São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease with airway hyperresponsiveness. Spirometry is the most commonly used test among asthmatic patients. Another functional test used for diagnosing asthma is the bronchial challenge test. The aim of this study was to analyze the accuracy of spirometry for detecting asthma in the general population. ⋯ Spirometry, as a single test, has limitations for detecting asthma in the general population.
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Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have distinct personality traits, compared with control subjects, although the role of anxiety and positive and negative affects in this finding is unclear. ⋯ Our findings confirm that depressed patients present personality traits distinct from those of controls and suggest that MDD is not directly associated with harm avoidance, but that this effect is fully mediated through the anxiety trait.
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In the twenty-first century, tuberculosis remains a serious public health problem in Brazil. The aim here was to characterize tuberculosis in a municipality with a high human development index (HDI), based on clinical and epidemiological variables. ⋯ The incidence of tuberculosis in this municipality was lower than the national incidence, with a declining trend and a high cure rate, and the main coinfections were AIDS and hepatitis C.