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The bromatological characterization of the Agaricus sylvaticus species (A. sylvaticus), known as the Sun Mushroom and cultivated in Brazil, is necessary to determine substances with pharmacological and nutritional potential, in view its safe use in food and in human medicine. The purpose of the present study was to determine the chemical composition of the A. sylvaticus mushroom grown in Brazil. Mushrooms were obtained in dehydrated form from a producer in Minas Gerais State. Through this study it was able to observe the fungus' rich chemical composition, highlighting the variety and quantity of minerals as well as its high protein content. There are many components of this mushroom that have medicinal properties, which are recognized as excellent antioxidants. Results also proved that the composition of A. sylvaticus presented differences when compared to the chemical composition of other Agaricaceae fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multidisciplinary care, at different referral centers of cystic fibrosis, is aimed at monitoring and treating cystic fibrosis patients. Mortality attributed to this hereditary disease is high, since it affects the exocrine glands, involving multiple organs, and evolves in a chronic, progressive way. However, systemized care and the improved, shared understanding of gastroenterologists, nutritionists and pulmonologists, contribute to prolonged survival and abated morbimortality. The aim of this study is to describe the main aspects of clinical and nutritional intervention in cystic fibrosis patients so that monitoring by a multidisciplinary team is optimized and performed as early as possible. The review was carried out on articles indexed in the Medline, Lilacs, SciELO, Current Contents and Cochrane databases, finding 189 articles in Portuguese, English and Spanish, with emphasis on articles published between 2000 and 2011. Due to the scientific relevant contribution, some publications before 2000 were included totalized 77 related to the multidisciplinary care. The reviewed studies suggest that multidisciplinary care is essential for knowledge integration in order to impose permanent update of scientific information, thereby contributing to the development of intervention strategies that enhance survival and motivate the development of skills to cope with the complex treatment regimen that is necessary for cystic fibrosis treatment and prevention of related complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Metabolic, biochemical and enzymatic alterations are common in patients with cancer. Medicinal fungi has been used as adjuvants in cancer therapy due to its immunomodulatory and nutritional effects. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the metabolic and blood pressure effects on patients with colorectal cancer after dietary supplementation with Agaricus sylvaticus. Methods: The methodology used was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted at the Base Hospital of the Federal District-Brazil. Samples of 56 patients with colorectal cancer, divided into two groups: Agaricus sylvaticus (30 mg/kg/day) and placebo. Three serum evaluations were conducted throughout the treatment: glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, uric acid, urea, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase; total, direct and indirect bilirubin; aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase; immunoglobulins A (IgA), G (IgG) and M (IgM); total proteins and protein fractions; blood pressure levels were measured as well. The results were analyzed by Microsoft Excel 2003 and SPSS 14.0 programs, Student's t test, F statistical test, with p ≤ 0.05. Results: The Agaricus sylvaticus group presented a significant reduction of fasting plasma glucose (p = 0.02), total cholesterol (p=0.01), creatinine (p = 0.05), aspartate aminotransferase (p = 0.05), alanine aminotransferase (p = 0.04), IgA (p = 0.0001), IgM (p = 0.02), systolic blood pressure (p = 0.0001)and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.0001). These alterations were not observed in the placebo group. Conclusions: Results suggest that dietary supplementation with Agaricus sylvaticus is capable of providing metabolic benefits to the biochemical, enzymatic and blood pressure parameters of patients with colorectal cancer in the postsurgical phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals mainly with the synthesis of praziquantel, a powerful anti-helminthic used against schistosomiasis, an endemic disease which infest millions of people around the world.

Mushrooms of the genus Agarkus are noted for their pharmacological and culinary properties. In this study, it was performed a critical literature review, focusing primarily on aspects of the chemical composition of these mushrooms whose pharmacological properties and nutritional composition characterize them as functional foods. It was also discussed articles conducted in vitro and in vivo proving the high antioxidant potential of the Agaricaceae family, in addition to articles which emphasize the toxicity characteristics and safety for its use in therapy or in human nutrition. These mushrooms exhibit numerous bioactive substances as well as safety regarding toxicity, which characterize them as functional foods. Despite the countless beneficial effects on human health, mushrooms of the genus Agarkus are little known by the population, making it necessary partnership and combined efforts among producers, industries and researchers in order to disseminate, research and consumption of these foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chest X-ray (CXR) interpretation is critical in diagnosing various lung diseases. However, physicians, not specialists, are often the first ones to read them, frequently facing challenges in accurate interpretation. Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms could be of great help, but using real-world data is crucial to ensure their effectiveness in diverse healthcare settings. This study evaluates a deep learning algorithm designed for CXR interpretation, focusing on its utility for non-specialists in thoracic radiology physicians., Purpose: To assess the performance of a Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)-based AI algorithm in interpreting CXRs and compare it with a team of physicians, including thoracic radiologists, who served as the gold-standard., Methods: A retrospective study from January 2021 to July 2023 evaluated an algorithm with three independent models for Lung Abnormality, Radiological Findings, and Tuberculosis. The algorithm's performance was measured using accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Two groups of physicians validated the model: one with varying specialties and experience levels in interpreting chest radiographs (Group A) and another of board-certified thoracic radiologists (Group B). The study also assessed the agreement between the two groups on the algorithm's heatmap and its influence on their decisions., Results: In the internal validation, the Lung Abnormality and Tuberculosis models achieved an AUC of 0.94, while the Radiological Findings model yielded a mean AUC of 0.84. During the external validation, utilizing the ground truth generated by board-certified thoracic radiologists, the algorithm achieved better sensitivity in 6 out of 11 classes than physicians with varying experience levels. Furthermore, Group A physicians demonstrated higher agreement with the algorithm in identifying markings in specific lung regions than Group B (37.56% Group A vs. 21.75% Group B). Additionally, physicians declared that the algorithm did not influence their decisions in 93% of the cases., Conclusion: This retrospective clinical validation study assesses an AI algorithm's effectiveness in interpreting Chest X-rays (CXR). The results show the algorithm's performance is comparable to Group A physicians, using gold-standard analysis (Group B) as the reference. Notably, both Groups reported minimal influence of the algorithm on their decisions in most cases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 de Camargo, Ribeiro, da Silva, da Silva, Torres, da Silva, de Santos, Filho, Rosa, Novaes, Massarutto, Junior, Yanata, Reis, Szarf, Netto and de Paiva.)

Background: Obstetric telemonitoring can improve gestational care, reducing the need fortravel, and can be used in different contexts to enable early detection of complications and prevention of intercurrences, providing local intervention before hospitalization., Objective: This paper aims to identify advances, contributions and limitations of obstetric telemonitoring using mobile technologies., Methods: A systematic review was performed on the Pubmed, Medline, LILACS, Cochrane, Scielo, Embase, ACM Surveys, and IEEE databases, from 2008 to 2018. PRISMA and CASP were used to analyze methodological rigour., Results: 26 papers were included. The majority of the studies related to pregnant women, prenatal care, high-risk pregnancies and homecare. Only 2 articles related to postpartum and none related to delivery. Among the technological resources, the articles presented smartphone applications, which interact with external telemonitoring devices (such as electrodes attached to the body and thermometers) or request information about maternal and / or fetal health status. Based on those devices, decision-making by health professionals is more reliable, since data is obtained by digital devices that have a greater accuracy. The variety of studies is enormous and achieve promising results. However, there are still important gaps to be addressed. Many studies only cover isolated aspects of maternal health, e.g. blood pressure, which somehow limits clinical decision-making. All authors have described concerns about usability, but not all of them had actually performed usability tests. Interventions through obstetric telemonitoring can be applied to a wide range of domains, at various levels of healthcare complexity. There are still few investments in studies in developing countries, where maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality are higher., Conclusion: The area of obstetrical telemonitoring has a great potential for contributing with better gestational outcomes, early detection of complications, prevention of intercurrences, providing local intervention even before hospitalization. Development of obstetric telemonitoring systems wich collect complete obstetric parameter integrated with the periods of childbirth and postpartum is recommended., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: As Internet bandwidth has risen, resulting in an exponential increase in the amount of data, one of the challenges is to transform large amounts of unstructured health data into legible information through visualization techniques to facilitate the decision-making between the telehealth managers. Traditionally, data visualization has been two-dimensional (2D), but it is often difficult to visualize and interpret when making decisions with multidimensional data. Three-dimensional (3D) visualization techniques are emerging to address this issue. This study aims to investigate and demonstrate the hypothesis that the use of 3D techniques for information visualization is more effective than some 2D visualization techniques. Hypothesis validation was performed with a usability methodology analyzing of the time, efficiency, effectiveness, and mental workload required in the execution of a task with a developed prototype., Materials and Methods: A random sample of telehealth professionals was used. Data were collected through observation and usability questionnaires, including the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) mental workload protocol. Data analysis was based on quantitative and qualitative approaches., Results: The study showed that mental workload, despite the time of task execution and effectiveness of the prototype, with 3D technique was less than the 2D technique. The 3D technique required less mental effort than the 2D technique., Conclusions: The 3D environment supports the service manager to verify the telehealth quality of service toward the features provided by 3D environment, especially, its capability to identify trends, clusters of interest, and perform indicators comparison.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging flavivirus, which has caused a widespread outbreak in the Americas. Shortly after its introduction in 2015, a cluster of cases with Guillain-Barré syndrome was detected in Brazil. Herein, we describe two cases from the city of Salvador, who developed ascending paresis after an acute exanthematous illness. The patients were admitted to the intensive care unit with tetraparesis and cranial nerve palsy, which resolved after intravenous administration of human immunoglobulin. Serological evaluation detected IgM-specific ZIKV antibodies. In regions of Zika virus transmission, health-care workers must be aware of the potential severe neurological complications associated with ZIKV infection and be prepared to provide prompt diagnosis, treatment, and supportive care., (© The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.)

Skin metastases are relatively rare and occur most often when the cancer is already advanced, invading other organs. As to location, they often seem to elect areas located close to the primary tumor, although distant sites, such as the scalp, may be affected with some frequency. We present a case of a 76-year-old woman with colon adenocarcinoma that had a single metastatic lesion on the scalp., Competing Interests: None.

This study introduces ontological aspects concerning the Telehealth Ontology (TEON), an ontology that represents formal-ontological content concerning the delivery of telehealth services. TEON formally represents the main services, actors and other entity types relevant to telehealth service delivery. TEON uses the upper level ontology BioTopLite2 and reuses content from the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI). The services embedded in telehealth services are considered as essential as the common services provided by the health-related practices. We envision TEON as a service to support the development of telehealth systems. TEON might also enable the integration of heterogeneous telehealth systems, and provide a base to automatize the processing of telehealth-related content.

Introduction: The administration of stem cells holds promise as a potential therapy for spinal cord injury (SCI). Mesenchymal stem cells have advantages for clinical applications, since they can be easily obtained, are suitable for autologous transplantation and have been previously shown to induce regeneration of the spinal cord in experimental settings. Here we evaluated the feasibility, safety and potential efficacy of autologous transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells in subjects with chronic complete SCI., Method: We conducted a phase I, non-controlled study in 14 subjects of both genders aging between 18 to 65 years, with chronic traumatic SCI (>6 months), at thoracic or lumbar levels, classified as American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) A - complete injury. Baseline somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP), spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and urodynamics were assessed before and after treatment. Pain rating was performed using the McGill Pain Questionnaire and a visual analogue score scale. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells were cultured and characterized by flow cytometry, cell differentiation assays and G-band karyotyping. Mesenchymal stem cells were injected directly into the lesion following laminectomy and durotomy., Results: Cell transplantation was an overall safe and well-tolerated procedure. All subjects displayed variable improvements in tactile sensitivity and eight subjects developed lower limbs motor functional gains, principally in the hip flexors. Seven subjects presented sacral sparing and improved American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale (AIS) grades to B or C - incomplete injury. Nine subjects had improvements in urologic function. One subject presented changes in SSEP 3 and 6 months after mesenchymal stem cells transplantation. Statistically significant correlations between the improvements in neurological function and both injury size and level were found., Conclusion: Intralesional transplantation of autologous mesenchymal stem cells in subjects with chronic, complete spinal cord injury is safe, feasible, and may promote neurological improvements., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01325103 - Registered 28 March 2011.

Beef cattle (24) with an average initial body weight of 417 ± 54 kg were assigned in a 2 × 2 factorial design with six repetitions. The factors studied were two levels of CP: 11 (low CP) or 13 % (high CP) in the initial feedlot phase (days 1 - 36) and in the final phase (days 37 - 72). After 36 days, half of the bulls fed with each level of CP were selected to reverse the CP level. No interaction was observed (P > 0.05) between the level of protein in the initial and final phases on the intake of the nutrients evaluated. There was no effect (P > 0.05) of the protein levels in the initial and final phases on intake of dry matter, organic matter, CP, non-fiber carbohydrates, and total digestible nutrients. No differences were observed among treatments (P > 0.05) for average daily gain (X = 1.99 kg/day) and carcass traits. We conclude that it is possible to feed Holstein-Zebu crossed bulls with an average daily gain of approximately 2 kg using a fixed level of 11 % CP during the entire feedlot period, and this diet is economically viable and environmentally sound.

Telehealth services in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil are led by the Telehealth Center (RedeNUTES) and based on HealthNet 2.0 software. Among the tele-assistance services, health professionals have clinical discussions focused on second opinions. This paper reports the experience in a PhD study through mixed-methods, to evaluate the telehealth services, planning and modeling a new tool to improve a telehealth system. We described the nurse's role in each phase of this study. The method of User-Centered Design was explored in three phases as Identification of work process, User's perception and collaborative modeling, Observational usability study. The main frame was based on collaborative techniques as Collaborative Prototype Design Process, cognitive walkthrough, and thinking-aloud. The users also identified all usability problems identified by the evaluators. The methods were useful in identifying usability problems, and easy to employ using standard equipment and software thus a relatively low cost approach to usability testing.

With the growth of telehealth applications and the need for public health managers to have tools that facilitate visualization of indicators produced by telehealth services arose the need to have simple systems to better planning the interventions. Furthermore, Health systems are considers difficult in order to visualize the right information by many health professionals [1] because of the complexity of its Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the high cognitive load needed to handle it. To overcome this problem, we have proposed a 3D environment for the analysis of telehealth indicators in public health by managers of public health sites. Users who will use the environment are part of public health manager of family health sites that participate of Network of Telehealth Centers of Pernambuco (RedeNUTES) [2] that is part of Brazil telehealth program. This paper aims to present a 3D environment for analysis of telehealth indicators by public health manager.

Background: In Brazil, in order to train the Family Health Strategy teams, the Health Ministry implemented the Brazil Telehealth Program to provide health support and permanent health education. In Pernambuco, the Telehealth Center Network of Pernambuco (RedeNUTES) offers telehealth services to 80 municipalities, supporting 154 Family Health Strategy teams. The goal of this article is to present a profile of nurses' participation in the telehealth services developed by RedeNUTES., Subjects and Methods: This article is a descriptive study of the actions taken by nurses in tele-education and in the telesupport environment, covering the period from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2010., Results: Three-hundred forty-nine Web conferences in tele-education, which included nurses both as lecturers and as members of the audience, were analyzed. The median average number of participants was 50 per course during the 2-year period. The participation in the training courses, among the higher-education professionals, was mainly composed of nurses. In telesupport, nurses participated as teleconsultants, answering questions received by electronic forms and by remote Web conference consultations. The most popular categories found in the requests for second opinion, submitted by nursing professionals, were obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics., Conclusions: We conclude that nurses have participated in telehealth services as members of the audience, as lecturers, and as teleconsultants. We also consider that the active participation of nurses could bring benefits to the quality of the telehealth services provided to the community. These practices could help predict how healthcare will look like in the next few years.

We evaluated a tele-education programme for primary care staff in Pernambuco State, Brazil. During 2008 and 2009, tele-education sessions occurred four times each week for one hour per day. The topics included public health, child and adolescent health, mental health and nursing. After each session, participants completed an evaluation questionnaire. A total of 73 municipalities and 141 health centres participated in the programme. There were 254 tele-education sessions scheduled during the 20-month study period; of these, 224 sessions were successfully performed and 30 were cancelled. We collected 3504 responses from the satisfaction survey. There was high acceptance of the programme: 97% rated it as excellent or good.

Objective: Cannabis is the most used illicit drug worldwide, however only a few studies have examined cognitive deficits related to its use. Clinical manifestations associated with those deficits include a motivational syndrome, impairment in cognitive flexibility, inattention, deficits in abstract reasoning and concept formation, aspects intimately related to the executive functions, which potentially exert a central role in substance dependence. The objective was to make a review about consequences of cannabis use in executive functioning., Method: This review was carried out on reports drawn from MedLine, SciELO, and Lilacs., Discussion: In studies investigating acute use effects, higher doses of tetrahydrocannabinol are associated to impairments in performance of nonsevere users in planning and control impulse tasks. However, chronic cannabis users do not show those impairments. Although demonstration of residual effects of cannabis in the executive functioning is controversial, persistent deficits seem to be present at least in a subgroup of chronic users after 28 days of abstinence., Conclusions: The neuropsychological studies found did not have as a main aim the evaluation of executive functioning. A criterial selection of standardized neuropsychological tests, more appropriate study designs as well as concomitant investigations with structural and functional neuroimaging techniques may improve the understanding of eventual neurotoxicity associated with cannabis use.

The aim of the Neuropsychology applied to the Alcohol Dependence field is the comprehension of the effects of brain dysfunction on cognition and human behavior. It investigates neurocognitive impairments and associates them to structural and functional neuroimaging findings (CT, MRI, PET and SPECT). Acute use of alcohol impairs attention, memory, executive functions and visuospatial skills, while chronic abuse causes neurocognitive deficits in memory, learning, visuospatial functions, psychomotor speed processing, executive functions and decision-making, and may lead to persistent amnesic disorder and alcoholic dementia. Executive Dysfunction related to frontal lobe has direct implications on treatment, by the choosing of strategies and for prognostic evaluation. It is presented an easy tool to screen cognitive impairments, the Frontal Assessment Battery--FAB.15. Neuropsychological Assessment is useful for early detection of impairments and evaluation of their evolution and Cognitive Rehabilitation has a significant role on deficits recovery and psychosocial adjustment of these patients.

Objective: to describe clinical and laboratorial characteristics of acute bacterial meningitis in infants., Method: data from the prospective follow-up of infants with acute bacterial meningitis, admitted at the Hospital Couto Maia between March and December 1997, were analyzed with specific statistical software., Results: acute bacterial meningitis was more prevalent in infants with ages varying from 6 months to 1 year. The most frequent etiologic agent was Haemophilus influenzae. The global lethality was 25.9% and among the survivors 39.3% left the hospital with some abnormality in the neurological exam compatible with the brain involvement., Conclusion: acute bacterial meningitis in infants is a high lethality disease that in the majority of cases can be prevented. We consider of great relevance the adoption of health prevention strategies in order to reduce the incidence of this disease.

Objective: To compare the evaluation of the stressors present in the intensive care unit (ICU) from the point of view of the patient, relatives and the multiprofessional team and to identify differences and similarities with regard to the perception of stressors in order to optimize patient care., Design: Cross-sectional analytical survey., Setting: General ICU of a private hospital., Patients and Participants: From April 1st to June 30th, 1996, 50 ICU patients during the first week of their ICU stay, 50 of their respective relatives and 50 members of the professional team directly involved in the care of these patients., Measurements and Results: The Intensive Care Unit Environmental Stressor Scale (ICUESS) was administered to all patients. The relatives and health care professionals were asked to complete the ICUESS on the basis of their perception of the patient's stressors. Being in pain, having tubes in the nose or mouth, being restrained by tubes and being unable to sleep were considered by the patients, relatives and health care professionals as the main stressors. The professional team evaluated the intensity of the stressors higher than either the family or the patient. No statistical significance was detected between the intensity of the stressors as evaluated by the patient and the intensity evaluated by relatives and by the professional team., Conclusions: Being in pain, being unable to sleep and having tubes in the nose and/or mouth were pointed out as the major stressors by the three groups. There was no statistically significant correlation between the total stress scores of the patients and their relatives (r = 0.193), between the patients and the team (r = -0.002), or between the total scores of the team and the relatives (r = -0.185). The results suggest that the views of the relatives and the professional team concerning the stressors have some similar points compared to the evaluation made by the patient himself, although the intensity of the evaluation for each group corresponds to its own perception.

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) exerts a key role on the excitation-contraction coupling process in the myocardium. Since the relation between the volume of cellular organelles, such as SR, and the sarcolemmal area of myocytes is not uniform in myocardial hypertrophy of different etiologies, we compared the contractile performances of hypertrophied left ventricular papillary muscles from rats with pressure overload and with volume overload. Hemodynamically compensated spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR, 3 months old, systolic blood pressure = 189 +/- 4 mmHg, n = 8) and Wistar rats with healed (30 days) myocardial infarction (MI, n = 7) produced by ligation of the left coronary artery were used. Results were compared with age-matched Wistar control (CON) rats (n = 13). Force (F), corrected to muscle cross-sectional area (g/mm2), and dF/dt were recorded in muscles contracting isometrically and stretched to Lmax. The inotropic response to increasing extracellular Ca2+ concentrations (1.25 to 5.0 mM) was compared in twitches (0.5 Hz) and during tetanic stimulation (5 Hz, 30 s) in the muscles treated with 1 microM ryanodine. F recorded in basal conditions (Ca = 1.25 mM, 0.5 Hz) in the CON group (1.34 +/- 0.20 g/mm2) was higher (p < 0.05) than in the MI (0.73 +/- 0.13 g/mm2) and lower (p < 0.05) than in the SHR group (2.08 +/- 0.25 g/mm2). Similar differences between groups were also observed in relation to +dF/dt. Increasing extracellular Ca produced a parallel increase of F and +dF/dt in the three groups of muscles. Ryanodine treatment reduced F and +dF/dt in all groups and completely inhibited the development of force in post-rest contractions, indicating SR inhibition. SHR muscles were more sensitive to ryanodine than CON and MI (F decrease = 64 +/- 7, 51 +/- 5, and 22 +/- 5%, respectively, p < 0.05). The tetanic tension (Ca = 1.25 mM) was similar in SHR and CON (0.82 +/- 0.19 and 0.92 +/- 0.18 g/mm2; p > 0.05) and depressed in the MI group (0.35 +/- 0.12 g/mm2). These data suggest an increased participation of SR as source of activator Ca in the hypertrophied muscle of SHR. This adaptation likely contributes to maintain the normal cardiac function in hemodynamically compensated SHR, despite increasing afterload levels. This adaptation seems not to occur after MI, which may contribute to the depressed contractile performance of the left ventricular muscle surviving to infarction.

Objective: To study the physical and psychological stressors in the intensive care unit (ICU) and to correlate stressors with different demographic variables., Design: Cross-sectional analytical survey., Setting: Intensive care unit of a private hospital., Patients and Participants: 50 randomly selected ICU patients during the first week of their ICU stay., Measurements and Results: The Intensive Care Unit Environmental Stressor Scale was administered to 50 patients. Pain and the impossibility of sleeping due to noise and having tubes in the nose and mouth were considered the most important physical stressors. Loss of self control and lack of understanding about the attitudes and procedures were the main psychological stressors., Conclusions: Interventions should be aimed at relieving the patient's pain and at controlling the level of noise to make sleep possible. From the psychological standpoint, the independence of the patient should be encouraged, thus stimulating the recovery of self-control. The team should also inform the patient about the procedures which will be carried out.

Contractility changes and adaptive responses resulting from acute left ventricular (LV) myocardial infarction are not restricted to the LV myocardium. The reduced LV function increased the right ventricular (RV) pressure load and neurohumoral factors, activated by the infarction

Purpose: To evaluate the anxiety and depression levels during five days of stay in a Clinical Cardiological Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and verify the relation to different variables., Methods: Forty seven patients were submitted to IDATE scale for anxiety and an avaliation for depression. The scores were compared to medical diagnoses, age, local of stay before the ICU, number of hospitalizations., Results: Anxiety and depression scores decrease significant from first to fifth day of ICU stay. No significant correlation was found between age, number of hospitalizations, medical diagnoses and the anxiety and depression scores. Patients admitted from the emergency unit presented a correlation between anxiety and depression scores., Conclusion: Anxiety and depression decrease during the five days of ICU stay. Emotional reactions are not influenced by medical diagnoses, age and number of hospitalizations. The emergency unit stay affects emotionally the patient in the first days of ICU admission.

The effects of chronic propranolol (Prop) therapy on the postinfarction myocardial hypertrophy of infarcted rats were studied by histological techniques. Male albino rats were submitted to left coronary artery ligation to produce infarction or to sham surgery (Con, N = 6). Infarcted rats (Inf) were divided into 2 groups receiving Prop (2.5 mg/kg, twice a day, N = 6) or saline (N = 6) for one month, respectively. Myocyte diameters were measured in longitudinally oriented sections in the four heart chambers (60 cells/chamber). Inf produced a significant increase in mean diameter of myocytes from the right atrium and ventricle and from the left atrium. In the right ventricle, myocyte diameter increased from 8.9 +/- 0.5 microns in the Con group to 12.5 +/- 0.6 microns in the Inf group (P < 0.05). Under Prop, myocyte diameter was reduced (P < 0.05) to 9.8 +/- 0.9 microns. Similar values were observed in the right atrium. In the left atrium, Prop produced only a partial reversion of the postinfarction hypertrophy. In the left ventricle, myocyte diameter was not significantly changed after Inf or Prop therapy. These data show that beta blockers reduce the myocardial hypertrophy in the right heart chambers after experimental infarcts in rats. This effect can be secondary to reduction of pulmonary hypertension or to blockade of direct effects of catecholamines on myocardial fibers or both.

Serial sections containing neurosecretory cells from chicken hypothalamus were cut after fixation in formaldehyde and embedding in paraffin. Sections were exposed to NBD-Ph (nitrobenzoxadiazole-phallacidin) and showed evidence of containing actin. By using a medium with sodium borohydride, non-specific fluorescence could be excluded.