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Chagas disease is a leading cause of heart failure in Latin America. Sudden death occurs in approximately 40% of patients with heart failure due to Chagas disease. We report a single blind, cross-over trial of prolonged treatment with captopril and placebo in 18 Chagas disease patients with class IV NYHA heart failure. Ventricular dimensions, neurohormones, electrolytes and ventricular arrhythmias were analysed in 11 men and seven women receiving stable doses ofdigoxin and frusemide who were randomly divided into two intervention groups. Group I patients were given increasing doses of captopril up to 150 mg. day maintained for 6 weeks, group II received the placebo. A 24 h Holier, 2-D echocardiogram, urinary catecholamines, plasma renin and electrolyte determinations were performed at the end of each phase. After a 2-week washout period, the two groups crossed over and another period of 6 weeks was observed. Ventricular arrhythmias were analysed by either Mann-Whitney or the Wilcoxon test. Remaining data were assessed by the Student t-test. A significant reduction in heart rate and urinary catecholamine levels, and enhanced plasma levels ofrenin, together with a reduction in ventricular couplets was found in the captopril-treated group. We conclude that captopril has a beneficial effect on neurohormones with a subsequently reduced heart rate and diminished incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with Chagas disease. This effect might result in a reduction of mortality caused by the disease, suggesting the need for further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The use of low-level laser is a therapeutic resource that has been widely used in medicine in general, which has properties capable of modulating inflammatory effects such as pain, edema, and trismus resulting from oral surgeries for the extraction of impacted third molars. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of laser therapy at two different wave frequencies (660nm and 808nm) in patients undergoing impacted 3rd third lower molar extraction. For this, 30 patients were selected and randomly distributed into three groups with 10 individuals each (Control Group, 660nm Group, and 808nm Group)., Material and Methods: Each participant, according to their experimental group, received irradiation before the start of each surgery and immediately after the surgical procedure. The data regarding edema, pain intensity, and trismus collected before the surgeries, immediately after, and after seven days were spreadsheeted and analyzed to determine the mean and standard deviation. After the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, differences between the experimental groups were determined using Multiple Analyses of Variance, considering a significance level of 5% (p<0.05)., Results: The results showed no statistically significant difference between the experimental groups in the analyzed items. Despite this, both groups irradiated with 660nm and 808nm frequencies experienced a reduction in the perception of postoperative pain, thus suggesting the benefit of using low-power laser therapy as an adjunct in the surgical treatment of impacted lower third molars., Conclusions: Despite the results showing no differences between the groups, using LLLT resulted in lower pain perception in the irradiated participants compared to those in the control group. This fact supports the use of LLLT as an adjuvant therapy in patients undergoing oral surgery procedures to remove impacted third molars.

Among the diseases affecting banana (Musa sp), yellow Sigatoka, caused by the fungal pathogen Mycosphaerella musicola Leach, is considered one of the most important in Brazil, causing losses throughout the year. Understanding the genetic structure of pathogen populations will provide insight into the life history of pathogens, including the evolutionary processes occurring in agrosystems. Tools for estimating the possible emergence of pathogen variants with altered pathogenicity, virulence, or aggressiveness, as well as resistance to systemic fungicides, can also be developed from such data. The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity and population genetics of M. musicola in the main banana-producing regions in Brazil. A total of 83 isolates collected from different banana cultivars in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, and Minas Gerais were evaluated using inter-simple sequence repeat markers. High variability was detected between the isolates, and 85.5% of the haplotypes were singletons in the populations. The highest source of genetic diversity (97.22%) was attributed to variations within populations. Bayesian cluster analysis revealed the presence of 2 probable ancestral groups, however, showed no relationship to population structure in terms of collection site, state of origin, or cultivar. Similarly, we detected noevidence of genetic recombination between individuals within different states, indicating that asexual cycles play a major role in M. musicola reproduction and that long-distance dispersal of the pathogen is the main factor contributing to the lack of population structure in the fungus.

Intracoronary brachytherapy using beta or gamma radiation is currently the most efficient type of therapy for preventing the recurrence of coronary in-stent restenosis. Its implementation depends on the interaction among interventionists, radiotherapists, and physicists to assure the safety and quality of the method. The authors report the pioneering experience in Brazil of the treatment of 2 patients with coronary in-stent restenosis, in whom beta radiation was used as part of the international multicenter randomized PREVENT study (Proliferation REduction with Vascular ENergy Trial). The procedures were performed rapidly and did not require significant modifications in the traditional techniques used for conventional angioplasty. Alteration in the radiological protection devices of the hemodynamic laboratory were also not required, showing that intracoronary brachytherapy using beta radiation can be incorporated into the interventional tools of cardiology in our environment.

We compared the impact of low and high-pressure balloon inflation on acute and late angiographic results of Multilink stent. Low-pressure balloon inflation (9.5 +/- 1.9 atm) was used in 43 stents and high pressure (17.1 +/- 1.5 atm) in 44. A larger immediate luminal gain was achieved in stents with high-pressure balloon inflation (1.80 +/- 0.26 vs. 1.47 +/- 0.62; P = 0.002), resulting in a larger mean diameter in this group (2.71 +/- 0.37 vs. 2.48 +/- 0.47; P = 0.017). At follow-up, a larger luminal diameter was achieved in the high pressure group (1.93 +/- 0.72 vs. 1.45 +/- 0.66; P = 0.002) and a trend to a lower rate of angiographic restenosis (15% vs. 38%, P = 0.08).

Single coronary artery is a rare congenital anomaly, sometimes associated with myocardial ischemia. We present the clinical and angiographic features of two symptomatic patients with documented myocardial ischemia and with distinct and previously undescribed patterns of single right coronary arteries. These cases are new variants of the types R-I and R-II-A, in which the most probable mechanisms of ischemia are the insufficient blood supply, due to the long trajectories of the single arteries and the presence of underdeveloped vessels. Also, our second case presented with a fistulae from the LCX to the left ventricle, which is another determinant of myocardial ischemia.

A 55-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with chest pain and electrocardiogram consistent with the diagnosis of evolving myocardial infarction. Treatment with streptokinase was administered, resulting in clinical and electrocardiographic signs of reperfusion. Hypotension and ST segment elevation occurred 2 hours later and cardiac catheterization was done. At catheterization the diagnosis of aortic dissection was made, but the patient died before surgery. Thus, clinical and electrocardiographic signs of reperfusion after streptokinase may occur in patients with aortic dissection and myocardial infarction.

Chagas disease is a leading cause of heart failure in Latin America. Sudden death occurs in approximately 40% of patients with heart failure due to Chagas disease. We report a single blind, cross-over trial of prolonged treatment with captopril and placebo in 18 Chagas disease patients with class IV NYHA heart failure. Ventricular dimensions, neurohormones, electrolytes and ventricular arrhythmias were analysed in 11 men and seven women receiving stable doses of digoxin and frusemide who were randomly divided into two intervention groups. Group I patients were given increasing doses of captopril up to 150 mg.day-1 maintained for 6 weeks, group II received the placebo. A 24 h Holter, 2-D echocardiogram, urinary catecholamines, plasma renin and electrolyte determinations were performed at the end of each phase. After a 2-week washout period, the two groups crossed over and another period of 6 weeks was observed. Ventricular arrhythmias were analysed by either Mann-Whitney or the Wilcoxon test. Remaining data were assessed by the Student t-test. A significant reduction in heart rate and urinary catecholamine levels, and enhanced plasma levels of renin, together with a reduction in ventricular couplets was found in the captopril-treated group. We conclude that captopril has a beneficial effect on neurohormones with a subsequently reduced heart rate and diminished incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with Chagas disease. This effect might result in a reduction of mortality caused by the disease, suggesting the need for further investigations.