Plos One
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[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161062.].
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Tuberculosis (TB) represents the ninth leading cause of death worldwide. In 2016 are estimated 1.3 million TB deaths among HIV negative people and an additional 374,000 deaths among HIV positive people. In 2016 are estimated 1.4 million new cases of TB in people living with HIV (PLHIV), 74% of whom were living in Africa. In light of these data, the reduction of mortality caused by TB in PLHIV is strongly required specially in low-income countries as Mozambique. According to international guidelines, the initial TB screening in HIV+ patients should be done with the four symptoms screening (4SS: fever, current cough, night sweats and weight loss). The diagnostic test more used in resource-limited countries is smear microscopy (SMEAR). World Health Organization (WHO) recommended Lateral Flow urine LipoArabinoMannan assay (LF-LAM) in immunocompromised patients; in 2010 WHO endorsed the use of Xpert Mycobacterium Tuberculosis/Rifampicin (MTB/RIF) test for rapid TB diagnosis but the assay is not used as screening test in all HIV+ patients irrespectively of symptoms due to cost and logistical barriers. The paper aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of three screening protocols: standard (4SS and SMEAR in positive patients to 4SS); MTB/RIF; LF-LAM / MTB/RIF. ⋯ Our study shows that the MTB/RIF adoption could lead to an increasing of TB case-finding and a reduction in costs compared with standard and LF-LAM / MTB/RIF protocols.
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Recent interest in the study of concussion and other neurological injuries has heightened awareness of the medical implications of American tackle football injuries amongst the public. ⋯ Injuries related to tackle football are a frequent cause of emergency room visits, specifically in the pediatric population, but severe acute trauma requiring inpatient admission or operative interventions are rare. Continued investigation in the long-term health impact of football related concussion and other repetitive lower impact trauma is warranted.
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The polymorphisms at the α-chain of the IL-7 receptor (IL7RA) have been related to T-cell homeostasis and development and may contribute to immune system deregulation. In the present study, we analyzed the association between IL7RA polymorphisms and the progression of liver fibrosis in patients infected with HCV. We carried out a retrospective study with a design consisting of repeated measurements in 187 HCV-infected patients, to study the risk prediction of liver fibrosis progression using genetic factors. ⋯ Regarding IL7RA rs987106 and rs3194051 polymorphisms, we did not find significant results except for the relationship between IL7RA rs987106 and the increase in LSM values [adjusted OR = 1.12 (95%CI = 1.02; 1.23); p = 0.015]. The IL7RA rs6897932 polymorphism seems to be related to increased risk of liver fibrosis progression in HCV-infected patients. Thus, the rs6897932 polymorphism could be related to the physiopathology of CHC and might be used to successfully stratify the risk of CHC progression.
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Dot-probe studies consistently show that high trait anxious individuals have an attentional bias towards threatening faces. However, little is known about the influence of perceptual confounds of specific emotional expressions on this effect. Teeth-exposure was recently recognized as an important factor for the occurrence of attentional bias towards angry faces in a closely related paradigm (the face-in-the-crowd paradigm). ⋯ For angry faces with non-exposed teeth, we found the expected positive correlation (r = .441) of trait anxiety with the attentional bias score (reaction times for probes replacing the neutral face minus reaction times for probes replacing the angry face). However, we found no influence of trait anxiety on attentional bias towards angry faces with exposed teeth. These results suggest that natural low-level stimulus confounds of emotional faces like exposed teeth can affect the manifestation of anxiety-related attentional biases towards angry faces in the dot-probe task.