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Objectives.: Motivation for the study. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused profound repercussions at different socio-environmental levels. Its impact on violence against healthcare team workers in Argentina has not been well documented. Main findings. The present study evidenced high rates of aggression, particularly verbal aggression. In addition, almost half of the participants reported having suffered these events on a weekly basis. All participants who experienced violence reported having experienced post-event symptoms, and up to one-third reported having considered changing their profession after these acts. Implications. It is imperative to take action to prevent acts of violence against health personnel, or to mitigate its impact on the victims. . To explore the frequency and impact of violence against healthcare workers in Argentina and to compare it with the rest of their Latin American peers during the COVID-19 pandemic., Materials and Methods.: A cross-sectional study was conducted by applying an electronic survey on Latin American medical and non-medical personnel who carried out health care tasks since March 2020. We used Poisson regression to estimate crude (PR) and adjusted (aPR) Prevalence Ratios with their respective 95% confidence intervals., Results.: A total of 3544 participants from 19 countries answered the survey; 1992 (56.0%) resided in Argentina. Of these, 62.9% experienced at least one act of violence; 97.7% reported verbal violence and 11.8% physical violence. Of those who were assaulted, 41.5% experienced violence at least once a week. Health personnel from Argentina experienced violence more frequently than those from other countries (62.9% vs. 54.6%, p<0.001), and these events were more frequent and stressful (p<0.05). In addition, Argentinean health personnel reported having considered changing their healthcare tasks and/or desired to leave their profession more frequently (p<0.001). In the Poisson regression, we found that participants from Argentina had a higher prevalence of violence than health workers from the region (14.6%; p<0.001)., Conclusions.: There was a high prevalence of violence against health personnel in Argentina during the COVID-19 pandemic. These events had a strong negative impact on those who suffered them. Our data suggest that violence against health personnel may have been more frequent in Argentina than in other regions of the continent.

Introduction: There is growing evidence that telemonitoring (TM) in heart failure (HF) seems to improve their outcome. TM platforms have not been designed and evaluated in Argentina. The objective was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, usability and preliminary efficacy of a HF TM platform., Methods: An open-label, paired pilot trial was conducted with a single-group intervention model. HF patients were included in an outpatient clinic in January 2021. A 24-hour 7-day TM platform was designed. The primary endpoint at 30 days was feasibility, acceptability, and usability., Results: Twenty patients were included, mean age 62 ± 10 years; 542 parameter loads were analyzed. Self-perception related to health status compared to baseline was "slightly" or "markedly better" in 60% of patients, and in 75% "agree" or "totally agree" that TM improves patient care. In 80%, the loading of parameters did not interfere with their daily activities. The total mean pharmacological adherence prior to the TM intervention was 6.8 ± 1.3 and 7.7 ± 0.4 afterward (p = 0.019), with no differences found in the self-care scales., Conclusion: The TM of patients with HF seems to be feasible, with an adequate degree of acceptability. A significant increase in the total adherence rate was reduced, raising a hypothesis of potential benefit to be evaluated in a larger sample.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTD) are a group of diseases with high prevalence in tropical and subtropical countries. They are associated to poverty and underdevelopment. Due to its high morbimortality, these conditions are considered a health crisis. The impact of these diseases can be worsened by the poor socioeconomic status of the affected countries, most of them under-developed, which affects the health care provided to patients. The morbidity of these diseases is explained by the wide organic impairment that they produce. The cardiovascular system is particularly affected, which explains the high morbimortality of NTD. In this article, we review the key issues of a project elaborated by Emerging Leaders of the Interamerican Society of Cardiology (SIAC), about the cardiovascular impact of NTD: the NET-Heart Project (Neglected Tropical Diseases and other Infectious Diseases affecting the Heart).

Prognostic models have been developed to help make decisions in the treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE). Among them, the Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) and simplified PESI (sPESI), however they have not been validated in our setting. The objective was to evaluate PESI and sPESI scores ability to predict in-hospital mortality in patients with PE in Argentina. We analyzed a database of 75 academic centers in Argentina that included consecutive patients with PE from 2016 to 2017. The scores were prospectively calculated, and in-hospital and 30 days mortality were assessed. The validation of the models was assessed through discrimination using the area under the ROC curve (AUC), and calibration with the Hosmer-Lemeshow (HL) test. The cohort included 684 patients. In-hospital mortality was 12% and at 30 days an additional 3.2% mortality was registered. The AUC (95% CI) for in-hospital mortality was 0.75 (0.69-0.81) for PESI and 0.77 (0.71-0.82) for sPESI (p = 0.2 between scores). AUC of 30-day mortality 0.75 (0.68-0.8) and 0.78 (0.74-0.83) for PESI and sPESI (p = 0.2 between scores). Both models presented good calibration. The PESI and sPESI risk scores demonstrated similar performance and good accuracy in predicting hospital and 30-day mortality. Both scores can be established as simple prediction tools for PE patients in Argentina.

Burnout syndrome is a very prevalent condition of physical and mental wear in the medical profession. It is associated with serious physical and emotional consequences in health professionals, and is generally produced by an adverse working environment. Several research papers have proven that resilience, defined as the capacity to overcome adversity, can be a protective factor against burnout. In this study, levels of resilience were evaluated through a validated questionnaire in cardiology fellows and residents, and a relationship with burnout syndrome was established. One third of participants showed low resilience levels and a similar amount had positive criteria for burnout syndrome. A statistically significant association was found between these two conditions. Resilience was also negatively associated with tiredness, and positively with the perception of personal realization. Therefore, it is important to incorporate procedures for detecting low resilience levels in residents in order to attempt to improve them and thus diminish the risk of experiencing burnout.

To contain the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), a strict nationwide lockdown has been enforced and the health systems have been reorganized to deal with this entity. During this period, changes in the care of non-infectious diseases have been observed. Our aim was to describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the care of non-communicable diseases. A structured retrospective survey was carried out in 31 healthcare centers affiliated with the Asociación de Clínicas, Sanatorios y Hospitales Privados de la República Argentina y Cámara de Entidades de Diagnóstico y Tratamiento. We compared data for April 2019 versus April 2020 regarding emergency room consultations, hospital admissions, invasive procedures and treatments, and bed occupancy. In April 2020, we observed a decrease in emergency room visits (75%) and hospitalizations (48%). A 62% decrease in admissions was noted for angina pectoris and acute coronary syndromes and a 46% decrease in admissions for stroke and transient ischemic attack. A meaningful decrease was found in coronary angioplasties (59%) and total percutaneous interventions (65%), and also a decrease in general surgeries (73%), and cardiac surgeries (58%). Although social distancing measures are a key public health strategy to flatten the infection curve, the observed decrease in medical visits and interventions may impact negatively on cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and cancer related morbidity and mortality. A collective effort is required to avoid the unintended consequences and collateral damage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Non-HACEK Gram-negative bacilli are a rare cause of infective endocarditis. Epidemiological, diagnostic and prognostic aspects of this entity are little known, and there is limited experience. The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical, microbiological and in-hospital outcomes of non-HACEK Gram negative bacilli endocarditis and to compare them with those due to other microorganisms., (Copyright © 2018 Asociación Argentina de Microbiología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The epidemiology of infectious endocarditis (IE) has undergone changes due to a series of factors such as aging, comorbidities and medical procedures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the main clinical, epidemiological and etiological changes of the IE in the last 25 years in Argentina. A comparative analysis of three observational prospective registries was performed in which cases of definite and possible IE were consecutively included according to the Duke criteria: two multicentre studies (EIRA-1 [1992-1994] and EIRA-2 [2001-2002]) and one study in a reference cardiology center (CRC [2007-2017]). In the 1065 episodes of EI evaluated, there were no differences regarding sex, and the patients were older in each period (p < 0.001). Intracardiac device-associated IE was more frequent in the last decade: pacemaker (5.4 vs. 23% p < 0.0001) and prosthetic valve IE (8.5% vs. 19.2% vs. 47.5% p < 0.0001). On the other hand, IE associated with intravenous drugs (P < 0.0001) and congenital heart diseases (p = 0.001) was significantly less frequent. The etiology changed substantially: Streptococcus viridans group decreased (30.8% vs. 26.8% vs. 15.9%, p < 0.001) and IE by Staphylococcus spp. predominated over other microorganisms, with a statistically significant increase in IE due to coagulase-negative Staphylococcus. Surgical treatment was more frequently implemented in the last decade and was accompanied by a trend towards lower mortality in the CRC (23.5%, 24.3% vs. 17.2% p = 0.058).

Objective The objective is to describe the barriers to sexual health care of Women Who Have Sex with Women (WSW) in Argentina during 2013. Methods A cross-sectional, descriptive and quantitative study. An online survey was conducted using the Internet, in the period of April-July 2013, with homosexual and bisexual women over 18 living in Argentina, making use of the snowball methodology. Results A total of 161 women were surveyed. The results showed that 97.5 % had previously visited a doctor. The doctor did not ask about their sexual orientation in 82.8 % of cases. 93.6 % of the surveyed did not receive information about STDs; 83.8 % perceive little/no risk regarding STDs. 48.4 % are unaware of the methods of protection of STDs among women and 51.6 % obtained this information from websites and friends. 77.5 % reported not using protection methods. The main reasons were: stable partner, discomfort and the inability to acquire them. Discussion The results of this research allow for identifying the low perception among WSW regarding STDs, and the difficulty of approaching health professionals about this subject.