Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
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Rev. Inst. Med. Trop. Sao Paulo · Sep 2004
Case ReportsEnvenomation by neotropical opisthoglyphous colubrid Thamnodynastes cf. pallidus Linne, 1758 (Serpentes:Colubridae) in Venezuela.
This is a case report of a "non-venomous" snake bite in a herpetologist observed at the Sciences Faculty of the Universidad de los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela). The patient was bitten on the middle finger of the left hand, and shows signs of pronounced local manifestations of envenomation such as bleeding from the tooth imprint, swelling and warmth. ⋯ The snake was brought to the medical consult and identified as a Thamnodynastes cf. pallidus specimen. This report represents the first T. pallidus accident described in a human.
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Rev. Inst. Med. Trop. Sao Paulo · Nov 2001
Snakebites by Bothrops spp in children in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
From January, 1984 to March, 1999, 73 children under 15 y old (ages 1-14 y, median 9 y) were admitted after being bitten by snakes of the genus Bothrops. Twenty-six percent of the children were classified as mild envenoming, 50.7% as moderate envenoming and 20.6% as severe envenoming. Two patients (2.7%) showed no signs of envenoming. ⋯ There were no significant differences with regard to severity of envenoming versus the frequency of blood coagulation disorders among the three categories of envenoming (p = 0.75) or in the frequency of patients with AV early reactions between the groups that were and were not pretreated (p = 0.55). The frequency of local infection was significantly greater in severe cases (p < 0.001). Patients admitted more than 6 h after the bite had a higher risk of developing severe envenoming (p = 0.04).
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Rev. Inst. Med. Trop. Sao Paulo · May 2001
Clinical patterns and seasonal trends in respiratory syncytial virus hospitalizations in São Paulo, Brazil.
The respiratory viruses are recognized as the most frequent lower respiratory tract pathogens for infants and young children in developed countries but less is known for developing populations. The authors conducted a prospective study to evaluate the occurrence, clinical patterns, and seasonal trends of viral infections among hospitalized children with lower respiratory tract disease (Group A). The presence of respiratory viruses in children's nasopharyngeal was assessed at admission in a pediatric ward. ⋯ In conclusion, it was observed that Respiratory Syncytial Virus was the most frequent pathogen found in hospitalized children admitted for severe respiratory diseases. Affected children were predominantly infants and boys presenting bronchiolitis and focal pneumonias. Similarly to what occurs in other subtropical regions, the virus outbreaks peak in the fall and their occurrence extends to the winter, which parallels an increase in hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases.
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Rev. Inst. Med. Trop. Sao Paulo · May 2000
Persistent infections in chronic Chagas' disease patients treated with anti-Trypanosoma cruzi nitroderivatives.
We used a molecular method and demonstrated that treatment of the chronic human Trypanosoma cruzi infections with nitroderivatives did not lead to parasitological cure. Seventeen treated and 17 untreated chronic Chagas' disease patients, with at least two out of three positive serologic assays for the infection, and 17 control subjects formed the study groups. PCR assays with nested sets of T. cruzi DNA primers monitored the efficacy of treatment. ⋯ Competitive PCR was conducted to determine the quantity of parasites in the blood and revealed < 1 to 75 T. cruzi/ml in untreated (means 25.83+/-26.32) and < 1 to 36 T. cruzi/ml in treated (means 6.45+/-9.28) Chagas' disease patients. The difference between the means was not statistically significant. These findings reveal a need for precise definition of the role of treatment of chronic Chagas' disease patients with nitrofuran and nitroimidazole compounds.
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Rev. Inst. Med. Trop. Sao Paulo · Sep 1998
Case ReportsPCR-based diagnosis of a case of herpetic whitlow in an AIDS patient.
Herpetic infections are common complications in AIDS patients. The clinical features could be uncommon and antiviral chemotherapy is imperative. A rapid diagnosis could prevent incorrect approaches and treatment. ⋯ This approach has some advantages compared with conventional diagnostic procedures. Recently we have reported a new PCR protocol to rapid diagnosis of herpetic infections with suppression of the DNA extraction step. In this paper we present a case of herpetic whitlow with rapid diagnosis by HSV-1 specific polymerase chain reaction using the referred protocol.