages. AD is characterised by beta- amyloid (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of the hyper-phosphorylated Tau protein. It has an extensive preclinical stage, which emphasizes the importance of the biological components related to an early diagnostic: biomarkers. Objectives: After critical analysis of the selected literature, this review has the goal of describing the main biomarkers in AD and discussing different ways of detecting it. Methods: This review was elaborated after a literature review in the PubMed database, with 15 articles published between 2016 and 2021. The keywords were used with the boolean operator “AND”. Articles of meta-analysis, review and systematic review were selected. Results: It was found central biomarkers for the AD diagnostic, such as Tau and Aβ. The following tests were used: CSF puncture; blood tests; neuroimaging; saliva and mucosa samples. Aβ and Tau can be collected by CSF or PET-TC. Conclusions: Biomarkers play an important role in early AD diagnostic, even with limitations in the tests. The CSF and PET-TC are expensive methods, only used in atypical cases of AD. Reliable blood tests remain in development. In conclusion, there’s the need for more studies about alternative diagnostic tests, that are non-invasive and have low cost. Those developments can be beneficial for health plans, helping early diagnosis of AD.
Background: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is defined as any traumatic injury causing an anatomical lesion or functional impairment of the scalp, skull, meninges, brain or its vessels. Hospitalization of this patient, depending on the severity, can result in irreversible sequelae or death. Objective: To report the morbidity and mortality rates of patients suffering from TBI hospitalized in Brazilian hospitals between 2010 and 2020. Methods: Descriptive ecological study of the data collected at the Informatics Department of the Unified Health System (DATASUS). Results: There were 1,143,187 admissions due to TBI. There was a predominance of males with 871,999 (76.28%) cases and the age group between 20 and 29 years old 199,857 (17.48%). Brown patients were the ones with the highest hospitalization rate: 370,639 (32.42%). The mortality rate in the period was 9.52/100 hospitalizations, with the Southeast region occupying the first place (10.44 per 100 hospitalizations). In total, 108,853 deaths were recorded, of which 50,013 occurred in the Southeast, the region with the highest rate. Although the number of deaths was higher in people between 20 and 29 years old (16,687), the age group with the highest mortality rate was over 80 years old (19.84 per 100 hospitalizations). Conclusion: In the last 10 years, TBI has caused 1,143,187 hospitalizations in Brazil, with a predominance of males and the age group between 20 and 29 years. Brown patients had the highest rate of hospitalization. The region with the highest mortality was the Southeast and the smallest was the South.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.