São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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Clinical Trial
Thyroid stimulating hormone levels in cord blood are not influenced by non-thyroidal mothers' diseases.
Screening programs not only offer the opportunity to trace and treat almost all cases of congenital hypothyroidism but also mean large savings to the health system. However, carefully planned strategies are necessary to extend their benefits and reduce costs. ⋯ Our results indicate that primary TSH screening programs using cord blood are not affected by maternal diseases. We suggest that, besides its technical advantages over heel punctures with T4 primary approaches, neonatal screening using primary cord blood TSH may also be used as a monitoring tool for evaluation and control of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD).
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There are today only a limited number of studies defining growth parameters and nutritional status for HIV children. ⋯ The growth of infected infants was observed to be severely affected in comparison with that of seroreversed infants in the same age groups. Although clinical manifestations may take time to appear, the onset of growth changes begin soon after birth.
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Although the CAGE questionnaire is one of the most widely used alcohol screening instruments, it has been criticized for not identifying people who are drinking heavily or who have alcohol related problems but do not as yet show symptoms of alcohol dependence. The AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) questionnaire was developed by WHO as a screening instrument specifically designed to identify problem drinkers, as well as those who were already dependent on alcohol. ⋯ Only by knowing the prevalence of alcohol abuse/dependence and nicotine dependence in a general hospital can we evaluate the need for a specialized liaison service to identify and treat these patients.
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Liver damage is relatively common in patients affected by Hodgkin's disease. A smaller proportion of cases develops jaundice. Recently, the vanishing bile duct syndrome was described in Hodgkin's disease. The mechanisms of this severe complication have been poorly understood until now. ⋯ A 38-year-old male patient affected by Hodgkin's disease. Liver biopsy showed no detectable Hodgkin's disease. Intra-hepatic cholestasis was found and none of the six portal tracts analyzed contained normal bile ducts. The treatment was based on conventional and high-dose escalation chemotherapy. The patient died from an irreversible liver failure while in complete remission from Hodgkin's disease.
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Many factors like exposure to UV radiation, climatic conditions, genetic predisposition, immunological state and, more recently, the presence of HPV have been implicated in the genesis of some lesions of the conjunctiva, especially the carcinoma. ⋯ The low frequency of HPV DNA found in the lesions of this sample and the detection of the viral genome in the normal mucosa indicate that there is a weak possibility of association between HPV infection and the carcinoma of the conjunctiva.