Prevalence of head and neck Myofascial Pain Syndrome in a South American population

Objective: To diagnose the prevalence of Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) with respect to sex, age, affected muscle, socioeconomic stratum, occupation and associated symptoms. Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of 220 outpatients who attended the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad de Antioquia Medellín-Colombia, between September 30th, 2015 and September 7th, 2017. Interventions: not applicable. Main measure of results: Myofascial Pain Syndrome. Results: 26.4% of our sample presented symtoms of MPS. More women than men were found to have MPS. The number of cases decreases with age. The most affected muscle is the trapezium, followed by the temporalis, and there are no significant differences in terms of socioeconomic stratum and occupation. The most frequently reported associated symptom is neck pain. Conclusion: Because there is such a high prevalence, and on a global scale, we believe it is important to establish effective means of diagnosis and adequate measures for the prevention and treatment of this pathology.

Antifungal Activity and Phytochemical Screening of Cymbopogon citratus, Cajanus cajan and Plectranthus amboinicus Leaves Collected in Guyana, South America

Aims: Medicinal plants have been a fundamental part of the human health since existence. Guyana is surrounded high in the green shoulder of northern South America and shares Amazon River and Amazon Forest. South American population use plant extracts obtained from traditional medicinal plants as treatment for many infectious diseases. The study aimed to estimate antifungal property and chemical composition of the three medicinal plants Cymbopogon citratus (lemongrass), Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea) and Plectranthus amboinicus (thick leaf thyme) leaves collected from the coastal areas of Guyana. Study Design: Experiment based study. Place and Duration of Study: Plants were gathered along the East Coast of Guyana and identified at the Biodiversity Center, University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana between January 2017- May 2017. Methodology: Phytochemical extraction was conducted using the soxhlet and rotovap apparatus and an aqueous extraction method. Data analysis of the study was done using R-Studio Program for statistical computing and graphics. A Tukey test was done along with ANOVA and Boxplots. Results: Qualitative analysis of phytochemicals was carried out and the presence of terpenoids, steroids, glycoside, alkaloid, tannins and saponins were positive in some plants. Antifungal activity was tested using the poisoned food and well diffusion techniques. Conclusion: In conclusion, C. cajan showed significant zones of inhibition using a well diffusion technique whereas hexane extract showed significant inhibition with poisoned food technique.

New insights in Ulcerative Colitis Associated Gut Microbiota in South American Population: Akkermansia and Collinsella, two distinctive genera found in Argentine subjects.

Background Globally, ulcerative colitis (UC) is the most common form of intestinal inflammation, which is believed to be the result of a deregulated immune system response to commensal microbiota in a genetically susceptible host. Multicellular organisms rely heavily on their commensal symbiotic microbiota, whose composition is closely related to intrinsic local characteristics and regulated or modified by environmental factors. In the present study we aim to describe the unknown gut microbiota of patients with UC in comparison with healthy individuals in order to find novel biomarkers for UC in our region. Methods We evaluated 46 individuals, 26 healthy non-UC controls and 20 UC patients, from the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires (BA), Argentina. Clinical features, biochemical tests and anthropometric measurements were determined. Fecal samples were collected and DNA was extracted for microbiota analysis. The hypervariable regions V3-V4 of the bacterial 16SR gene were sequenced using a MiSeq platform and sequences were analyzed using the QIIME2 environment. In addition, we looked for differential functional pathways using PICRUSt and compared the performance of three machine learning models to discriminate the studied individuals, using taxa and functional annotations. Results All UC patients were under clinical treatment with 70% of individuals in remission. We found no significant differences in gut microbiota richness or evenness between UC patients and non-UC controls (alpha diversity). Remarcably, microbial compositional structure within groups (beta diversity) showed differences: At the phylum level, Verrucomicrobia was overrepresented in controls while Actinobacteria was distinctive of UC patients; At the genus level Bacteroides and Akkermancia were significantly more abundant among controls while Eubacterium and Collinsella in UC patients. In addition, our results showed that carbohydrates metabolism was preponderant in UC patients, not observing a distinctive biochemical pathway for the healthy non-UC controls. Finally, in order to define a robust classifying method in our population, we evaluated the capability of three machine learning models to classify individuals. Our results reinforced the idea of functional compensation in microbiome communities, as models that used KEGG orthologs annotations had better capabilities than taxonomy to distinguish UC patients. Conclusions Our study provides new knowledge on the differences and similarities of the gut microbiota of UC patients as compared to non-UC controls of our population. This allows not only the association of local changes in gut microbial diversity with the pathology process, but also the future development of personalized nutritional and pharmacological therapies through the use of omic strategies describing the metagenomic profiles of the Argentine population.

Infoveillance based on Social Sensors to Analyze the impact of Covid19 in South American Population (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Infoveillance is an application from Infodemiology field with the aim to monitor public health and create public policies. Social sensor is the people providing thought, ideas through electronic communication channels(i.e. Internet). The actual scenario is related to tackle the covid19 impact over the world, many countries have the infrastructure, scientists to help the growth and countries took actions to decrease the impact. South American countries have a different context about Economy, Health and Research, so Infoveillance can be a useful tool to monitor and improve the decisions and be more strategical. The motivation of this work is analyze the capital of Spanish Speakers Countries in South America using a Text Mining Approach with Twitter as data source. The preliminary results helps to understand what happens two weeks ago and opens the analysis from different perspectives i.e. Economics, Social. OBJECTIVE Analyze the behaviour of South American Capitals in front of covid19 pandemics and show the helpfulness of Text Mining Approach for Infoveillance tasks. METHODS Text Mining process RESULTS - Argentina and Venezuela capitals are the biggest number of post during this period, opposite with Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay. - Most relevant users are related to mass media like radio, television or newspapers. - There is a general concern about covid19 but every country talks about different areas: Economics, Health, Environmental Impact. CONCLUSIONS Infoveillance based on Social Sensors with data coming from Twitter can help to understand the trends on the population of the capitals. Besides, it is necessary to filter the posts for processing the text and get insights about frequency, top users, most important terms. This data is useful to analyse the population from different approaches. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.06.20055749

Infoveillance based on Social Sensors to Analyze the impact of Covid19 in South American Population

ABSTRACTInfoveillance is an application from Infodemiology field with the aim to monitor public health and create public policies. Social sensor is the people providing thought, ideas through electronic communication channels(i.e. Internet). The actual scenario is related to tackle the covid19 impact over the world, many countries have the infrastructure, scientists to help the growth and countries took actions to decrease the impact. South American countries have a different context about Economy, Health and Research, so Infoveillance can be a useful tool to monitor and improve the decisions and be more strategical. The motivation of this work is analyze the capital of Spanish Speakers Countries in South America using a Text Mining Approach with Twitter as data source. The preliminary results helps to understand what happens two weeks ago and opens the analysis from different perspectives i.e. Economics, Social.

Association of Helicobacter Pylori babA2 gene and Gastric Cancer Risk: A Meta-analysis

Background: The association of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) babA2 gene with gastric cancer (GC) was reported by several studies, but results were inconsistent. This meta-analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between H. pylori babA2 gene and GC risk.Methods: Case-control studies involving the association between H. pylori babA2 gene and GC risk were systematically identified from PubMed databases. A meta-analysis was used to pool studies and to estimate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of H. pylori babA2 gene associated with GC risk.Results: Twenty studies were identified with a total of 1289 GC cases and 1081 controls. H. pylori babA2 gene was associated with an increased risk of GC by 2.05 fold (95% CI: 1.30-3.24, P=0.002). In subgroup analysis, we found that H. pylori babA2 gene was significantly associated with GC risk in Asian population (OR=2.63, 95% CI: 1.36-5.09 P=0.004) but not in South American population (OR=1.35, 95% CI: 0.69-2.64, P=0.379).Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicates that H. pylori babA2 gene may be associated with increased risk of GC, especially in Asian population.

Conservation in the Amazon: Evolution and Situation

In 1945 the Amazon biome was almost intact. Marks of ancient cultural developments in Andean and lowland Amazon had cicatrized and the impacts of rubber and more recent resources exploitation were reversible. Very few roads existed, and only on the Amazon’s periphery. However, from the 1950s, but especially in the 1960s, Brazil and some Andean countries launched ambitious road-building and colonization processes. Amazon occupation heavily intensified in the 1970s when forest losses began to raise worldwide concern. More roads continued to be built at a geometrically growing pace in every following decade, multiplying correlated deforestation and forest degradation. A no-return point was reached when interoceanic roads crossed the Brazilian-Andean border in the 2000s, exposing remaining safe havens for indigenous people and nature. It is commonly estimated that today no less than 18% of the forest has been substituted by agriculture and that over 60% of that remaining has been significantly degraded. Theories regarding the importance of biogeochemical cycles have been developed since the 1970s. The confirmation of the role of the Amazon as a carbon sink added some international pressure for its protection. But, in general, the many scientific discoveries regarding the Amazon have not helped to improve its conservation. Instead, a combination of new agricultural technologies, anthropocentric philosophies, and economic changes strongly promoted forest clearing. Since the 1980s and as of today Amazon conservation efforts have been increasingly diversified, covering five theoretically complementary strategies: (a) more, larger, and better-managed protected areas; (b) more and larger indigenous territories; (c) a series of “sustainable-use” options such as “community-based conservation,” sustainable forestry, and agroforestry; (d) financing of conservation through debt swaps and climate change’s related financial mechanisms; and (e) better legislation and monitoring. Only five small protected areas have existed in the Amazon since the early 1960s but, responding to the road-building boom of the 1970s, several larger patches aiming at conserving viable samples of biological diversity were set aside, principally in Brazil and Peru. Today around 22% of the Amazon is protected but almost half of such areas correspond to categories that allow human presence and resources exploitation, and there is no effective management. Another 28% or more pertains to indigenous people who may or may not conserve the forest. Both types of areas together cover over 45% of the Amazon. None of the strategies, either alone or in conjunction, have fully achieved their objectives, while development pressures and threats multiply as roads and deforestation continue relentlessly, with increasing funding by multilateral and national banks and due to the influence of transnational enterprises. The future is likely to see unprecedented agriculture expansion and corresponding intensification of deforestation and forest degradation even in protected areas and indigenous land. Additionally, the upper portion of the Amazon basin will be impacted by new, larger hydraulic works. Mining, formal as well as illegal, will increase and spread. Policymakers of Amazon countries still view the region as an area in which to expand conventional development while the South American population continues to be mostly indifferent to Amazon conservation.

Reliability and validity of body weight and body image perception in children and adolescents from the South American Youth/Child Cardiovascular and Environmental (SAYCARE) Study

ObjectiveTo assess the reliability and validity of body weight (BW) and body image (BI) perception reported by parents (in children) and by adolescents in a South American population.DesignCross-sectional study. BW perception was evaluated by the question, ‘Do you think you/your child are/is: severely wasted, wasted, normal weight, overweight, obese?’ BI perception was evaluated using the Gardner scale. To evaluate reliability, BW and BI perceptions were reported twice, two weeks apart. To evaluate validity, the BW and BI perceptions were compared with WHO BMI Z-scores. Kappa and Kendall’s tau-c coefficients were obtained.SettingPublic and private schools and high schools from six countries of South America (Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil).ParticipantsChildren aged 3–10 years (n 635) and adolescents aged 11–17 years (n 400).ResultsReliability of BW perception was fair in children’s parents (κ=0·337) and substantial in adolescents (κ=0·709). Validity of BW perception was slight in children’s parents (κ=0·176) and fair in adolescents (κ=0·268). When evaluating BI, most children were perceived by parents as having lower weight. Reliability of BI perception was slight in children’s parents (κ=0·124) and moderate in adolescents (κ=0·599). Validity of BI perception was poor in children’s parents (κ=−0·018) and slight in adolescents (κ=0·023).ConclusionsReliability of BW and BI perceptions was higher in adolescents than in children’s parents. Validity of BW perception was good among the parents of the children and adolescents with underweight and normal weight.