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BACKGROUND: 2-[18F]-Fluoro-2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (FDG-PET) is a well established functional imaging modality for the initial staging of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in patients from Western Europe and North America. The reliability of FDG-PET in populations of different ethnic groups is unclear, as all investigations published to date have come from developed countries. PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of FDG-PET in the initial staging of HL patients in a Brazilian population. METHODS: Eighty-two patients with newly diagnosed HL were prospectively included in the study. All patients were staged with both conventional clinical staging (CCS) methods, including computed tomography (CT) and whole-body FDG-PET methods. A standard of reference for the nodal regions and the extranodal organs was determined using all available information, including the CCS methods, FDG-PET, the diagnostic histology and the follow-up examinations. The results of the CCS were then compared to the FDG-PET results. RESULTS: The sensitivity of FDG-PET was higher for nodal staging than that of CT (87.8% vs. 61.6%, respectively). FDG-PET was also more sensitive than CT in regard to evaluating the extranodal organs for lymphomatous involvement (96.2% vs. 40.0%, respectively). FDG-PET detected all 16 patients who were characterized by a positive bone marrow biopsy and identified an additional 4 patients with bone marrow disease. The incorporation of FDG-PET coupled with CCS in the staging procedure upstaged 20% (17/82) of the patients and downstaged 11% (9/82) of the patients. As a result of these changes in staging, 15% (13/82) of the patients would have received a different therapeutic regimen. CONCLUSIONS: The FDG-PET method is superior to CT for the detection of nodal and extra-nodal HL. The observation that the FDG-PET method upstaged the disease was the most common result (20% of patients) brought about by the addition of PET to the staging algorithm, even in a population of patients with a high incidence of advanced disease. However, changes in stages based on FDG-PET results should be confirmed by biopsy.

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INTRODUCTION: Esophageal cancer staging has been performed through bronchoscopy, computerized tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). Whereas CT and PET scan provide assessments of distant metastasis, bronchoscopy importantly diagnoses tracheobronchial involvement, complementing chest CT findings. EUS is the most accurate examination for T and N staging but is technically limited when tumoral stenoses cannot be traversed. Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) appears to present greater accuracy than EUS, CT, and bronchoscopy for assessing tracheobronchial wall involvement. EBUS has been recently associated with EUS for esophageal cancer staging in our unit. OBJECTIVE: To compare EBUS findings in esophageal cancer patients without evident signs of tracheobronchial invasion on conventional bronchoscopy with EUS and CT. METHODS: Fourteen patients with esophageal cancer underwent CT, conventional bronchoscopy, EUS, and EBUS for preoperative staging. All patients underwent EBUS and EUS with an Olympus® MH-908 echoendoscope at 7.5 MHz. Seven patients were eligible for the study according to the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: The echoendoscope could not traverse tumoral esophageal stenosis to perform EUS in two patients, and invasion was effectively diagnosed by EBUS. In 4 (57%) of 7 patients EBUS revealed additional information to staging. In the remaining 3 cases the invasion findings were the same under both EUS and EBUS. CONCLUSION: EBUS showed signs of tracheobronchial invasion not observed by conventional bronchoscopy, adding information to staging in most of the cases when compared with CT and EUS.

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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of isoflavones on the skin of postmenopausal women. DESIGN: A prospective study was performed with 30 postmenopausal women before and immediately after the end of treatment with 100 mg/day of an isoflavones-rich, concentrated soy extract for six months. A skin punch was performed in the gluteal region for sample collection before and immediately after the treatment program. Morphometric determination of epidermal thickness, the papillary index (wrinkling), and the amount of dermal elastic and collagen fibers was assessed. In addition, the number of blood vessels in the sample was also evaluated. The paired Student's t-test was used for statistical analysis (P < 0.05). RESULTS: Isoflavone treatment resulted in a 9.46% increase in the thickness of the epidermis in 23 patients. In addition, the papillary index was reduced in 21 women. The papillary index was inversely proportional to skin wrinkling, i.e., there were a large number of papillae after treatment. The amount of collagen in the dermis was increased in 25 women (86.2%). In 22 women (75.8%) we observed that the number of elastic fibers increased. The number of dermal blood vessels was significantly increased in 21 women. CONCLUSION: Our data show that the use of a concentrated, isoflavone-rich soy extract during six consecutive months caused significant increases in epithelial thickness, the number of elastic and collagen fibers, as well as the blood vessels.

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OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to describe and discuss a minimization procedure specifically designed for a clinical trial that evaluates treatment efficacy for OCD patients. METHOD: Aitchison's compositional distance was used to calculate vectors for each possibility of allocation in a covariate adaptive method. Two different procedures were designed to allocate patients in small blocks or sequentially one-by-one. RESULTS: We present partial results of this allocation procedure as well as simulated data. In the clinical trial for which this procedure was developed, successful balancing between treatment arms was achieved. Separately, in an exploratory analysis, we found that if the arrival order of patients was altered, most patients were allocated to a different treatment arm than their original assignment. CONCLUSION: Our results show that the random arrival order of patients determine different assignments and therefore maintains the unpredictability of the allocation method. We conclude that our proposed procedure allows for the use of a large number of prognostic factors in a given allocation decision. Our method seems adequate for the design of the psychiatric trials used as models. Trial registrations are available at clinicaltrials.gov NCT00466609 and NCT00680602.

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OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare spirometry data between patients who underwent single-lung or double-lung transplantation the first year after transplantation. INTRODUCTION: Lung transplantation, which was initially described as an experimental method in 1963, has become a therapeutic option for patients with advanced pulmonary diseases due to improvements in organ conservation, surgical technique, immunosuppressive therapy and treatment of post-operative infections. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of the 39 patients who received lung transplantation in our institution between August 2003 and August 2006. Twenty-nine patients survived one year post-transplantation, and all of them were followed. RESULTS: The increase in lung function in the double-lung transplant group was more substantial than that of the single-lung transplant group, exhibiting a statistical difference from the 1st month in both the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and the forced vital capacity (FVC) in comparison to the pre-transplant values (p <0.05). Comparison between double-lung transplant and single lung-transplant groups of emphysema patients demonstrated a significant difference in lung function beginning in the 3rd month after transplantation. DISCUSSION: The analyses of the whole group of transplant recipients and the sub-group of emphysema patients suggest the superiority of bilateral transplant over the unilateral alternative. Although the pre-transplant values of lung function were worse in the double-lung group, this difference was no longer significant in the subsequent months after surgery. CONCLUSION: Although both groups demonstrated functional improvement after transplantation, there was a clear tendency to greater improvement in FVC and FEV1 in the bilateral transplant group. Among our subjects, double-lung transplantation improved lung function.

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OBJECTIVE: To analyze the results obtained in the evaluation of intra-vaginal pressure using three different brands of perineometers in nulliparous volunteers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty nulliparous women with no anatomical alterations and/or dysfunction of the pelvic floor were enrolled in our study. All the women had the ability to voluntarily contract their PFM (Pelvic Floor Muscles), as assessed by digital palpation. The intra-vaginal pressure was assessed using three different brands of perineometer (Neurodyn EvolutionTM, SensuPowerTM and PeritronTM). Each volunteer was evaluated on three alternate days by a single examiner using a single brand of perineometer on each day. In the assessment, the volunteers were required to pull (contract) their PFM in and up as strongly as possible 3 times and to sustain the contraction for 5 seconds, with an interval of 30 seconds between each pull. For the statistical analysis, a concordance correlation coefficient was used to compare the values that were obtained with each brand of perineometer. RESULTS: A moderate concordance (0.51) was found between the results from the PeritronTM and NeurodynTM perineometers, a fair concordance (0.21) between the PeritronTM and SensuPowerTM brands and a poor concordance (0.19) between the NeurodynTM and SensuPowerTM brands. CONCLUSION: The concordance of the measurements of the intra-vaginal pressure ranged from poor to moderate, suggesting that perineometers of different brands generate different results.

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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine clinical, pathological, and treatment-relevant variables associated with long-term (90-month) overall survival in patients with lung metastases undergoing pulmonary metastasectomy. METHODS: A retrospective review was performed of patients who were admitted with lung metastases, and who underwent thoracotomy for resection, after treatment of a primary tumor. Data were collected regarding demographics, tumor features, treatment, and outcome. RESULTS: Patients (n = 529) were submitted to a total of 776 thoracotomies. Median follow-up time across all patients was 21.6 months (range: 0-192 months). The postoperative complication rate was 9.3%, and the 30-day mortality rate was 0.2%. The ninety-month overall survival rate for all patients was 30.4%. Multivariate analysis identified the number of pulmonary nodules detected on preoperative CT-scan, the number of malignant nodules resected, and complete resection as the independent prognostic factors for overall survival. CONCLUSION: These results confirm that lung metastasectomy is a safe and potentially curative procedure for patients with treated primary tumors. A select group of patients can achieve long-term survival after resection.

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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term outcomes of three surgical procedures for the treatment of primary congenital glaucoma (PCG). INTRODUCTION: PCG is one of the main causes of blindness in children. There is a paucity of contemporary data on PCG in China. METHODS: A retrospective study of 48 patients (81 eyes) with PCG who underwent primary trabeculectomy, trabeculotomy, or combined trabeculotomy and trabeculectomy (CTT). RESULTS: All patients were less than 4 years (yrs) of age, with a mean age of 2.08 ± 1.23 yrs. The mean duration of follow-up was 5.49 ± 3.09 yrs. The difference in success rates among the three surgical procedures at 1, 3, 6 and 9 yrs was not statistically significant (p = 0.492). However, in patients with over 4 yrs of follow-up, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that the success rates of trabeculectomy and CTT declined more slowly than that of trabeculotomy. Among the patients, 66.22% acquired good vision (VA > 0.4), 17.57% acquired fair vision (VA = 0.1 - 0.3), and 16.22% acquired poor vision (VA < 0.1). The patients with good vision were mostly in the successful surgery group. Myopia was more prevalent postoperatively (p = 0.009). Reductions in the cup-disc ratio and corneal diameter were only seen in the successful surgery group (p = 0.000). In addition, the successful surgery group contained more patients that complied with a regular follow-up routine (p = 0.002). DISCUSSION: Our cases were all primary surgeries. Primary trabeculectomy was performed in many cases because no treatment was sought until an advanced stage of disease had been reached. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to most reports, in the present study, trabeculectomy and CTT achieved higher long-term success rates than trabeculotomy. The patients with successful surgical results had better vision. Compliance with a routine of regular follow-up may increase the chances of a successful surgical outcome.

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INTRODUCTION: In elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction, very little is known about the role of surgical myocardial revascularization and percutaneous coronary intervention (invasive therapies - IT), especially in the context of long-term outcomes after hospital discharge. METHODS: We analyzed 1588 patients with MI who had been included prospectively in a databank and followed for up to 7.5 years. In this population, 548 patients were >70 years old (elderly group - EG), and 1040 were <70 years of age (younger group - YG); 1088 underwent IT during hospitalization, and the remaining 500 were treated medically (conservative therapy - CT). Patients were monitored either by visit or by phone at least once a year. A standard questionnaire was administered to all patients. The impact of IT was analyzed with both non-adjusted and adjusted models. RESULTS: By the end of the follow-up period, the survival rates for the IT and CT groups were, respectively, 71.9% versus 47.2% in the global population (hazard ratio=0.55, P<0.001), 81.5% versus 66.6% in the YG (hazard ratio=0.68, P=0.018) and 48.8% versus 20.3% in the EG (hazard ratio=0.58, P<0.001). In the adjusted models, the hazard ratios were 0.62 (P<0.001) in the global population, 0.74 in the YG (P=0.073) and 0.64 (P=0.001) in the EG. CONCLUSION: Long-term follow-up of patients with myocardial infarction revealed that IT during the in-hospital phase was at least as effective in elderly patients as in younger patients.

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INTRODUCTION: Mobile phones have become indispensable in the daily lives of men and women around the globe. As cell phone use has become more widespread, concerns have mounted regarding the potentially harmful effects of RF-EMR from these devices. OBJECTIVE: The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of RF-EMR from mobile phones on free radical metabolism and sperm quality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male albino Wistar rats (10-12 weeks old) were exposed to RF-EMR from an active GSM (0.9/1.8 GHz) mobile phone for 1 hour continuously per day for 28 days. Controls were exposed to a mobile phone without a battery for the same period. The phone was kept in a cage with a wooden bottom in order to address concerns that the effects of exposure to the phone could be due to heat emitted by the phone rather than to RF-EMR alone. Animals were sacrificed 24 hours after the last exposure and tissues of interest were harvested. RESULTS: One hour of exposure to the phone did not significantly change facial temperature in either group of rats. No significant difference was observed in total sperm count between controls and RF-EMR exposed groups. However, rats exposed to RF-EMR exhibited a significantly reduced percentage of motile sperm. Moreover, RF-EMR exposure resulted in a significant increase in lipid peroxidation and low GSH content in the testis and epididymis. CONCLUSION: Given the results of the present study, we speculate that RF-EMR from mobile phones negatively affects semen quality and may impair male fertility.

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BACKGROUND: Failure of anastomotic healing is one of the major complications in colorectal surgery. Because histamine plays an important role in immune and inflammatory reactions, we demonstrate the effects of famotidine on the healing of colonic anastomosis in rats. METHODS: Twenty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats were used in the study. Excision and end-to-end anastomosis was performed in the distal colon of the rat. The Famotidine Group received 2 mg/kg/day famotidine; the Control Group received the same amount of saline. Bursting pressure of anastomoses and hydroxyproline content of perianastomotic tissues were evaluated on the third and seventh days following surgery. RESULTS: Bursting pressures and hydroxyproline contents for the Famotidine Group were significantly lower than the equivalent parameters for the Control Group on both the third and seventh days post-surgery. CONCLUSIONS: According to our findings, famotidine exerts detrimental effects on the anastomotic bursting pressure and hydroxyproline content of perianastomotic tissues in the colon of rats.

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INTRODUCTION: The present study was motivated by the need to systematically assess the research productivity of the Heart Institute (InCor), Medical School of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. OBJECTIVE: To explore methodology for the assessment of institutional scientific research productivity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bibliometric indicators based on searches for author affiliation of original scientific articles or reviews published in journals indexed in the databases Web of Science, MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS and SciELO from January 2000 to December 2003 were used in this study. The retrieved records were analyzed according to the index parameters of the journals and modes of access. The number of citations was used to calculate the institutional impact factor. RESULTS: Out of 1253 records retrieved from the five databases, 604 original articles and reviews were analyzed; of these, 246 (41%) articles were published in national journals and 221 (90%) of those were in journals with free online access through SciELO or their own websites. Of the 358 articles published in international journals, 333 (93%) had controlled online access and 223 (67%) were available through the Capes Portal of Journals. The average impact of each article for InCor was 2.224 in the period studied. CONCLUSION: A simple and practical methodology to evaluate the scientific production of health research institutions includes searches in the LILACS database for national journals and in MEDLINE and the Web of Science for international journals. The institutional impact factor of articles indexed in the Web of Science may serve as a measure by which to assess and review the scientific productivity of a research institution.

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INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: Systemic sclerosis, or scleroderma, is a rheumatic disease characterized by autoimmunity, vasculopathy, and fibrosis of the skin and several internal organs. In the present study, our aim was to assess the skin alterations in animals with scleroderma during the first stages of disease induction. METHODS: To induce scleroderma, female New Zealand rabbits (n = 12) were subcutaneously immunized with 1 mg/ml of collagen V (Col V) in complete Freund's adjuvant, twice with a thirty-day interval. Fifteen days later, the animals received an intramuscular booster with type V collagen in incomplete Freund's adjuvant, twice with a fifteen-day interval. The control group was inoculated with 1 ml of 10 mM acetic acid solution diluted with an equal amount of Freund's adjuvant. Serial dorsal skin biopsies were performed at 7, 15, and 30 days and stained with H&E, Masson's trichrome and Picrosírius for morphological and morphometric analyses. RESULTS: Immunized rabbits presented a significant increase in collagen in skin collected seven days after the first immunization (p=0.05). CONCLUSION: The results from this experimental model may be very important to a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms involved in the beginning of human SSc. Therapeutic protocols to avoid early remodeling of the skin may lead to promising treatments for SSc in the future.

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OBJECTIVES: To evaluate and compare the efficiency of humidification in available heat and moisture exchanger models under conditions of varying tidal volume, respiratory rate, and flow rate. INTRODUCTION: Inspired gases are routinely preconditioned by heat and moisture exchangers to provide a heat and water content similar to that provided normally by the nose and upper airways. The absolute humidity of air retrieved from and returned to the ventilated patient is an important measurable outcome of the heat and moisture exchangers' humidifying performance. METHODS: Eight different heat and moisture exchangers were studied using a respiratory system analog. The system included a heated chamber (acrylic glass, maintained at 37°C), a preserved swine lung, a hygrometer, circuitry and a ventilator. Humidity and temperature levels were measured using eight distinct interposed heat and moisture exchangers given different tidal volumes, respiratory frequencies and flow-rate conditions. Recovery of absolute humidity (%RAH) was calculated for each setting. RESULTS: Increasing tidal volumes led to a reduction in %RAH for all heat and moisture exchangers while no significant effect was demonstrated in the context of varying respiratory rate or inspiratory flow. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that heat and moisture exchangers are more efficient when used with low tidal volume ventilation. The roles of flow and respiratory rate were of lesser importance, suggesting that their adjustment has a less significant effect on the performance of heat and moisture exchangers.

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OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to evaluate the effects of terlipressin versus fluid resuscitation with normal saline, hypertonic saline or hypertonic-hyperoncotic hydroxyethyl starch, on hemodynamics, metabolics, blood loss and short-term survival in hemorrhagic shock. METHOD: Twenty-nine pigs were subjected to severe liver injury and treated 30 min later with either: (1) 2 mg terlipressin in a bolus, (2) placebo-treated controls, (3) 4 mL/kg 7.5% hypertonic NaCl, (4) 4 mL/kg 7.2% hypertonic-hyperoncotic hydroxyethyl starch 200/0.5, or (5) normal saline at three times lost blood volume. RESULTS: The overall mortality rate was 69%. Blood loss was significantly higher in the hypertonic-hyperoncotic hydroxyethyl starch and normal saline groups than in the terlipressin, hypertonic NaCl and placebo-treated controls groups (p<0.005). Hyperkalemia (K>5 mmol/L) before any treatment occurred in 66% of the patients (80% among non-survivors vs. 22% among survivors, p=0.019). Post-resuscitation hyperkalemia occurred in 86.66% of non-survivors vs. 0% of survivors (p<0.001). Hyperkalemia was the first sign of an unsuccessful outcome for the usual resuscitative procedure and was not related to arterial acidemia. Successfully resuscitated animals showed a significant decrease in serum potassium levels relative to the baseline value. CONCLUSION: Hyperkalemia accompanies hemorrhagic shock and, in addition to providing an early sign of the acute ischemic insult severity, may be responsible for cardiac arrest related to hemorrhagic shock.