O mão-pelada (Procyon cancrivorus, F. Cuvier, 1798) é o único procionídeo que ocorre no Parque Estadual de Itapuã (PEI), com uma área de 5.566,5 ha, na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. O objetivo deste estudo foi o de analisar, por estação do ano, qualiquantitativamente, a dieta desta espécie no interior do Parque. Mensalmente, durante o ano de 2002, foi coletado um total de 203 amostras fecais em transecções pré-estabelecidas. Foram identificados 41 itens alimentares (53% frutas e 47% itens de origem animal). A família botânica Arecaceae foi a mais frequente, Syagrus romanzoffiana (Cham.) Glassman foi considerado recurso-chave e Butia capitata (Mart.) Becc foi um importante recurso alimentar sazonal. Outros frutos, tais como Ficus sp., Vitex megapotamica (Spreng.) Mold., Psidium sp. e Eugenia uruguayensis Cambess., foram itens adicionais, indicando comportamento oportunista da espécie. Dentre os animais, insetos das ordens Orthoptera, Blattaria e Coleoptera foram os mais consumidos nas quatro estações do ano. As maiores frequências de aves, roedores e outros mamíferos durante os meses de inverno e de primavera demonstraram a necessidade de uma ingestão mais proteica nesse período do ano, relacionada, provavelmente, às baixas temperaturas e aos cuidados dos filhotes. Por meio de análise de variância com aleatorização (α=0.05), houve diferença significativa na dieta entre as estações do ano, exceto entre os meses de inverno e primavera, refletindo um comportamento alimentar generalista e oportunista da espécie.

ABSTRACT. Carnivore mammals and their relation with habitat diversity in Aparados da Serra National Park, southern Brazil. A survey of carnivore mammals was accomplished in Aparados da Serra National Park from February 1998 to March 2000. The park has 10,250 ha and is considered a biodiversity core area of the Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve in the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The landscape is characterized by relatively well preserved relicts of Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze forest, grasslands and Atlantic Forest, which have contributed for the survival of endangered carnivore mammals. The National Park was divided in a grid of 16 km 2 cells using a 1:50,000 scale map. The animals were recorded using indirect methods, by identifying signs (scats, tracks) and direct observation in 2.5 km long and 5 m wide transects, with 10 replicates in each grid cell. Interviews with local people were also used to confirm the animal presence. A total of 13 species was recorded: Procyon cancrivorus (Cuvier, 1798), Pseudalopex gymnocercus (G. Fischer, 1814), Leopardus pardalis (Linnaeus, 1758) and Cerdocyon thous (Linnaeus, 1766) were the most frequent species registered. Nasua nasua (Linnaeus 1766), Herpailurus yaguarondi (Lacépède, 1809), Chrysocyon brachyurus (Illiger, 1815), Eira barbara (Linnaeus, 1758), Leopardus sp., Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771), Galictis cuja (Molina, 1782), Conepatus chinga (Molina, 1892) and Lontra longicaudis (Olfers, 1818) showed lower frequencies. The Park presented areas with significant differences (Mantel Test, P< 0.05) in species richness and composition related to habitat classes. Areas with high habitat richness presented high species richness. The Araucaria forest was the habitat that presented the higher carnivore richness. The border areas of the Park are influenced by several environmental degradation factors that could be affecting the distribution of carnivores.

The authors have evaluated the pharmacokinetics of four antifungal agents used in the therapy of fungal peritonitis. Amphotericin B (Amph B) poorly diffuses from blood into peritoneal fluid, which Intraperitoneal administration induces severe abdominal pain. 5-Fluorocytosine (5FC) easily crosses peritoneum, but resistance may appear when the drug is used alone. Ketoconazole (K) poorly penetrates into peritoneal fluid, while Fluconazole (F), used per os or intraperitoneally, shows a good antifungal activity both in serum and In the peritoneal fluid. In conclusion, from a pharmacokinetic point of view, all the antifungal agents examined, perhaps with the exception of F, do not offer, when used alone, sufficient guarantees In curing peritonitis. Therefore, for treating fungal infections in CAPD, drug combinations such as AmphB + 5FC, K + 5FC or 5FC + F have to be used.

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The proportion of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients on automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) has been steadily increasing over the past decade. In the US, the percentage of PD patients on APD has steadily risen from 9% in 1993 to 54% in 2000. In continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), PD exchanges are performed manually, while in APD a mechanical device to assist the delivery and drainage of dialysate is employed. In CAPD, the patient or carer must perform at least 4-5 exchanges everyday. Many problems inherent to CAPD such as lack of sustained patient motivation over long periods of time, technique failure and recurrent peritonitis, led to a resurgence of interest in APD. APD has been reported to have several advantages over CAPD including lower incidence of peritonitis, better small solute clearances and reduced incidences of hernias. APD, especially in the form of nocturnal intermittent peritoneal dialysis (NIPD), has also been suggested to offer a number of psychosocial and physical benefits over CAPD mainly on account of fewer connections and being free of fluid in the abdomen during daytime. Such benefits relate to better dialysis acceptability for workers, school students or carers of elderly patients, pain and body image difficulties and reduced intra-abdominal pressures. APD is also considered to be more suitable form of PD in patients who have a rapid rate of solute transfer across their peritoneal membrane (high transporters) because of the ability to perform rapid frequent exchanges with shorter dwell times. It is not still clear if, with APD when compared to CAPD, a more rapid decline in residual renal function is present. Since the direct costs of APD are over 20% greater than CAPD and given this increasing trend towards greater use of APD, the aim of this paper is to understand if there are really differences in terms of quality of life and outcomes in favor of APD when compared to CAPD.

Herein we will describe a case of chronic hypernatremic-hyperosmolar syndrome with cerebral localization of systemic sarcoidosis. Several determinations of plasma arginine vasopressin (p-AVP) at various plasma sodium levels were carried out in this patient. During the study p-AVP values varied between 2.6 and 9.5 pg/ml. A high percentage of them was related to plasma osmolality, pointing out that p-AVP secretion was osmotically mediated. This behavior is in contrast with the tendency of hypernatremic patients previously reported in the literature, in whom p-AVP values were inappropriately low for the corresponding degree of plasma osmolality, suggesting that vasopressin secretion was not influenced by osmotic stimulation. Furthermore, our case, unlike those previously described, showed high values of urinary osmolality. In conclusion, our patient represents, in essence, the ‘middle’ of the spectrum of the hypodipsic-hypernatremic syndrome, because she is to be inserted between the majority of patients who have little or no osmotically mediated AVP release and the case of a child, recently described, who had completely normal AVP secretion.

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