Background and Objectives: The occurrence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in children in Romania has been reported since 1989. This retrospective study was aimed at assessing clinical and biological risk factors for mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in two HIV-acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) Regional Centers (RCs), Constanta and Craiova in Romania. Materials and Methods: During the study period (2008–2019), 408 HIV-positive pregnant women, 244 from Constanta RC and 164 from Craiova RC who attended antenatal visits, were included. All HIV-positive pregnant women were under combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) during pregnancy and childbirth, being followedup with their infants up to 18 months after delivery. We investigated the clinical as well as biological risk factorsassociated with increased MTCT of HIV. Results: Comparing different variables of HIV-positive pregnant women from the two HIV-AIDS CRs, we find that there are significant differences between the mean value of hemoglobin, CD4 level, environmental area, marital and amniotic membranes status, and HIV patient stage in the last trimester of pregnancy (p < 0.05), but without any differences in mother’s mean age, education level, type of delivery, breastfeeding, the duration of cART administration, HIV viral load, and survival rate. Conclusions: In 408 HIV-positive pregnant women followed up at two HIV-AIDS RCs in Romania, the most important clinical and biological risk factors associated with increased MTCT of HIV are represented by anemia, CD4 level, and HIV patient stage.

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In our modern digitalized world, hypertension detection represents a key feature that enables self-monitoring of cardiovascular parameters, using a wide range of smart devices. Heart rate and blood oxygen saturation rate are some of the most important ones, easily computed by wearable products that are provided by the photoplethysmography (PPG) technique. Therefore, this low-cost technology has opened a new horizon for health monitoring in the last decade. Another important parameter is blood pressure, a major predictor for cardiovascular characterization and health related events. Analyzing only PPG signal morphology and combining the medical observation with machine learning (ML) techniques, this paper develops a hypertension diagnosis tool, named the ANC Test™. During the development process, distinguishable characteristics have been observed among certain waveforms and certain types of patients that leads to an increased confidence level of the algorithm. The test was enchanted by machine learning models to improve blood pressure class detection between systolic normotensive and hypertensive patients. A total of 359 individual recordings were manually selected to build reference signals using open-source available databases. During the development and testing phases, different ML models accuracy of detecting systolic hypertension scored in many cases around 70% with a maximum value of 72.9%. This was resulted from original waveform classification into four main classes with an easy-to-understand nomenclature. An important limitation during the recording processing phase was given by a different PPG acquisition standard among the consulted free available databases.

Introduction: Intestinal parasitism represents an important problem of children health. Infestations with protozoa and helmints even have an increased incidence in children they weren’t observed because they were asymptomatic and atypical but with negative influence on their health regardless their immune status. Objective: To evaluate parasitic infections in a collectivity of 38 children HIV+ from Cernavoda city (Hospis “St. Laurence”) over a period of 10 years (2002 - 2012). Material and method: We performed two coproparasitologic examinations (in year 2002 - before antiretroviral treatment and in year 2012 - after 10 years of antiretroviral treatment) by concentration and staining methods and ELISA for Cryptosporidium parvum antigen. Results: In our group of study the median age was 11.65 yrs. in 2002 and 20.6 yrs. in 2012. Sex ratio was M: F = 1:1.2. In year 2002 we found an incidence of parasitic disease of 94.9%, and in year 2012 we found an incidence of 26.31%. In year 2002 we found 6 cases of Giardia intestinalis, 5 cases of Blastocystis hominis, 15 cases of Chilomastix mesnili, 2 cases of Entamoeba coli, 1 case of Ascaris lumbricoides, 2 cases of Hymenolepis nana and 5 cases of poliparasitic disease. In year 2012 we found 4 cases of Giardia intestinalis, 2 cases of Entamoeba coli, 2 cases of Blastocystis hominis and one case of Isospora belli and another one case of Ascaris lumbricoides. Conclusions: After ten years of HAART the incidence of parasitic diseases registered an important decrease from 94.9% to 26.31%.

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